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Untitled Article
little while , and the Whigs will be again neglecting a great opportunity of removing all ground of sneering from the Churcn . Yet a little while , and the Whigs will be the victims , alter having been the champions , of tne Church . The fangs and
claws they dare not pare will turn and rend them . They will be taught the lesson of the coming time—that truth is of as much importance as justice . They advanced their own interests by the efforts they made for justice . Their neglect of truth will ruin these interests .
It must be obvious to every one who reflects on the history of the last half century , that the defence of a system , of which the temporalities of Episcopacy may be said to be the apex , has been the real cause of our wars and debt , of our disturbances and rates . Who does not know that we went to war with France to avoid the
necessity of reform in Church and State , and that we extended our poorrates ad mfiniturn in order to keep the lowest orders quiet whilst we fought that battle ? The sinecure pensions of bishops , and deans , and prebendaries ( we are not speaking of the working clergy , who are not paid as they deserve ) were the very apex of the system , pointing indeed to heaven , but rooted in earth , under sanction of which civil placemen and pensioners de 6 ed reform . Now that we are a little more habituated to measure the salaries of officials
by the profitable exertions their offices require from them , when we cast one eye on the laboriousness , the usefulness , and the salaries of the bench of judges , and the other eye on the otioseness , the unprofitableness , and the emoluments of the bench of bishops , we feel inclined to ask , Has common sense or common justice any voice in these matters ?
Let the Whigs beware , lest the union between Church and State , should * it come to be considered an union between the aristocracy and the prelacy to keep up high rents and high places , should become an excuse for every union which may imagine it can promote the interest of a party by neglecting that of the communit y .
We believe the Government is allowing itself to be deceived , on the one hand , by the petitions which have been got up by partisans of the Church , and , on the other hand , by the comparative absence of petitions for Church Reform , into a great and fatal error respecting the opinions and feelings of the people . However vague these may be at present respecting what it is that constitutes Church Keform , they are sure to become every day more and more decided against a Ministry which does not
think and act honestly and boldly , but attempts to shuffle off its res ponsibilities on the shoulders of its constituents . Except . under very peculiar circumstances , we have little faith in toe evidence derived from the afaenctf of petitions ; being convinced * that the English people , at the very time they are sluggish m forming or expressing distinct opinions , are in the habit of hug-2 D 2
Untitled Article
on Church Reform * 9 T 9
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1834, page 379, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2633/page/67/
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