'^^ 
 
 -.^
 
 L I B RAFLY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 U N I VER.S ITY 
 
 Of ILLINOIS
 
 
 NATIONAL EDUCATION 
 
 AND 
 
 CHUKCH EXTENSION. 
 
 A CHARGE 
 
 DKLIVEUED TO THE 
 
 CLEEGY OF THE ARCHDEACONRY OF 
 MIDDLESEX, 
 
 ^t tf)e Visitations 
 
 HELD AT • ^ 
 
 ST. PAUL'S COVENT GARDEN, ON THE 10th & 14tu OF MAY, 1849. 
 
 BY THE YEN. 
 
 JOHN SINCLAIR, M.A. 
 
 ARCHDEACON OF MIDDLESEX, 
 AND VICAll OF KENSINGTON. 
 
 ^n ^ppenliix, 
 
 CONTAINING EXTRACTS FROM A CORRESPONDENCE ON THE SUBJECT OF 
 THE DISTURBANCES IN THE MANUFACTURING DISTRICTS IN 1842. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 FRANCIS & JOHN RIVINGTON, 
 
 ST. Paul's church yard, and waterlog place. 
 
 1849.
 
 - uiuc r
 
 CHARGE 
 
 My Reverend Brethren, 
 
 When I addressed you last year from this 
 place, considerable excitement had arisen* upon one 
 of the subjects to which I then directed your at- 
 tention; I mean the Management Clauses in the 
 Trust Deeds of Church Schools. That excitement 
 was afterwards extensively increased by printed 
 circulars and pamphlets ; by discussions and reso- 
 lutions of Diocesan and District Boards ; and by an 
 animated debate in the Sanctuary at Westminster : 
 the first controversial disputation of the kind that 
 has occurred in the annals of the National Society. 
 That any point connected with the education of 
 the people should awaken the deepest interest, can 
 occasion no surprise. The wonder would be, if 
 any point, seriously affecting a subject so mo-
 
 mentous, could be treated with indifference. The 
 Church of England has now for some years been 
 engaged in an enterprise, the importance of which 
 it would be hardly possible to over-rate. We, the 
 members of the Church, Laity as well as Clergy, 
 have undertaken to give a sound Christian educa- 
 tion to the people of England and Wales, through 
 the instrumentality of Schools and Teachers, sup- 
 ported by charitable contributions, with such fur- 
 ther aid from the National Treasury as our Rulers 
 may be willing to afford us. An experiment of 
 the same kind has never, to the same extent, been 
 yet attempted in any country. If we succeed, — if 
 we establish throughout the kingdom effective 
 Schools, in which the Children of the Poor may 
 be carefully grounded in the principles of our 
 Church, and may have their understandings en- 
 lightened, their hearts Christianized, and their 
 habits improved, — we may feel confident, that, by 
 the blessing of God, our religious and social insti- 
 tutions will outlive the dangers by which they have 
 for some time been surrounded and are still as- 
 sailed ; and that Great Britain will maintain the 
 high position it has so long occupied, as the chief 
 bulwark of Christianity and civilization throughout 
 the earth. 
 
 On the other hand, if we fail, — what hope for 
 England remains ? Let any man of sense contem- 
 plate the condition of our working classes. Let
 
 him view their vast and rapidly increasing numbers; 
 —the dependence of thousands, I might rather say, 
 of millions, upon the manufacture of materials, not 
 indigenous to this island, but produced in foreign 
 countries, and to a great extent prepared for sale in 
 foreign countries ;— let him consider their ignorance, 
 their turbulence, their facilities for combination, 
 their powers of mischief, nurtured by constant 
 intercourse, and sharpened by collision ;— let him 
 dwell upon the means and methods employed to 
 excite them, to corrupt them, to alienate them still 
 further from all religion and all government ;— let 
 him examine into the rise and progress of socialism, 
 of communism, of infidel and anarchical principles 
 generally among them;— let him reflect upon their 
 prevailing insensibility to Christian ttuths and 
 motives ;— let him read their literature, the news- 
 papers, pamphlets, and works of fiction, circulated 
 among them with a profusion unknown before in 
 any age of the world ;— let him inquire into their 
 lectures, their so-called scientific meetings, and 
 questions for debate;— let him try to ascertain 
 what proportion of these multitudes resort on the 
 Sabbath to any place of public worship; what pro- 
 portion come to Church; and, above all, what pro- 
 portion frequent the Holy Communion ;— he will 
 then begin to feel (if he has never felt it before) 
 our critical position. He will be sensible that all 
 must, under Providence, depend on gaining over
 
 8 
 
 the rising generation, attaching them to the Church, 
 and through the Church to the State. He will see 
 that to give them merely secular instruction with- 
 out religious principles, would be ruinous ; — that to 
 teach them only those vague generalities, in which 
 all our conflicting sects and denominations happen 
 to concur, would utterly disorganize and subvert 
 society. 
 
 The Governments of the neighbouring Continent 
 have made several experiments of this kind, which, 
 let us hope, will be ever memorable for the admo- 
 nition of posterity, as well as of ourselves. 
 
 They have subjected the young of all classes 
 without distinction, to a course of training, in which 
 the religious element was either wholly wanting, or 
 most imperfectly included. And we see the conse- 
 quence, — either hopeless anarchy or a military 
 despotism. It has been remarked by a distin- 
 guished political writer, in a recent Letter to the 
 President of Her Majesty's Privy Council, that the 
 worst novelty in the revolutions of the Continent 
 was the " Abomination," as he justly terms it, " of 
 boys and children from school taking a forward part 
 in civil broils'." And no doubt, my Reverend Bre- 
 thren, this was a novelty; but not, I think, a novelty 
 which can surprise us. It can no more excite our 
 
 * See Lord Brougham's Letter to the Marquess of Lans- 
 downe, p. 93.
 
 9 
 
 wonder than an explosion would in a magazine of 
 gunpowder, fresh and dry from the mill, when a 
 train has been laid, and a spark applied. 
 
 In foreign countries, the State (from motives of 
 convenience and political expediency, or under 
 some sinister influence) withheld from religion the 
 protection it was entitled to; and religion, in 
 return, ceased, of necessity, to protect the State. 
 Unwise rulers have suffered what their folly de- 
 served, and will, no doubt, continue to suffer, until, 
 through the grace of God, they see their mistaken 
 course, retrace their steps, and try to make the 
 next generation less irreligious, and less ungovern- 
 able than the present. I one day observed to a 
 celebrated orator ^ that it seemed difficult to 
 account for the general indifference o*f men in 
 office to the religious training of the young, which 
 was, in fact, the surest safeguard to any Govern- 
 ment. His reply was, " I was once as much per- 
 plexed as you are by this enigma ; but I now per- 
 ceive that if statesn!en and politicians do not love 
 Christianity on account of its primary recommenda- 
 tion as the means of saving souls, — a judicial blind- 
 ness comes upon them, and they are incapable of 
 perceiving its secondary advantages." 
 
 Happily for this country, religion hitherto has 
 entered largely into the education of all ranks. 
 
 2 The late Dr. Chalmers.
 
 10 
 
 That of the higher orders is almost entirely, and 
 that of the lower to a great extent, under the 
 direction of the Church. Our " Academic Legions" 
 (if I may be allowed the Continental phrase) are 
 formed for the support of social order, not for its 
 subversion. And our working classes of every 
 description, in proportion as they have been edu- 
 cated in well-conducted National Schools, are found 
 deserving of confidence. The materials, indeed, for 
 mischief are fearful : our circumstances are critical ; 
 but they afford us reason for renewed exertion, 
 courage, and perseverance, rather than for the 
 despondency of our Continental neighbours ^ 
 
 I was not therefore surprised at the warmth of 
 the discussions I before adverted to. However 
 much we may regret some circumstances connected 
 with them, we must admit, that earnestness, where 
 great interests are at stake, is a healthy symptom ; 
 and that apathy and indifference would be the true 
 signs of danger. Nevertheless, it appears to me 
 that the question of School management, although 
 ably and zealously discussed, is not yet in all re- 
 
 ' The conduct of Schoolmasters on the Continent gives a 
 salutary caution to the friends of order in this country. The 
 Times (March 23rd, 1848) observes : " If the Schoolmaster be 
 abroad, it is with a blunderbuss in his hand, and a cartouche- 
 box by his side." " The Schoolmaster," said The Reforme^ 
 about the same period, *' must serve as a moniteur of Revolu- 
 lution in every province." 
 
 i
 
 11 
 
 spects thoroughly understood ; that the circum- 
 stances under which the National Society entered 
 into the present negotiations with the Committee of 
 Council are imperfectly known ; that the difficulties 
 and perplexities which the Trust Deeds of Schools 
 have for years occasioned, are not appreciated ; and 
 that during the progress of this controversy other 
 points of equal or even greater urgency have been 
 overlooked. 
 
 To show the grounds of this opinion, I now 
 propose to trace the question of School manage- 
 ment from the beginning ; to set before you all the 
 troubles and disquietudes it has long produced ; 
 and thus to secure as far as possible your sympathy 
 with those who would rejoice to see a source of 
 constant jealousy, irritation, and anxiety, at length 
 removed. 
 
 The National Society, from the period of its 
 institution in 1811, studiously avoided all attempt 
 to determine the constitution of the Schools which 
 it contributed to build. All that it required was 
 an engagement on the part of the founders and 
 promoters, that the terms of union should be ob- 
 served. And as the Lords of the Treasury, during 
 the six years in which they administered the par- 
 liamentary grant, employed the Society as their 
 agents, the friends of education throughout the 
 country were left at liberty to adopt such manage- 
 ment clauses as each body of local founders con-
 
 12 
 
 sidered best adapted to their own case. The So- 
 ciety, however, in its terms of union, and in its 
 forms of application for aid, appeared to take for 
 granted that a School committee would be formed ; 
 and until within a recent period, always adopted the 
 expression " School managers " in the plural number, 
 never alluding in any case to the clergyman as 
 sole manager of a school. The result is, that nearly 
 all the older National Schools have School com- 
 mittees, which, I regret to add, are often imprac- 
 ticably large, and in the mode of their election too 
 democratical. Nor was proper care always taken 
 to uphold the influence of the parochial clergyman. 
 Many points were overlooked which ought to have 
 been provided for. Sometimes the Trust Deed con- 
 tained no provision that the School should be in 
 union with the National Society ; nor that the 
 clergyman should preside at the meetings of the 
 managers; nor that the managers themselves, nor 
 the subscribers who elected them, nor even any of 
 the teachers employed, should be members of the 
 Church ; nor that an appeal on any disputed point 
 should be made to any tribunal ; not even to the 
 Bishop in regard to religious instruction. I do not 
 pretiend to say, that all these particulars were over- 
 looked in every case; but many of them were 
 frequently passed over: and I suspect that there 
 are very few Trust Deeds of some years' standing, in 
 which all these particulars were attended to. I can-
 
 13 
 
 not speak with confidence, because I now refer to a 
 period prior to my connexion with the Society. 
 
 It has been said, that the evils arising from the 
 inexperience of parties in the country have gone 
 still further, and that some Schools have actually 
 been lost to the Church by falling into the hands of 
 Dissenting managers and trustees. But after fre- 
 quent enquiry during eight years, I have discovered 
 scarcely any cases of this description ; and in one 
 or two, the School supposed to have been lost has 
 been afterwards regained. 
 
 It thus appears, that so long as the Lords of the 
 Treasury administered the parliamentary vote, the 
 whole responsibility of determining the constitution 
 of Church Schools rested with the local founders. 
 In 1839 however, when the Committed of Privy 
 Council on Education was appointed, their Lord- 
 ships directed their attention to the subject of Trust 
 Deeds, and in their minutes of 1839-40, published 
 four forms adapted to four different cases. And 
 it deserves notice, that three of those forms were 
 intended for mixed Schools of different religious de- 
 nominations ; and that the remaining form, provided 
 expressly for a National School, and the only one 
 that could be acceptable to the Church, omitted most 
 of the important securities I have enumerated. 
 These omissions, however, might have been supplied, 
 and the form have been admitted as satisfactory, 
 provided it was regarded as merely suggesting useful 
 hints, and not imposing absolute conditions.
 
 14 
 
 But it soon became evident that to suggest, advise, 
 and recommend, formed a small part only of what 
 was intended at the Council Office. Complaints were 
 made that the Committee of Council were interfering 
 with regard to the constitution of Schools in a manner 
 not warranted by their printed minutes, and also 
 calculated to excite distrust and apprehension. A 
 practice had arisen of urging upon applicants for 
 aid, in such a manner as to preclude their refusal, 
 certain recommendations and suggestions, either 
 considered bad in themselves, or disliked as en- 
 croachments upon local freedom, and preparations 
 for further coercion. Under these circumstances, 
 the Committee of the National Society requested a 
 Deputation of their body, headed by his Grace the 
 late Primate, to have an interview on the subject 
 with the late Lord Wharncliffe, then Lord Presi- 
 dent of the Council. 
 
 I have preserved the Memoranda which I pre- 
 pared for the use of the Deputation ; and also a 
 Report, embodying the result of this conference, 
 which, on all the points at issue, was entirely satis- 
 factory *. 
 
 * The following were the arrangements agreed to : — 
 " 1st. With reference to Trustees of Schools, the Committee 
 of Council will give no preference to the Corporation, consisting 
 of the Minister, Churchwardens, and Overseers of. the poor, in 
 any parish," (for the Overseers might be Dissenters) ; " but will 
 show equal favour to the other Corporations, recognized by the 
 Act 4 & 5 Vict. cap. 38.
 
 15 
 
 On leaving the Council Office the late Arch- 
 bishop and the Deputation were given to under- 
 stand, that, for the satisfaction of the Church, these 
 important arrangements would be confirmed by a 
 minute of Council. But the Lord President shortly 
 afterwards expressed a strong desire, that the De- 
 putation should not insist upon a minute of Coun- 
 cil ; but be satisfied with a mutual understanding, 
 established verbally between the parties, lest dis- 
 cussions in parliament should be raised ; " which," 
 as he observed, " are always more injurious to the 
 Church than to the Government." 
 
 This mutual understanding continued during the 
 remainder of Lord Wharncliffe's life, and also 
 during the whole administration of his successor — 
 
 " 2ndly. With reference to Managers of Schools, their lord- 
 ships will not insist upon a provision in the Trust Deed for 
 the nomination of a School Committee by Subscribers, nor 
 object to the nomination of the Committee annually by the 
 parochial Minister : and in cases where persons of respectability, 
 properly qualified to be Managers, cannot be found within a 
 parish, they will permit the promoters and contributors to place 
 the sole management in his hands. 
 
 " 3rdly. On the subject of School Plans, the Committee of 
 Council will not insist on any particular mode of fitting up the 
 interior of School Rooms. 
 
 " And 4thly. In the case of Church Schools, not in union with 
 the National Society, their lordships will not recommend the 
 adoption of form No. 4 " (a Latitudinarian form) ; " but will 
 admit other forms, not constructed upon the same principles."
 
 16 
 
 tlie Duke of Buccleuch. I do not venture to affirm 
 that semi-official suggestions, and recommendations 
 as to the necessity of lay influence and co-ope- 
 ration, may not sometimes have approached too 
 near dictation; but I do not remember any in- 
 stance : and if I had heard of any at the time, 
 I should certainly have remonstrated. 
 
 I now come to the negotiation between the 
 Committee of Council and the National Society, 
 for jointly recommending certain Management 
 Clauses to be inserted in all subsequent Trust Deeds 
 of Schools. I was not at first aware of these nego- 
 tiations, which were not strictly of an official 
 character. They originated in a renewal of the 
 difficulties which had given rise to the deputation 
 I have just referred to. The new Committee of 
 Council, formed in 1846, did not appear to con- 
 sider itself bound by merely verbal arrangements, 
 or understandings entered into by the National 
 Society with a previous Government ; and, in par- 
 ticular after their minutes of 1846, they claimed a 
 right to interfere more decidedly with Trust Deeds, 
 inasmuch as they would contribute not only to- 
 wards building Schools, but also towards maintain- 
 ing them. 
 
 The question which now arose as to the course 
 to be taken by the National Society presented 
 great difficulties. For my own, part I regarded the 
 idea of concurring with the Committee of Council
 
 17 
 
 in jointly recommending certain forms with much 
 disquietude. I was satisfied with the general un- 
 derstanding arrived at with the late Lord Wharn- 
 cliffe, which secured the freedom of local founders, 
 and I only wished it to be revived under his 
 successors. I saw no force in the argument, that 
 the Committee of Council were entitled to inter- 
 fere more decidedly with the constitution of 
 Schools, because they would in certain cases con- 
 tribute to support them : for I knew that they 
 would not contribute to support any School unless 
 efficiently conducted, and I was of opinion, that if 
 it was efficiently conducted, they needed not to 
 concern themselves about the scheme of manage- 
 ment which they admitted to be practically good. 
 I foresaw that questions of great difficulty and deli- 
 cacy must arise as to the rights and claims of the 
 Church and of the State, of the Clergy and the 
 Laity, in the education of the people — questions 
 which it would be exceedingly inconvenient to 
 determine. I also had my fears that the attempted 
 negotiation would bring the National Society into 
 a critical and perilous position; for if it did not 
 obtain satisfactory terms, it would be under the 
 painful necessity of either coming to an open and 
 disastrous rupture with the Government, or of 
 offending a large body of its own friends and sup- 
 porters, whose confidence and attachment once lost 
 would not easily be regained. 
 
 B
 
 18 
 
 In the case of the Deputation to Lord Wharn- 
 cliffe, even if failure had resulted, the Society was 
 safe from all reproach or obloquy. It would not 
 have committed itself. It would have secured for 
 the local founders of Schools all the freedom 
 attainable, and the latter would have had nothing 
 to complain of. The Society would only have 
 tolerated what it could not prevent. But, accord- 
 ing to the new proposal of the Privy Council, 
 the National Society was to do more ; it was not 
 merely to tolerate the Government clauses, but to 
 join in recommending them. 
 
 For these and other reasons, I wished to stop 
 the negotiations before they assumed a formal and 
 official shape in written correspondence. At the 
 same time I am bound to acknowledge, that the 
 arguments in favour of proceeding were entitled to 
 serious attention. The Society, it was urged, had 
 now an opportunity of coming to an arrangement 
 with the Committee of Council, not by verbal pro- 
 mises and mutual understandings, but by a written 
 agreement, permanently binding upon both parties: 
 the proposed clauses, although far from satisfactory 
 to the Church on all points, were clear, full, and 
 definite ; contained a number of excellent provi- 
 sions, and might constitute, at any rate, a good basis 
 of discussion : the Committee of Council, if these 
 negotiations should be broken off, might not after- 
 wards be disposed to renew them : to treat with
 
 19 
 
 the Privy Council was a safer course than to let the 
 question come in an unsettled state before Parlia- 
 ment: and lastly, the opponents of the existing 
 system, the advocates of Continental discipline, 
 vrould have cause for unbounded triumph, if the 
 Committee of Council and the National Society 
 pronounced a mutual agreement as to the mode 
 in which Church Schools should be managed abso- 
 lutely impracticable. 
 
 Considerations such as these prevailed. The ne- 
 gotiations proceeded. The whole correspondence 
 has since been published, and therefore any length- 
 ened comment would be unnecessary. You will 
 see how the clauses became gradually more and 
 more imperative, but at the same time essentially 
 improved. 
 
 The result is, that all the difficulties, controver- 
 sies, jealousies, heart-burnings, and alienations I 
 apprehended have been realized ; that questions 
 calculated to produce misunderstandings, not only 
 between the Church and State, but, what is far 
 more dangerous, between the Clergy and the 
 Laity, have been agitated ; and that during these 
 protracted discussions, extending over a period of 
 above three years, whenthe public was more pole- 
 mically than charitably disposed, more inclined to 
 argue than to give, the National Society has been 
 deeply involved in pecuniary embarrassment. I also 
 fear, that the enforcement of certain management 
 
 b2
 
 20 
 
 clauses may discourage local efforts. For in build- 
 ing or supporting Schools, it is their own views that 
 men subscribe to carry out, and not the views of 
 Government. It appears to me, that the Com- 
 mittee of Council, if they could have been pre- 
 vailed upon to issue forms of Trust Deed as recom- 
 mendations to conveyancers throughout the country, 
 and not as absolute conditions of State assistance, 
 would have more effectually gained their own 
 object in consequence of the forms being volun- 
 tarily adopted; and would thus have essentially 
 advanced the cause of National Education. 
 
 At the same time I am bound to state that the 
 Management Clauses, as now amended, contain 
 those securities for religious education which I be- 
 fore adverted to as having been so frequently 
 omitted in our earlier Trust Deeds, and that the 
 Trust Deeds of future Schools will in general be 
 incomparably better, more definite, more intelli- 
 gible, and more to be relied upon than the Trust 
 Deeds of Schools already in existence. I have now 
 done with the Management Clauses. 
 
 The next point to be considered is one which 
 more immediately and urgently calls for attention. 
 In my address from this place two years ago, I made 
 some remarks upon the minutes of Council then 
 under the consideration of the House of Commons. 
 The moment was critical. The minutes met with 
 vehement opposition from a large portion of the
 
 21 
 
 Dissenting body. If the Church also declared 
 against them, or rather, if the Church did not 
 decidedly support them, they could not pass ; they 
 must be withdrawn. And strong, indeed, were 
 the reasons why the Church should hesitate. For 
 the whole scheme was calculated to give the Com- 
 mittee of Council a formidable accession of influ- 
 ence. It would virtually establish in this island, 
 as in foreign countries, a board of public instruction. 
 It was contrived with admirable ingenuity and sa- 
 gacity to give the Government of the day the max- 
 imum of power in return for the minimum of grant. 
 It would powerfully influence our Schools and 
 Training Institutions, our scholars, pupil teachers, 
 masters, and mistresses. The hope of pensions was 
 held out to all. However few might ultiniately gain 
 them, all would try for them ; and the Committee 
 of Council would thus acquire rapidly the general 
 direction of National Education. I do not blame 
 this thirst of power ; it is natural to statesmen and 
 politicians. Nor is it always a selfish feeling. It 
 may arise from the hope of more effectually doing 
 good. The remark of the Author of the '* Wealth 
 of Nations," with regard to Royal Reformers, is 
 applicable to reformers of all ranks ; that in their 
 opinion, the best of all reforms would be the re- 
 moval of the obstacles which impede the execution 
 of their own schemes of usefulness. Many persons, 
 therefore, without taking oflence at the ambitious
 
 22 
 
 spirit manifested by the minutes of Council of 
 1846, observed and dreaded it. We knew that a 
 Government which rules over millions of Romanists 
 and Dissenters, ably represented in the Legislature, 
 is placed in great difficulties, and may not be 
 able always to wield as it desires the dangerous 
 powers whicb, to its own embarrassment and 
 jeopardy, it has unwisely acquired. Hence, with- 
 out impeaching the good intentions with which 
 the minutes were framed, we could not but regard 
 them with some jealousy and apprehension. 
 
 But our views were not generally adopted. The 
 bias of the Church, and even of the Clergy, was 
 decidedly in favour of the Government measure, 
 from which some intelligent clergymen expected 
 great advantage to the cause of education ; while 
 others, who regarded it with apprehension, thought it 
 less objectionable than the only probable alternative, 
 — a system of merely secular instruction. On the 
 same side also was the bias of the Legislature, by 
 whom the educational vote has since been repeat- 
 edly passed, with those minutes for its basis. Some 
 persons who now object to the whole scheme, are 
 disposed to blame the National Society as the 
 cause of it. But the National Society had no con- 
 cern with it. The National Society was never 
 consulted, and had no opportunity to express an 
 opinion upon it. The support which it received 
 was from individual members of the Church,
 
 23 
 
 who petitioned for it, or voted for it in Parlia- 
 ment. 
 
 In contemplating, therefore, the position and 
 prospects of the Church at the present moment, 
 and the measures to be adopted for its security, we 
 must never overlook the fact, that the minutes of 
 1846, whatever we may think of them, and how- 
 ever largely they may have added to the powers of 
 Government, were originally supported by the 
 Church, and have ever since been generally acqui- 
 esced in by its members, even by many strenuous 
 opposers of the Management Clauses. We cannot, 
 therefore, now commence, all at once, a crusade 
 against the minutes. Our object should be to 
 profit by them so far as they are useful ; to expose 
 to view, and counteract their evil tendencies, and 
 to prevail, if we can, upon the Committee of 
 Council to amend them. 
 
 1. And here the first question is, whether the 
 Legislature might not be induced to give the pre- 
 sent system greater consistency and stability. Dur- 
 ing the six years in which the parliamentary grant 
 was entrusted to the Lords of the Treasury, a gene- 
 ral feeling of security prevailed. But ever since 
 the Committee of Council was established, there 
 have been fears, and jealousies, and controversies. 
 These fears have arisen in a great degree from the 
 process by which, from year to year, the educa- 
 tional grant has been obtained in Parliament. A
 
 24 
 
 minute is drawn up at the Council Office. It is 
 laid before the Lord President for approval. It is 
 submitted by him to the rest of the Committee, 
 who forthwith adopt and act upon it. At some 
 convenient opportunity it is laid before Parliament. 
 The House of Commons then votes a grant for 
 education. This grant is included in the general 
 bill for appropriating the supplies. The bill is sent 
 up to the House of Lords, and their lordships, 
 whether they approve or not of the mode in which 
 the grant will be administered, cannot strike it out, 
 nor in any way amend the bill, without stopping 
 the supplies, and thus deranging the whole ma- 
 chinery of Government. This grievance was, in 
 1839, the subject of a remonstrance from the House 
 of Lords to the Throne \ Unhappily, it was not 
 obviated, even when the parties by whom that me- 
 morable remonstrance was carried succeeded to the 
 administration of affairs. The practice had been 
 Introduced when it was comparatively harmless; 
 and when the parliamentary vote was administered 
 
 * On the motion of the late Archbishop of Canterbury, the 
 House passed a Resolution — 
 
 " Humbly praying that Her Majesty will be graciously 
 pleased to give directions that no steps shall be taken with 
 respect to the establishment or foundation of any plan for the 
 general education of the people of this country, without giving 
 to this House, as one branch of the Legislature, an opportunity 
 of fully considering a measure of such deep importance to the 
 highest interets of the community."
 
 25 
 
 bj the Lords of the Treasury, who were satisfied 
 with calling forth local efforts to build Schools, and 
 made no attempt to direct the education of the 
 people. The practice became more objectionable 
 on the appointment of the Committee of Council, 
 which had certain definite educational views of 
 its own to introduce. But the practice has now 
 become more objectionable than ever, because the 
 amount of the parliamentary grant has been greatly 
 augmented within the last few years ; and because 
 the influence of Government over National Educa- 
 tion has been increased in all directions by the 
 minutes of 1846. If, therefore, the House of 
 Lords considered this method of obtaining the 
 public grant dangerous in 1839, how much more 
 dangerous and unconstitutional must they consider 
 it after these recent and unexpected develop- 
 ments ^ ? 
 
 ^ On the important constitutional question of tacking clauses 
 to money bills, Lord Campbell biings forward the high authority 
 of Lord Chancellor Somers, Lord Godolphin, and the Duke of 
 Marlborough. "As soon," he says, *'as the Session (Novem- 
 ber, 1703) began, the Commons again sent up ' a Bill to prevetit 
 Occasional Conformity.' Somers now took a bolder course, and 
 he procured its rejection, on the second reading, by a majority 
 of 71 to 59 [in the House of Lords]. 
 
 " Dec. 1704. Still another effort was made in the last Ses- 
 sion of this Ultra Tory House of Commons ; and now an expe- 
 dient was proposed whereby success was considered certain — 
 which was to * tack' the Occasional Conformity Bill to a
 
 26 
 
 Various remedies for this evil will occur to you. 
 All that I contend for is, that some remedy should 
 be applied ; and that both Houses of Parliament 
 should be more effectively consulted on a question 
 so momentous as the education of the people. The 
 prospect of some arrangement of this kind may 
 have influenced many of you in giving your assent 
 to measures you would otherwise have opposed. 
 You may have acquiesced on this ground in grants 
 to Dissenters for education upon equal terms with 
 yourselves. You may have supported the minutes 
 of 1846. You may have concurred in the Manage- 
 ment Clauses, as preparations for some grand legis- 
 lative enactment which should limit the powers of 
 the Committee of Council, and set all your doubts 
 and misgivings at rest for ever. The Committee of 
 the National Society adverted to this subject in 
 their letter of the 17th of March, to the Committee 
 of Council ; and it is understood that their lord- 
 ships have always been dissatisfied with the present 
 
 Money Bill, so that it must pass or the supplies be stopped, the 
 war interrupted, and the whole nation thrown into confusion. 
 
 " But Godolphin and Marlborough were now seriously 
 alarmed ; the ' tack' was denounced as a scheme for depriving 
 the Lords and the Queen of their legislative powers, and the 
 whole influence of the Government beino; exerted against it, 
 it was lost by a majority of 250 to 134. Nevertheless the bill 
 was easily carried through the Commons as a separate measure 
 [In the Lords it was thrown out by 71 to 50]." — Lord Camp- 
 bell's Lives of the Chancellors (Somers), iv. 180.
 
 27 
 
 arrangement, and have long desired to alter it, as 
 soon as their measures should have attained suffi- 
 cient consistency and maturity. 
 
 I may here state that I have held communi- 
 cation with various persons of influence, both in 
 and out of Parliament, differing from each other 
 in their political and religious views ; and have 
 been gratified to find amongst them a remarkable 
 concurrence in the desire that the evil I have 
 remarked upon should be removed. This desire is 
 not confined to our own establishment, but is 
 shared largely by the establishment in Scotland, 
 and even by a strong portion of the Dissenting 
 interest. I am persuaded, therefore, that if all 
 who entertain these sentiments would but unite 
 in expressing them, no great effort woiJld be re- 
 quired to obtain the concurrence of the Committee 
 of Council themselves. 
 
 The course at present taken by the Committee 
 of Council is in another view susceptible of im- 
 provement. We desire to see their proceedings 
 more open and public. We wish all their hints, 
 suggestions, and recommendations, to be matters 
 of general notoriety. As there are printed instruc- 
 tions to the Queen's Inspectors, upon the faith 
 of which the parliamentary grant is voted, we are 
 anxious to be assured that no other semi-official 
 and unpublished instructions are issued, even such 
 as may be in themselves comparatively harmless.
 
 28 
 
 We think it right that the minutes of the Com- 
 mittee of Council should be laid before Parliament 
 as soon as agreed to, and before they are acted 
 upon. We should regard a clear understanding 
 upon all these points as one of the greatest boons 
 that could be granted to us : — a source of peace 
 and security such as we have not enjoyed for 
 years. 
 
 2. I now proceed to another particular, not less 
 important, and more intimately connected with our 
 own professional duties; I mean the large extent 
 to which branches of merely secular instruction are 
 multiplied in the Government scheme of education. 
 I have great apprehensions that what is popularly 
 termed useful knowledge may interfere with that 
 knowledge which is most useful of all, and not only 
 useful but indispensable ; — Religion and Reading, 
 — Knowledge of Christianity and Knowledge of 
 the English language, the language of the people, 
 that language which is their only vehicle of 
 thought, the channel by which all their ideas are 
 acquired or conveyed. When I consider the early 
 age at which children leave school, and the many 
 circumstances which both in town and country 
 prevent their regular attendance, I apprehend that 
 if religion and reading are taught as fully as they 
 ought to be, and if any tolerable proficiency be 
 acquired in writing, in arithmetic, and in the out- 
 lines of geography, the whole time of the children
 
 29 
 
 will barely suffice for those purposes. I liave no 
 objection whatever to algebra, botany, chemistry, 
 drawing, mathematics, and the industrial arts, or to 
 any other branch of useful knowledge ; but I con- 
 sider all these and similar accomplishments worse 
 than useless, if they lead us to put aside the 
 grammar and the dictionary, and to be satisfied 
 with comparative ignorance of the English language. 
 The child that can take up an ordinary English 
 book, or can hear a speech or a sermon without 
 being embarrassed by the phraseology, has been 
 subjected to a process of mental cultivation the 
 most effectual that could be employed. He has 
 acquired a general capacity of self-improvement, a 
 power of acquiring any knowledge, compared with 
 which all the miscellaneous facts that ar6 or could 
 be heaped together in his memory are utterly 
 insignificant ^ 
 
 In connexion with the wide range of subjects 
 which the Committee of Council are endeavouring 
 to introduce into our Schools and Training Institu- 
 tions, I may observe also, that the machinery for 
 such a system cannot be maintained by charitable 
 contributions. It must, if provided at all, be pro- 
 
 ^ The above-mentioned tendency to secularize education will 
 be gradual in its operation, and may for a time be partially 
 counteracted by right-minded and intelligent Inspectors (such as 
 the Inspector of Schools in this Archdeaconry) ; but unless the 
 minutes are altered, it will remain, and must ultimately prevail.
 
 30 
 
 vided and supported by the State alone. We may 
 hope that the Committee of Council will discover 
 the mistake into which the very natural enthusiasm 
 of their own agents, overleaping all difficulties, has 
 betrayed them. We may hope they will be pre- 
 vailed upon to correct it; to lower their demands 
 upon us ; to aim at what is practicable ; to be 
 satisfied with what is reasonable and attainable. 
 It is quite evident that they have not considered 
 the subject in this light. But for my own part, if, 
 in spite of all the recent fearful warnings that still 
 echo throughout Europe, I were myself desirous to 
 overturn our present English system, and to esta- 
 blish in its stead some Continental code, I should 
 not attempt at once so great a revolution. I should 
 adopt the surer method of setting up an impracti- 
 cable standard, and insisting on an expenditure 
 which the State alone could defray. I should say 
 to the managers of Schools and Training Institu- 
 tions ; " You must really enlarge your range of 
 study; you must obtain more costly apparatus; 
 you must multiply your teachers ; you must, above 
 all, prolong your period of training. The spirit of 
 the age demands accelerated progress. We must 
 not fall behind our enlightened neighbours on the 
 Continent. If the children of the poor, on leaving 
 any School, even a village School, at nine or ten 
 years of age, can do no more than read with intelli- 
 gence an ordinary English book, and answer with
 
 81 
 
 intelligence on being questioned as to the elements 
 of their religion ; — if they are destitute of science, 
 ignorant of political economy and the useful arts, I 
 must withhold my countenance from such a semi- 
 nary. I must regard it as a mere apology for a 
 school. I can give it no encouragement nor sup- 
 port. I shall take measures to supersede it. I 
 shall not allow its managers to be thus narrow- 
 minded, to disappoint the expectations of the times, 
 and prolong the reign of darkness, rusticity, and 
 barbarism." 
 
 Language of this lofty character never would be 
 used, if official persons did but know the difficulty 
 of collecting subscriptions, and meeting the cost of 
 large establishments. A little experience of the 
 difference between a tax and a voluntary *contribu- 
 tion would make them more considerate, and less 
 exorbitant. 
 
 3. Let me next request your attention to another 
 point connected with the inspection of Schools : 
 namely, the unnatural and unhealthy excitement it 
 produces. Even when the Inspector had no other 
 object but to examine and report, the preparations 
 for a grand display on the occasion of his visit, the 
 empirical processes resorted to for concealing igno- 
 rance, or polishing stupidity, led to most injurious 
 results, both moral and intellectual. I shall not 
 soon forget the strong language in which, some 
 years ago, an Inspector (whose office was then
 
 32 
 
 recently introduced) acknowledged the extent of 
 this evil. " I had no desire," this clergyman said, 
 " to make myself a formidable personage ; but I 
 have seen masters of the strongest physical consti- 
 tution trembling and perspiring before me, and the 
 most forward of the children, in spite of all their 
 preparations, scarcely able to articulate a syllable." 
 These mischiefs of unnatural excitement and ner- 
 vous exhibition, are increased and multiplied, now 
 that the Inspector has important gifts at his disposal, 
 and may either grant or withhold pensions and 
 certificates upon which not only the credit of the 
 School, but the pecuniary interest of all the parties 
 concerned must depend. It is clear that long 
 before and after the day of inspection nothing else 
 will be thought of. But this is not the state of 
 things which we desire. We wish to find a calm, 
 religious tone in every School. We wish for modest 
 energy and intellectual development, not for cram- 
 ming and parade. And the best security for these 
 essential advantages is the superintendence of the 
 parochial minister. I am persuaded that in many 
 instances the clergyman would be more diligent 
 than he is in the performance of this duty, and 
 would embrace more readily every opportunity of 
 visiting his Schools, if he did not from needless 
 diffidence underrate the value of such visits. He 
 does not consider how it discourages the teachers to 
 be left alone, and to find that even the person
 
 33 
 
 principally concerned does not come at all, or very 
 seldom, to ascertain the result of their lahours. 
 He does not reflect that the difficulty he finds in 
 teaching and examining results from want of prac- 
 tice; that many of the ablest teachers have en- 
 countered at the outset the same difficulty vrith 
 himself; that many of them find it necessary to 
 study and prepare the lesson they are to teach ; 
 that he should not consider it beneath him to follow 
 the same course ; that by practice and preparation 
 he will soon attain proficiency, and that, conscious 
 of being useful in an important branch of his sacred 
 office, he will take pleasure in the duty which he 
 now dreads and declines. A layman of high rank, 
 who feels a deep interest in the progress of educa- 
 tion, alluding to the large sacrifices which to their 
 power, yea, and beyond their power^, the Clergy so 
 often make for the support of their Schools, re- 
 marked to me : " I wish the Clergy could be pre- 
 vailed upon to give less and to teach more ; to do 
 less/or their schools, and to be more in them." 
 
 4. Proceeding to the subject of pupil teachers, I 
 have a few remarks to offer. Pupil teachers are 
 valuable assistants in a school ; and some years 
 before the minutes of Council on the subject were 
 published, I suggested to the National Society, that 
 well-principled and intelligent youths should be 
 
 ^ 2 Cor. viii. 3.
 
 34 
 
 received as day scholars into the central School ; 
 have instruction given them at extra hours, and be 
 practised in the art of teaching. The result was 
 highly satisfiictory. About a hundred young men 
 of good habits, chiefly sons of small tradespeople, 
 already instructed to a respectable degree in ele- 
 mentary knowledge, were admitted. They resided 
 with their parents ; were no charge to the Society ; 
 and have been sent to Schools in various quarters, 
 where they have given general satisfaction. There 
 seems nothing to be apprehended from pupil teachers 
 of this description. But must we not regard with 
 some uneasiness the class of pupil teachers to be 
 called by thousands into existence under the recent 
 minutes of Council? What are we to think of 
 clever youths, taken from our Schools for the poor, 
 raised above their OAvn ignorant cast, and separated 
 from it by copious and perhaps intoxicating draughts 
 of the knowledge that puffeth uj)? Is it certain 
 that these forward young aspirants, deprived of 
 home connexions, and the sacred charities of kin- 
 dred ; and elevated into pensioners and functionaries 
 of the State ; examined and re-examined year after 
 year, till modesty gives way to boldness and assur- 
 ance, — is it certain, that when at length approved 
 and certificated, they will not turn out a trouble- 
 some and dangerous race? Is it certain that they 
 will prove, what they are designed to be, humble, 
 unassuming, painstaking, spiritually-minded assist-
 
 35 
 
 ants to the Clergy ; rendering Jionour to whom honour 
 is due \ and content with such things as they ham '° f 
 The anxiety which such questions occasion is, 
 in some degree, relieved by the Circular recently 
 addressed from the Council Office to Inspectors 
 of Schools; and clearly showing that their Lord- 
 ships have had their attention seriously directed 
 to the dangers I have described. It is also a 
 satisfaction to us, that their Lordships have been 
 under the necessity of trying this formidable ex- 
 periment upon a reduced scale ; and that the 
 general character of pupil teachers, when grown 
 to manhood,* will be ascertained, and means of 
 disposing of them discovered before their num- 
 bers are embarrassing. No doubt School mana- 
 gers in many places, who were looking out for 
 Government assistance to a large extent, under 
 the form of pensions to pupil teachers, have suf- 
 fered grievous disappointment at the small number 
 of pensions actually awarded, and naturally give 
 utterance to loud complaints : but I have no sym- 
 pathy with their distress. They ought to console 
 themselves with the reflection, that the circum- 
 stance which causes their disquietude, — namely, 
 the contracted scale on which a doubtful experi- 
 ment has been tried, is both a benefit to the public 
 and a security to the Church. 
 
 3 Rom. xiii. 7. '° Heb. xii. 5.
 
 36 
 
 In contemplating our present educational sys- 
 tem, I have still to remark upon the sources of our 
 greatest clanger and embarrassment. There are 
 two difficulties, which, if not judiciously removed, 
 will overturn our whole machinery: first, that of 
 providing for the destitution of poor places, in 
 which no School can be maintained ; and secondly, 
 of thinly-peopled places in which one School only 
 is sufficient. 
 
 The former difficulty was frequently referred to 
 during the debates on National Education in the 
 House of Commons, in 1847. One^ of the argu- 
 ments most strongly urged in favour of the Minutes 
 of Council, then laid before Parliament, was the 
 necessity of Government aid to extend education 
 throughout the whole country, and especially to 
 poor places. An eminent statesman adverted to 
 the suburb of Manchester, called the Irish Town, 
 where no fewer than 60,000 persons are abandoned 
 to utter ignorance and barbarism ; and he called 
 upon the House, as it valued the tranquillity and 
 even safety of the country, not to leave such 
 masses of population unenlightened and unre- 
 claimed. But the minutes in question will not 
 supply the wants of places in the state of poverty 
 and destitution alluded to. They may improve 
 Schools that are already efficiently conducted, but 
 will not provide Schools where they are still want- 
 ing. For it would be idle to speak of certificated
 
 37 
 
 masters and School apprentices, where even a 
 " Ragged School" can hardly be maintained. Other 
 minutes of Council therefore are, no doubt, in con- 
 templation for such wretched localities; and on 
 the provisions inserted in those minutes our whole 
 educational system must depend. For supposing 
 the Committee of Council to resolve that in dis- 
 tricts, such as the Irish Town in Manchester, 
 (where the inhabitants, even with the ordinary 
 amount of Government aid, cannot afford Schools,) 
 their Lordships will have recourse to extraordinary 
 measures, and will even maintain Schools at the 
 public expense, rather than allow hundreds of 
 children to run wild in the streets ; we necessarily 
 enquire on what principles these State-supported 
 Schools are to be conducted. Are they to be 
 National Schools ? The Dissenters will object. 
 Are they to be British Schools ? The Church will 
 object. Are they to be merely secular Schools ? 
 Religious men, with few exceptions (whether 
 Churchmen or Dissenters), will object. 
 
 Besides, if Government maintains a single School 
 in any place, merely because poverty is pleaded, it 
 is obvious that poverty will become general. Po- 
 verty will be pleaded every where. If the prin- 
 ciple be once established, that when the parties 
 upon the spot will do nothing. Government will 
 do every thing, it is clear that local efforts will 
 be paralysed. Places now perfectly able to sup-
 
 38 
 
 port a School, will suddenly discover their inability, 
 and our whole educational system will be in 
 jeopardy throughout the kingdom \ 
 
 With respect to the other difficulty, that of 
 thinly-peopled places in which there is a School, 
 but in wdiich one School only is sufficient, com- 
 plaints are often made of the hardship which in 
 small country parishes and townships is inflicted 
 upon non-conformist parents and guardians, in being 
 reduced to the alternative of either sending their 
 children to a National School (where probably they 
 w^ould be required to attend church, and certainly 
 to learn the Church Catechism) or of withholding 
 education from them altogether. As a remedy for 
 this grievance it has been urged, both in and out of 
 Parliament, that School managers in such cases 
 should admit the children of non-conformists with- 
 
 * If the Committee of Council, relying on the exhortations 
 and reports of their Inspectors, on the influence of public 
 opinion, and on the rivalry of Churchmen and Dissenters, had 
 been prepared to exercise forbearance and self-denial, to encourage 
 local freedom, and to assist School managers in carrying out 
 their own views, where those views were not decidedly objec- 
 tionable ; the difficulty above referred to would have been far 
 from insuperable. But, unhappily, their Lordships desire to 
 overrule the local managers ; to determine the subjects of 
 instruction, and even to select the books to be made use of. 
 
 To show that National Education might have been rendered 
 universal, without superseding local efforts, is the object of the 
 plan contained in Appendix 2.
 
 39 
 
 out insisting upon either of those requirements. 
 Hints also have proceeded from high quarters, that 
 if School managers prove refractory, Government 
 should interfere, and, by some extraordinary mea- 
 sures, provide another School, to be conducted upon 
 less exclusive principles. And no doubt there is 
 among statesmen and politicians a very strong and 
 general desire to draw from us concessions as to 
 Sunday attendance and catechetical instruction. 
 Sunday attendance is already left to the discretion 
 of the School managers. But, as regards the Cate- 
 chism, it would be happy for the Church if our 
 senators could be made to comprehend how much 
 they ask, when they ask us to forego the Cate- 
 chism. They persuade themselves, and are anxious 
 to persuade us, that it would be a small Tnatter to 
 dispense, in certain cases, with the repetition of that 
 particular form of sound words. But supposing the 
 point yielded, and the words of the Catechism dis- 
 pensed with, is the clergyman, nevertheless, at 
 liberty to teach its meaning and substance ? Is he 
 permitted to explain the Baptismal covenant? Is 
 he suffered to instruct the children in all the doc- 
 trines of the Church as contained in the Bible, 
 provided only he abstains from using the peculiar 
 phrases and sentences which the Church has ap- 
 pointed for that purpose "? Certainly, as an honest 
 man, he will not be so disingenuous. If he receives 
 public money upon condition of not teacliing cer- 
 tain children the Church Catechism, he will ab-
 
 40 
 
 stain from doing so either in form or in substance. 
 He will not expose himself to be reproached by the 
 Queen's Inspector with prevarication. He will not 
 give non-conformist parents and guardians oppor- 
 tunity of complaining, at the instigation of political 
 or sectarian agitators, that Avhile he adheres to the 
 letter of his engagement, he unscrupulously violates 
 its spirit. He will submit, rather, to all the in- 
 conveniences and disadvantages of teaching reli- 
 gion as he can, to some children, and of conscien- 
 tiously withholding it from others. Surely, my 
 Reverend Brethren, if our lawgivers and statesmen 
 would only take into serious consideration the cruel 
 dilemma to which they reduce the Clergy by such 
 proposals, they would not think of making them ^. 
 Before leaving tlie subject of Education, I should 
 
 ^ The leader of the Socialists some years ago waited on the 
 late Treasurer of the National Society with the offer of £1000, 
 provided the Society would agree that children should be ex- 
 empted from learning the Church Catechism in case their parents 
 should object. It was answered, that the value of the conces- 
 sion could not be estimated in money ; that no sum could pur- 
 chase it ; but that since Mr. Owen acknowledged the good 
 service done by the Society in enlightening the popular mind, 
 he ought to admit its claims to at least one half the amount. 
 After some discussion Mr. Owen gave way, and wrote a draft 
 for £500, which donation is recorded in the Appendix to the 
 Report of the Society for 1840. Upon delivering the draft, he 
 added, that he would be ready to pay the remainder of the £1000 
 as soon as ever this concession should be made. " Upon those 
 terms," replied Mr. Watson, pocketing the draft, "you are as 
 sure of your £500, as I am of mine."
 
 41 
 
 have wished to enter upon the subject of an import- 
 ant bill now before the House of Commons, " for 
 facilitating and better securing the due administra- 
 tion of Charitable Trusts." I have long looked to 
 charitable trusts for education, when duly regulated, 
 as a resource from which the wants of the Church 
 in this department might be to a great extent sup- 
 plied. But I must add, that if the bill in question 
 should pass into a law without amendment, my 
 hopes from that quarter would be grievously disap- 
 pointed. I pass over a variety of other topics, to 
 which, had time permitted, I should have wished to 
 draw your attention : such as the bill for altering the 
 law respecting marriage — the bill regarding Church 
 discipline — the division of parochial charities — the 
 question as to burial in populous place§ — the ser- 
 vices established in various churches and school- 
 rooms of the metropolis for the benefit of the 
 police force. 
 
 I may be allowed, however, to express the satis- 
 faction I derived from the resolution of the House 
 of Commons, which induced Her Majesty to issue 
 a Royal Commission of enquiry as to the subdi- 
 vision of parishes. We cannot but be gratified 
 by the desire, so unequivocally expressed by the 
 representatives of the people, to make the means 
 of pastoral superintendence commensurate with the 
 wants of our rapidly increasing population. What 
 hope we may be permitted to entertain of pecu-
 
 42 
 
 iiiary contributions for that purpose from the na- 
 tional exchequer, I do not pretend to conjecture. 
 But we are fully warranted to regard the resolu- 
 tion and commission as pledges, on the part of the 
 Crown and the Legislature, to take into favourable 
 consideration any measures which may be sug- 
 gested for enabling the Church to make the most 
 of its own resources. 
 
 The task assigned to the commissioners is deli- 
 cate and arduous. It is also far from enviable. 
 It will expose them to much obloquy. If they 
 do nothing, they will be reproached for inefficiency. 
 If they do much, they will offend the prejudices or 
 hurt the interests of many. 
 
 On one point, my Reverend Brethren, there can 
 be no diiference of opinion among us. We must 
 all acknowledge the extreme urgency of the case ; 
 the appalling magnitude of the evil to be reme- 
 died ; the intolerable scandal of allowing thousands 
 and tens of thousands, in this most opulent country 
 and most enlightened age, first to grow up in 
 heathenish ignorance, and then to die as they 
 have lived, aliens from the means of grace and 
 from the hope of salvation. 
 
 At the same time, I do not think you will be 
 prepared to encourage any levelling process, which 
 would alter the constitution of the Church. There 
 is a strong desire on the part of many persons 
 to introduce among us a species of agrarian law,
 
 43 
 
 which would give the Church a democratic cha- 
 racter. Such persons would not show much respect 
 for the episcopal and cathedral revenues ; and 
 would not hesitate to endow district parishes by 
 a general spoliation of mother Churches. An 
 equalizing process of this kind, carried to any 
 great extent, would lower irretrievably the social 
 position of the whole clerical body. At present, 
 young men of birth and property are induced to 
 enter into holy orders, and to expend large sums 
 in attaining at our grammar schools and univer- 
 sities the necessary intellectual qualifications. The 
 standard of attainment, both in classics and the- 
 ology, (as I know from experience,) is not only 
 high, but continually rising. Almost every family 
 of any consequence in the kingdom has ties of kin- 
 dred or affinity connecting it with the Church. 
 Clergymen associate freely with all ranks and de- 
 grees of men ; and religious principle is thus made 
 to leaven the whole mass of the community. It 
 may be fairly calculated that nearly half the in- 
 come of the clergy is independent of their profes- 
 sion ; and the contributions which they are through 
 this circumstance enabled to afford, constitute a 
 large proportion of the national funds for charity. 
 The advantages arising from their social position 
 are so important and undeniable, that you will not 
 expect the commissioners to overlook them or 
 bring them into jeopardy. That position, I repeat, 
 once lost, could never be recovered.
 
 44 
 
 I would not be understood to say, that there are 
 no cases in which the emoluments of the mother 
 Church, after the next avoidance, may not be made 
 available in some degree towards augmenting those 
 of the district Church ; and I may add, that cases 
 of this kind would be more frequent, and greater 
 facilities afforded to the subdivision of parishes, if 
 livings were not impoverished by the expense and 
 trouble of collecting rent-charges, and by the unfair 
 mode of rating them for the relief of the poor. 
 
 Among other questions which will naturally be 
 brought under the consideration of the commis- 
 sioners, are those relating to Church rates. Church 
 patronage, pew rents, fees, and Easter offerings. 
 It may be hoped that from many of these sources 
 the income of the district minister may be ren- 
 dered more adequate to his labour ; more in ac- 
 cordance with the divine maxim on this very sub- 
 ject, that the labourer is worthy of his reward ^ We 
 may also hope for still greater assistance in effect- 
 ing the object of the commission from another 
 quarter, a kindred body, commissioned to enquire 
 into the subject of Church leases. After all these 
 resources are ascertained and made available, if it 
 should finally appear, that a certain definite sum 
 of comparatively moderate amount will suffice to 
 carry into effect the object contemplated by the 
 House of Commons in their well-timed and pro- 
 
 ^ 1 Tim. V. 18.
 
 45 
 
 vident resolution, our appeal to their consistency 
 and liberality ought to be irresistible *. 
 
 Having now, my Reverend Brethren, completed 
 my remarks on elementary education, and on 
 Church extension, let me revert once more, in 
 conclusion, to the fearful and unprecedented crisis 
 at which we have arrived. No man of ordinary 
 capacity, no man that can discern the face of the 
 sky and of the earth ^ can fail to see the perils of 
 our position. All the elements of social order 
 around us are in convulsion. States and mo- 
 narchies, which had stood the storms of centuries, 
 have been uprooted in a few hours. All the foun- 
 dations of civil government and national security 
 are out of course : and from the cliffs of our com- 
 paratively tranquil island, we seem to lo'ok down 
 upon a whole continent in ruins. No doubt we 
 now discover symptoms of reaction in favour of 
 law and order. The horrors of anarchy, bloodshed, 
 and spoliation, have taught suffering nations that 
 any rule is better than no rule; any magistracy 
 safer than a reign of terror, or the tyranny of mobs 
 and clubs. But the reaction is only partial. New 
 shocks of revolutionary violence have reproduced 
 disorder where peace was returning. The subter- 
 raneous elements of discord are still at work in 
 secret conspiracies and schemes of social disor- 
 ganization. Partial conflicts upon the newly-in- 
 
 * See Appendix, p. 82. ' Luke xii. ^Q.
 
 46 
 
 vented topic of nationality and distinctions of race, 
 in opposition to the faith of treaties and long-estab- 
 lished political arrangements, threaten more and 
 more to terminate in the explosion of a general 
 war. 
 
 We may be apt to indulge in the selfish phi- 
 losophy of the Roman poet ; and to behold with 
 a feeling of complacency the miseries and perils of 
 our neighbours, while we remain comparatively in 
 safety. But we are not in safety. Poverty and 
 mendicity; discontent, lawlessness, and infidelity, 
 exist within our own shores, though still provi- 
 dentially restrained and kept under by the pre- 
 vailing influence of loyalty and religion. These 
 good principles have hitherto been effective ; but 
 are not as yet suflSciently predominant. To give 
 us actual security, they must be strengthened and 
 invigorated. And who, under Providence, are to 
 do this but ourselves? This is not a time, my 
 Reverend Brethren, for us, the guardians of the 
 public morals and religion, to indulge in ease, and 
 indolence, and worldly-mindedness, and to leave the 
 tide of human corruption to take its course. It is 
 not a time for divisions and disputations, and mutual 
 animosity, when our enemies, diifering on all other 
 points, cordially combine in their efforts to over- 
 throw us. It is not a time for putting forth ex- 
 treme opinions, inventing novelties, running into 
 eccentricities, and wasting our energies on vain and
 
 47 
 
 impracticable projects, when our utmost strength 
 is wanted for what is useful, attainable, and sober- 
 minded ; and when all that we can do will only 
 just avail to keep society together. 
 
 The aspect of the world, my Reverend Brethren, 
 teaches a very different lesson. This is a time 
 for us, the ministers of Christ, to be zealous, active, 
 and persevering, in our efforts to meet the diffi- 
 culties of the crisis, — to teach publicly, and from 
 house to house ^, to repi^ove, rebuke, ewhort, with 
 all long-suffering and doctrine \ bringing home the 
 truths of Christianity to the hearts and con- 
 sciences, and understandings of the people. It is 
 a time for union among ourselves ; for overlooking 
 differences, for suppressing exaggerations; for evinc- 
 ing practically that we have one Lord, on^ faith, one 
 baptism ^ ; and for co-operating with one mind toge- 
 ther on the common ground of Church of England 
 brotherhood. It is a time for looking, not to trifles 
 and singularities, but to the essential doctrines and 
 precepts of the Gospel : to things fundamentally 
 important and indispensable : — how souls are to be 
 saved, how the charities of life are to be diffused ; 
 churches built and schools maintained : in short, 
 how our whole body politic is to be Christianized, 
 and its members inseparably united in loyalty to 
 their sovereign, and in harmony with each other. 
 
 « Acts XX. 20. ' 2 Tim. iv. 4. ' Eph. iv. 5.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 No. I. 
 
 After the alarming riots of 1842, in some of the most 
 populous of the manufacturing counties, I was desirous 
 to ascertain how far the influence of the Church and of 
 Church schools had been beneficially exerted in support 
 of law and order, and in what degree the check which the 
 spirit of anarchy received, and its ultimate suppression, 
 were owing to the early dissemination of religious and 
 moral principles among the people. With a view to this 
 inquiry, I addressed a private circular to such individuals, 
 both lay and clerical, within the disturbed districts, as, 
 from their position and opportunities, appeared likely to 
 afford correct and full information. The answers I re- 
 ceived amounted to about one hundred and fifty, all from 
 different writers, and all tending to establish the same 
 conclusion. It appeared that, in every case, the effect of 
 education, whether in Sunday or daily schools, was salu- 
 tary in proportion to its completeness. Wherever means 
 of Church instruction were best provided, there the efforts 
 of the disaffected were least successful. In whatever 
 districts Church principles predominated, no outbreak 
 took place, however grievous the privations of the people, 
 except in cases where the rightly disposed inhabitants 
 were overpowered by agitators from a distance. 
 
 Having printed selections from my correspondence, 
 I sent copies to the Members of the Committee of 
 Council on Education, offering, at the same time, to com- 
 municate, in confidence, the names of all the writers. My 
 pamphlet was favourably received ; but I was requested 
 
 D
 
 50 
 
 not to publish it, lest it should provoke controversy, and 
 induce the Dissenters to oppose any measure for the 
 education of the people which the Government, now 
 thoroughly alive to the importance of the subject, might 
 be induced to bring forward. The expressions used by 
 several members of the Privy Council on the occasion 
 were very strong ; but none stronger than those of the 
 Lord President himself, the late Lord Wharncliffe, who 
 said to me, "When I read letter after letter, all written 
 by intelligent men resident upon the spot, and all tending 
 to the same result, the impression upon my mind was 
 irresistible ; and it was the same, I may assure you, upon 
 my colleagues/^ 
 
 I introduced some extracts from my collection into the 
 Report of the National Society for 1843, and it seems 
 desirable, after the experience of the last fifteen months, 
 to give the Public further opportunity of contrasting the 
 continental and Church of England systems of education, 
 in regard to their tendences and results. 
 
 CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 No. I. 
 
 September 5, 1842. 
 Rev. Sir, — The spiritual and educational wants of this district have 
 been met by the erection of a church and schools, the former in 1837, 
 and the latter in 1840. The place had before been proverbially one 
 of the most, if not the most disorderly and uncivilized of the manufac- 
 turing districts : the Sabbath was awfully desecrated ; passengers 
 abused and insulted as they passed through the village ; infidelity 
 openly propagated by cheaj) publications ; and daily and Sunday lec- 
 tures delivered by persons residing in the place. Now we have peace 
 and order ; the Sabbath becomingly observed ; the church well at- 
 tended by those who were never known to enter a place of worship ; 
 the daily and Sunday schools nearly filled with children, who before 
 went no where, the former having on the books 150, and the latter, 
 376 scholars. The avowed disciples of and lecturers on infidelity have
 
 51 
 
 either left the neighbourhood, or renounced their pernicious opinions, 
 or become so ashamed of them as not to bring them openly forward. 
 During- the recent disturbances, the people of the district, though in 
 many instances in great distress, have been peaceable, and have shewn 
 no disposition to join the rioters who came amongst us. The respect- 
 able portion of the inhabitants are convinced that this would not have 
 been the case in former times. 
 
 Such is the happy change which has taken place here since the 
 erection of a church and schools ; and what they, under God, have 
 been the means of effecting in this vicinity in so short a period, we 
 may confidently hope would also be brought about wherever they are 
 built. 
 
 Rev. Sir, very faithfully yours, 
 
 No. II. 
 
 August 29, 1842. 
 Rev. and dear Sir, — In answer to your letter of the 24th instant, 
 which only reached me yesterday, I am glad to be enabled to state that 
 the disturbances have not hitherto reached this district, nor even the 
 
 adjoining one of , where extensive factories are carried on ; and, 
 
 in all probability, the peace and quiet enjoyed in both villages may be 
 altogether attributed to the churches and Church-schools which have 
 been recently established therein ; and the latter, I am happy to be 
 able to say, are now in full operation. 
 
 I remain. Rev. and dear Sir, always truly yours. 
 
 No. III. 
 
 September 22, 1842. 
 
 My dear Sir, — A variety of circumstances has conspired to pre- 
 vent my having opportunity to answer your letter fully at an earlier 
 day. 
 
 Without troubling you at any great length, I can point out two 
 or three prominent features in the recent disturbances worthy of spe- 
 cial note. 
 
 1. The very cradle and focus of the agitation — the centre from which 
 it shot forth, and round which it radiated — is the wide and thickly- 
 peopled district between Oldham and Stockport, comprehending from 
 seventy to ninety thousand inhabitants ; and more destitute, it may be 
 
 D 2
 
 52 
 
 safely said, of spiritual advantages in connexion with tiie Establishment, 
 than any other district in the kingdom. This you can verify by a re- 
 ference to the Appendix to the Bishop of Chester's Charge. 
 
 2. So far as can be ascertained, amongst the rioters was to be found 
 no Churchman who was in fellowship with his Church, and scarce a 
 child accustomed to attend a Church Sunday-school. 
 
 3. On the other hand, from amongst the various bodies of sectaries, 
 the mobs were largely recruited, or at least officered : while, so far as 
 I am informed, not one leader was even nominally a Churchman. 
 
 4. It may be confidently stated, that at no period of the disturb- 
 ances did one-half of our working classes take any part in the riots, 
 and that this arose mainly from the force of conscience, and the 
 amount of moral feeling diffused amongst them. 
 
 It may, then, be safely assumed, that the religion of the country was 
 the salvation of the country, and that the religion of the country is 
 mainly due to the Church of the country. It is the settled opinion 
 of many of our soberest and soundest-minded men, that the storm, 
 though hushed, is not subdued ; and that the late outbreaks will prove 
 only as the flashings of the crater before the eruption of the volcano, 
 unless other besides mere civil means be adopted to arrest the 
 
 catastrophe. 
 
 I am, my dear Sir, yours very faithfully, 
 
 No. IV. 
 
 August 17, 1842. 
 My dear Sir, — The accounts in the newspapers respecting the 
 origin of the " turn-out " are not quite correct. It originated in con- 
 sequence of a notice given by certain cotton-manufacturers to reduce 
 the wages of their weavers. Some of the principal workmen formed 
 a deputation to confer with their employers, but were treated in such 
 a manner as called forth a general spirit of resistance. At a meeting 
 attended by many thousand workmen, it was agreed that there sliould 
 be a general strike among all the manufacturing " hands," for the pur- 
 pose of resisting the proposed reduction. They apprehended, not 
 without reason, that the example of this firm would be followed by 
 other mill-owners. Their motto was, " A fair day's wage for a fair 
 day's work ;" and they passed a resolution not to work any more, nor 
 to allow other trades to do so, till the cotton-masters came to their 
 terms. On the Monday morning they proceeded to put their reso- 
 lution into effect by stopping every mill in the neighbourhood ; and 
 not only every mill, but all other trades — smiths, masons, tailors, shoe- 
 makers, colliers, &c., in doing which, I am bound to say, they behaved
 
 53 
 
 with as much order and peace as possible. In fact, it is much to the 
 credit of the working people that, though the movement originated in 
 this neighbourhood, and though by the " turn-out " some thirty or 
 forty thousand persons are thrown out of employment, and have now 
 been idle for ten days, yet they have committed no depredation, been 
 guilty of scarcely any acts of intemperance, and have refused to mix 
 up their own grievances — I mean the question of wages — with politics 
 or other irrelevant matter, although many inflammatory speeches have 
 been delivered to them day after day, particularly by persons calling 
 themselves dissenting ministers. When it is considered that the mob 
 have had exclusive possession of the town now for ten days, that they 
 have mustered as many as from thirty to forty thousand persons, and 
 that the only protecting power has been two or three hundred special 
 constables, who have never been called upon to act, it is a singular in- 
 stance of forbearance that here (whatever has been the case in other 
 quarters) there has been no breach of the peace, nor any act of vio- 
 lence, nor any insulting language used towards any of the inhabitants, 
 with the exception of some murmurs of disapprobation against certain 
 mill-owners. And there are many persons who attribute the improve- 
 ment in their conduct to the better spirit which has been imbibed by 
 the very partial sprinkling of Church principles among the people. 
 What, then, might we not hope for, if we had more schools and 
 churches, and these principles were general ? Think only of the 
 effect which has been produced by one single church ^in a little more 
 than a year, and it does not afford accommodation for more than 
 1*200 out of 23,000 ; and I believe, if we had more churches and 
 schools well endowed and well supported, the next generation would 
 be as orderly and peaceable as any town, village, or hamlet in England. 
 I have already informed you that the Unitarian cotton-masters will not 
 help the Church, nor contribute either to a Church-school or any 
 other. Since, then, private resources will do nothing here, it would 
 surely be wise and politic in the Government (not to mention higher 
 considerations) to provide both churches and schools (as I have men- 
 tioned before), adequate to the wants, and commensurate with the ex- 
 tent, of the population. 
 
 I remain, my dear Sir, yours very faithfully. 
 
 No. V. 
 
 September 2, 1842. 
 Reverend and dear Sir, — The destitution of the manufacturing 
 districts, as regards churches and Church-schools, is a fact equally 
 notorious and alarming.
 
 54 
 
 This neighbourhood affords a striking illustration both of that desti- 
 tution and the evils which result from it. There cannot here be less 
 than a population of ()0,000, and until lately there were but three 
 churches and Church-schools (and those only Sunday-schools) lor that 
 large multitude. Within the last three years two new churches and 
 schools have been opened. We have now in this township three 
 churches, capable of containing about 3500 persons, and three schools 
 attached to them, and these have connexion with a population of above 
 30,000. As to voluntary contributions overtaking this population, it 
 is quite hopeless. Two-thirds of the inhabitants are mill-operatives. 
 The very want renders the mass of" them insensible of, and therefore 
 indifferent to the want, so that no aid can be obtained from them ; and 
 many of the masters are, in this respect, as bad as their men. The 
 masters, who have been the means of assembling the great bulk of this 
 population, are, for the most part, Socinians, and have never yet given 
 one halfpenny towards providing means of education for the people in 
 this town ; neither is it at all probable that they will. My church has 
 been erected by voluntary contributions ; and by very great exertions 
 on the part of a few, a sum has been raised for a school-house ; and yet, 
 though largely assisted by the Privy Council and National Society, we 
 languish for want of means to complete and open it upon a proper basis. 
 There is as yet no daily school for the benefit of the operatives in this 
 place ; — no daily school, save those opened by schoolmasters for their 
 own private emolument, and from which, consequently, the population 
 at large can derive no benefit, while the education given in them is, of 
 course, merely secular. This is the state of things as left to voluntary 
 contributions — church-room for between 3000 and 4000 out of 30,000, 
 and no schools in which to train up the rising generation of this vast 
 and increasing population. There are no means to guide the young, 
 who are left, therefore, to follow the examjjle of their elders ; and those 
 elders are, almost all, unrestrained by the moral precepts and sanctions 
 of the Christian faith. In consequence of this state of things, vice and 
 infidelity most fearfully abound. Not only are there to be found among 
 the population persons so ignorant as to become the followers of every 
 blasphemous and extravagant sect that may spring up, as Southcottians, 
 Mormonites, &c., but infidelity is openly professed. A statistical 
 society, not having any religious object in view, but merely for infor- 
 mation, has ascertained that in this township there are above 1 100 heads 
 of fan)ilies who profess no religion, while in the adjoining town there 
 are above 200. Now, connect this with the fact that it was in this 
 neighbourhood that the late extensive commotion commenced — it was 
 the populace of this place that marched to Manchester and all the sur- 
 rounding districts. Where infidelity and ignorance are so strong, 
 thence this insurrection took its rise. And it has been stated to me by 
 a gentleman long resident here, that he never knew a disturbance
 
 55 
 
 among the manufacturing- population in which this neglected township 
 did not take a lead. 
 
 The influence of the Church during the present troubles, I am sure, 
 has been of very great and important benefit. But in endeavouring to 
 form an estimate of her beneficial influence here, some things must be 
 taken into account. 1. It must be borne in mind how lately the 
 churches have been increased in number. 2. They are even yet but 
 few compared to the population. Hence we can only work, as it were, 
 upon the exterior of the population ; we cannot reach the centre ; the 
 mass is as yet unaffected ; we want so many churches as that all the 
 people may be brought under pastoral care. 3. It is to be remembered 
 that where religious instruction is most needed, that is the place in 
 which, from the very nature of the case, its blessed influence will make 
 the slowest advances. 4. In the particular commotion now existing, 
 it is to be recollected that, being so very general, the local influence 
 which a minister may have in his own neighbourhood is lost, through 
 the dictation of the people from other places. This I can, however, 
 state, that as far as regards my district and observation, not one Church- 
 man has taken an active part in this turn-out ; nor do they take part in 
 any unlawful proceedings in this neighbourhood at any time. It has 
 been observed to me by an intelligent gentleman, that he has found 
 that in proportion to the ignorance of his hands is the difficulty of deal- 
 ing with them, the unreasonableness of their demands, and their sub- 
 mission to the guidance of trading agitators ; while the educated, and 
 those who frequent the church and school, can undersfand reason, see 
 the folly of the conduct the people are pursuing, and are ready and 
 willing, if allowed, to work. In fact, these, though not very many, 
 not joining the majority in their violence, have been the salvation of 
 the country. To this none can be blind but those who will shut their 
 eyes. 
 
 Indeed, fearful consequences may be expected if some provision be 
 not made to supply the religious and educational wants of these districts. 
 In them, above all places, such supplies are requisite in the highest 
 degree. Even parental authority is here deprived of any restraining 
 influence it may elsewhere possess. From the nature of the employ- 
 ment, the parent and child never meet save for a few minutes during 
 meals and at bed-time ; while the large wages which the young soon 
 earn, causes them too often to cast off" all parental control, often 
 to become mere lodgers with their parents, or for the slightest 
 oflTence or restraint to leave their home, and lodge with strangers. 
 Thus, natural restraints, as well religious and educational, to the 
 tempers and passions are here wanting. If men be suffered to cast 
 off" the fear of God and His laws, human laws will restrain them 
 but a short time. If they are left uncultured and untrained in 
 youth, what can they be in after-life but fierce and lawless? If
 
 56 
 
 the weeds of human nature are left to flourish in the spring of life, 
 what can we look for but their fruits in manhood ? Being ignorant, 
 they are open to the designs and falsehoods of every agitator ; and 
 quite unaccustomed to reason or self-control, their passions are easily 
 excited and violent. Never taught to govern themselves, they will 
 never patiently submit to be governed by others. A new state of 
 society is growing up in these districts, and unless something be done 
 vigorously and speedily to infuse the blessed influence of our holy faith 
 among them, we can look for nothing but ignorance, infidelity, and 
 social disorder. Bad as matters are at present, worse may be expected, 
 if active steps are not taken ; for most of the present adult population 
 retain some recollection of, and are somewhat influenced by, the re- 
 membrance of the days of their youth, when they heard of God and his 
 laws and a future state. They have not succeeded quite in casting off 
 all moral restraint. Some retain an affectionate recollection of the 
 church and school which arose near their native spot, and which in their 
 younger days they loved to frequent. Conscience has in such a barrier 
 over which they may not with impunity pass. This restrains them 
 more than laws can do. But this remaining check will be quite want- 
 ing in multitudes of the rising generation. They have never had the 
 means of grace — never have been " where bells have knolled to church " 
 — never attended a school where moral discipline was taught. Great 
 fears may well be entertained for the country, if something is not done 
 to rescue from ignorance these multitudes of her sons. Religion and 
 patriotism unite their voice in this object. May the Most High give 
 success to your endeavours to draw attention with effect to this 
 subject ! 
 
 Excuse the hasty manner in which I have been obliged to write. 
 
 Believe me to be, my dear Sir, yours very truly, 
 
 No. VI. 
 
 August 30, 1842. 
 
 Rev. and dear Sir, — I consider the interference of Government 
 absolutely necessary for multiplying schools and churches with small 
 endowments ; for unendowed churches in populous and poor districts 
 are even now disappointing the expectations of their sanguine sup- 
 porters. 
 
 As to the late disturbances, that they would not have occurred, had 
 the spiritual wants of the population been previously attended to ; and 
 that such disturbances will occur again and again, perhaps annually, 
 unless large and (I must say) expensive measures for the religious 
 benefit of the poor be applied, no one living in the midst of such a
 
 57 
 
 population can doubt ; and each successive disturbance will, I am sure, 
 be more formidable, more skilfully arranged, and more artfully con- 
 ducted. Indeed, what can we expect, if we take not the prey out of 
 the hands of the mighty ? It is quite certain, that the last riot in 
 Birmingham was only a kindling up of the embers of the one previous, 
 and that the spirit is still kept alive, which a little will easily inflame ; 
 especially since it is well known by the Chartists themselves, that 
 their efforts are not regarded with disapprobation by many whose office 
 compelled them to check their proceedings. I am quite sure that 
 nothing will ever improve the character of the lower orders, or give 
 the upper security and peace, but a multiplication of schools and 
 churches. Without these they must become worse and worse. 
 I remain, dear Sir, yours very truly, 
 
 No. VII. 
 
 September 1, 1842. 
 Dear Sir, — There have lately been very alarmimg riots in the 
 potteries, accompanied with great loss of property, and some loss of 
 life. Disturbances have been checked for the present, but the spirit of 
 disorder still remains unconquered and undisguised. Where that spirit 
 has originated, and where the antidote is to be fountJ, the following 
 facts may serve to shew : — 
 
 1. The temporal circumstances of the potters and colliers are by no 
 means those of great distress. Isolated cases of deep distress there 
 always are and must be, but these are principally attributable to drunk- 
 enness and improvidence. There are few working potters who might 
 not have been in independent circumstances, if they had been prudent 
 when work was brisk ; but they lived in riot, and hence their present 
 distress. Further, at the time when the late outbreak commenced, the 
 prospects, both as regarded employment, and in respect to the price of 
 provisions, were better than they had been for a long time before. 
 I therefore conclude that distress had nothing to do in fomenting that 
 outbreak. 
 
 2. The moral condition of the people is as bad as it is possible for it 
 to be. Vice is unrebuked, unabashed ; moral character is of no value. 
 The bad are employed both in factories and private houses as readily 
 as the virtuous. Unchastity is no disgrace, and no hindrance either to 
 employment or to marriage. 
 
 3. A spirit of disaffection prevails almost universally amongst the 
 working classes. Authority of every kind is despised. Magistrates, 
 masters, pastors, and all superiors, are regarded as enemies and oppres-
 
 58 
 
 sors. Chartism and Socialism lurk in many a bosom. The pictures of 
 Frost and his co-traitors, found in many of the cottages, display too 
 closely their sympathy with rebellion ; and a day scarcely passes in 
 which I have not to rebuke and reason against the most dreadful senti- 
 ments on the subject of government, and order, and property, as well 
 as of religion. Had the late riots not been checked so promptl}', 
 I believe the rising here would have been almost universal amongst the 
 working classes. 
 
 4. The religion prevailing in the scenes of the late riots is schism in 
 every possible form and manner. Church-accommodation in the pot- 
 teries is very deficient. There are but ten churches, containing 12,150 
 sittings, for a population which in 1838 was 65,000, and is now, 1 sup- 
 pose, upwards of 90,000. There are but twelve clergy, only six of 
 whom (I believe) have pastoral charges. In this parish, containing up- 
 wards of 16,000, there is but one authorized pastor. The character of 
 many of the churches (I believe seven), voluntary, dependent on pew- 
 rents, miserably poor, and without defined districts, militates greatly 
 against their utility ; first, by keeping the clergy dependent on their 
 congregations ; and secondly, by causing endless jealousies amongst 
 the clergy themselves. The voluntary and pew-rent system is a dis- 
 grace and ruin to our churches. 
 
 The number of the working class who attend the churches is very 
 small, owing mainly to this fact, that Church-extension was neglected 
 until the peoi)le became confirmed and matured in dissent. In this 
 parish there was but one church, of about seven hundred sittings, and 
 none free, for upwards of 15,000 people, until 1831. Ex uno disce 
 onmia. 
 
 5. The doctrine of all dissent has a natural and necessary tendency 
 to encourage rebellion. That doctrine is, that obedience to authority 
 (whether civil or spiritual) is not a duty of absolute Christian obliga- 
 tion, but to be limited by every man's private judgment (however un- 
 informed or unsound), and by every man's conscience (however blinded, 
 seared, or warped by prejudice or interest). 
 
 This doctrine, making every man his own ruler, guide, judge, neces- 
 sarily tends to anarchy, disobedience, and rebellion. This has been 
 instilled into the minds of the working potters and colHers most indus- 
 triously from their earliest years ; and the fruit of such teaching has 
 appeared in the late outbreak. 
 
 The attacks upon the houses of the clergy, and meditated attacks 
 on the churches, prove that the rioters were not Churchmen ; and an 
 inquiry through the chaplain of Stafford jail will ascertain what they 
 profess to be. 
 
 6. The especial hostility of the rioters to the clergy and the Church 
 proves, that in their judgment the Church is the especial friend of 
 order and govennnent, and the most formidable oj)ponent of rebellious
 
 59 
 
 principles. They did not molest any dissenting minister's house or 
 chapel. 
 
 From these facts we see the root and causes of the disease, and thus, 
 I think, discover the antidote. 
 
 It appears that dissent is incapable of producing either pure morality 
 or sound loyalty. It is therefore undeserving of any encouragement or 
 support. Dissent has had a full and fair trial in the potteries, where for 
 many years it has had almost undisputed sway ; its chapels numerous, 
 its friends powerful — behold its fruits ! 
 
 It appears that immorality is a favourable soil for the growth of dis- 
 affection. Let immorality be removed by the implanting of better 
 principles. 
 
 It appears that schism teaches disaifection and disobedience to au- 
 thority. Let schism therefore be discouraged. 
 
 It appears that Church-principles alone are favourable to humble 
 and submissive loyalty, as teaching that men must be subject, not only 
 for wrath, but also for conscience-sake. Let Church-principles, then, 
 be every where inculcated. 
 
 It appears that the Church is admitted to be the best friend of civil 
 order, and as such assailed by the enemies of order. Let the Church, 
 therefore, be extended and supported by the friends and supporters of 
 order. 
 
 Church-instruction can alone correct the evil principles that abound. 
 No other system does or can teach loyalty on principle. But it is not 
 sufficient to buiUI churches and schools, and leave the clergy and 
 teachers to starve ; or convert their churches into conventicles in the 
 worst features thereof, viz., in the begging and cringing to their con- 
 gregations, to the utter loss of all respect and due authority. 
 
 It strongly appears to me that grants ought to be made, not for 
 building, but for endowments. The buildings should rise mainly, if not 
 altogether, from local resources (in which case they would generally 
 be suited .to their localities). There should be no charge for sittings 
 in a national Church ; but grants should be reserved for the permanent 
 support of the clergy. It ought also to be insisted on, that wherever 
 a new church is built with the bishop's consent, which is all that should 
 be required, there shall be a division of the parish and income on the 
 next avoidance. Nothing short of this will meet our case. Churches 
 without districts and endowments are positive evils of no small magni- 
 tude, — with districts, if unendowed, they are little better. 
 
 There must be a division of parishes and adequate endowments, or 
 the Church will become more hampered in its work, and the clergy 
 rapidly sink in respectability. 
 
 Yours, dear Sir, very respectfully.
 
 GO 
 
 No. VIII. 
 
 August 31, 1842. 
 
 Reverend and dear Sir, — In considering the moral condition of 
 the manufacturiiifr districts, and the probable means of improving- it, 
 there are two facts peculiarly deserving- of attention : 1st, The im- 
 mense disproportion between the numbers of the people and the 
 existing provision for their moral cultivation. 2nd, The fact (strongly 
 attested by the uniform good conduct of the church-going part of the 
 population during the late disturbances) that the provision which does . 
 exist is exerting an influence for good so fully proportionate to its ex- 
 tent as to warrant the conclusion that, by increasing ttiat provision to 
 a degree commensurate with the numbers of the people, the country 
 might be secured against the recurrence of any such sad scenes as 
 those which have been lately witnessed. 
 
 As to the exact disproportion between the means of moral improve- 
 ment and the number of those for whose benefit it is intended, as you 
 have, I have no doubt, before you, very full information in the statis- 
 tical tables and statements which have been put forth from time to 
 time by the Church-building and Education Societies, and above all, 
 in the Second Report of Her Majesty's Commissioners for considering 
 the state of the established Church, I shall only point your attention 
 to one or two facts calculated to shew the deficiency of churches in 
 this county, and the exceeding improbability of that deficiency being 
 adequately supplied even by the most zealous and well-sustained efforts 
 of a voluntary nature, while the population continues to increase as at 
 present. Let us, for instance, take the case of Manchester ^ ; the 
 population in 1821 was 187,000, it is at present calculated at 360,000. 
 I have not seen the last census, and cannot state this on authority, but 
 believe it will be found pretty accurate. The church-accommodation 
 in 1821 was sufficient for about 80,000, leaving 100,000 totally unpro- 
 vided. Since then the most strenuous voluntary efforts have been 
 made, and Government have also built some churches ; at the present 
 moment there is a scheme on foot between two Church-building 
 societies to build sixteen additional churches, and yet, when these have 
 been completed, there will remain a population of nearly 200,000 still 
 unprovided for. Thus, notwithstanding voluntary efforts which, con- 
 sidering their remarkable intensity, cannot be expected to continue, 
 the original deficiency has doubled itself in the course of twenty years. 
 I could easily present you with similar calculations, but shall only add 
 one more to shew that the same principle applies with still greater 
 force to the less important and spirited towns and villages. In Staley- 
 
 1 This calculation proceeds on the supposition that each sitting provides for 
 three of the population, only a third being found capable of attending church.
 
 61 
 
 bridge, with a population of 26,000, up to 1839 there was but one 
 church, capable of accommodating' about 500 persons ; since then 
 church-accommodation has been provided for about 2000 more by 
 public funds, and by voluntary for 1000, leaving still 22,500 totally 
 unprovided for. Taking the manufacturing part of Lancashire gene- 
 rally, I believe the average population attached to each church, includ- 
 ing all that have been recently erected, amounts to about 8000, in many 
 cases to three or four times as many. 
 
 In every calculation of this kind it should always be borne in mind, 
 that by long neglect, by the intervention of dissenting and seditious 
 teachers, the population are so estranged in feeling, so disposed to 
 regard the conduct of the clergyman with suspicion and hostility, and 
 so inveterate in their evil habits, as to present a more formidable task 
 to the person entrusted with their spiritual charge than could be im- 
 posed on him by ten times the population under more favourable cir- 
 cumstances. 
 
 It should also be remembered that, in the case of all the new 
 churches, the clergyman is placed in a situation most unfavourable to 
 his parochial usefulness. Charged with the responsibility of a vast 
 population, he is destitute of all the official influence belonging to the 
 recognized station of the incumbent of a regularly constituted parish ; 
 dependent, as regards his income, upon the rental of his pews, his 
 approaches are regarded, by a large portion of the people, as self- 
 interested efforts to secure a subsistence for himself*; and obliged to 
 draw upon his congregatit)n for all the expenses of the church, not 
 unfrequently having to make up the deficiency, he has but small, if 
 any, resources left for the purposes of education and general bene- 
 volence. Therefore, in directing the attention of Government to the 
 necessity of making a provision for the spiritual wants of these dis- 
 tricts, it seems to me quite as needful to impress on them the necessity 
 and importance of putting the churches already provided into a state of 
 the greatest possible efficiency, as of building others in addition ; and 
 this, I think, can be only done by erecting the large districts attached 
 to many of the new churches into separate parishes, and, if possible, 
 providing for them some such endowment as to render the ministers, 
 in a measure, independent of their present meagre and precarious 
 source of income, and to give their churches a free parochial cha- 
 racter. It is worthy of remark, that most of the churches in this 
 county, being built under the " Trustee Act," will not receive any 
 benefit from the funds at the disposal of the Ecclesiastical Commis- 
 sioners, whose scheme of endowment is confined to churches in public 
 patronage. 
 
 Having thus offered a few observations intended to shew the neces- 
 sity which exists for measures on the part of the Government to build, 
 to endow, and regulate the constitution of churches in these populous
 
 G2 
 
 districts, I would now endeavour to shew the extent of educational 
 destitution, the means by which it seems to me that it might be re- 
 medied, and the beneficial effects which might be expected to follow 
 from their adoption. 
 
 The want of Church-schools in this neighbourhood is most remark- 
 able. In all the great towns of the district, containing from 10,000 to 
 30,000 inhabitants, there is seldom more than one ])ublic school for the 
 children of the ])oor, and sometimes none at all ; and even these very 
 coldly and indifferently supported. It well deserves remembrance 
 that in Staleybridge, containing 26,000 inhabitants, the place in which 
 the late disturbances originated, and where only they still remain un- 
 quelled, up to the commencement of the present year there was no 
 public school of any kind. 
 
 The only provision which is really made for the educational wants 
 of the people in these districts is by the Sunday-schools, and as these 
 are very numerous and very popular, it is very important that you 
 should exactly understand their merits and demerits ; and I think that 
 I am giving you a just account of them when I sa}' that we are better 
 with them, than if we were without them — that they are, as generally 
 conducted, productive of some good, alloyed by many aiul serious dis- 
 advantages—that the instruction they supply is insufficient in quantity, 
 part of one day in seven being manifestly too little for the whole busi- 
 ness of secular and religious instruction and moral training — that it is 
 also indifferent in quality, the teachers being, with but few exceptions, of 
 the same rank as the children, and almost always miserably ignorant 
 and unsuited for the office. 
 
 The attendance of children and teachers being purely voluntary, 
 there is seldom any efficient discipline, both parties leaving the school 
 for the most trifling causes of complaint. The facility of establishing 
 such institutions, upon which the population depend for all the edu- 
 cation they receive, throws a most powerful instrument into the hands 
 of every description of dissent ; and the difference of system pursued 
 in the management of Church and of dissenting Sunday-schools is such 
 as to cast the balance in favour of the latter. In the Church-schools 
 the children are only taught to read, with a view to their reading the 
 Bible ; they receive no instruction of a secular kind ; the day is other- 
 wise solely employed in the attempt to communicate religious know- 
 ledge, and in attendance at church. 
 
 In the dissenting-schools, on the other hand, a great portion of the 
 day is employed in purely secular instruction — in reading, writing, and 
 arithmetic. The business of the school proceeds all through the time 
 of public worship, and thus both teachers and children are systema- 
 tically practised in the neglect of religious ordinances, and are led to 
 embrace the most erroneous ideas of the obligation and duties of the 
 Sabbath. The young people are brought up without any connexion with
 
 63 
 
 their superiors, and consequently imbibe no lessons of subordination and 
 respect, and equally little of religious knowledge or principle, owing 
 to the utter incapacity of the teachers. When they cease to attend school, 
 they seldom attach themselves to any place of worship, but spend the 
 Sundays in roaming about, or in the beer>shops. In consequence of 
 this defective education, which is, as I have shewn, in some respects of 
 a positively injurious character, and altogether incapable of fortifying 
 them against the evil influences to which they are exposed in the mill, 
 the moral condition of the young men, from fourteen or fifteen to one 
 or two-and-twenty, is exceedingly deplorable : they are almost univer- 
 sally brutal in their manners, obscene in their conversation, vicious in 
 their habits, undutiful to their parents, disrespectful to their superiors, 
 without any just idea of the relative duties of their situation in life. 
 From the influence of agitators and seditious newspapers, the power 
 of reading, which is probably all that they gain by their Sunday-school 
 education, they are generally full of exasperated feeling against their 
 masters, and against all religion and government, which they are 
 taught to consider as the bulwarks of a system of oppression, and by 
 which they feel that an unpleasant restraint is often imposed on the 
 full indulgence of their vicious inclinations. Of such lads, the lawless 
 crowds which lately traversed this county, putting a stop to every 
 species of industrious occupation, and spreading universal confusion 
 and dismay, were mainly composed ; and elements more ripe for any 
 kind of mischief it is hardly possible to imagine. Ou Sundays and 
 holidays, when they are not engaged in the mills, it is a trial of nerve 
 for any respectable person to encounter a gang of these fellows, and 
 most offensive to hear the language made use of by them, and fre- 
 quently addressed to young females of the same age. The only pos- 
 sible means which 1 can see of remedying this state of things is an 
 effective system of daily instruction, continued to a much longer 
 period than is at present required by law. The factory children 
 attending school two hours a day until thirteen, which is at present all 
 that is required, cannot be expected in that time to acquire sufficient 
 information and principle to guide them in life, especially in the midst 
 of the abounding evils in principle and example to which they are in 
 these districts continually exposed. If the Legislature could be induced 
 to extend the educational period, we might hope to be able to impart 
 to them a sufficiency of formation and fixity of principle. It might 
 be necessary to follow up such a measure by an additional grant of 
 money for the erection of school-houses ; but, generally speaking, I 
 am inclined to think that sufficient accommodation could be aff'orded 
 for this purpose by the buildings already used as Sunday-schools, 
 which, for the most part, lie idle during the whole week ; and the 
 numbers whose attendance would be thus secured would very nearly, 
 if not altogether, render the schools self-supporting.
 
 G4 
 
 The grand obstacle to such a measure would arise from the pre- 
 judice of the mill-owners, who would object to any curtailment of the 
 hours of labour. Having- also, in many cases, received their own 
 education entirely at Sunday-schools, they have no idea of the ineffi- 
 ciency of that system, while its inexpensiveness gives it peculiar fa- 
 vour in their eyes ; they have, consequently, a great dislike to the in- 
 troduction of any system of daily instruction. As an instance of the 
 prejudice, which is quite general in this neighbourhood, the mill- 
 owners of would not have permitted the clergyman there 
 
 to have a daily school in a beautiful building, which has lately been 
 
 erected as a Sunday-school by the lord of the soil, but that , 
 
 in granting the site, had wisely inserted a clause into the deed of con- 
 veyance, making it a condition of the grant, that the building to be 
 erected should be always used for that purpose. And in this place 
 some mill-owners gave up their pews in my church, because they 
 could not dissuade me from having daily schools ; and, with a few 
 enlightened exceptions, it is impossible to induce them to contribute 
 to such an object. 
 
 By such alterations in the Factory Act, rendering attendance at 
 school compulsory until a more advanced age, and by such assistance 
 as circumstances might render necessary for the provision and main- 
 tenance of schools, I believe that a most beneficial change might be 
 soon effected in the moral condition of the people, and, at least 
 under present circumstances, more good accomplished than by any 
 other means whatsoever. In taking any measures for the improve- 
 ment of these districts, it is to be hoped that the Government will 
 bear in mind the distinctive tendencies of dissent and churchmanship, 
 as fully developed during the late disturbances. 
 
 The conduct of the church-going operative has been, generally 
 speaking, beyond all praise : they suffered as severely as others from the 
 distresses of the times, and were as anxious for an increase of wages ; 
 but during the period of disturbance they manifested no sympathy, and 
 took no part in the measures which were adopted by others to gain it, 
 and cheerfully and loyally answered to the call which was made upon 
 the well-ordered and peaceable portion of the population to enrol them- 
 selves as special constables for the preservation of property and order. 
 The influence of the Church may be described as the only element of 
 good which flourishes in these districts. The old methodist body, 
 whose members come nearest to churchmen in the loyalty of their 
 sentiments, is rapidly passing away, its people being absorbed by the 
 new connexion, which is constructed upon a completely radical basis, 
 and notoriously infected with Chartist feeling and principles, and the 
 most numerous of all the sects in this neighbourhood. The strong and 
 just association between loyalty and churchmanship which prevail in 
 the minds of the people, was shewn by an incident which occurred here
 
 65 
 
 the other day. As the persons selected as special constables marched 
 into the market-place to be sworn, the shout of execration which arose 
 from the Chartist mob which lined the streets was, " These are the 
 Churchmen ! " And the influence of the Church is not only discernible 
 in inducing the operative class to bear their privations with patience 
 and Christian fortitude, and in times of public disturbance to throw 
 their weight upon the side of order and good government, but it is also 
 to be traced in its effects upon the conduct and character of the masters ; 
 those mill-owners who belong to the Church being, as cannot be denied, 
 almost universally better and kinder masters than any other. By their 
 intercourse with the clergy, whose minds are rendered liberal by edu- 
 cation, and the contemplations peculiar to their calling, they catch a 
 tone of sentiment and generous feeling, which, but for this association, 
 they would never dream of. In a state of society such as exists in 
 these districts, where are none of the regular degrees of rank by which 
 the highest and lowest classes are linked together — in districts like 
 these, where society resolves itself into two classes only, the employer 
 and the employed, it is impossible to estimate aright the blessing of the 
 Church, which collects them into a common house of prayer, and, as 
 fellow-worshippers, unites them insensibly with each other, while she 
 seeks to bring them all to God, and places her minister in the midst, a 
 common friend and mediator, not only in the house of prayer, but in 
 the daily intercourse of life, to teach them their duties to each other, 
 to be a channel through which the bounty of the rich may flow to the 
 relief of the poor, and the link by which, according to God's appoint- 
 ment, both may be bound together in the golden chain of churchman- 
 ship and Christian love. The effect of dissent is to separate these two 
 classes from each other, and, in addition to the many others which 
 exist, to introduce another source of discordant feeling. Its influence 
 upon religion is also very fatal : it causes the mass of the people to regard 
 holy things with a familiarity which ultimately leads to a neglectful or 
 contemptuous feeling. In these districts, as I believe I have already 
 stated to you, principles unrestrained by any of the neutralising in- 
 fluences belonging to a better-organised state of society, which often 
 hide their real tendencies from observation, march on to their legiti- 
 mate results with such rapidity, that even the most superficial observer 
 cannot fail to mark the certain progress of the feelings engendered by 
 the system of dissent, from irreverence into infidelity, and from seces- 
 sion into sedition. But let us have a law extending the period of 
 education, as I have said, and let the Church have a due measure of 
 assistance in carrying out the objects of the law, and I have no doubt 
 that she will be able to remunerate the Government and the country, 
 bv creating a well-ordered, intelligent, and religious class of operatives, 
 sufficiently numerous to leaven the whole mass of the people, and to 
 
 E
 
 66 
 
 prevent the recurrence of periods of disorder and danger, such as we 
 cannot otherwise possibly escape. 
 
 I shall conclude this letter (in which I have taken the liberty of 
 stating my own impressions on the subjects referred to in your circular, 
 just as they have occurred to me, and from which I hope you may be 
 able to gather something suitable to your purpose) with a quotation 
 from a speech of Lord John Russell's, delivered in his place in parlia- 
 ment in the year 1839, after the Chartist rising which took place that 
 year :— 
 
 " There are, in the manufacturing districts, very large masses of people 
 who have grown up in a state of society which it is both lamentable 
 and appalling to contemplate. They have not grown up among the 
 concomitants of an ordinary state of society, under the hand of early 
 instruction, with places of worship to attend, with their opinions of 
 property moulded by seeing it devoted to charitable and social objects, 
 with a fair and gradual subordination of ranks, but it is in many cases 
 a society necessarily composed of the working classes with the few 
 persons who employ their labour, but with whom they have little other 
 connexion, and unhappily receiving, neither in schools nor places of 
 worship, that religious and moral instruction which is necessary to knit 
 together the inhabitants and classes of a great country." 
 
 When this speech was made, it was successful in procuring an exten- 
 sion of the military force required to repress disorder. I wish it might 
 be heard again for the better purpose of procuring an extension of the 
 moral force which is needful to remove the cause of such disorders. I 
 shall only add to this a passage from the speech of a Chartist agitator of 
 the name of Brophy, which I took down as it fell from his own lips 
 while addressing a meeting of some thousand persons. After some 
 observations on the laxity of female virtue in manufacturing districts, 
 and the prevalence of intemperance and other vicious habits among the 
 men, he stated, from Wade's History of the Working Classes, that 
 from 1805 to 1830, the annual amount of convictions for crime had 
 increased from four thousand to twenty thousand cases ; and this, he 
 said, " was the fault of the aristocracy and the mill-owners, who had 
 neglected to provide the people with sufficient means of moral im- 
 provement, and would form an item of that great account which they 
 should one day be called upon to render to a people indignant at the 
 discovery of their own debasement." This passage, for the accuracy of 
 which I can vouch, having taken down the words as they were spoken, 
 I think, and so perhaps may you, is not unworthy of higher ears than 
 those for which it was intended. Most heartily wishing you success in 
 the good work in which you are engaged, 
 
 I remain, Rev. and dear Sir, very faithfully yours,
 
 Q7 
 
 P.S. At several of the Chartist meetings I lately witnessed, the pro- 
 ceedings were opened like meetings for worship, with singing a hymn, 
 and the Bible was largely quoted in support of infidel and Jacobin prin- 
 ciples by persons who either have been, or are, preachers and school- 
 masters. The first day the mills were stopped, a body of five hundred 
 girls, belonging to the dissenting Sunday-schools at Oldham, marched 
 at the head of the rioters, singing their school-hymns. Surely some 
 strong measures are required to rescue religion from such mockery, 
 and to take the education and formation of the principles of the people 
 out of such unworthy hands. Since attention has been directed to the 
 law by which factory children are compelled to attend school for two 
 hours per diem, so that it is no longer a complete dead letter, and 
 certificates of attendance cannot be obtained while the children are 
 really at work, an almost universal disposition prevails among the 
 masters to discontinue the employment of children until the schooling 
 age is over, and thus we are in a great measure deprived of the pros- 
 pects which the due improvement of that law seemed to offer. With- 
 out some measure such as I have stated, we may detach some splinters, 
 but the great mass of ignorance, evil principle, and ill-feeling, will re- 
 main unbroken. The people are at present very anxious for a ten-hours' 
 bill ; and the late disturbances having convinced many of the masters 
 that there is something radically wrong in the present system, have, I 
 know, even among them made many converts to Lord Ashley's views. 
 An immediate application of his proposal to young persons above 13, 
 coupled with a clause compelling them to turn the two hours redeemed 
 from labour to a more valuable use, would be a boon of great practical 
 value, and might pave the way for the concession of the whole bill to 
 the wishes of the people, as it would help to ascertain the question now 
 debated, whether a diminution of the hours of labour would injuriously 
 affect the interests of trade in competition with foreigners or not. Of 
 its moral effect there can be little question, and the impression among 
 many of the more enlightened manufacturers now is, that, whatever be 
 its effect upon trade. Lord Ashley's bill must, upon considerations of 
 far higher moment, be made law. Whether or not my proposition is 
 feasible or worthy of attention, I must leave to others to decide. 
 
 No. IX. 
 
 Qth September, 1842. 
 Dear Sir, — The population now under my care is about 10,000, 
 without any daily school for the gratuitous or cheap education of the 
 children of the poor. The accommodation for our Church Sunday- 
 school has also been very inadequate to the population. 
 
 e2
 
 G8 
 
 What has been the effect of this state of things on the manners and 
 conduct of the people ? A more rude, insubordinate, and violent 
 population is not to be found in the country. We have, indeed, ob- 
 tained an unhappy notoriety for these characteristics. 
 
 During the recent insurrection, injury to person and property was 
 prevented by the authorities yielding to the will of the insurgents. 
 
 Such an impulse has been given during the last twelve years to 
 democratic influence, that I am convinced nothing but the principles 
 and practice inculcated by the Church can check our onward progress 
 to revolution. But it will require many years to unteach the erroneous 
 and dangerous lessons which the people have learnt during the past 
 dozen years ; and it is the Church only that professes to unteach them. 
 
 Though dissent appears to have extensive prevalence among the 
 manufacturing operatives, yet the numbers who profess it upon prin- 
 ciple are small in comparison with the mass ; and 1 am of opinion that, 
 by well-directed and liberally-sustained efforts, the education of a 
 large majority of the poor might soon be brought under the direction 
 of the Church. 
 
 The wealthy members of the Church would find their interest in 
 making generous sacrifices for the attainment of this all-important 
 object. 
 
 I am, dear Sir, yours very truly. 
 
 No. X. 
 
 Qth September, 1842. 
 
 Rev. and dear Sir, — In 1834 personal inquiry was made from house 
 to house by the perpetual curate of this district and his agents, from 
 which it was ascertained that there were then upwards of 1700 children 
 of our poor receiving either no education, or at best but an inefficient 
 and interrupted one, from the want or fluctuation of means on the part 
 of the parents. 
 
 Efforts were shortly afterwards made to build National Schools for 
 700 children. 
 
 After sermons preached, grants voted by the Treasury and the 
 National Society, and applications made from house to house in the parish, 
 we found our funds several hundreds of pounds short of the sum indis- 
 pensably necessary for the building : and so I believe we must have 
 remained, and the parish have been left with means of education for 
 only 486 children, including Church and Dissenting schools, but for the 
 favourable crisis of the British Association meeting here, at which time 
 .£700 were realized. By these means our schools were erected and
 
 69 
 
 brought into operation ; but we have not yet been able to raise an 
 income equal to our expenditure ; so that we are still struggling with 
 difficulties. And great as our difficulties have been in building, and 
 are now in supporting, our schools, I do not think they either have 
 been or are so great as they must be in many towns, in which the mass 
 of the population is poorer than it is even in ours. 
 
 Our National Schools were built in order to provide for the educa- 
 tional wants of the children of the poor in a population of between 
 13 and 14,000 ; but now, by the last census in 1841, it appears that the 
 population for which we have to provide has risen in numbers to above 
 23,000 ; that is, our population has increased nearly 10,000 in ten 
 years : and we find that there are at least two districts of the parish, in 
 each of which there is a considerable population remote from the pre- 
 sent schools, and in which other schools are required. 
 
 In regard to church-accommodation, I may say, that while our whole 
 population is above 23,000, our church-accommodation is under 3000. 
 I must add, that we have the prospect of another chapel being built at 
 no distant period. 
 
 On this state of things I make no comment, but leave the facts to 
 speak for themselves. 
 
 Believe me to remain, Rev. and dear Sir, yours very faithfully, 
 
 No. XI. 
 
 6th August, 1842. 
 My Dear Sir, — The enclosed are the statistics of our church and 
 school accommodation. So lamentable is the state of the former, that 
 we cannot take our children to church. We profess to bring them 
 up as Churchmen, but, after all, are constrained to let them stray 
 from us.* 
 
 I remain yours very truly, 
 
 No. XII. 
 
 29/A August. 
 Rev. and dear Sir, — I have observed during the late outbreak, in- 
 dependently of other reasons, that nothing but Church-education can 
 
 * From the return enclosed it appeared that six or seven thousand children were 
 receiving instruction in National and Church Schools, while the whole number of 
 free sittings was only 4574. The free sittings, therefore, would have been inade- 
 quate, although the whole had been set apart for the children, to the entire exclu- 
 sion of adults.
 
 70 
 
 fortify the minds of our vast and excitable population against the sug- 
 gestions of wicked and disloyal men. 
 
 I found no sympathy with the rioters among the Church-people, nor 
 do I know one person in my congregation who joined them. Several 
 young persons who had been educated in our National Schools acted 
 a bold, decisive, and Christian part in their respective spheres of influ- 
 ence during the disturbances, much to our satisfaction. 
 
 My large School is full on Sundays, and well-attended on week-days: 
 we want more schools, but they cannot be raised merely by voluntary 
 subscriptions. I come, therefore, to the conclusion, that Government 
 ought to be the builders of schools for the inculcation of Church-prin- 
 ciples in the true sense of the word, as on them the stability of the 
 monarchy and constitution mainly rests. I hesitate not to say, that if 
 we had double the number of schools, we could, in a year or two, have 
 double the number of children ; for after trying dissenting schools, 
 multitudes take refuge with us. I could fill a volume with details 
 of cases of this kind ; and surely nothing speaks more in favour of our 
 system. 
 
 Believe me to be very faithfully yours. 
 
 No. XIII. 
 
 lUh September, 1842. 
 
 Dear Sir, — I am decidedly of opinion that the Church has been a 
 strong bulwark to the state during the late outbreak. In this neigh- 
 bourhood, I am happy to say, though the turn-out was commenced 
 a few miles from us, not one Churchman has taken an active part in 
 promoting it. I had service in the church twice in the week when the 
 greatest excitement prevailed here, to keep, if possible, the people from 
 the various meetings ; and many seemed thankful to attend. 
 
 My position here is a difficult and a delicate one : the interest of the 
 Established Church had been greatly neglected for many years, and, in 
 consequence, the New-Connexion Methodists had become a formidable 
 body. With us they are quite political religionists ; and recently the 
 wealthiest among them have become violent political partisans, and 
 manifest a great disinclination to promote any thing attached to the 
 Established Church, however much it might benefit the neighbour- 
 hood, their own work-people included ; though one of the most influ- 
 ential of them has frequently acknowledged that " his best hands are 
 the Church-people." 
 
 We had, unfortunately, fixed the Sunday after the general turn-out 
 for having collections in aid of the funds for the erection of our new
 
 71 
 
 school ; but not one of the parties already named came to contribute, 
 and the operatives, being out of work, could not give ; so that, instead 
 of raising a considerable sum of money, as we had hoped, the collec- 
 tions fell short of 30/. It is quite evident that their opinion is, that so 
 long as the Church holds her influence over the minds of the mass of 
 the people, it is impossible for them to overawe the Government, or 
 bring about any great political convulsion. 
 
 Our old school-rooms are crowded to excess, so that I am very 
 wishful to have the new schools completed, but have not hitherto been 
 able to raise sufficient funds ; if it be compatible with your plans 
 to render us a little more assistance, I shall feel exceedingly thankful. 
 I have the honour to be, dear Sir, your obedient servant, 
 
 No. XIV. 
 
 Augusts], 1842. 
 Dear Sir, — To build schools, and endow churches, is the only way 
 to prevent a similar outbreak ; but as for getting public subscriptions 
 to supply such an extensive want, it is quite impossible. I think it my 
 duty to inform you in regard to myself and my schools, that I have 
 left no stone unturned to get them out of debt, and, after all, I am 
 made responsible for 100/., which has been contracted by hiring mas- 
 ters at a greater sum than the funds of our school woul3 allow, in order 
 to make my school what every clergj^man wishes such an institution to 
 be who is faithful to his charge. I am now endeavouring to extricate 
 myself from such an encumbrance by the annexed appeal, but am quite 
 uncertain whether it will succeed. 
 
 I am, dear Sir, yours very truly, 
 
 No. XV. 
 
 October 3, 1842. 
 
 My dear Sir, — I grieve to say, that since the church here was 
 built, in 1636 (with the exception of a gallery erected in 1826), no 
 provision whatever has been made for extending the borders of the 
 church. 
 
 The church will accommodate above 1100 people ; think of this for 
 nearly 16,000 inhabitants! 
 
 In 1839, when I came to the place, the schools (Sunday), which had 
 been established about ten years, contained about 220 scholars ; now
 
 72 
 
 they contain 700 scholars, and 08 unpaid teachers. And it is a fact 
 worthy of remembrance, that not one parent of the Church Sunday- 
 scholars took any part in, or was present at, any of the tumultuous 
 meetings which have been lately held in this parish and township. 
 Believe me, my dear Sir, yours very sincerely. 
 
 No. XVI. 
 
 September 2, 1842. 
 Rev. and dear Sir, — In my parish there are no resources from 
 which sufficient endowments might be raised for our schools, nor for 
 building three churches, the want for which becomes more visible every 
 year ; and unless the state comes forward to discharge its duty towards 
 God and man, neither government nor the country must complain that 
 a people left almost to themselves should feel constantly inclined to 
 brood over their miseries, and, as a natural consequence, violate the 
 principles of order, equity, and religion. 
 
 I am, dear Sir, yours very truly. 
 
 No. XVII. 
 
 September 19, 1842. 
 Rev. and dear Sir, — Such is the present state of this densely- 
 peopled and deplorably-ignorant and immoral district — one church 
 without endowment, accommodating 1800 people, for a population of 
 12,000, with one clergyman to labour among them, upon a stipend of 
 120/. a year, and two schools ! There are, to be sure, Sunday-schools at 
 the dissenting chapels ; but their efficiency is very doubtful, to say the 
 least. And is it, then, my dear sir, at all wonderful either that the 
 place is overrun with Ranters, Methodists, Baptists, Latter-day saints, 
 and other schismatics ; or that the people should have been so easily 
 duped by Chartist and Socialist demagogues, as to leave their work 
 and assemble in riotous multitudes ? The gross ignorance which pre- 
 vails is quite sufficient to account for it ; and accordingly, one hamlet 
 in ray district was a selected spot for Chartist meetings ; and probably 
 but for the admirable and indefatigable exertions of the neighbouring 
 magistrates, scenes would have taken place here similar to those wit- 
 nessed in the potteries. In such a district as this, there ought to be at 
 least three well-endowed churches, and half-a-dozen good schools ; but 
 how these things are to be accomplished, unless Government takes up
 
 73 
 
 the matter, I know oot. It is heart-rending to think of such a state of 
 things in a Christian country like ours. 1 have had sufficient expe- 
 rience of the difficulty of raising private subscriptions ; and yet, in 
 these most destitute places, the clergyman is generally the only person 
 who can or will undertake these things, the people being all engaged 
 in business. This, however, my dear sir, is, I am aware, only one case 
 out of many nearly similar ; and therefore I am convinced that, unless 
 something is done, things must go on from bad to worse, as the popu- 
 lation increases, and what the end may be, it is not easy to predict. 
 I remain, dear Sir, yours very faithfully, 
 
 No. XVIII. 
 
 September 19, 1842. 
 
 Rev. Sir, — While we have been endeavouring to provide for the 
 spiritual and educational wants of our manufacturing population in our 
 own immediate locality, by subscriptions for building additional churches 
 and schools attached to them, their usefulness is greatly impeded by 
 the want of even a decent maintenance for the ministers. It is not 
 probable, nor even possible, that this can be obtained by further volun- 
 tary contributions. 
 
 I have every reason to believe that amongst those ^ho are brought 
 within the instruction of the Church, there are not to be found any 
 who, during the late disturbances, have endangered the peace of the 
 country, or who have not been found ready to maintain it. 
 
 I have been for nearly thirty-two years a minister in this manufac- 
 turing town, where dissent is strong, though not dominant ; and I have 
 ever found the members of our Church to be the most desirous to live 
 in peace, as true and loyal subjects of the crown, and " meddling not 
 with those' that are given to change." 
 
 Believe me to be, Rev. Sir, yours faithfully. 
 
 No. XIX. 
 
 September 6, 1842. 
 
 Rev. and dear Sir, — A general and uninterrupted acquaintance of 
 nine years' standing with almost the entire of the manufacturing dis- 
 tricts of Yorkshire, and a small portion of those in Lancashire, enables 
 me to form a tolerably correct opinion as to their condition, both in a
 
 74 
 
 religious and political point of view ; and I hesitate not to repeat, 
 what I have frequently stated before, that the only mode of rescuing 
 these quarters of the kingdom from that anarchy which every day's 
 experience proves to be closer and closer at hand, is, to educate the 
 rising generation in the principles of the Church. 
 
 Why do I mention the rising generation ? Because, in the vast 
 majority of cases, it is next to an impossibility to effect any beneficial 
 alteration in their parents, who have been allowed, if baptized, to grow 
 up ignorant of their baptismal engagements. The great bulk of the 
 grown population attend no place of religious worship whatever ; and 
 the Sabbath, if not spent in employments absolutely sinful, is lounged 
 away in utter unconcern about the things of eternity. Our great hope 
 of being extensively useful is placed in the rising generation. 
 
 And why do I nam'e the Church ? I pass by those reasons which 
 should induce us, being Churchmen ourselves, to educate the offspring 
 of the poor in the principles of our holy religion. What I would espe- 
 cially urge is, that those who have been brought up in Church-prin- 
 ciples, and have been subsequently regular in their attendance on her 
 services, are not only devoted to her, but are loyal to their sovereign 
 and the authorities of the land. And in proof thereof, amongst the 
 various emeutes and other acts of political insubordination which it has 
 been my lot to witness, with but a solitary exception, and that in the 
 case of a man whose sanity has been questioned, and moving in a better 
 sphere of life, I have never known a regular attendant on the services 
 of the Church to be directly or indirectly implicated. This has been 
 remarkably the case in the late insurrectionary movements, which have 
 extended through so large a portion of the kingdom. 
 
 The question now arises. How is Church-education to be afforded ? 
 The chief impediments to be surmounted are these : 1st, An inability 
 to obtain pecuniary aid, owing to the poverty of the district. This 
 you know to be the case in an overgrown and very destitute village 
 within my own chapelry. 2dly, Where the principal inhabitants, or a 
 majority of them, are dissenters. 3dly, Where the greater part of the 
 wealthier persons are professedly Churchmen, there is not unfre- 
 quenlly a reluctance on the part of the adjacent landed proprietors to 
 contribute, for this, among other reasons, that the expenses of such 
 schools ought to be defrayed by those manufacturing projmetors 
 who have been the means of so much augmenting the original num- 
 bers. In all these instances, the rising generation has been neglected, 
 and their welfare, both temporal and eternal, almost entirely over- 
 looked. 
 
 Government aid, therefore, is indispensable. My earnest recom- 
 mendation is, that no time be lost, but that every exertion be made to 
 propagate those principles throughout our populous districts, which 
 alone can promote the real temporal welfare of their deplorably igno-
 
 75 
 
 rant and lamentably neglected inhabitants, and give them the prospect 
 of a blissful eternity. 
 
 I am, Rev. and dear Sir, yours very faithfully, 
 
 No. XX. 
 
 September 7, 1842. 
 
 Rev. and dear Sir, — Crippled as our Church is for want of re- 
 sources in the densely-peopled manufacturing districts, without a liberal 
 public grant she cannot cope with her increasing difficulties. Private 
 benevolence has been strained to the uttermost, at least I can vouch 
 for it in my own extensive and populous parish, comprising nearly 
 14,000 souls. Our only church at present contains sittings for 800, of 
 which but 36 are free; the mass of the poor therefore are utterly un- 
 able to profit (as I have every reason to believe they would) by the 
 ministrations of the Church. By private subscriptions, and the assist- 
 ance of the church-building societies, I have nearly completed a second 
 church, within a mile of the town, to accommodate 450 persons and 
 300 Sunday-scholars. My impression is, that two more churches, 
 judiciously located in crowded districts, would be required, to afford 
 an adequate supply to our unhappy, ignorant, and demoralised popu- 
 lation. 
 
 We are overrun with Chartism and disaffection. I would just men- 
 tion, as an example of what I say, that a Working-Man's Hall, used in 
 the week for Chartist lectures, is opened on Sundays, and that, in this 
 so-called Sunday-school, 300 poor children are initiated into infidel and 
 seditious principles ; while adults, both men and women, attend to hear 
 inflammatory political discourses. Many of our friends in the south, 
 as I found on a recent visit to London, have no idea of the extent to 
 which this poison is instilled into the minds of the rising generation. 
 Well-conducted National Schools I conceive to be the best antidote ; 
 but here again private and local efforts are almost exhausted. I should 
 proceed to erect one immediately, in connexion with our new church, 
 if the needful funds were at hand. 
 
 I remain, dear Sir, yours very faithfully, 
 
 No. XXI. 
 
 August 30, 1842. 
 Rev. and dear Sir, — Within my charge, which is a parochial 
 chapelry, there certainly is an inadequate supply of religious instruc- 
 tion. On this head, I need only observe, that the five townships which
 
 76 
 
 belong to my church extend over a tract of country forming a circle 
 of more than five and a half miles in diameter, and containing a popu- 
 lation of 4,200 inhabitants ; while the profits of my incumbency, in- 
 cluding the value of the parsonage, amount to about '200/. per annum. 
 Yet, through the blessing of God on the religious means with which I 
 am able to supply my people, — that is, four Sunday services, three at 
 the church and one in a Sunday-school, and two week-day services in 
 different parts of my chapelry, — a thorough and complete Church-of- 
 England ascendancy is maintained throughout the district. We have 
 no separatist body from the Church of England, except a small, old, 
 endowed Roman Catholic chapel ; and during the late depression in 
 trade, our population have borne their privations in a manner highly 
 creditable to their Church-principles and profession. About one-half 
 of our population is employed in trade and mechanics; and while many 
 of these have not been able to earn more than eight or nine shillings a 
 week each, for the support of a family of as many persons, I have 
 never witnessed among them any thing in the shape of disaffection to 
 their employers, or impatience at their lot. As for insubordination or 
 union with the insubordinate, such an idea seems not to have entered 
 into their minds. 
 
 1 am, Rev. and dear Sir, yours very truly, 
 
 No. XXII. 
 
 August 29, 1842. 
 
 Sir, — In this chapelry, which, upon the whole, is more orderly and 
 better disposed than some others in the neighbourhood, — a circum- 
 stance to be attributed to old endowed schools and a moderate suffi- 
 ciency of church-accommodation, — there was clearly a preponderance 
 of feeling against the turn-out, although unprincipled and evil-disposed 
 men were not wanting to take part in the revolt. 
 
 I have come in contact with some of the rioters, and could, if neces- 
 sary, detail at length their views and objects. One man said, "The 
 Bible, from one end to the other, breaks the spirit of liberty." An- 
 other said, " The time has come when the property that God has given 
 to all must be divided amongst all : the public will have it so, and no 
 one can stop the force of public opinion," &c. 
 
 A favourable opening now presents itself for an application to 
 Government for aid to build churches and schools ; and if the present 
 administration does not aid the noble efforts making and already made 
 by a large body of the intelligent and well-disposed classes throughout 
 the kingdom, deep and universal will be the feeling of disappointment. 
 I have the honour to be, Rev. Sir, your faithful and obedient servant.
 
 77 
 
 No. XXIII. 
 
 August 30, 1842. 
 My dear Sir, — In this place, for the last nine months, meetings 
 have been held almost weekly in the schools connected with dissenting 
 chapels, both of Chartists and the Anti-Corn-Law League ; and the 
 clergy and aristocracy have always been denounced as the most un- 
 feeling tyrants on the face of the earth. Class-legislation was stated 
 as being prevalent in Parliament, &c. I have often asked myself the 
 question, on witnessing this scene, where it would end ; and the late 
 disturbances have been the consequence of such meetings. As a 
 magistrate, I called a public meeting of the inhabitants, to take into 
 consideration the best plan of preserving the public peace, &c. The 
 Church-people universally attended, and cheerfully enrolled themselves 
 as special constables. The ministers of the various dissenting deno- 
 minations absented themselves, not one appearing by his presence to 
 countenance order, though constant in their attendance upon those 
 meetings where the clergy and aristocracy were denounced. A few of 
 the dissenters attended and supported us, but very few compared with 
 the whole body. I am happy to say, that the teachers of Church 
 Sunday-schools universally attended and became constables, and no- 
 thing could induce them to attend any of the meetings as stated above. 
 They kept entirely aloof, and patiently waited for the improvement of 
 trade. I am happy to add, that the Wesleyan MethocHsts have gene- 
 rally gone with the Church in support of order. 
 
 I remain yours very truly. 
 
 No. XXIV. 
 
 September 1, 1842. 
 
 Rev. and dear Sir, — Loss of time in this paramount business (the 
 education of the people) is loss of every thing : 10,000/. expended 
 now is better, more truly economical, than 100,000/. after an interval 
 of several years, during which the progress of demoralisation has been 
 advancing in an arithmetical ratio. 
 
 I hope that something now is likely to be done in good earnest by 
 Government. If we wait till the wants of the country are met by 
 voluntary contributions, we may procrastinate till moral disease has 
 spread like a gangrene through the vitals of the present generation. 
 It is not yet too late to begin ; but the least further postponement of 
 strong measures will be the entire sacrifice of opportunity.
 
 78 
 
 We have indeed been placed in a crucible of assay during the late 
 riotous movements ; and I venture to ascribe our deliverance, in no 
 small degree, to the prevalence of Church-principles. 
 
 I have the honour to be, Rev. and dear Sir, yours respectfully, 
 
 No. XXV. 
 
 Sejoicmber 6, 1842. 
 
 Dear Sir, — My recent correspondence with you, respecting the 
 erection of our school, will have made you acquainted with the spiritual 
 and educational destitution of that part of my township. A popu- 
 lation of 1500 souls, in an isolated position, dwell together without any 
 provision for their moral wants. The sad consequences have long been 
 apparent. In that part, more than any other, of my district has the 
 spirit of political disaffection and of open infidelity prevailed. There 
 Chartism, and even Socialism, met with a ready reception, and have 
 been cherished and retained to the present hour, although both have 
 been discountenanced and expelled from other places adjacent. But 
 
 the soil of was well prepared for the seeds which revolutionists 
 
 and infidels would scatter, and, accordingly, there they have taken deep 
 root. Nor, judging from the spirit of the adult population at the pre- 
 sent time, can we hope speedily to eradicate these evil principles. 
 The people have too long done what is " right in their own eyes " — 
 they have had the spirit of independence, or rather of rebellion, too 
 often strengthened by the sanctions of religion, to listen to the faithful 
 enforcement of doctrines and duties opposed to their natural and che- 
 rished dispositions. The work indeed must be arduous ; we expect it 
 to be so ; we feel it so at present. May God give us a spirit of pati- 
 ence and perseverance ! 
 
 Our chief hope, however, must be with the young. Our school is in 
 operation ; but the salary which the master receives is trifling, though 
 it is all that, out of my small income, I can afford. Mill-owners attach 
 little importance to moral and religious training. As long as a master 
 can teach reading, writing, and arithmetic well enough for the ordinary 
 duties of life, the direction given to the mind itself is a matter of no 
 great concern to them. They will, in consequence, contribute nothing 
 for the training of a master. If Government would see loyal subjects, 
 they ought to do something for us in these manufacturing districts, to 
 prepare a constant supply of efficient teachers. 
 
 Besides the school near my church, I have equal need of another in 
 a neighbouring township, where a large population is growing up, and 
 where no church or school exists. But, after the difficulty which I 
 have experienced in obtaining funds for the completion of the first
 
 79 
 
 school, I dare not venture to begin a second. Indeed, the anxiety I 
 have had in collecting the money necessary to pay off our long-standing 
 debt, has materially affected my health. And yet, if this township be 
 unprovided with spiritual and educational means of profitable instruc- 
 tion, there are those who will be busy in giving what is injurious ; so 
 that, however much I may be labouring to sow good seed in one part 
 of the field, the enemy will be sowing tares in the other. 1 am con- 
 vinced, therefore, that something more must be done, if the country is 
 to be generally improved in its religion and loyalty, than ever will be 
 done by mere voluntary contributions. The contrast in the conduct of 
 those parts of our parish where education has been supplied, with those 
 where it has been neglected, sufficiently shows how much depends on a 
 right course of training. Indeed, to the efforts which have of late 
 years been made to instruct our multitudinous population in the manu- 
 facturing districts, contracted as those efforts have been, must be 
 ascribed our late preservation, when thousands of workmen crowded 
 our villages, and had our houses wholly in their power. The answer 
 which is given in our catechism to the question, " What is your duty 
 towards your neighbour?" has of late years been inculcated in its 
 spirit upon great numbers in this part of the country, and I attribute to 
 its salutary influence the evident restraint under which the people acted 
 during the late outbreak. Even our enemies testify that the Church 
 has been the barrier that has stopped the irruption. Nor can there be 
 any reasonable doubt that, in proportion as her lessons are more exten- 
 sively imparted, we shall have peace and order within our borders, and 
 religion and piety amongst our people. 
 
 I am, dear Sir, yours faithfully, 
 
 No. XXVI. 
 
 September 13, 1842. 
 
 Dear Sir,— The population of this parish was, in 1825, nearly 24,000, 
 but has increased to above 37,000. Children are born, grow up, and 
 die, without being ever even baptized into a Christian Church. This 
 is the case now more than ever. Among the rioters sent to jail from 
 this neighbourhood, two were never baptized ; three were deprived of 
 their parents early in life— their spiritual and educational wants were 
 entirely neglected. If I had 3000/. placed at my command, I could 
 find the remainder to build three churches, to contain about 600 sittings 
 each, in the districts where they are most required. 
 
 Should the population of these manufacturing districts increase for 
 the next fifteen or twenty years at the same rate as it does at present, 
 and should the people be left to grow up destitute of the knowledge of
 
 80 
 
 their duty towards God and man, as thousands of them do at present, it 
 will require an immense army to preserve any thing like peace in the 
 country. 
 
 I am, dear Sir, yours very faithfully, 
 
 No. XXVII. 
 
 August SI, 1842. 
 
 My dear Sir, — The total population of this district may be com- 
 puted at 10,000. There is every probability that this number will be 
 doubled in five or six years ; and that, when the surface is completely 
 covered with buildings, there will not be fewer than 35 or 40,000 
 inhabitants. 
 
 Now, for educating the children of this vast and daily increasing 
 population, there is no provision whatsoever in the district — there is no 
 school of any kind under the management of the ministers of the 
 Church ; the only school within a reasonable distance being one situated 
 in an adjoining district. But this school, though a large one, does not 
 supply more accommodation than its increasing neighbourhood will 
 require ; and the number of children attending it from this district is 
 inconsiderable. 
 
 Now the simple reason why a school has not been long ago provided 
 is, our utter inability to raise the necessary funds ; nor is there any 
 probability of this being effected : rather does the probability of raising 
 a sum sufficient for that purpose diminish with the increase of the 
 population : and for this plain reason, that the value of the land, which 
 was 10^. the square yard twelve or fourteen years ago, is now 30s. or 
 40s., and is yearly on the increase, while the neighbourhood is becoming 
 every day less respectable. Thus we are in a worse position than the 
 poorest village, where the landed proprietor generally gives the site, as 
 well as a liberal donation, for the school ; while we have no resident 
 gentry whatever, the only respectable houses being now deserted, or 
 let very much below their value. 
 
 Now I cannot suppose a case in which there is a more urgent call for 
 public assistance than the one here detailed — a case by no means rare 
 in large towns. Indeed, it furnishes a fair illustration of the working 
 of a very common evil, which cripples the exertions of those who are 
 desirous of providing the working people with the means of instruction. 
 Believe me to be very truly yours,
 
 81 
 
 » 
 
 No. XXVIII. 
 
 August 30, 1842. 
 My dear Sir, — Destitution to a great extent exists in this town ; 
 and I am grieved to say, that there is little or no disposition on the part 
 of the cotton-spinners to promote the spiritual welfare of those whom 
 they have, to advance their own temporal interests, brought into the 
 town. It is their apathy which acts as the chief obstacle to our effect- 
 ing any permanent good ; and so long as this indifference lasts, I see no 
 prospect of our being able to erect schools and churches, the former of 
 which are much needed in one part of this populous place. That a 
 good and friendly feeling exists towards the Established Church I have 
 no hesitation in declaring. In no portion of my flock is this more 
 strikingly shewn than in the females belonging to our Sunda^'^-schools, 
 which they continue to attend considerably after the time when they 
 are supposed to be no longer under parental authority. 
 
 I have the honour to remain, dear Sir, vour faithful servant, 
 
 No. XXIX. 
 
 September 5, 1842. 
 My dear Sir, — Most of our new churches have hitheato been so 
 slenderly endowed, that they pass too frequently from one incumbent 
 to another to give any opportunity for exercising their legitimate in- 
 fluence. At the same time, I am prepared to shew, that dissenting 
 chapels, however multiplied, as in the populous townships of this parish, 
 are altogether a failure as to any effective hold on the public mind. 
 Their ministers are far too dependent, even when tolerably well-dis- 
 posed, to possess any weight or authority ; and too often they are ready 
 to lend themselves to any agitation, and, at best, are disaffected to the 
 existing institutions. 
 
 Yours very faithfully. 
 
 No. XXX. 
 
 September 28, 1842. 
 My dear Sir, — Let me request your particular attention to the 
 enclosed paper. What England wants is, a subdivision of her over- 
 grown parishes ; and what she ought to have for that purpose is, a 
 fund for the endowment of new district churches. The Kirk of Scot- 
 land, through the wise liberality of the Legislature, has for years been in 
 possession of such a fund. Let the Church of England now, at last, 
 
 F
 
 82 
 
 receive a similar grant from some corrosponding' source of public 
 revenue ; let the grant be voted by Parliament once for all, as in the 
 case of Scotland, and not year by year to be made annually the subject 
 of a long and angry debate ; and let the amount be in proportion to 
 the population of England and Wales, and their contributions to the 
 public revenue, which are at least six times those of Scotland. The 
 income of several hundred ministers will at once be raised to 150/, a 
 year, and the most urgent cases of spiritual destitution supplied. For 
 the present I confine myself to this one suggestion. 
 
 Always yours very sincerely, 
 
 Statement of the grants voted by Parliament for augmenting small jiarochial 
 stipends in Scotland. 
 
 By the act of Parliament of the .50th Geo. III. c. 84, entitled " An 
 Act for augmenting parochial stipends in certain cases in Scotland," the 
 whole parochial livings in Scotland where the teinds did not amount 
 to 150/. were augmented to that sum. The grant made by Govern- 
 ment for this purpose was 10,000/. a year ; 196 ministers derive benefit 
 from it. The subsequent act of the 5th Geo. IV. c. 72, was passed 
 for the purpose of increasing the allowance to those whose stipends had 
 decreased in consequence of the fall in the price of grain. By this 
 latter act all ministers who had no manse and glebe, and whose stipends 
 did not exceed 150/., and who had no legal claim for manse or glebe, 
 were augmented to 200/. Ministers who have no such legal claim 
 are second ministers of landward parishes, and ministers of towns or 
 burghs with no landward parish attached to them. The grant under 
 this act was 2000/., and the sums in both acts, if not wholly, are now 
 nearly exhausted. 
 
 The sums given to these parish-ministers vary from 51. up to as 
 much as 110/., according as the amount of fund in their respective 
 parishes may be. The provisions secured by the above acts have never 
 been, so far as I am aware, the subject of discussion in Parliament. 
 The whole amount is deducted from the Scottish revenue before it is 
 paid into the exchequer by the receiver-general. The sums paid are, 
 on the whole, stationary ; from a discovery of free teind there is now 
 and then a minister struck off; while, on the other hand, from the 
 discovery of an old valuation, another is put on the list. 
 
 I am not aware of any objections from dissenters. The existence of 
 this fund is, I consider, generally known ; it was considered, at the 
 time of the grant, a great boon to the parochial clergy of Scotland, as 
 it thereby secured that no one should have a less stipend than 150/. 
 exclusive of manse and glebe, and 8/. 8*. Qd. for communion elements. 
 Although the sum to be paid was once fixed, if there happened to be a
 
 83 
 
 fall in the price of grain, in which his stipend was paid, the incumbent 
 is entitled to get every five years such increase as may be required to 
 keep up the standard of his stipend. 
 
 Independent of the regular parochial clergy of Scotland, there are 
 the ministers of the parliamentary Churches of Scotland established by 
 the act of 5 Geo. IV. c. 90, who have a manse and glebe, and draw 
 from Government under that act a stipend of 120/. per annum. 
 
 APPENDIX II. 
 
 It is a task of some difficulty, and of incalculable import- 
 ance, to contrive means of rendering education universal, 
 without superseding voluntary efforts. With this view 
 the following plan is suggested. It is a plan by which 
 local efforts would be effectually stimulated ; which would 
 adapt itself to all cases and circumstances ; would secure 
 the interests of religion without altering the relations of 
 the Privy Council, either to the Church, or to other reli- 
 gious bodies ; would only be expensive in proportion to 
 its success ; and, in case of failure, would offer no impedi- 
 ment to the introduction of another system. 
 
 Rules for the Maintenance of Elementary Schools 
 England and Wales, 
 
 1. That an annual grant be given by the Committee of Privy Council, 
 at the rate of Four Shillings for every Scholar educated in any 
 school under Government inspection, which shall have been reported 
 by the Inspector to be efficiently conducted. 
 
 2. That in the case of Church Schools, the Inspector shall be ap- 
 pointed conformably to the order in Council, dated the 10th day of 
 August, 1840. 
 
 3. That the annual grants shall not be paid to the Managers of Schools, 
 but to the Diocesan Board of Education, which shall be entitled to 
 distribute the amount among Schools under Government inspection 
 within the Diocese, in such a manner and upon such conditions as it 
 may see fit. 
 
 f2
 
 84 
 
 4. That the Diocesan Board shall be so constituted, as fairly to repre- 
 sent the members of the Church, Laity as well as Clergy, within the 
 Diocese. 
 
 5. That similar arrangements shall be made for the appropriation of 
 public grants to schools connected with the British and Foreign 
 School Society, or with any other religious body that now receives 
 assistance from the Parliamentary Vote. 
 
 Upon the system above described, the great object of 
 every Diocesan Board would be to bring all Church 
 Schools for the poor, within the Diocese, under Govern- 
 ment inspection, and into an efficient state, so as to secure 
 the largest possible amount of public aid. In one case, it 
 would say to the School Managers — " Your school has an 
 endowment, or it is situated in a wealthy parish : you are 
 therefore independent of assistance ; but if you open your 
 school to Government inspection, although you gain no 
 pecuniary advantage to your school, you will confer a boon 
 upon the Church ; since this Board will receive at the rate 
 of Four Shillings a year of public money, for every scholar 
 you educate, and be thus enabled to provide the means of 
 education in some necessitous district/' 
 
 In another case, the Board would say — " You have con- 
 sented, for the benefit of the Church, to admit the Go- 
 vernment Inspector. But, unhappily, your school is not 
 in a satisfactory condition. In order to do the Church the 
 service you intend, you must obtain more efficient teach- 
 ers ; and prevail upon parents to send their children more 
 regularly and punctually to school.'' 
 
 In the case of a poor district, for which the renewal of a 
 grant was requested, the Board might have occasion to 
 remonstrate in authoritative terms. "Last year," they 
 might say, "we allowed you Seven Shillings a scholar, 
 but the result has not been what we anticipated. You 
 have allowed your subscriptions to fall off — you have made 
 no collections in church — you still retain the incompetent 
 teachers we complained of— you have taken no measures 
 to secure a better attendance of scholars. If you continue
 
 85 
 
 to disappoint U3 by this want of energy, we shall be under 
 the painful necessity of transferring our grant to another 
 place, where it will be more usefully applied.'^ 
 
 These suggestions, solicitations, and remonstrances of 
 the Diocesan Boards, supported by Episcopal authority, 
 as well as by the advice of competent and duly authorized 
 Inspectors, would, in general, be successful. The rivalry 
 between the Church and other religious bodies would 
 cause the work of popular education to be prosecuted 
 throughout the country with untiring energy, and the 
 Legislature would have reason to be satisfied with a plan 
 which, at the cost of about Half a Million a year, would 
 provide the means of educating in a manner satisfactory 
 to intelUgent Inspectors, no fewer than Two MiUions of 
 children. 
 
 THE END.
 
 LONDON : 
 GILBERT & RTVINGTON, PRINTERS, 
 
 ST. John's square.
 
 By the same Author. 
 
 I. 
 DISSERTATIONS vindicating the CHURCH of ENGLAND 
 
 in respect to some Essential Points of Polity and Doctrine. 
 
 II. 
 VINDICATION of the EPISCOPAL or APOSTOLICAL 
 
 SUCCESSION. 
 %* Extracted from the foregoing Work. 
 
 III. 
 
 MEMOIR of the LIFE and TIMES of the RIGHT HON. 
 
 SIR JOHN SINCLAIR, Bart. 
 
 IV. 
 
 QUESTIONS ILLUSTRATING the CATECHISM of the 
 CHURCH of ENGLAND. 
 
 V. 
 
 QUESTIONS on the ORDERS for MORNING and 
 EVENING PRAYER. 
 
 VI. 
 
 An ESSAY on CHURCH PATRONAGE. 
 
 VII. 
 
 A CHARGE delivered in 1843. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 A CHARGE delivered in 1844.

 
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