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cese of Chester as in any other . quarter of the klngdony—Would repair all the glebe ^ hotises ^—* wotil « i erec t and fti wiish an hospital in etfery- town in Lancashire , arid , in short , ' do a multitude of most useful and fnosfc necessary things * The best Cathedral that we could build would be a bad one , for economy would t of cotirsd , be among the principles of the
founders * But economy , hair nothing , to do with tfoe lavish expenditure that alone could make-one of those edifices in any degree correspondent to the name . We should have a bad Cathedral , probably never more than half-finished ; for the funds and the zeal of the Corporation would soon be equally exhausted by the expenditure , which would so soon'be discovered to be totally misapplied .
" The fact is , that the whole Cathedral system is , to the mmd even of churchmen , the most cumbrous and inefficient part of the church polity . The reformers , however , were forced to take it as it was—edifice , form of government , and state of revenue . The prebends were once little better than sinecures ? and though they are now often given to
men diligently employed in parishes , or perhaps as the rewards of literature , they are obnoxious from their being connected with scarcely any other actual duty ' than that of sifting in a stall twice a-day , for a month or two in a year , for an hour at a time , which is . called residence , and which any man alive may do , and devote the rest of his existence to
lounging at a watering-place , touring on the continent , or going pleasantly through the nothingness of London lifei This is not said in a spirit of reproach to the general . spirit of the British eccle * siastics , for they uniformly , when tfcey have any sense of the infinitely solemn importance of their duty , regret this temptation to indolence , a temptation which is besides chiefly reserved for men willing enough already to save themselves trouble—the sons and
connexions of the higher orders . The whole system ought to be revised . The stalls ought to be connected with positive duties . The Cathedrals ought to be turned into Colleges for theological education , or for some public purpose connected with the public knowledge .
The stalls ought to be given to clergymen distinguished by their literature , and who would be actual professors . It ia singular that in England , the Protestant head of Europe , and the actual strong hold of whatever religious truth subsists among men , there is no institution for religious education . In the umyersitieB
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it forms an altogether subordinate branch , and the divine is left to hunt out his knowledge as well as he can . ^ -What 4 s- the practical value of St . Paul's-and Westminster Abbey as church es ? ¦ ¦ Next to nothing . A corner is railed off ,- in-which a service is chanted , whleh during the week nobody attends , which-on Sundays is attended by no more than- the ordinary tiongregation of
any of frhe -small churches , and which is- the- most incongruous and unsuitable form of service , as any one will know who attempts to sing his prayers . The Cathedral and its service are equally the legacy of Papal times . St . Paul ' s and Westminster Abbey are " actually little better than cemeteries , and very fine ones they are ; and it is well , on the whale , that we have such receptacles for our national monuments . But as
there are no such uses for our country cathedrals , however it may be right to keep them up , the Liverpool Corporation will aet Wisely in thinking a little , before they fling away their money on a mountain of stone , useless to every
purpose but those of the contractors for the stones , and the idJe , who may be pleased to promenade it ' s aisles . Let them build churches , hospitals , and alms-houses , if they have money to dispose of , and desire to dispose of it usefully . "
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Catholic Association . The following extract from the speech of a Mr . Wyse at one of the meetings of the Catholic Association , indicates a growing extension of views on the subject of religious liberty , which we should be glad to find generally pervading the body of Catholics , not only in this kingdom , 'but upon the Continent . After
referring to the general servility of the Church of England , under the successive sovereigns after the Reformation , the speaker thus proceeds : " Nor were the Presbyterians much more faithful to the very principles upon which they existed . The Presbyterians , whilst tithe , benefice , pension , contended with principle for pre-eminence , were uvery thing but
those nlen who bade a haughty defiance to the usurpations of the Stuarts , and restored the state for an instant to its ancient constitutional balance . Cromwell ' s administration stript them , and oftce more restored them to just sentiments of honesty and independence . They became again the Presbyterians of the past , and the aera of the volunteers ha « fully redeemed them with pos-
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20 C [ htieUtgetwe , ** 43 * liwtie . A&so ciatkih
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1828, page 206, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2558/page/62/
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