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Untitled Article
misery of the great majority of the population , there is no parish in which there is not a Romish priest and chapel supported by the voluntary aid of the people . " Extravagant sums would not be collected to aggrandize individuals , but chapels would be built , and churches would be formed , and ministers would be called , and missionaries would be sent forth , and the pious would be edified , and the young trained up in the way in which they should go , and sinners converted , and the land evangelized .
Not only is the compulsory tax for the support of the Establishment unjust in its principle and needless for its professed object , but it is also enormous in its amount , and most unequal both in its pressure and its distribution . On its amount we have recently animadverted in an article on the History and Mystery of Church Property ( pp . 299—305 ) ; we select therefore the following observations on its inequality :
' * The unequal distribution of the tax , is another of its features to which we feel bound to object . In most cases the extent of the livings are [ is ] made to answer the absurd and antiquated boundaries of parishes , by which sometimes five or six churches are to be seen within a mile of each other , in a thinly populated country , while , again , parishes of from eight or [ to ] ten miles in length afford but the accommodation of one church to a large population . Thus the distribution of the churches and livings bears no proportion either to the inhabitants or the acres . " The following" list will illustrate this position : —
Inhabitants . Sq . Miles . Livings . Av . Jnh . Av . Miles England and Wales 12 , 912 , 106 and 58 , 554 .. 10 , 872 .. 1 . 187 and 5 . 38 Bedfordshire 70 , 213 and 463 .. 115 .. 610 and 4 . 00 Durham 207 , 673 and 1 , 040 .. 91 .. 2 . 281 and 11 . 42
Lincolnshire 283 , 058 and 2 , 748 .. 598 .. 473 and 4-59 Northumberland 195 , 965 and 1 , 850 .. 97 .. 2 . 020 and 19 . 07 London & Middlesex 2 , 370 , 225 and 282 .. 250 .. 9 . 480 and 1 . 12 Lancashire 1 , 052 , 859 and 1 , 831 .. 287 .. 3 . 665 and 6 . 38 Huntingdon 48 , 771 and 370 .. 74 .. 659 and 5 . 00 Rutland 18 , 487 and 149 .. 40 .. 462 and 3 . 72 Norfolk 344 , 368 and 1710 .. 683 .. 504 and 2 . 50
" Anomalous and disproportionate as are these numbers , the above remark is still more strikingly displayed by reference to individual cases ; thus the livings of—Easton Neston , Northamptonshire , contains 137 inhabitants .
Eatdn-sacon .. Bedfordshire .... contains 2 , 039 ditto . Eccles Lancashire . contains 23 , 331 ditto . Eccleafield .... Yorkshire contains 7 , 163 ditto . Edburton .... Sussex contains 92 ditto . Edgcot Northamptonshire , contains 67 ditto . Eginoie Norfolk contains 47 ditto . < € Thus we see that the State provides the same extent of accommodation for 47 as for 23 , 331 persons ; so that , as far as secular authority is concerned
Untitled Article
520 The Church Establishment founded in Error .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1831, page 520, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2600/page/16/
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