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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.
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494 Intelligence . —Parliamentary : New Churches * Bill .
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self into a Committee on the Building of Churches Act * Mr . Hobhouse said , before the Speaker left the Chair , he begged to know if the forms of the House would permit him to move some resolutions now , or when the Right Hon . Gentleman had moved his ?
The Chancellor , of the Exchequer said he could only move his resolutions in Commitree . Mr . Hobhouse said his resolutions would negative the Right Honourable Gentleman ' s . The Speaker then left the Chain
The Chancellor of the Exchequer rose and said , that he should not have considered it necessary to have troubled the House with many observations , neither did he see it necessary now to go at great length , had it not been for the remarks which had fallen from
Honourable Members when first it was mentioned in his financial statement , that it was the intention of his Majesty ' s Government to appropriate a sum of money for the building of Churches . He was a
good deal surprised at the disposition manifested on that occasion , and still more at the objections which had been urged . He did not suppose that those individuals who dissented from the
Church of England , nor they who believed in other doctrines than those of Christianity , would be very anxious to promote a proposition of the Bill alluded to . But he really did not think there was any thing unreasonable in the propositions which he had submitted for providing money to enable those who
professed the doctrines of the Church to which they belonged to encourage those sentiments . — He should have thought that to all those who professed Christianity , a proposition which went to promote those views would have been gladly admitted by them , not only as a fit object ,
but primd facie good in itself . There was one objection which he would mention ; it had been asserted that what he had remarked was something almost approaching to blasphemy . —There were different opinions in different minds as to what really was blasphemy . For himself he would not undertake to define what it
was . But he would say that the means of giving an opportunity to those who were religiously inclined of attending public worship , did not appear to him to be promoting blasphemy . If there had been coupled with the remark that whilst a
portion of taxes was pressing upon the people , it was too much to ask for money to build Churches , and he had been accused of hypocrisy , there might have been less surprise ; but how the proposition Should have the character of blasphemy
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attached to it , he confessed it was past his humble and imperfect comprehension to conceive . Another objection had been made , which struck him as rather singular , that it would be improper to call upon the people at large to build new Churches , because part of the monev
would be contributed by those who dissented from the Established Church . If this doctrine were settled , it would go to the destruction of all Established Churches —for these were always maintained at the public expense . The same principle would invalidate the grants which
Parliament had already made for that purpose . The object of these grants was to render the houses of worship adequate for the general benefit , and he could not but think that a laudable object . —[ Mr . Hobhouse intimated his assent across the table . ]—He was happy to find that the
Honourable Member agreed with this priuciple , as it would render it unnecessary for him to combat those arguments which had been adduced a few nights ago . It was certainly very well known that a vote of money had passed for the education of the Roman Catholics in
Ireland ; and it was surely no objection to the principle of the vote , because we derived no direct and immediate advantage from it . The same was the case with the grant for the Dissenters in Ireland ; and when he proposed that £ 50 , 000 should be allowed for building Churches
in the Highlands of Scotland , in order to support the Presbyterian Church , no objection had been taken * Although he saw nothing ia these objections , he thought it necessary to call the attention of Parliament to the advantages which would arise from a further advance of
money . Nobody could deny , if the necessity were made out , that it was the duty of the House to incur an expense for so beneficial a purpose as the religious instruction of the people . Mr . Hobhouse . —By some mode . The Chancellor of the Exchequer
could not conceive any other mode except some assistance were given from the public purse . What were the circumstances in the present case ? It appeared from the papers on the table that ,
notwithstanding what had been already done , there were a great number of people who were without the means of attending religious worship . After allowing a fair deduction for the number of Dissenters ,
and those who were incapacited by age and infirmity from attending the Church , there were still 179 places , co ntaining an immense population , which at the present moment would moid than employ the £ 500 , 000 ; m the mean ' s of accommodation could not be calculated' at less
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1824, page 494, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2527/page/46/
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