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384 Letters of a Comeri > ative .
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F .
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oftener relieved them ihau decimated the produce ; to seize upon these things , and more , sometimes with arms , sometimes with laws that suck out all the blood that arms have not spilt—this now really , in theological language , is most damnable transubstantmtion . "
The chief defect of these letters is , that , although the writer has thrown out sundry hints upon the subject , he has not very distinctly set forth the nature and extent of the ecclesiastical reform which he desiderates . He does indeed say in one place 4 i Divorce the Church and State ; divorce them ; and the one will neither be shrew nor strumpet ; the other neither bully nor cutpurse ; " and we cannot say but what this is tolerably plain . Only the question of dowry or maintenance naturally arises in such cases . If the Church is to be left to her own proper resources , what business have we , simply as members of
the community , to discuss the amount of Bishop ' s salaries ? Let those who voluntarily pay them , see to that . But if the Clerical Corporation is to retain the national funds , we do not call that a divorce ; it is at most only a separation from bed and board , the people still having to pay the piper without partaking . The plain fact is , that what is called church property is really the nation ' s Education Fund ; which is pocketed by those who neither do the work , nor allow others to do it , and who should be paid off forthwith that we may have efficient instructors in real knowledge for the entire population . Mr . Landor has the ri ^ lit notion , but he does not stick to it .
He says " the whole service of the Church is education ; " ( he should rather have said , education is the whole service of the Church ;) " and surely as much of the matter is to be taught in schools as in Churches . If not , why does not the parson teach as often as the schoolmaster { The time will come when every church in the world will be a 3 chool-roorn . " ( p . 72 . ) Heavens speed the time , and let all people say , amen ! This is the only Church reform that is worth a farthing rushlight . To reduce salaries , and brush up the parsons to visit the poor , and make them talk Welch , in Wales , is neither conservation nor reformation ; but only miserable patchwork . We hope Mr . Landor will give over these petty pickings , and fairly work oat his own plan and principle , as implied in the last quoted allusion .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1836, page 384, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2658/page/56/
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