NOTES TO EXCELLENT CHURCH'S MAXIMS. 600, in which a Curate is employed, the living, (observes his Lordship), "being" of small value." How any mischief, which is not produced by Non-Residence, where the living is of great value, should be produced by its being of small value, seems not very easy to discover. If the damnation of souls were an object worthy of regard, the residence of the Incumbent affording at the same time any chance of warding off so undesirable a result,-on any such supposition, forasmuch as the largest living will, generally speaking, contain the largest population, the cases where the living is large would, one should have thought, have rather been taken for the objects of his Lordship's censure. But on the day on which this speech was spoken, the attendance on the Bishops' Bench was (it may well be presumed) not a scanty one. In the Returns for the year 1810— being the year to which, as appears by the Tables printed at the end of it, this speech bears reference-thirty-five stands as the number of "Livings held at this time by Bishops :" considerably more than one a-piece for the four-and-twenty Bishops. Of these thirty-five livings, not many, it may well be imagined, could, in respect of its smallness, afford matter for his Lordship's abovementioned censure. A collection of the cases in which, according to the Latin proverb, censure-and not merely moral but legal censure spares the crows and fastens exclusively on the doves,— or, in more appropriate language, spares the Diveses and fastens exclusively on the Lazaruses, would assuredly not be a scanty one, and would form a not uninstructive illustration of the combined excellence of Church and State. 2 To Maxim 2.-See Note to Maxim 1. 3 To Maxim 3.-Proof, of the adoption of this maxim in the Ecclesiastical department, general practice and general understanding, as evidenced by the Act obtained and preparatory speech spoken in the House of Lords, and afterwards published by the Earl of Harrowby, as above, 18th June, 1812. In no part of his plan as exhibited in that speech, is any intimation given, that, in any instance, by excess of pay put into ecclesiastical hands,-how NOTES TO EXCELLENT CHURCH'S MAXIMS. enormous soever the pay, and whether any service or none be rendered for it, and if any, how minule soever that service, mischief in any shape is produced. Deficiency of pay-to the operation of that one cause of that one and no other,-unless it be absence from the spot on which, if useful service in any shape were by the person in question rendered, it would be rendered,-is every imperfection ascribed, which, in his Lordship's view, presents any demand for remedy. In each of as many Parishes as possible, to cause a Parish Priest, viz. either Incumbent or Curate, to exist, and into the pocket of the Curate, at the expense of every future Incumbent,—and thence at the expense not only of every future, but eventually of the present Patron, to put a sum of money, over and above that for which the Curate would have been ready and willing to undertake to perform the service-in the accomplishment of these two connected objects—the one of them partly by the means of the other—may be seen the whole texture of that plan of reform or improvement, by which, whatsoever was still wanting to the giving to the excellence of the Church-of-England system the finishing touches, was to be supplied. At the expense of Patrons and Incumbents, money to be put into the pockets of Curales: at the expense of the public at large, money to be put into the pockets of Incumbents, over and above that for which they would respectively have been willing to undertake to perform the service-more money to be put into the pockets of Architects, to build fine buildings with, under the name of Churches: upon the accomplishment of these two objects, together with another or two, consisting merely in the expenditure of money, without any security for the production of any good effect by means of it, will the whole force of the noble Earl's and his late Right Honourable friend's genius be found expended. Money exacted from unwilling hands by force of law-money in such vast sums-and for what? For the advancement of piety and morality?—No: not so much as in profession in any part of this speech. For what then? For the preservation of the "Church," (p. 32): "of that Established Church, which is the $ NOTES TO EXCELLENT CHURCH'S MAXIMS. "boast and the support of our country.” For the better accom plishment of this grand and primary if not sole object, the holy Proteus is on this occasion brought forward in its character of a "Citadel." It has "assailants from within and from without." It has "outworks:" it has a "garrison:" but it is in danger of being "betrayed by want of discipline:" and its "garrison” is in danger of being "starved:"-" a system of measures for strengthen"ing the establishment of the Church of England,"-such accordingly, at the very outset of the speech, (p. 1), is the system pursued: such its object—and even in profession its sole object—according to the account given of it by the noble author by whom it is introduced. This being the object-when, in relation to it, any such word as service is employed, of what sort can be the service meant? Answer: That sort of service which consists in contributing to the defence of this Citadel against those its assailants. That, in the expectation of the Noble Engineer, in whose eyes the demand for service in this shape was so urgent, the service thus desired would, in case of the adoption and execution of this his plan, be rendered, and being rendered, would be effectual, cannot be matter of doubt. But, for the causing this service to be rendered, what is the instrument to which he looks? Answer : Unless it be the sort of discipline, such as it is, which will be seen added for the prevention of desertion,-money, and nothing else: money to be put into the pockets of the garrison: money to be put into the pockets of Architects for the erection of more Citadels. Such then being his plan, and such his own account of it, his maxim, the maxim on which he acts, may it not with truth, as above, be said to be this?—The greater the quantity of pay attached to the office, be it what it may, the greater in value, quantity and quality taken together into the account, will be the service rendered by the possessor of it. In riches, and without any such superfluous care as that about performance of duty-in riches, and with no other than the single exception above mentioned, is, on this occasion at least, the noble Christian's only trust: to his NOTES TO EXCELLENT CHURCH'S MAXIMS. mind's eye, camels gallopping through the eye of needles have doubtless been a familiar spectacle. On the part of the persons militant, of which this his garrison is composed, on what circumstances does this his trust repose itself? On any such qualification as "respectability of character, exemplary discharge of duty, "or a competent share of learning?" Not it, indeed. Of these, he expressly declares (p. 15), he is "far from supposing that they "are necessarily connected, or even connected at all, with the "amount of the salary received." On what then? On the quantity of respect paid to the noble army of his Church militant: paid not only to officers but to privates. Respect?-Good. But money the money by which every thing is to be done-is that respect? No. Put the question to a Sectary, the answer will be-that they are very different things. But in the Excellent Church, some how or other, it is for money, and nothing else, that respect, or any thing else that is good, is to be had. "Men," says his Lordship, (p. 16), "are too apt to measure the respect "they owe to persons, or to offices, by the respect which they "see paid to them by the authorities to which they look up. "What must they think," continues he, (p. 16), "of the value "which is set by the Legislature upon the persons or the office of "those to whose care the religion of the people is entrusted, when "they see at how low a rate their services are estimated ?" What indeed is not said directly is that when by a certain quantity of pay the functionaries belonging to this class are secured against contempt, the respect of the people will go on increasing, with every addition made to that quantity, whatever it may be : indirectly, however, it is not the less incontrovertibly insinuated. For, not only of the value set by the Legislature on the persons in question, but of the value set by the same supreme body on the office itself, the quantity of pay allotted to it is spoken of as the measure, and test, and conclusive evidence. But if so it be at any one part of the scale, how can it fail of being so at any other? That for this purpose any line ought to be or can be drawn at any 66 NOTES TO EXCELLENT CHURCH'S MAXIMS. point of this scale—of any such notion not any the slightest intimation is any where given. And to the "value set by the Legislature, upon the office of those, to whose care, (as his Lordship observes), "the religion of the people is entrusted," what bounds would he recommend to be set by any body? Boundless being the value of their office, boundless accordingly ought to be the quantity of their pay: boundless-though not in the absolute and abstract sense-yet thus far boundless, as to have no other limits than those which are set to it by the ignorant impatience of those out of whose pockets it must come. Such is the logic of the Noble Advocate of Excellent Church: though disguised and guarded against every adverse grasp by so prudential an indeterminateness and slipperiness as has been furnished by his Lordship's skill in the arts of rhetoric. While to the eye of hostility or scrutiny it presents the semblance of a limited demand, it presents the substance of an unlimited one to all those "understandings" which the eloquence of his Lordship of London, seconded by the prospect of the good things of this wicked world, has laid "prostrale" at the feet of Excellent Church. Money then being, in his Lordship's eyes, as well as Excellent Church's, the one thing needful,-in money her sole trustthe more money she has of it, the stronger her hold,—no wonder that, to the adding more and more to the bulk and strength of this holdfast, the force of his Lordship's ingenuity should be directed. Of the exclusive efficiency of this instrument, according to his Lordship's notion of it, can any further proof be wanting? Behold it then, in the very next paragraph, (p. 16). Of every species of Sectaries the rapid progress is recognized. To what cause is it ascribed? To the superiority of the service rendered—of the instruction administered-by these schismatics, in comparison of that which is rendered by the Ministers of Excellent Church ?-Of course to any thing rather than this. To what then?—to the superiority of the pay received by those schismatics, in comparison of that which is received by their Excellencies: "How can we |