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ous age of Charles II . ? ( Applause . ) In Scotland too , where none of these ecclesiastical benedictions are essential to connubial union and to connubial' bliss , are the women less < c . glide wives , " or their children not u bonny bairns ?" On another topic he also requested their attention . The Poor Rates are an
increasingevil , which will not fstil eventually to destroy our national prosperity : they are corroding and wide -spread ing- cankers : they repress the independent spirit of the people , damp the ardour of honest industry , augment depravity , increase in a
ratio perpetually progressive , and must be either destroyed or be destroyers . ( Applause . ) Yet an additional feature of ugliness is added to their deformity , when they are perverted into instruments of religious persecution . ( Hear . )
If the poor man may not have the consolation of worshiping God after the dictates of his conscience , he is at once deprived of his only remaining treasure and support . ( Applause . ) During the last year , in various parts of the country , and even contiguous to the metropolis , these
poor laws have been so perverted into instruments of hardship and oppression . It is high time that this subject should be investigated , and a remedy applied . ( Applause . ) From Ringwood , in the county of Hants , a worthy friend , Mr . Bishop , states several such acts of oppression .
At Itamsgate too , where many parade to inhale the salubrious breeze , and recreate the mind by gazing on the works of art and the sublime of nature , they little think that the pious poor are suffering a species of martyrdom for an attachment to
religion and truth . From St . Peter ' s , Mr . Cramp complains , that three or four people in the workhouse , who had attended his chapel , had been commanded by the Committee to attend the parish church , and in default thereof were deprived of their meals . ( Sha ? ne . )
At Ric / tmond , the Tivoli of England , amidst its bowers sacred to the classic muse , the demon of persecution , armed with the poors * laws , might be seen to glide . There , among others , a poor woman named Rebecca Hill , was sick , sad and solitary 5 she was visited by some
Dissenting almoner , who introduced the Dissenting Minister to read and pray . The parish officers , however , tracked their steps , and told her if the visit was repeated she should he deprived of all parochial relief . ( Hisses . ) She tlius addressed Mrs . Crundell of Richmond , to whose kind efforts she had been indebted : " Honoured Madam , I hope you will not be offended , but I hope you will not bring that gentleman to visit me any more , as it has got me
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a great deal of ill-will . The , parish will not allow me any relief if I continue your religion 5 as I have been prayed for in Petersham church , which the Committee think sufficient . One of the gentlemen saw you come in himself . " That is to say , OHe of the Committee for distributing the rates , saw this poor woman in affliction , and , like the minister of death ,
forbade the comfort which the minister of religion might afford . ( Shame . ) Mr . Deane of Sitthigbourne ^ made a similar complaint . There was an old man , 80 years of age , who for more than twenty - five years had been a Dissenter , and had got the title of bishop for his venerable
age , or more venerable life . This poor fellow , reluctantly compelled to apply for parochial relief , was deprived of his dinner , because , after having attended at the church in the morning , he attended at his chapel in the afternoon . This sort of
punishment some might not think severe , although perhaps , that should not be intimated in the City of London , where a good dinner is not ill-esteemed . ( Laughter ;) But it should be recollected , that this must be a real privation of a pittance never too redundant to the poor .
It was not , however , necessary to travel so far as Kent , to he pained with abuses of the laws of the poor . In the parish of Cdmberwelly circumstances had taken place in the workhouse which be must condemn . A benevolent and respectable man , named Dakjn , had been in tbe habit of visiting some poor women bed-ridden with cancers ,
and in a dying or dangerous condition . This good man was studiously excluded from the workhouse , although he had repeatedly applied to distribute tracts , which the poor were anxious to receive , and to offer , with these unhappy people , prayers which they were desirous he should present . These boons to the poor were disallowed . It was stated that one poor
man , within tha house , had actually been mulcted in meat for a month , because he attempted to speak to him at the door . \ Hisses . ) An application was made to the Clergyman of Cainberweli , also a magistrate , but he declined to interfere , " as his curate attended once a week to read prayers in some part of the house , and he thought that was as much of religion as these people could require . "
Were not these cases which demanded immediate and permanent relief ? Would any present have been willing to endure that sort of martyrdom ? Who could be content that the poor should groan beneath such persecution ? A persecution which only requires to be mentioned to be condemned . ( Applause . ) ( To be continued . ) ''' ¦¦ '
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336 Intelligence . —Protestant Society .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1819, page 336, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1772/page/56/
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