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cession of Dissenters of the most opulent class is continually and increasingly diminished from this cause . The youth , who have been taught by their parents or friends occasional conformity , are prepared to be very easy and
pliant conformists for the rest of life . If the effect is proposed , the means are certainly welt-chosen . But it canndt be doubted that many , who are not guilty of the dishonest purpose , are , notwithstanding , induced to risk
the event , that their sons may not want the advantages or the reputation of a university education . The effect is , that many men of distinguished talents , attainments , and place in society , are lost to the Dissenting body . If the evil is without remedy , it is
useless to complain of it . Perhaps in these times of corrupt flexibility , to exterminate it is hopeless ; but can nothing be done to reduce it ? Can no means be devised by which the Dissenting youth might enjoy the benefit of good public lectures , and courses of instruction in all branches
of learning and science , without being tempted to subscribe what they do not believe , and what no man understands ; and becoming Conformists not from principle but submission ?
The design cannot be impracticable , with private wealth and public funds amply sufficient to carry it into effect . Liberality could obtain the necessary services of men of talents , attainments
and industry ; and if the cause deserves to be supported at all , it ought to be sustained with liberality and judgment . In several parts of England institutions now exist , which , if I am not
much mistaken , would afford a great facility for the accomplishment of such a design . In London , Liverpool , and more recently in Bristol , literary institutions have been formed , which offer to students the advantages of public libraries and lectures . Within a certain distance of those buildings ,
houses might easily be found or fitted for the accommodation of as many students as it should be proposed to collect ; for from assembling numbers in one dwelling , little good , and probably much evil , would arise . A fit Moderator should be p laced at the head of each hall , dapuble of enforcing the necessary discipline of making the
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public lectures subjects of daily pri vate examinations , &nd of forming the taste and correcting the compositions and declamations of the pupils . It would be easy to obtain the assistance of lecturers and teachers in those arts
and sciences which would require to be taught constantly and carefully within the wails of the College . Of this kind , in particular , is all that was included in the schools of ancient Greece and Rome in the study and
practice of rhetoric . To think , to write , and to speak always correctly , and often eloquently , should be proposed from the first , and pursued steadily to the last , as the end and reward of the studies and exercises
of every student ; and when it should be found that this ability in different degrees was generally produced , the place in which it had been reared would not want public honour and patronage . As the prosperity of the schools would depend principally on the fitness of the resident tutors to
maintain necessary discipline , they should be appointed with a chief regard to this qualification , probably out of different professions , and with different shades of religious opinions . This is a broad outline of a plan whieh might easily be filled up , if it were thought to merit the attention
of the Dissenting public ; but whatever may be thought of it , I shall rejoice greatly if , through the medium of your useful Repository , it could draw attention once more to a subject which has been suffered to sleep too long . While Manchester College , York , exists under the direction of such men
as now fill the chairs of the professors , Unitarian Dissenters will have good reason to congratulate themselves on an institution which does so much honour to its founders and supporters , and is eminently fitted to provide a succession of able ministers for our
churches . But a gr £ at want remains , for which no adequate provision has been made by any description of Dissenters . They want public schools for young men in the interval of
leaving private academies , and entering into active life . A better and more practicable plan than that which I have ventured to suggest , could , P " haps , be communicated by some'or your correspondents ; arid by to *
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634 Dr . MdrelVs Proposed of Dissenting Colleges .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1823, page 634, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1790/page/18/
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