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    this we intend both the means of education for the young , and facilities of information for adults on whatever affects their interests . The revenues and machinery of the Church might be properly applied to the former purpose , and in some measure to the latter . The Church might become the "place , and the Clergyman the agent for the communication of scientific , historical , and other useful knowledge , both to the young and the mature . And if the

    clergy wanted will or capacity for such a duty , fairly and legally imposed upon them , they could scarcely be regarded as fit for the work for which at present they are paid , or as having any claim for the continuance of that payment . They are efficient spiritual instructors of the population , or they are public plunderers ; and if the former , they cannot be indisposed towards the obligation of giving their instruction a wider range than heretofore . No Church Reform will much benefit the nation unless it render what is

    called Ecclesiastical property ( i . e . property devoted to the purpose of spiritual improvement ) subservient to the relief of the mental and moral wants of the people . Information on political and temporary matters should be facilitated by the repeal of the Taxes on Knowledge . It would then be brought home almost to every man ' s door , and with an immense quantity of incidental benefit , tending to enlarge the mind , quicken the perceptions , purify the taste and manners , and thus improve generally the character and condition . The result of this combination of

    measures for at once acting upon the minds and circumstances of the poor would be that the perceptible amelioration of their condition would not be followed by a sudden and rapid increase of their numbers . They would understand their position . They would have a horror of falling back into the gulf from which they had just been extricated . Conveniences would become necessaries . Their standard of tolerable existence would be raised . The plan must also include ,

    5 . The extension of political rights . We believe that these ought to be extended forthwith . The basis of the constitutional pyramid is much too narrow . The constituency is scarcely more than two-thirds of what it was calculated the Reform Bill would have made it , and that was only about half a million of voters . Thousands are excluded who are already not less fitted for the right employment of the elective franchise than the majority of those by

    whom it is possessed . The consequence is a discontent which nothing but a further reform can allay . Nor can any great amelioration of the condition of the lower classes proceed without the corresponding recognition of their political existence . They will be , they ought to be , and they must be , principally , the agents of their own improvement . Neither more food nor more knowledge will be accepted as substitutes for their portion of influence as members of a community . On the contrary , they will only become the more determined on having a voice in appointing

    Untitled Article

    Poor Laws and Paupers . 373

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1833, page 373, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2616/page/13/