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act was passed , about a year and a half ago * providing' the appointment of twenty curates to instruct the slaves , at a salary of £ 300 . currency each . But it had been found impossible to procure respectable clergymen of the Church of England at
the salary offered . What the legislature had done in consequence , he knew not , but he was sorry that they had passed some acts of an intolerant kind against the influx of missionaries . He fhougbt that persons brought up in a humble sphere of life were the fittest instructors for the
negroes , and he strongly recommended the employment of missionaries from the Moravian Brethren ^ on whom , as a sect , he pronounced high encomiums . These missionaries he would engage as schoolmasters . And , to encourage the negroes to receive instruction and baptism , be
would suggest that registers of their spiritual improvement should be kept , and that such of them as were thus proved to be competent , should be admitted to give evidence in courts of justice . This distinction Would gratify that natural ambition which the negroe , as well as every
other human being , has to acquire importance . The Right Reverend Prelate , who had shewn so laudable an anxiety for the improvement of the negroes , would , he trusted , give his support to a measure of this sort . When he saw that temporal inducements were requisite to procure
clergymen to preach the gospel , he could not think it improper that such inducements should be held out to the negroes to become Christians . —Lord Bathtjrst , after some observations on the colonial legislative provisions for the registry of slaves , sind on the further measures contemplated
at home , added , that in what the noble Lord had said respecting the appointment of curates , he had done justice to the intentions of the legislature of Jamaica , The salary of £ 300 . currency , which amounted to little more than £ 150 ., had been found insufficient : and besides , the
duties which the curates had to perform were not described . The objection as to salary had , however , been removed , and lie hoped that proper appointments would speedily take place . The noble Lord thought that there was a difficulty in procuring a proper supply of clergymen of
the Established Church , and certainlyconsiderable difficulty had been experienced in that respect , though the Right Reverend Prelate who had been applied to > bad made every effort to overcome it . Great difficulty arose from this
circumstance , that no person can be ordained by a bighop , except for some specific , preferment or duty within the diocese of that prelate . The Bishop of London usually made the appointments , but , in fact , he had no legal ^ authority over the Wes t
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India Islands . In the beginning of last century , it had occurred to Bishop Sherlock , that there was something * irregular in the exercise of that authority 5 and , upon investigation , that was found to be the ? case . Still , however , it had heen found necessary to continue the practice of oTdination for the colonies ; but in doing so *
the Bishop of London overstepped ^ in some measure ^ the bounds of his authority . There was , of course , no little difficulty in the Bishop taking * all the responsibility 01 * himself . When a person was ordained for general colonial service , it was well known that the examination was not of precisely the same nature as that which would take
place were he to exercise his clerical duties within the diocese . It would therefore be advisable to obtain some security , that persons ordained for the colonies did actually go to them , and when there , did not immediately return to act as clergymen in this country . The noble Lord bad
adverted to means of enabling a certain portion of the black population to give evidence in courts of justice ; and it appeared to him that for that purpose it was necessary for the negroes to possess a competent knowledge of the Christian religion . He agreed with the noble Lord in this
view of the subject ; for the mere certifi , cate of baptism would not be a proof of improvement in religious knowledge , if the negroes could obtain it without due preparation . They would willingly be baptized three or four times over , as they believed it to be a charm against enchantment . ——
The Bishop of London said , the noble Lord who had in so able a wanner brought forward this question , had done him nothing but justice in attributing to him a sincere wish for the religious and moral improvement of the negroes . He could not , however , agree with the noble Lord in ,
the manner in which he bad proposed to communicate that religious instruction . The noble Lord had been too ready in concluding that recourse ought to be had tQ sectaries , and that temporal inducements were necessary to induce clergymen of fthe Church of England to perform their duty *
The Church of England had as yet had very little opportunity of making efforts iji the colonies . The clergymen appointed for Jamaica had , in some publications , been blamed for not doing more than they had yet accomplished ; but what was expected of them was really beyond their physical powers . There were iu Jamaica
19 parishes of great extent ; each of these parishes was frotn 30 to 40 miles long , and about 20 or 30 broad . It was not possible , therefore , for any man to maintain that sort of communication with the population of such parishes , as might subsist between a clergyman and the population of a parish in England . When he w « m
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Tntelligencei ^ Parliamenta ry * 2 $$
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1819, page 203, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1770/page/65/
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