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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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thatt as one to seven . The cause of this deficiency of room was owing to the population having outstripped all the means which could be afforded by the parishes . In many of these parishes the inhabitants
were extremely poor , and it would be monstrously unjust to refuse to them religious instruction . He would shew that these people were most anxious to attend the Church , and where the means had been granted , they attended in crowds . If they were left to find accommodation where they could , the House would
desert the duty of Christian legislation . He begged the House to attend to what had been already done . He would not say thai the grant of < jg 500 , 000 had proved of as much advantage as could have been wished ; but it was absurd to say , because it had not entirely remedied the evil which had been complained of , that ,
therefore , it had done no good . If this principle were applied to other acts of the Legislature , a stop would be put to all the improvements which might be offered for the public good . It appeared from these papers that the million had not ouly fulfilled all the purposes which
it was reasonably calculated it could fulfil , but that It had actually gone beyond them . In the Report of the Commissioners it was stated that eighty-five Churches might be built , and 140 , 000 persons accommodated by the expenditure of the million : but it seemed that
ninety-eight Churches had been built , and 153 , 000 people accommodated out of it . A great deal had been done by the professors of the Church of England . They had given ^ 200 , 000 , in consequence of which 20 , 000 or 30 , 000 people had been accommodated . Besides this sum ,
a private subscription had been entered into , by which 13 , 000 persons had been provided for . Independent of what had been done in this manner , there were numberless instances of individuals holding high rank in the Church , who had contributed to the builditig and enlarging of Churches , although they did not
appear in any document . He knew several cases where if these voluntary acts had not been done , a vast number of persons could not have been provided with accommodation . It was unjust , he thought , to charge the professors of the Church
with supiue indolence , considering the active zeal with which they had laboured m this good work . It might be said that the great number of persons for whose attenda nce at Church we were now legislating , did not wish to attend—that we
were building fine Churches which were not to be filled . This would be a very unjust and inaccurate representation of » e case ; for in referring to the papers
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Intelligence . —Parliamentary : New Churches * Bill . 495
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it would be seen that m almost all the cases there alluded to , the Churches had been viewed by the people as a great blessing , and that great practical good had resulted from the application of the money . The Right Honourable Gentleman then read the evidence of the several
Clergymenin whose districts new Churches bad been established , it * order to shew the benefit which they- had conferred upon the people . In the Parish of Blackburn , Lancashire , more than one half of the pews had been let . In the forenoon and afternoon the Church was respectably
filled ; and although the attendance at the evening service was not so great as might be expected , yet it was increasing , and on some nights it was so full of people that it * could hold no more . " In Trinity Chapel , Bath , the attendance was usually very good ; and it frequently
happened that many persons were obliged to go out from want of room . But in the evening it was particularly well attended , for then the poor people got out after performing their household duties . —At Birmingham the whole amount of the pews was about ^ 280 , and from
these the payments were £ 241 . The free sittings were always well attended ; and it was also stated , that if the duty were well performed there would be no want of accommodation . —In Nottingham there were a great number of Dissenters ; but notwithstanding this circumstance
the free seats , which held nearly 1380 people , were well filled . When the new Church of St . Paul was built , it was , to use the language of the Report , " actually taken by storm . " In Portsea , the gallery and middle aisles were crowded , and the doors were beset by the poor
people , anxious for admission , long before they were opened . Who could say after these facts that the money was wasted ; or rather , who would not say that the money was well bestowed in dispensing such blessings to these poor people ? In Ringwood a great change had been produced . A great part of the population
consisted of smugglers , poachers , and persons of that character—who were wholly uneducated , and were likewise deprived of the means of religious education . But since a new system had been acted upon , the Sabbath-day , which was formerly a sort of carnival , was a day of order , repose and solemnity . He had troubled the House with the details of
these cases , as it had been maintained that the money was thrown away , and that it was preposterous to call for another grant . But if it had been proved that the experiment which had been tried was successful—that the people had become better educated—that they now at-
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1824, page 495, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2527/page/47/
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