On this page
-
Text (2)
-
Untitled Article
-
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
Intelligence : —Parliamentary * New Church ^ B UT . 49 ?
Untitled Article
at least so the placards on the doors stated . In St . Martin ' s Parish the deficiency of Church accommodation was stated to be for 23 , 752 persons , and yet in that Parish Church he found there was plenty of accommodation . In St . Margaret ' s , Westminster , the deficiency of accommodation was stated to be for
20 , 889 . He found that ChurcK "full , it was true ; but then in the three Chapels of Ease in that neighbourhood there was room for many more than they contained . In St . John ' s Parish * Westminster , the deficiency was giveu as for 14 , 839 individuals ; aud yet he found in the Church of that parish room for more than one hundred persons beyond what it contained . From those facts , therefore , it would
appear that in the six parishes of Westminster , to which he bad referred , exclusive of St . Paul ' s Ctivent Garden and St . Clement Danes , there was no deficiency of accommodation . A proportionate deficiency of accommodation in Dissenting Chapels was also complained of ; yet with equal want of accuracy . He went to the Dissenting Chapel in Orange Street , and found that there was accommodation
for many more than it contained . Thus was the accommodation found quite ample in the Chapels of Dissenters as in the Established Churches . But were it otherwise , the House would not surety think or voting money for the accommodation of Dissenters any more than they would
to us . On inquiry , he learned from the best authority of persons of different modes of thinking , that the sufficiency of accommodation arose not out of any laxity of morals on the part of the inhabitants of those places to which he had referred , for he found that the family of every man resident in those districts went
to sorne place of worship or other , and that his neighbours would point at any person whose family did not so attend divine worship . —It seemed to him , therefo re , that considering the amount of deficiency pointed out in the paper on the tahle , it would be doing almost nothing were the Committee to vote the sum
required . But when it was seen that a million of money had been already expended on the building of Churches , he would ask , tmd the object attained been equal to the magnitude of the means ? 'he million so expended had only secured accommodation for 153 , 000 peracc to
^ S o rding which ratio the £ ' > O 0 , ()()() demanded by the Chancellor of »» e Exchequer could only furnish
accommodation for about 77 , 000 persons more , vve should go on , therefore , and apply ne tunds of the'nation until we shoulil ¦ mnnh Chinch accommodation for the «» ee millions of persons now said to be "cstitufc of ft no lcs > s a 8 . Would be re-
Untitled Article
vol . xix . i a
Untitled Article
quired for that purpose than £ 20 , 000 , 000 ; and ybt those three millions of souls formed only about one-fourth of the population of Great Britain . H £ 500 , 000 Were voted now , another , £ 500 , 000 would
be soon demanded ; and so on until the whole of the alleged deficiency was pmvided for , as it would not be fair to leave any without the benefit of religious instruction . It thence followed , that if the accommodation of three millions of
the people required an expenditure of £ 20 , 000 , 000 , the Church accommodation of all the people would * require £ 60 , 000 , 000 . The Right Honourable Gentleman ( the Chancellor of the Exchequer ) thought ' that the lightness of the sum demanded ought to influence Parliament and induce assent to the vote . If
it were refused , how was accommodation to be provided for those 77 , 000 persons who would in that case be left without it ? He would answer , by double , or , if necessary , by treble services . He should suggest that the Churches be opened at an early hour in the morning , and if two services should not be sufficient for the
whole population , why then let there be three . If that did not suffice , there was still the plan of the Honourable Member for Midhurst , ( Mr , Smith , ) tr ^ at when the population should be found too large for the Church accommodation , they should be at liberty to erect a chapel at their own expense , and to have the power
of nominating a clergyman to attend it ; and he was convinced if the parishioners had thus afforded to them the right to appoint their own pastor , that they would with pleasure erect the necessary Churches without application to the Legislature for assistance . Of this there was an example in a chapel in Clinton Street , built , he
believed , by one of the Curzon family , which was crowded every day . If the right to choose their own pastors were conceded throughout the country , there would be no difficulty found in procuring funds for the building of Churches . He should , therefore , propose , that wherever the community should build their own
Church , they should have the power to choose their own clergy , subject , however , to the approbation of the Diocesan—to which plan he saw no possible objection . With respect to that which the Chancellor of the Exchequer called a paltry economy , he trusted he had already
sufficiently proved that the refusal of the vote could not bfckcharged on that ground . The alleged want of accommodation was , as he had proved in the instance of Westminster , considerably overcharged ; for all which reasons he should take the
liberty to propose , as an amendment *—" That it appears to this Committee that the sum of one million sterliivg has been
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1824, page 497, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2527/page/49/
-