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504 Intelligence . —Parliamentary : New Churches Bill .
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ration of the Honourable Gentleman ( Mr . Hume ) . He might have misunderstood what the Honourable Gentleman meant to convey , as it was often no easy matter to comprehend him . Mr . Bankes , jun ., said , he did not think there were Churches enough to
accommodate the population . He wished the Member for Aberdeen had named those which he said he visited and found not nearly filled . He ( Mr , B . ) attended many , and found them all filled to repletion . He might mention the new Church of Pancras as one . The Honourable
Member excited a great deal of laughter by some of his observations , but having spoken from under the gallery , we could not hear them distinctly . Mr . VV * . Smith said , it appeared to
him that his Honourable and Learned Friend ( Dr . Lushington ) misinterpreted himself . He did in his ( Mr . S . ) opinion 3 o the greatest injustice in his speech to those sentiments of liberality which he knew him to eutertain . That House was
the most improper place in the world to introduce religious discussion in . It was the worst for this reason , that it was composed for the most part of gentlemen whose opinions were formed on the
religious establishment of the country , and who , on that account , might be too apt to give support to any thing spoken in disapprobation of any creed from which they differed . He thought that what had fallen from his Learned Friend bore the
aspect attributed to it by the Member for Aberdeen . He never saw the book before from which the extracts were read , but Jie knew many of the gentlemen whose signatures were affixed to it : some of them he had no doubt would be ready to defend the opinions attributed to them , and to shew that they were more consonant to the doctrines of the Church than
the opinions of his Hon . and Learned Friend . They had now nothing to do but with the political part of the question . He was appointed one of the Commissioners for distributing the money in Scotland , and he would do it fairly and properly to the best of his power . From its being
necessary to build Churches in Scotland , where some of the parishes were twenty , thirty , and forty miles in extent , it did not follow that the same necessity existed in England .
Lord Palmkrston said , he wished to state shortly the grounds on which he supported the motion . He regret led the change <> t opinion that seemed to have taken place in ( he House on this subject When their finances were not near so flourishing as they were at present , one million was voted for building Churches , though it was to be made an addition to the public debt . Now when there-, was a surplus
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and they had at their disposal a sum not arising from taxes , k was proposed to devote the half of that sum to a similar purpose . Would it be contended that a necessity for this did not exist ? The population from 1801 to 1821 had increased three millions . Was this increase to be deprived of the means of moral and
religious iustruction , or to be thrown oa Sectaries and Dissenters for that instruction they were entitled to receive ? He disclaimed hostility to Dissenters he wished them to enjoy every toleration , but he did not desire that they should increase . He wished to see the Established
Church the predominant Church . There was no principle of union so binding as community of opinion and religious belief . He considered the proposition now before the Committee as one of the most politic and advantageous measures that could I > e adopted for the advancement of the education of the poorer classes ; for it was
ait error to suppose that education consisted merely in the teaching of men to read and write . Those were nierely the means of education , the object of which was to give the people moral and religious instruction- Churches , therefore , he con , sidered as the best schools of the people of England .
Mr . Gordon said that when the Chancellor of the Exchequer first intimated his intention of bringing forward the proposition now before the Committee , he had much regretted that the Hon . Gentleman should entertain the idea of proposing such an application of any portion of the
public money . He must , however , confess that his opinion on the question was greatly changed by the speech of the Hod . and Learned Civilian ( Dr . Lushington ) below him ; and the change had been , completed by the speech of the Hon . Member for Aberdeen . Never , he must
say , had he heard a speech with more dissatisfaction than the speech of his Hon . Friend . The present was indeed a canting and hypocritical age ; but the canting and hypocrisy did not proceed from the members of the Established Church , but from those peripatetic Missionaries who called themselves Evangelical , who roamed from
house to house collecting subscriptions , and endeavouring to infuse into the lower orders of the people what they termed better notions of religion . One of the effects of the present vote would be «<> take away the influence of these wandering Missionaries , and therefore he should give it his cordial support .
The Committee then divided , and the numbers were—Ayes ------- 148 Noes ~ ----- - J > \) Majority in favour of the Resolution ;— -8 ^
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1824, page 504, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2527/page/56/
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