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    the support of the dignity of tbeir offices , and that their elevation to temporal greatness and power , their grandeur of living , splendour of equipage , and association with the gay and fashionable world , is all for the edification of Christ's Church , and the salvation df men ' s souls ; but in respect of the rectors , no plea of that kind will avail , for neither has the common nor the canon law recognized the office of rector to be superior to that of any of the inferior clergy , much less have they recognized , that for the sake of the aforesaid considerations , it is necessary that he should be able to hold a plurality of livings , reside on the continent for two years together , and lay by thousands to enrich his posterity with a misappropriated tax , raised front the penury of an impoverished people . "—Pp . 68—72 .

    Our author then compares the Established Church with the Dissenters in point of numbers ; and taking for the basis of his calculation the number of Established churches and chapels as given in the " Clergy ' s Guide , " and those of Dissenters from the statement in the Congregational Magazine , he shews that , including Ireland , the number of attendants on the Established

    service falls short by four millions of the number of attendants on Catholid or on Dissenting worship : nay , that reckoning those who may be presumed incidentally to derive their religious instruction from the non-established churches , the Establishment is left in a minority of nearly one million , even although all the avowed and unavowed infidels in the country , and all the non-attendants , are reckoned amongst its supporters . The whole

    population of England and Ireland is reckoned at 20 , 000 , 000 $ the Established Church at 5 , 858 , 000 in England , and 1 , 000 , 000 in Ireland ; the Protestant Dissenters at 4 , 198 , 700 in England , and 1 , 000 , 000 in Ireland ; and the Roman Catholics at 213 , 400 in England , and 5 , 500 , 000 in Ireland . He then compares the moral strength of the Church of England and the Protestant Dissenters , as exemplified in their contributions for the conversion

    to Christianity of Heathen nations . By the receipts of the various societies for this purpose , it appears that the contributions of the members of the Church of England fall short of those of the Dissenters by between 20 , 000 / . and 30 , 000 / . per annum . There is a similar disparity in the promotion of education , and the Sunday-School Society teaches about 20 , 000

    children more than the National School Society , No notice is taken of what is done by the Roman Catholics , which must be far from being inconsiderable , and would throw yet stronger li ght upon the comparative inefficiency and insignificance of the good effected by the voluntary exertions of the Established Church for benevolent purposes .

    The author argues that the Establishment is a virtual punishment on Dissenters , because , notwithstanding their late emancipation , they are yet inelig ible to , some of the most honourable posts of public trust , are deprived pf the benefits , or at least of the honours , of the Universities , and that line of distinction between conformists and separatists is kept up which divides society into a superior and a subordinate caste , In the monopoly of the

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    522 The Church Establishment founded in Error .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1831, page 522, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2600/page/18/