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( A Letter from the Rev . J . Martineau to the Presbyterian Congregation in Eustace Street , Dublin . ) A . copy of the following document having reached us , although not from the author , we cannot withhold it from the public , to whom , as a public document , it rightfully belongs . It will be read with lively interest , and may
probably lead to discussions of no small importance . The immediate result has been , we are sorry to hear , the termination of the Rev . James MartineauV engagement with the respectable congregation to which his services , while assistant minister to their lately deceased pastor , the Rev . P . Taylor , have been so acceptable . Other results may be anticipated . A question is raised which will not easily be laid to rest . Will the Dissenting
ministers of Ireland , and of England too , continue to receive money , whatever the airfount , from the public purse ? How does the practice accord with their generally avowed principle , that the civil magistrate ought not to interfere in religious concerns ? It is high time for them to think of this incongruity . And if not their own consistency , yet the state of the country , should demand for it their serious attention . The sums voted to Dissenting
ministers by Parliament may be called trifling , but nothing is trifling which involves a great principle . Nor is a grant of upwards of twenty thousand pounds per annum altogether an insignificant item , even in the accounts of the British empire . The English Regium Domim 9 as it continues to be commonly called , notwithstanding it has long been a Parliamentary
grant , is about one-fifth of this amount . It is distributed amongst poor preachers by an individual , or individuals , selected for that purpose by the Government of the day . The other four-fifths , which are a distinct grant , go to the Presbyterians of Ireland . They constitute a portion of the salaries of the ministers of that body . Either the ministers individually , or the moderators of the Synod to which they belong , are thus brought into direct
communication with the Irish Government . In fact , Presbyterianism in Ireland is a modified establishment . The Remonstrants of Ulster have just obtained the privilege of receiving their portion through the hands of their own Moderator . This concession was just and liberal on the part of the Government . We record the fact with pleasure . But we record with
much greater pleasure Mr . Martineau's renunciation of the grant altogether . The dignified modesty of his letter accords well with its manly and Christian principle . We say no more at present , anticipating that such a subject as this must come into speedy discussion . Mr . Martineau ' s letter was sent to the congregation about the end of October ; and his resignation accepted by them on Sunday , Nov . 13 th . My respected and beloved Fellow-christians , While the decease of your late truly venerable pastor has occasioned to
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ON < ^ ri fi HECEIPT Or PUBLIC M ONE Y BY DI SSENTING MINIST ERS .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1831, page 832, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2604/page/36/
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