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INTELLIGENCE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
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Untitled Article
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Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Intelligence And Correspondence.
INTELLIGENCE AND CORRESPONDENCE .
Untitled Article
UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION .
. June 8 th , 1833 . Sir , —As a member of the Unitarian Association , I take the liberty of making a few remarks on its present constitution and prospects . I have for sqme time thought that its only chance of a peaceful continuance rests in an internal reform .
In this opinion I believe I am not singular , and it is in the hope of convincing others of the necessity of speedily changing that which I feel must in time change or die , that I now solicit your kind indulgence . It is hardly necessary that I should attempt to prove that societies governed by self-elected bodies seldom
flourish , or that if they do flourish , it is only so long as their well meaning but too ignorant founders continue to possess influence , We all know and bitterly deplore the effects of this system in our country , and in our respective parishes ; why then should we continue it in our religious societies , where , less fettered by the
law , we are more able to act according to the opinions which we entertain ? Can any one who reads this "be ignorant of the fact , that some of our chapels are prosperous , and others the reverse ? And , whatever may be the case with the latter , can
any one point to one of the former and say , * Its congregation has been kept up by the care which was taken in the trust deeds to prohibit every thing that might bey or be thought , disreputable , and to preserve the management in the hands of a few who shall appoint their successors from henceforth and for ever ?'
Ask the minister of any chapel that is cursed with an unchangeable constitution , how much he owes to the trust deeds . Will he not reply
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with a bitter smile ) * When , when will men learn , that it is not for the presenfc-to-leg-isl ate—foF-tb e-fu-t-ure- ? 7 The grand flaw in the constitution of the Unitarian Association is the manner in which the committee is appointed . It is true that the names
of its members are put to the vote by a show of hands , but I fancy our chairman would be rather puzzled if any member of the Association were to propose another person as a candidate . Perhaps it might be discovered , that to take the votes serifr tim on each candidate would be . better
than lumping all together ; but still this would be only a step towards a real representation . The proper way would be , ( as it appears to me , ) to prepare lists of the candidates , with tBeir h <^ iaat 6 rs , ~" aBfd to ' "iil'Iow ' each member of the Association , either in person or by proxy , to vote by ballot at the office of the Association for a
day or two after the General Meeting . Any member of the Association should be allowed to nominate a candidate for the committee * or for any other office , and a list of candidates might be hung up in the office for some time previous to the Annual Meeting . The second defect is of minSr
importance . It is simply that the number of the committee is too large . The third defect to which I shall allude , can scarcely be called a constitutional one ; I mean , the ignorance in which the members of the
Association are left with regard to the proceedings of their committee . We are called upon to pass a report which is no doubt positively true , but in which , for aught we know , much may have been omitted . Nothing was mentioned in the last report , of the fact that the comniittee have withdrawn their support from
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 1, 1833, page 242, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2619/page/18/
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