NOTES TO EXCELLENT CHURCH'S MAXIMS. ciple. To hell let them all go, rather than seek otherwise than under our command the way to heaven. Happily for the religion of Jesus, and that morality which de pends upon it, and that happiness which depends upon this morality,—the good people of England, as his Lordship himself sees and shews, have given judgment against his Lordship of Harrowby, his Lordship of London, and these their schemes. If, among the different Protestant modes of the religion of Jesus, the mode of the Established Church of England were not, in respect of its tendency to promote the ends of religion, inferior in the eyes of the people at large to those other modes, additional places of worship in that mode, capable of holding more persons than those places of dissenting worship, would, in all this time, have been erected:erected, and by the same honourable means; erected by voluntary contributions. In the period in question no doubt that by these same means, in number more or less considerable, places of Church-of-England worship have been erected. But, notwithstanding the prodigious difference in respect of pecuniary capacity and influence, so small is the number, shame has kept his Lordship and his coadjutors from holding it up to view. Voluntarily they will not contribute any thing:-seeing this, his Lordship's plan-his Lordship's declared intention—is, if he can, to make them contribute by force. But, along with all luke-warm Church-of-Englandists, included in that design is the intention of compelling all dissenters, thus to add to their already * Extract from Morning Chronicle, June 27th, 1816. "Lord Harrowby moved for an Abstract of Returns respecting the Re"sidence of the Clergy, and an Extract of Returns respecting the capa"city of Churches and Chapels, as compared with the population of each "parish, &c. His Lordship stated, that Parliament would be called upon "next Session for some legislative measure, and for an act of munificence, " with a view to the establishment, as far as possible, of a sufficient num"ber of Churches and Chapels commensurate with the population." NOTES TO EXCELLENT CHURCH'S MAXIMS. exacted contributions, towards the performance of a service, from which, if it were ever so good an one, they could not reap any direct benefit, and which, in their eyes, with what reason let it now be judged, is so far from being a good one. > To Maxim 8.-General proof-universal understanding and universal practice.-Specific proof-opinion delivered in the Earl of Harrowby's Speech, as above. Speaking of the Act of Henry the Eighth, by which Non-Residence was disallowed in some cases, but allowed in others,—after saying (p. 20) that "the extreme strictness and universality" of the disallowance "had brought it into desuetude," and without saying any thing in favour of an universal disallowance, in any case, or in any date of the Church, "I am induced" (says he) "by many considerations to think, that, in an establishment "where the income of benefices bear no proportion to the labour 66 or importance of the cure, a strict injunction of universal resi❝dence could neither be practicable nor desirable." Speaking immediately after of Pluralities, "I am equally "averse" (continues he)" to the abolition of pluralities;" (p. 21.) "but the more I have considered the subject, the more "firmly am I convinced that some regulation, by which the ex"tent of pluralities and non-residence should either directly or "indirectly be reduced, is essential to the existence of an Esta"blished Church in this kingdom."-So far his Lordship: Regulation?-Yes :-for how trifling soever the regulation, whatsoever is regulated is thereby confirmed. Regulate, and by regulation confirm the practice of non-resi dence and pluralism? Regulate then next, and by regulation confirm the practices of shop-lifting and swindling. So many instances of Sinecurism, so many instances of the safe-obtainment of money in large masses by false pretence. So many instances of Non-Residence, so many instances of Sinecurism.-So many instances of Pluralism, so many instances-of Sinecurism, of Non NOTES TO EXCELLENT CHURCH'S MAXIMS. Residence, total or partial,—and thereby of obtainment on false pretences. So many benefices possessed by one and the same Pluralist, so many instances, with or without the exception of one, of the obtainment of money, by this same person, on this same false pretence. i To Maxim 9.-See Note (*) to Maxim 10. * To Maxim 10.-Proof, universally established practice--general understanding grounded on it, and the opinion of the Earl of Harrowby, as evidenced by the silence maintained in relation to this subject, as well in his plan of reform as in the Speech spoken by him on the introduction of it. Of "surplice fees," in p. 8, he makes explicit mention: but to no other purpose than the remarking, that "it was impossible to comprehend them in one abstract." And though it is by the officiating minister, that in every instance they are received,-by the Curate, as often as he is the officiating Minister, by the Curate in whose hands it would have been in his Lordship's power to keep them in every instance, by a clause, prohibiting the Incumbent from ever taking them out of the hands of his Curate, to Curates (p. 22) he gives enormous and constantly disproportionate sums, for an extent of labour" in every other particular purely imaginary, (so it will soon be seen), suppressing all mention of these constantly proportionate remunerations. 1 To Maxim 11.-Proof, established practice; and, among Church-of-Englandists, an extensively, if not generally, prevalent understanding, of which that practice is effect and cause: moreover, recognition made of the existence of this practice by the Earl of Harrowby, where, as above, (Note () in Maxim 7) he says, (Speech, p. 33) "the parish church . . . . is insufficient to "accommodate the rich, and, in too many places, is almost shut "against the poor."-According to a notion imputed to Mahomet and his followers, women have no souls: according to an opinion thus proved, as above, upon Church-of-Englandists, the poor, "in too many places," either have no souls at all, or none that NOTES TO EXCELLENT CHURCH'S MAXIMS. are worth saving from hell-fire. On this head see Note () to Maxim 7. But the exclusion thus put upon the poor, whence comes it? Whence but from the fundamental principle, acted upon by the Church of England, at the period of what on that occasion is called the Reformation? viz. the sacrifice of the spiritual interest of poor and rich to the temporal interests of the rich. m To Maxim 13.-See Note (c) to Maxim 3. To Maxim 14.-See Note () to Maxim 3. Proof, established regulations; in particular, the Statute, called the Act of Uniformity, (13 and 14, c. 2. c. 4.)-practice established under and according to these regulations, and general understanding, in conformity to those regulations and that practice. See also Note () to Maxim 1. * To Maxim 15.—See Note (c) to Maxim 3. › To Maxim 16.—See Note () to Maxim 3; and the scheme of the Noble Church Reformer on this subject, as noticed in Note (") to Maxim 3, and Note (") to Maxim 10. To Maxim 17.-See Maxim 14: and Note (*) to Maxim 3. § 5.-Pay continued-Merit, whether produceable by Sinecures, &c. Zealot. But merit?-What do you say to merit?-Surely has it all this while been altogether out of your thoughts! Sinecures the great use of them-and is it not a sufficient use? is—to serve as rewards for merit. In this line of public service-(and can there be any other equally important one?) take away Sinecures, and other liberally paid offices, you leave merit without hope of reward; and, if thus you leave merit without hope of reward, is not this excluding it? In this line, or any other, do you know of any thing better than merit?—And can you have too much of it?And, if you could, which you cannot, would you be ungenerous enough→illiberal enough—unjust enough—to leave it without paying for it? Graduate.-Before all things it is necessary to have a meaning. When you talk of merit of having Sinecures to give as rewards for merit-what I do understand isthat your wish is to have public money in this shape, to dispose of as may be most agreeable to you: what I do not understand is-on what public ground, for what public cause, you claim thus to have it at your disposal. What, in my notion of the matter, is the only justifiable cause for the disposing of the matter of reward, in this or any other shape, is the production of public service: say—if in the sound of the word merit there be any thing particularly agreeable to you-say the production of meritorious, but be pleased to add, beneficial, public service: for ordinary service, ordinary reward; for extra service, extra reward: and, moreover, be pleased to remember, that in no shape, pecuniary or not pecuniary, can the matter of re |