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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), December 1833, Edition 1 of 1, Page 805, Untitled Article

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    • CHURCH REFORM, CONSIDERED AS A NATIONAL AND NOT A SECTARIAN QUESTION.
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      Untitled Article

      It seems doubtful whether Ministers seriously intend to do , or attempt to do , any thing with the Church . The monition to the Bishops to ' set their houses in order , ** is passing away like a

      brutum fulmen . The big beginning and little ending of the attempt on the Irish branch of the Establishment was a bad omen . It disheartened all who had great expectations from the ' Reform Ministry and Reform Parliament / and mightily encouraged the legislatorial mercenaries of existing abuses . Ministers evidently had the Irish Church upon their hands because they could not

      help it , and were very glad to be well rid of it . They will be in no hurry to meddle with the English Church . But they may again find that there is no avoiding the question . Something must be done , and that at no very distant period . The public mind has got hold of the subject , and will not easily let it go . Some bits and fragments of a reformation the people happen to have in their

      own hands . Wherever there are open vestries the church rates have been assailed , sometimes on the ground of wasteful expenditure , but frequently on the broad principle of not compelling one man to pay for the religion of another . In not a few instances the rate has been either materially reduced , or refused altogether . This warfare , once commenced , is likely to continue until ,

      whereaver the parishioners have a voice in the matter , those who frequent the churches will have to bear the outgoings which are need ful for their own religious services . But the rate is a very small portion of the public grievance , as is its removal of the reform which is required . We mention it only as a symptom of the state of men ' s minds , and of an inevitable tendency towards a

      great change in our ecclesiastical affairs . We look forward to that change with deep anxiety . One of two things seems not unlikely to happen , either of which is to be deprecated . We fear , on the one hand , lest some partial and sham reform should take place which would leave the Church stronger even than it is at present for all those sinister purposes to which it has been

      subservient ; and , on the other hand , lest a sudden subversion of the Establishment should cast its treasures , like the cargo of a wrecked vessel , on shore , to be utterly wasted ^ or to become the prey of any plunderers who may be favourably situated for seizing the spoil . Almost as much as we dread the refitting and furbishing of this enormous aristocratical and anti-reforming engine , do

      we dread the utter loss to the community of resources which may be rendered productive of incalculable good to the entire population . These are the Scylla and Charybdis between which we have to steer . As the subject will probably occupy considerable space in our next volume , it may not be amiss to close the present year

      Untitled Article

      80 &

      Church Reform, Considered As A National And Not A Sectarian Question.

      CHURCH REFORM , CONSIDERED AS A NATIONAL AND NOT A SECTARIAN QUESTION .

      Untitled Article

      No . 84 . 3 M

  • Citation
    • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1833, page 805, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2628/page/1/