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themselves carried back to the age of the Puritans . In America there are no drones in religion : those who work , and those only , are paid . And in no country are the working clergy paid so well . There are no rich livings , like those of Durham ; there is none of the poverty of the Dissenting ministers , nor of the penury of the Welsh clergy . In those denominations , where previous acquirements are deemed necessary , the salaries equal the ordinary
income of members of the professions of law and medicine . And so would it be , as it ought to be , in this country , were the remuneration of ministers on the same footing as in America ; with no church eating up the fat of the land by compulsory exactions , and indirectly grinding down the industrious and honest Nonconformist . The most numerous sects , particularly in the Eastern states , are the Congregationalists or Independents , who , in Massa ~ chusetts , are supposed to be equally divided between Unitarians and
Calvinists ; while in the other New-England states , the latter creed predominates . The Episcopalians have ten bishops and three hundred and ninety-four clergymen . Their duty is very different from the idle and fattening office of an English spiritual overseer . They have , of course , no jurisdiction , except in matters of religion , and this is confined to persons of their own religion , who voluntarily subject themselves to it . Catholics are found in many parts , but have ceased to be regarded with dread . In Michigan , a Catholic priest was
a short time since elected a delegate , though nine-tenths of his constituents were Protestants , and the office in question was contended for by some of the most important individuals in the territory . A high degree of intelligence exists in the mass of the people , and the most liberal provision is publicly made for education . In New York , there were in the year 1825 , without including 656 schools from which no returns were made , 7773 common schools , which were supported wholly or in part by the public ,
and attended by 42 , 500 scholars . Besides the means afforded for the lowest elements of education , the state of New York has a fund which has contributed largely to classical schools , and endowments to no inconsiderable extent have been made to colleges . Other provinces have been equally munificent ; and Congress in authorizing the admission of new states into the Union , has made to them distinct appropriations of public lands for coipmon
schools , and for the establishment of colleges . From a list which now lies before us , we learn that there are no less than thirty-six distinct universities and colleges in the United Slates , of which twenty-six have been established since the declaration of Independence in 1782 , educating nearly four thousand students , under more than two hundred instructors . Of these , Harvard University , at Cambridge , Massachusetts , three miles from Boston , is the most ancient and best endowed classical establishment in the United States .
Its list of benefactors is long and respectable , containing the names of some of the most distinguished characters in Great Britain and America . Its academical course is completed in four years , and the expense of board and education amounts to one hundred guineas per annum . Its library is larger than that connected with any other academical institution in the Union , comprising 34 , 600 books , besides a library of the students' including 6400 . The whole number of alumni since its foundation is 4941 , of which 1271
have been ministers . So rapid , however , has been the process of Unitarianism in America , and so great has for some time been the demand for ministers , that the provision hitherto made for the education of ministers has been found greatly inadequate , and exertions are now making to educate a greater number , so as to meet the pressing and increasing demands of the present moment . Though wo have intimated , yet it ruay be desirable for
Untitled Article
The Watchman . 263
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1829, page 263, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2571/page/39/
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