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
Ghtirch , but whose opinions are more free than hid pr iest approves , and no one scarcely who has been educated under the auspices of the British and Foreign School Society , can be even named for the office . A premium is
hereby held out , to conformity , and a penalty to nonconformity . The Dissenter may sit in Parliament , and may be one of his Majesty ' s Ministers , and , under cover of the Act of Indemnity , may fill almost any post in the state , of whatever trust or honour : but he
nmst not think of being master of one of these schools , though his own children may be entered in the school , and the children of Dissenters may form a majority of the scholars , and the
expenses of the establishment may fall principally upon Dissenters : this in the year 1820 , in a bill proposed by Mr . Brougham , a bill , the professed object of which is National
Education ! To shut out all suspicious Churchmen , even should the watchmen of the Church suffer them to pass without giving the watch-word , the shibboleth of the age , the Bill declares that parishclerks are eligible as masters .
Nothing could have led any one to suspect that they were ineligible ; the declaration therefore means that they are the persons contemplated by the Bill , and that to them a preference should be given . This Mr . Brougham explicitly avows . * He confesses , moreover , that
the schools are to do as much good to them as they are to do to the schools . Their condition as a class is to be improved by the new appointment . Nay , they are to become by means of it a sort of spiritual body . " That ancient but degraded order of men , "
he says , " were viewed in the older and better times of the Church , in the light of spiritual assistants , " and , borrowing the style and tone of the Quarterly Review , he seems to long for their recovery to the rank of ecclesiastical auxiliaries , and to congratulate himself upon the probability of his
* It was provided that parish-clerks should be eligible to the office . Without that specific statement , they would have been eligible ; but it was thought right to mention parish-clerics particularly , as it would be a hint that that body were the best calculated to fill the office of schoolmasters . "
Untitled Article
being instrumental to-this pious end . The cfimax of his spiritual desires is , that the parson may condescend arid the clerk be exalted , or , to use his own words , " that the . p arson may become a clerical sclioolriiaster , and the schoolmaster a lay parson : " *
To speak of the character of so obscure a l > ody of men , requires more knowledge of them than I can pretend to possess ; but , judging * from what I have seen and from general opinion , I should say , that iio class of men could have been selected more unfit for the duty of schoolmasters than p arishclerks . - \ Whatever may be their
qua-* " Their ( the € sectaries *') argument was , * You are making this a new system of tithe . You are placing a second parson in each parish , whom we must pay , though we cannot conscientiously attend to his instruction . * He bowed to this position "— " The clergy were the teachers of the poor , not only teachers of religion , but , in the eye of the law , they
were teachers generally" ( The reader is requested to compare this passage with one that will be presently extracted from the Edinburgh Review , in its better days . } € t What , then , could be more natural than that they ( the clergy ) should have a controul over those ( the schoolmasters contemplated by the Bill ) who were selected to assist them ?**
• f * Mr . Brougham has himself drawn the picture of one member of this spiritual body : " He recollected one of that fraternity who , to procure a livelihood , went about singing , or rather disturbing the slumbers of the neighbourhood , if not depressing the spirits of those who did not sleep . his
In truth , he could not say tl ^ t voice was remarkable for its sweetness , or the ditties which he poured forth remarkable for their elegance . Having refreshed the parishioners in this manner , the worthy man regularly proceeded to refresh himself—and , for the most part- it was
necessary to carry him home . These were his nightly amusements—his occupation during the day was mole-catching ' . ( A laugh . ) On Sunday he appeared in church , reading—not indeed with a distinct voice , but as audible as he could , and as far as his abilities enabled him to
read—that part of the divine service which waa allotted to him . He ( Mr . Brougham ) was not very squeamish about these things ; but he thought when he witnessed this exbibition , ( and it was a long time ago , ) that it was a very undig-
Untitled Article
28 Th Nonconformist . No ( XIX .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1821, page 28, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2496/page/28/
-