On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
tatitJ Bishop of them , it became the lot of his son to occupy his pulpit , and his task to tend the trees which he had planted , and
water the seed which he had sown . It is with regret I add , not with the entire satisfaction that he en . joyed . I would speak with
reverence of the office which I fill , and hope I shall not be charged with dishonouring it , when 1 make a comparison of it , with the situations in which other branches of
my family are placed : I would speak with respect of the friends who venerated the father and , I believe , esteem the son ; and I hope they will not be offended when I direct their consideration , and the consideration of Dissenting
congregations in general , to a species of injustice , to which , I conceive , unintentionally no doubt , I am now exposed . I am aware that my lot is not a solitary one : I have many fellow-sufferers ; and it is on their account as much as
on my own that I am now induced to intrude upon your notice , and upon the notice of your readers , the Dissenting Minister ' s Complaint .
It has been seldom in the power of the parents of Dissenting minis , ters , to leave an independent fortune to their children . It has , therefore , usually happened that they have depended wholly upon
their congregations for the means of supporting themselves and bring , ing up their families in the world . There was indet-d a period , not very long ago , when it was practicable for them to do thss with
comfort and respectability . My father did so . His salary , and the salaries of other ministers , his friends , were adequate to the dei haiid * of the day . What he re-
Untitled Article
ceived fifty years ago was never less and often more than , that which is paid to me at the present time : and a good custom prevailed in those days , which modern fashions have , unfortunately for us , done away ; for scarcely a family in the place thought the accounts of the year closed as they should be , till an item was included amongst them of a useful present * either to their minister or to his wife and children . In those golden days , Mr . Editor , butcher ' s meat was threepence per pound , bread not a penny , butter seldom higher than six-pence , and poultry and other articles of consumption
of proportionate prices ; which en * abied my mother , who was a careful housekeeper , by the help of the substantial proofs of friendship which she received , not only to keep a well-covered table , and
treat us with a good glass of homemade wine , but also to make a small saving at the end of the year , which she used to say would serve us on a rainy day . I hardly need
tell you , that now the common necessaries of life are at triple the price I have stated , and that even our Christmas passes with but few tokens of the liberality of our friends .
I complain not , Sir , of any disrespect . I experience the same kindness that 1 always have experienced . The friendly salutation , the cordial shake of the hand , the tender inquiry , after the health of my wife , and the apprehension least I should take cold on leaving their friendly roof on a winter ' s evening , are as rife as they were in the days of my father ; and when I have been for a short time absent from home , my good friends seem much pleased , and congratulate them .
Untitled Article
The Dissenting Ministtr ' s Complaint . 3 o 7
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1813, page 367, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2429/page/11/
-