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
had added to these waters , till Wales and England , that had been parched and desert , were now ainoug the best in ^ strttcted nations on the earth . If a system parochial , clerical , compulsory , expensive , had been established , these waters of charity would have ceased to flow—the taxations of the country would have been
enlarged—the agricultural interests , now gaping for existence beneath too heavy burdens , would have sunk under a new pressure—the wrongs of Dissenters would have been increased—the ecclesiastical powers , already too dominant , would have received fearful augmentation—and au harvest would have been reaped of
immediate evil and of abiding woe . Happily , however , the dark , oppressive cloud that blighted and overhung them had passed away , and all was again serenity and sunshine . May no fragments of the threatening masses ever re-appear ! But he must entreat , as its needlessness was the best argument opposed to the design ,
that the friends to the gratuitous , religious , unpersecuting , unsectarian education of the poor , would , by their increasing diligence , give even to that argument accumulated force . Every where let there be established Sunday-schools , combined with week-day evening tuition—or Lancastrian schools for mutual instruction ,
under the British and Foreign School Society , till an untaught hamlet or alley here or in Ireland sliould be like an unknown land—and till the little plant of universal education , become the noblest tree , outspreading its undecaying branches , should afford to every Briton , infant or adult , the joy of beholding its blossoms , and sharing its inestimable fruit .
According to his former custom , he would first revert to those which were mere pecuniary demands . They included Turnpike Tolls , Assessed Taxes , Poor ' s Rates , and Mortuary Fees . As to Turnpike Tolls , letters had been received from Hartland in Devonshire ,
Pinchbeck in the county of Lincoln , and Tremerchion in Wales . All such inquiries Should include an extract of the exemption clause in each Turnpike Act . To Pinchbeck he had the satisfaction to re Ply » that the exemption they wished had beeu already inserted in the Act , and he hoped that as the bills were renewed , all the provisions unfriendly to Dissenters
would disappear ; because , to that object the Committee directed constant and needful care . Indeed , Cerberus could not be too wakeful to prevent surprise . Last year a General Turnpike Bill was proposed and postponed . All the old objectionable worts were there Inserted , but at their application were removed . Thjs Session the uieasure was revived . The snafce was scotched , not
Untitled Article
slain— -and again the objectionable expressions re-appeared . The efforts of the Committee must also revive ; they must renew against that evil their Hercoleao toils , and should so renew them with ih $ hope that better triumphs than those of Hercules would be achieved . In a Church-Rate case from Loughborough , they afforded their advice . For relief from the Assessed Taxes as arising from claims on a minister at Ffern in
Wales , and for Portland Chapel , Bath ? they had taught their friends how to apply : and he repeated publicly the information , that Assessed Taxes were not claimable for any Meeting house , and that all School-rooms for the poor , and rooms in Academies devoted to
ministerial students , were , on account of their charitable appropriation , also exempt from charge . One claim for a Mortuary Fee of ten shillings , was made at Keighley , in Yorkshire , on a poor woman who was left with three orphan children . As it did
not appear that the fee had been demanded before the reign of Henry the Eighth s and had been since but occasionally re * - quired the payment was withheld ,. though the clergyman offered greatly to lessen his demand . The transports of
the widow , grateful that persons living so distant , not knowing her , and to her unknown , should step forward to soothe and succour her , afforded to the Committee a pleasant and pure reward . The vexatious subject of the assessment of Chapels at Bath , Chatham , Beverleif aud Paddington , to Poor ' s Hates , had renewed anxiety and labour . At Bath
some additions to Argyle Chapel , principally for the accommodation of ther Sunday scholars whom the members of that munificent congregation endeavoured to instruct , produced a treble assessment to the poor ; as if these parochial patriots were fearful the noxious weeds of pauperism should vegetate too slowly , and would therefore , by a tax , forbid the wise instruction and infant
piety—which can alone restore to the poor an independent but submissive spirit , and the love of labour , economy ^ comfort , and of a humble , but a tiappy home ! At Chatham , during several years , the Rev . Mr . Slatterie had resisted * b y every fair expedient , an assessment on his chapel which amounted yearly to the vast sum of one hundred pounds , and which now would subtract . from the
donations of the congregation a yearly sum of sixty pounds ! By legal suggestions the Committee had . enabled him to profit by some negligence and delay jof hw opponents , ana to avert the ^ payments of two rates which tfeey threatened to enforce , and at which the majority of the
Untitled Article
Intelligence . —Protestant Society t Mr . fiPilks * * { Speech . $ 19
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1822, page 519, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2515/page/63/
-