the revenues of the church were ma-perty. It will be said Even, if it naged and disposed of to the best should be granted that the first advantage. The councils of Antioch * "owners of the church lands, and of and Gangra† have several canons" the great and small tithes, have negto this purpose, namely, that all the "lected to perform the implied, or the incomes and oblations of the church" expressed conditions of their contract shall be dispensed, at the will and " -ought that property, which, in the discretion of the bishop, to whom course of time, has devolved upon the the people and the souls of men are present successors, who have long encommitted.. Those called the apos-"joyed, or lately purchased it, without tolical canons and constitutions § speak" the smallest apprehension of any deof the same power. And Cyprian notes, |||" duction of this nature-to be subjectthat all who received maintenance" ed to the payment you suggest?" from the church, had episcopo dispen- This objection I acknowledge to be sante, by the order and appointment so valid and powerful, that I again affirm, of the bishop. He did not, indeed, al- that the state is a proper power to interways dispense with his own hands, but fere, to remove the evil which now by proper assistants, such as his arch-presses so heavily upon the church. If deacon, and the Economus; which the state could be induced to undertake some canons* ** order to be one of the the charge of meeting the remaining clergy of every church; but these per centage, after the incumbent and officers were only stewards under him, patron have contributed their portion, both of his appointing, as St. Jeromett the matter at issue, would be brought observes, and also accountable to him as to a speedy conclusion. But as we the supreme governor of the church. have, unhappily, no reason, at this peAnd this was agreeable to the primitive riod, to anticipate a successful applicarule and practice of the apostles, to tion in this quarter, we are compelled whose care and custody, the people's to seek relief from other sources. · oblations, and things consecrated to God, were committed. They chose deacons to be their assistants, as bishops did afterwards; still retaining power in their own hands to direct and regulate them, in the disposal of the public charity, as prime stewards of God's revenue, and as the chief masters of His household.‡‡ I am now brought to the considera The sum of 300,000l., which would be required from the lay-impropriators, is too large to be raised by voluntary contributions. The utter spoliation of all the existing church property (it has been proved) would not be sufficient to provide for the livings the " congrua portio," or competent maintenance, which ought to have been constantly reserved as the portion of the incumbent, tion of the objections which may be from the lands and the tithes of the offered to the measure I would recom-church, which have been alienated to mend. The first, great, obvious, and apparently insurmountable difficulty which presents itself is, that it seems to imply a violation of the rights of private pro * Cɔn. Antioch, c. 24 and 25. + Con. Gangr. c. 7 and 8. laymen. The only party, therefore, from whom the nation and the poorer clergy, who hold livings under the lay patrons, with any degree of justice, can expect assistance, are those who have so long enjoyed that property of the church, which has been confiscated to persons and to objects which are not ecclesiastical. The state is bound to take care that the original contract be observed, and that the original trust tt Hieron. Ep. 2. ad Nepotian. Sciat epis-be fulfilled. If these individuals, to copus, cui commissa est Ecclesia, quem Dispensationi Pauperum, Curaeque præficiat. #Biugh. Eccles. Antiq., 8vo. Edit. 1710, vol. i. p. 19. Canon Apost. c. 31 and 38. § Constit. Apostol. lib. 2. c. 25. Cypr. Ep. 38. al. 41. Just. Mart. Apol. 2. **Con. Chalced. c. 26. whom the tithes were originally granted, failed in acting according to the conditions of their trust; and if others, who have followed them through many suc-church, or state, without endangering cessive generations, have been equally all other property. I am unwilling to avail myself of any negligent; if all these have departed from the spirit, intention, and purpose principle of the measure, generally argument which is derived from the of the original grant, and have received known by the name of the Reform Bill. many hundreds, or many thousands a But the truth is, that Bill has abolished year from the ancient revenues of the prescription, when prescription alone is church: if they have permitted the pleaded as a defence for the perversion clergyman, through this long period, to of a trust. A certain number of bobe a pauper, in the midst of the abund-roughs had been invested by the public ance of that wealth which once be- law, with the privilege of returning relonged to the church—is this any argu-presentatives to the House of Commons. ment for the continuance of a scanda In consequence of individuals obtaining lous abuse? Can it be sheltered under property in, and around, those boroughs, the plea of antiquity, or under the affir- they were enabled to command the few mation, that the holder of tithe pos- votes attached to them, and thus to send sesses a portion of the church revenue, to the Parliament whom they pleased. as an inheritance, by descent, although The honour of obtaining a seat on the he has never fulfilled the conditions on benches of St. Stephen's chapel, withwhich it was granted, and the non-ob out the trouble, expense, and degradaservance of which has afflicted the tion of a personal canvass, and other inchurch with a pauperized clergy? conveniences, was so highly prized, that The time has arrived when all abuses it was purchased with large sums of shall be done away in this favoured money. By this means a peculiar procountry: and there is not among us perty was formed, which was sanctioned one, no, not one abuse-there is not one by prescription, and tolerated by the corruption in the body politic, no, not public law. So fully were boroughs one, more intolerable or more flagrant esteemed property, that Mr. Pitt prothan this, that the property of the posed to make an ample compensation church should have been given away to to the proprietors, when he advocated laymen, under the condition of pro- the disfranchisement of a certain numviding for the spiritual wants of the ber of the borough towns; and he people; and that this condition should absolutely did so, in Ireland, at the time have been generally violated-that the of the union. The legislature, howlaymen should rejoice in the wealth of ever, has lately resolved to disfranchise the church, while the clergyman, from these boroughs, without granting comwhom the tithes have been wrested, is pensation, on a principle, which appears degraded to poverty-and that the other to be, in some measure, applicable to clergy should be called upon to tax the lay holders of the property of the themselves to remove that poverty, church. It decided, that the owner of which has been produced by a breach a borough could not claim compensaof contract on the part of the lay-im-tion, for the power of returning a mempropriators. The time has arrived, when ber to Parliament, although that power the state is required to compel the had become property, because it was an holders of the lay tithes to fulfil the original contract on which those tithes were granted, and to provide, in some manner, for the spiritual instruction of the parishes from which they receive them. But I shall be told, that this laytithe property is sanctioned by prescription, and secured by law; and, therefore, that it cannot be touched by the abuse of a functionary trust. It was alleged that the owner of a borough held only a certain trust, or privilege, of which he might justly be deprived, when the good of the public made it expedient for him to relinquish it. Expediency destroyed prescription. The trust was no longer a public benefit. The law, therefore, interposed, to deprive the proprietors of the trust; and made no compensation for that revenue, his patriotism, by soliciting his noor property, which the owner had ble family, either, amply to endow, acquired, from the anxiety of gentle- according to the spirit of the grant 24 men to procure, by his means, admis- to his ancestors, every poor clergyman, sion into Parliament. 66 66 hundreds more, who are wealthy from the ancient property of the church, to imitate the conduct I would recommend to the house of Bedford; and to come forward largely, freely, and nobly, to remove that property which is the scandal of the establishment, and which they, the lay holders of the tithes, have alone occasioned. who may reside in the parishes from I am unwilling to urge this new prin- which the ducal revenues of the house ciple of law as an argument in support of Bedford are derived; or to set an of my plan. I would forbear to say to example to all other lay holders of the lay-tithe holders, "That the law of church property, by contributing largely Reform declares that a functionary to some general fund for the augmen"trust being perverted for private in- tation of the impoverished benefices. I terests, shall cease to be regarded as am sure he will acknowledge that property." But I cannot avoid stat- abbey lands are quite as fit objects of ing, that the principle of legislation such taxation, as the lands of deans and which destroyed, without compensation, chapters. I call upon this great rethe superiorities in Scotland, and the former of the state to become boroughs in England; will apply also equally eminent as reformer in to every perverted functionary trust, the church. I call upon the Mar which has, in like manner become a pro- quis of Cleveland, Lord Mountperty. If the tithes, and other church cashel, the Duke of Devonshire, and revenues, were held by the grantees of the King, and by the successors of the grantees, under the condition of providing for the competent maintenance, in every case, of an incumbent ; a portion of those tithes and church revenues became a functionary trust; and if the incumbent has not been maintained, that functionary trust has been perverted, for private interests, and has become a pro- I call upon the state to extend the perty; and the Legislature has decided principle of Lord Harrowby's Bill, which that such property shall no longer be has only as yet been applied to lay procovered by prescription. The argu-perty in advowsons, to lay property in ment, as I would apply it, refers only to tithes. This nobleman brought in a that part of the lay-tithe, and other church property, which ought to have been devoted to the maintenance of the incumbent. If expediency, our new rule of legislation, calls upon us to cancel prescription in other instances of perverted trust, for the public benefit; will not that expediency apply also to the case of the holders of the church property, who have perverted the trust committed to them, by failing to provide for the support of that clergyman? I call upon Lord John Russell, the master patriot of the day, who successfully fought the battle of expediency, against the rights of prescription, to assist the clergy in the great and more noble cause of Church Reform. His family are possessed of church property to a very large extent. I call upon him to give additional proofs of bill, and an act was passed in the 57th year of George the Third, which, at one blow, reduced the value of all the advowsons of the poorer livings in the possession of lay patrons. It obliged the incumbent, who had been accustomed to allow only a certain stipend to the curate, to make a great additional increase of salary, according to the receipts of the benefice, and it thereby diminished the salable value of the advowson. It is evident that no parent would advance as much money for the advowson of a living of two hundred a year, out of which the bishop had the power of enforcing one hundred and fifty pounds a year to be devoted to the curate-as he would be disposed to have done be fore this act existed, when sixty or seventy pounds, annually, was esteemed a sufficient remuneration. The decision of the legislature, however, was most solely from their real usefulness. The just. It recognised the property in an friends of the Church of England (while advowson, as a functionary trust. It they believe Christianity to be of divine interfered to prevent the longer conti-authority), are willing to rest the claims nuance of an abuse of that trust. It told of the establishment upon this foundathe lay patron, you shall not consider this tion. We believe it to be the most useadvowson to be your property, until the ful institution in the land, because it trust on which you originally received enables every subject in England to it, be fully discharged. First, provide partake of the holy sacrament, to enjoy for the wants of the church, to which the other means of grace and salvation, you present, and then, calculate the and to unite in one common worship of marketable value of your property. The God. The fashionable language of the act in question has conferred the most day is, that men are to choose their own extensive power on the bishops, by religion: and the reasonableness of toenabling them to appoint curates, to leration permits them, and that wisely, make over to those curates the par- so to do. As, however, there is but one sonage-houses; to protect them from God, and but one way of offering him acthe caprice of their employers, and by ceptable service; it becomes the boundenabling them also to declare the salary en duty of the government, to provide to be, in some instances, equal in value by a national establishment, for the relito the whole living. LET THE PRINCI- gious instruction of the peasant, the PLE, THEN, OF THIS ACT BE MADE THE thoughtless, and the poor. By the division PRECEDENT FOR LEGISLATIVE INTERFE- of the country into parishes, the church RENCE FOR THE GENERAL BENEFIT OF accomplishes this important object. THE CHURCH; AND BECOME THE BASIS But this very division implies the resiOF ECCLESIASTICAL REFORM. As the dence, not of a curate only, but of an advowson was regarded as a functionary incumbent also; and therefore it is, that trust, in the same light let the lay tithe non-residence is the one great evil, be considered. Let the trust be duly which the bishops condemn-which fulfilled for the benefit of the people; laws are enacted to restrain—which all and when that is accomplished, estimate the ecclesiastical bodies are using every the remainder, and that only, as an in-effort to remove; but which will ever tangible and hereditary property. remain a spot upon our bright escutI well know that every plan, effort, cheon, until the lay-patrons, and layor proposal, which does not include ec- impropriators will co-operate with the clesiastical taxation, or the general clergy to efface this indefensible respoliation of deans and chapters, will proach. I would implore all those who be received with every kind of opposition have so long possessed the property of and unworthy clamour. Some will de- the church, as their own, without giving sire all things to remain as they are, any labour in return, to unite with whatever may be the positive incon- those who possess a similar property, veniences under which the church may and who regularly perform a duty in labour, because they are intimidated by return, to render our institution at once the principle of change. Others would, more effective and more salutary. .without remorse, remove the ancient I make no apology for this letter. I landmarks of our country, and innovate have endeavoured to point out the recklessly and fearlessly, provided the cause and the remedy of existing eccleplans of alteration are characterized by siastical evils and abuses. I am desirous unsparing boldness and extensive de- with Lord Henley only to promote the struction. Our wisdom is to preserve good of the public, and the benefit of nothing, merely because it is old; and the church of Christ. I must again reto admit nothing, merely because it is peat, whatever the clergy are able to do, The times, since the adoption of they are willing to do. If the laity who our novel principles of legislation, de- have shared the wealth of the church, mand of us to judge of all institutions, and who profess to be interested in its new. re GALE, R., and Richard Mayor, Manchester, dyers. welfare, will now come forward to assist the establishment in this hour when the storm has again fallen upon her-all GIBSON, R. P., Manchester, victualler. may yet be well. If they imagine, how-HARGILL, S. S., Newlay, near Leeds, dyer. HARDY, R., Barbican, victualler. HARRISON, R., Atherton, Lancashire, cot ton-manufacturer. HUNT, W., Rochdale, Lancashire, woollen- LANCASTER, J., Aberdeen-place, Edgware- ROACH, R. S., Great St. Helen's, Bishops gate-street, wine-merchant. SCOTCH SEQUESTRATIONS. ever, that the clerical possessions may be alienated from the present, to other possessors, at the will of the law commissioners-if the public become accustomed to change, alter, appropriate, and arrange as they please, the property of the church-the sanctity of every kind of property is destroyed the clerical resources will vanish-the lay tithe will follow-and the large landed properties will soon, very soon, be swept away before the ever-increasing storm. The love of change "will grow by what it feeds on." The church is the vanguard of the state. The tithe of the church is the vanguard of the reut of the landlord. The withholder of the former soon becomes the spoliator of the latter. plead for the preservation of all pro=perty, when I entreat the English landlord still to protect that church which the at first endowed, and has so long upheld and to grant to the clergy that competent maintenance" which will SCHONSWAR, G., Kingston-upon-Hull, enable the King, the Parliament, and the bishops, to remove every real evil-to destroy all just complaints-to restore influence to the church and strength to the state-and to complete the holy reformation of the church, by annihilating the effects of its ancient and most unjustifiable spoliation. I would say to allPray for the peace of Jerusalemแ They shall prosper that love Thee." tr From the LONDON GAZETTE, INSOLVENTS. I TUESDAY, MARCH, 19, 1833. PRESTON, F, St. George's-place, Hanover- BANKRUPTCY SUPERSEDED. merchant. BANKRUPTS. BADGER, W., Merthyr Tidvil, Glamorgan- shire, builder. tualler. HUDSON, John, Haslingden, Lancashire, plumber. IKIN, J., Leeds, merchant. ISAACS, A., Petticoat-lane, Spitalfields, rag- JOWETT, J., Great Queen-street, Lincolns- NICOLL, A., Conduit-street, Bond-street, NOAD, D. I., Copthall-court, agent. SCOTCH SEQUESTRATION. LONDON MARKETS. MARK-LANE, CORN-EXCHANGE, Mar. 18.The supplies fresh up to this morning's mar ket, from t home counties were decidedly |