r 
 
 y 
 
 Mt 
 
 RfSfM 
 
 
 mmm 
 
 ■ .■^.-
 
 I E) R.AR.Y 
 OF THE 
 U N I VLR^SITY 
 or ILLl NOIS
 
 THE CHUECH OF ENGLAND 
 
 RURAL DISTRICTS; 
 
 BEING 
 
 A REPLY TO THE MIS-STATEMENTS OF "THE 
 ^^ONCONFORMISTr 
 
 FORMING A SUPPLEMENT TO 
 
 THE NATIONAL CHURCH" 
 
 FoK July 1872. 
 
 BY THE REV. A. HUME, LL.D., D.C.L. 
 
 VICAR OF VAUXHALL, LIVERPOOL. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED FOR THE CHURCH DEFENCE INSTITUTION, 
 
 25^ PARLIAME^'T Street, S.W. 
 
 1872.
 
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND 
 
 IN THE 
 
 RURAL DISTRICTS. 
 
 I. Introductory Kemarks. 
 
 When the Sibyl of old offered her nine books to Tarquin, he 
 is said to have rejected them scornfully. Having burned three, 
 she demanded the same price for the remainder, and met with 
 the same reception ; but, when she had burned another three, 
 superstition and mystery effected that for which reason had been 
 powerless. The three were purchased at the price originally 
 asked for the nine. The legend is sufficient to illustrate the 
 well-known fact that the demands of some rise as their cause 
 becomes desperate ; the more thorouglily they are defeated the 
 more loudly they profess their confidence of victory ; and thus 
 the general who led the remains of a beaten army from the 
 " blood-stained ruins " of Sebastopol had the hardihood to assert 
 that Eussia then occupied a position of increased strength. 
 
 There is probably no topic of public interest in connexion 
 with which this course is more commonly pursued than in 
 treating of Church subjects. When the Church of England 
 was in a lethargic condition, those who professed greater purity 
 had little to say of her short- comings, because that w^as the 
 Dissenters' harvest day. But when she rose to a higher sense 
 of her duty, and acted in a manner more worthy of her holy 
 mission, she was opposed ; for then she was felt to be a rival. 
 And when her ministers came to take at least a full share in 
 public duty, were foremost in their efforts to evangelize the 
 poor, and to atone for the neglect of a previous generation, dis- 
 appointment on the part of competing sects gave place to alarm, 
 and alarm to bitterness and deadly opposition. She is opposed 
 for any reason or for its opposite ; because principle is utterly 
 lost sight of, except, perhaps, the one principle mentioned by 
 the poet, that 
 
 'Tis treason to love her and death to defend.
 
 Probably never since the lieforniation has she grown so 
 rapidly as in our own times in the aiiections of tlie people ; for 
 the Church of England is the only religious body in this country 
 that claims the poor for its owai. She has sub-divided her over- 
 grown parishes, enlarged the number of her clergy^ increased 
 house to house visitation, multiplied her occasions for worship, 
 has enlisted new classes of lay agents, both male and female, 
 has built numerous churches and added mission rooms, has 
 economised her resources so as to secure in permanence the 
 services of faithful men, occupies the forefront in prosecuting 
 scientific and sanitary improvements, is prompt to forward 
 temperance, general morality, and education ; and, as a natural 
 result, she has succeeded in bringing back a large number of 
 stray sheep to her fold. 
 
 Nor can it be said that legislation on Church subjects has been 
 neglected. Parliament has given a large amount of attention to 
 them during recent sessions, so that scarcely one elapses now 
 without the passing of tw^o or three Church Acts. It is unneces- 
 sary to refer to these minutely ; we may say generally, however, 
 that they are all in the right direction. They promote liberty of 
 conscience and facility of worship, and they lop off' ancient ex- 
 crescences and abuses one by one. Day by day the conscientious 
 Dissenter finds that he has less and less to complain of, and that 
 if matters go on for a few years more in the same way, he will 
 scarcely be able to allege any justifiable cause for a growl. 
 Malgre lui he will be a Churchman by-and-by, neither by 
 '' levelling up " nor by " levelling down," but by the removal of 
 a few unsightly barriers vvdiich ouglit never to have been erected. 
 And if anything could add to the credit of this progression in 
 healthy reform, it would be the fact that ministers of the highest 
 grade are amongst the most zealous and conciliatory. Deans 
 and Bishops we could readily name, as well as large numbers of 
 the parochial clergy, who in their Huri-Decanal Meetings, 
 Diocesan Conferences, and in Convocation, as well as in period- 
 ical Charges, express an earnest desire to remove everything that 
 can truly be regarded as an obstruction to such as desire to 
 worship God in sincerity. And among those, whose manly and 
 generous utterances have found an echo in the hearts of both 
 Churchmen and Dissenters, stands the Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury.^ 
 
 This state of things lias naturally divided Nonconformity into 
 two heterogeneous but not opposing sections. Those, for example, 
 who dissent on grounds of doctrine or Church polity, and who 
 have hitherto had religious scruples respecting union with the 
 Church, candidly admit tliat their attitude, of hostility can be no 

 
 longer maintained; tluit the increase of piety and activity of the 
 Church in modern times lea^'es them h'ttlc to wish for ; and that 
 in the race of public usefuhiess she is ah'eady leaving the sects 
 far behind. But tliose who are Dissenters not on religious but 
 political grounds draw a difterent conclusion from the same pre- 
 mises. They say, in effect, a few years more and these men will 
 close our mouths ; we shall have no ground of complaint ; the 
 hearty sympathy and good sense of the million will laugh to 
 scorn our slanders and exaggerations ; and a few legal decisions 
 will purge the Church of heretical teachers of every colour and 
 name. Xow, therefore, is our time to strike, before reforms 
 have taken deep root, or prejudice has died out; and though six 
 of our nine grievances have been cut away, we will still make 
 the old demand, Disestablishment and Disendowment. Our 
 rulers have taken one stejo in that direction, and the process is 
 easy, while who knows what political exigency may arise so that 
 this may be the price of our allegiance ? 
 
 To this latter party belongs the honoiu'able member for Brad- 
 ford, the author of the Konconformisf s Sketch Book, a work 
 which he would gladly forget, but which irritating controver- 
 sialists will persist in quoting. Perhaps one reason why the 
 intellectual parent repudiates his offspring, is that he is no 
 longer a minister but a layman, and that sectarian hostility has 
 become softened down. This work was charged with coarse and 
 violent language, but like the negro who loaded his musket on 
 the principle of " moa' powda' moa' kill,-" he finds that it will 
 jeopardise his owai head. Public opinion too has compelled him 
 to pipe in a much milder key, and he is now, forsooth, the 
 devoted friend of the Church ! Indeed, his object in abusing 
 her is to improve her character, and he would humiliate and 
 crush her only to promote her spiritual health and usefulness. 
 Of course ! But if he would kindly allow^ us the favour of a 
 choice, we would prefer to accept his kindness in some other 
 form. Even during the course of last year he w^as obliged to 
 eat his own words and alter his requirements respecting Church 
 fabrics, as he found he was likely to disgust and alarm many of 
 those whose co-operation he sought. 
 
 In the debate on the resolution which was submitted to the 
 House of Commons last May the following passage occurs, and 
 has been taken as a test by Mr. Miall's organ. The Nonconformist, 
 for the purpose of showing generally that the Church ^ has been 
 unfaithful, and comparatively useless in the rm-al districts of the 
 country : — 
 
 These rural parishes have been in the undisturbed spiritual occupation of the 
 clergy of the Church of England for generations past. Indeed the clergy have 
 all but undisputed religious sway in them. Ecclesiastically speaking, they can
 
 do pretty much as they like. "Well, what, on a large scale, has been the result ? 
 What are the most conspicuous characteristics of our labouring agricultural 
 population ? Do they include " sweetness and light ?" Do they include fairly 
 developed intelligence ? Do they include a high state of morality ? Do they 
 include affectionate veneration for religion? Are these the most prominent 
 features by which the character of our agricultural population is distinguished 
 and in respect of which they bear away the palm from the inmates of towns? 
 And the discouraging and painful answers to these queries— are they not to be 
 found in Blue books ; verified as they may be hj minute personal observation ? 
 When I am asked what will become of the rural parishes if you abolish the 
 endowments which sustain the parsons, I reply, in the first instance, what has 
 become of them under the assumed advantages of those endowments ? 
 
 We intend to direct public attention to the same subject, to 
 meet the aggressor on his own grounds, and to show that in 
 those very districts, where he supposes the Church has done 
 little or nothing, we find, man for man, the greatest amount of 
 piety and good order. Conceding the fact that wealth and 
 intelligence are more frequently found in towns, we are pre- 
 pared to show that the rural districts, with all their dis- 
 advantages, bear a favourable comparison ; and that the argu- 
 ment of the writer who has laid Blue books largely under con- 
 tribution are false in principle, or rather they involve many 
 false principles. 
 
 II. State of the Argument. 
 
 The Blue books to which Mr. Miall alluded in his speech on 
 Disestablishment, and to which his disciple makes such copious 
 references, are certain Reports of the " Commissioners on the 
 Employment of Children, Young Persons, and Women in 
 Agriculture ; " and they were published in 1868, 1869, and 
 1870. They are contained in six folio volumes ; and the facts 
 which they adduce have been made, and will continue to be 
 made, the basis of improved legislation. But it will be observed 
 that it is only resj^ecting the most neglected classes in our 
 rural districts that enquiry has been instituted, viz. those who 
 by youth or sex are the lowest in education, and who, from the 
 circumstances in which their lot is cast, have not, or have only 
 to a small extent, the command of their own time. We may 
 ameliorate the condition of such persons from time to time, and 
 raise them in the scale of intelligence, morality, and religion ; 
 but we may as well hope to wipe out poverty or disease from 
 society as to get rid entirely of the evils arising from too early 
 employment. Parents of every class look to present gain rather 
 than to greater advantages in the distant future ; in short, they 
 eat their apple before it is ripe ; and thus emi)loyment at too 
 early an age, or in circumstances which are highly injurious in
 
 the long run, is a characteristic of human nature, and especially 
 of an age of excitement and fast living like our own. 
 Farther, the writer in the Nonconformist adds — 
 
 The Commissioners have directed their investigations not to all classes of 
 society, but to the laboiu-ing class only ; and, even with regard to them, the 
 enquiry was limited to their diet, homes, wages, and employment, to education 
 and morality — leaving untouched for the most part questions touching their 
 religious knowledge and habits. 
 
 It is quite clear, therefore, that Mr. Miall was not warranted 
 in making the condition of a small class, and on these subjects, 
 a measure of the usefidness of the Established Church in those 
 districts in which they reside. In short, his statements are to a 
 great extent irrelevant ; and the attempt to obtain, through the 
 facts which are brought to light, a handle against the Chm'ch or 
 an argument in favour of Disestablishment is a signal failure. 
 
 His apologist appears to have felt this, and to have foreseen 
 that in piling up a mountain of extraneous facts he could bring , 
 forth only a mouse in favour of radical Nonconformity ; and 
 he is therefore under the necessity of prefacing his laboured, and 
 sometimes repulsive, quotations with an apology. 
 
 The question will probably be asked, what bearing has this state of things on 
 the arguments in favour of or against the continuance of a National Establish- 
 ment of religion ? Is it contended, it may be asked, that the English Establish- 
 ment has made the English villages the wretched spots, both physically and 
 morally, they are proved to be ? Or that the Church of England, as a whole, 
 or its clergy in particular, are to be held responsible for that which no one 
 defends, and which all the himiane and good among us deplore ? It is only in a 
 limited degree that such questions can be answered in the affirmative. For 
 those grievous evils are traceable to many causes, social and pcditical^ as well 
 as ecclesiastical. They are a heritage that has descended to us as a result of the 
 ner/lect, the ignorance, and the viistaTics of our ancestors. They are complicated 
 and deep-seated, as well as numerous, and they furnish evidence in support of 
 an indictmejit against not one Church only, nor one class alone, hut all 
 Churches and all classes. 
 
 This statement is, on the whole, true and fair ; and, with 
 some slight modifications in the phraseology, we should not 
 hesitate to endorse it. But it is directly opposed to the title of 
 the paper — ''The Established Church and the Rural Districts." 
 It is distinctly asserted that '*•' all Churches and all classes " are 
 responsible for the facts shown in quotations; it is asserted, 
 with almost equal plainness, that one Church and one class are 
 responsible ! It is admitted that they are fruits of the pas^ ; 
 they are brought against the Church of to-da?/ ! It is stated 
 that '' social and political " causes account for facts touching 
 only shghtly on "religious knowledge and habits ;" yet these 
 facts are brought as an unanswerable argument against the 
 Establishment as such ! If the principles quoted in the last
 
 paragraph be true, the title of the paper is false ; and the gist of 
 it and its avowed objects are false also. On the other hand, if 
 the title be true, that it is an examination of the ^' Established 
 Church " in the Rural Parishes, then that paragraph cuts the 
 whole ground from under the writer, and the engineer is hoist 
 with his own petard. The antagonism is not ours — it is that of 
 the writer. And after the admissions which he is constrained 
 to make, and does make, his quotations are of no significance 
 whatsoever. 
 
 But it is very instructive to notice the state of the writer's 
 mind. He sits down to indite an article damaging to the 
 Church of England, and does his best in that way \ but truth 
 and honour oblige him to declare in passing that his indictment 
 cannot be sustained. To those who hired him, his poverty,^ and 
 not his will, consents. The false title covers the whole article ; 
 the modification which truth demands is made incidentally in 
 a subordinate paragraph. He is like a man who assails his 
 neighbour's character in public, on the platform or in the press, 
 and then fancies that a private and confidential apology is an 
 ample amende. He is like Balaam. Some Balak appears to 
 have hired him to curse our Israel, and he finds that if his 
 utterances be examined, and their essence extracted, he can 
 only bless. 
 
 But we are not satisfied with condemning the writer out of 
 his own lips — with putting him in the witness-box and dragging 
 from him evidence in favour of an honourable acquittal. We 
 will proceed a step further, and show that the principle of the 
 paper is false from begininng to end — a fabric erected on a 
 quicksand. The classes to which he alludes, and to which the 
 enquiries of the Commissioners referred, are only a fragment 
 of the population in agricultural parishes or shires. They are 
 persons exceptional in their circumstances, though numerous on 
 the whole ; and the enquiry respecting them embraces such 
 topics merely as are incidental only to clerical duty. It is true 
 that of late years we have Bible-women and deaconesses who 
 are supposed to promote industry, temperance, cleanliness, and 
 other sister virtues among the poor of our parishes, as well as 
 relio-ion. But let the clergymen attempt to interfere in such 
 matters, unless he is a member of some public board, and he 
 will soon be told to mind his own business. One of the first to 
 hint that he is crossing the professional line will be some sturdy 
 Non-conformist, the cousin or perhaps the brother of a reporter 
 and leader-writer in town, who brings the unfortunate rector 
 in as guilty for every misdemeanour that exists within his 
 parish bounds, from the depredations of Tom Graceless, the
 
 poaclier, and the "misfortune" of a giddy workliouse girl, 
 down to the imdrained ''potties" of a row of labourers' cottages, 
 and the cases of typhus which they have generated. Accusa- 
 tions of this kind, inconsistent and contradictory as they are, 
 answer each other — that is to say, in the minds of thinking men. 
 But unfortunately the number of these is small ; and of those 
 who can think, a large number are content to take their opinions 
 ready made from him who is boldest in assertion. 
 
 In Charles Dickens's Household Narrative a brief enumeration 
 was once given of the crimes and misdemeanours Avhich had 
 excited public attention during a period of about a week or ten 
 days; and he supposed that a foreigner reported this to his 
 countrymen as a specimen of the condition of England. '' Every 
 word would be true," added the writer, '' and every idea com- 
 municated false." Yet there is not a day on which the sun 
 rises that a man moving in society may not see the same thing 
 done, the same terrible principle illustrated. A man, or more 
 frequently a w^oman, tells a number of select facts as if they 
 were the whole, and, by giving an entirely false colouring to 
 them, or placing them in a fjilse setting, an untruth is as etfec- 
 tually propagated as if Ananias and Sapphira had lent a helping 
 hand. Indeed one often entertains the painful conviction that 
 those persons were rather harshly treated, for if they lived in 
 our times and were cautious enough to adulterate truth directly 
 for a party and only indirectly for themselves, they might have 
 been loaded with honours and emoluments, and have lived to a 
 green old age. 
 
 The same effect is produced by generalising from exceptions. 
 In this way a man can prove anything, that Englishmen are 
 albinos, that Scotchmen are red-haired, that religious people are 
 ill-natured, that working men are swearers, that squires are 
 drunkards, and that the clergy are lazy time-servers. There is 
 no doubt that all these facts exist, but it is equally true that they 
 are all exceptions. That is sufficient, however, for the unscru- 
 pulous partizan. He will refrain from saying that the cases are 
 only four or five per cent, of the whole : what has he to do with 
 per-centages ? He will " challenge anyone to deny the facts," 
 and thus he will speak as if the five per cent, were seventy-five, 
 and w-ill propagate the most barefaced falsehood while adhering 
 to verbal truth. At no period of our history can we expect to 
 be free from poverty or vice or crime ; but to generalise and say 
 that we are a nation of paupers and criminals would be an outrage 
 on common sense. Also, though it would be more easily detected, 
 it would not be a whit more illogical or more dangerous to truth 
 and good morals than much that ^ve hear and read everyday. What
 
 10 
 
 would be thought of a monomaniac who should attempt to write 
 the history of England from our Assize Calendars, or from the 
 records of our Divorce Court ? Why, that he was worthy of 
 a strait-jacket, though he might otherwise be harmless. And 
 with all respect for courtesy and Christian charity, it is difficult 
 to think otherwise of a man who brings the Church of England 
 in as guilty, because the law has allowed farm-servants — old and 
 young, male and female — to be badly cared for by their em- 
 ployers. During the Irish famine, a coroner's jury in the west 
 brought in a verdict of '' wilful murder against Lord John Rus- 
 sell "; and though the writer in the Nonconformist may not be 
 a Connaught man, he is unconsciously exhibiting the same class 
 of intellect. 
 
 A few years ago a Turkish ambassador made a tour through 
 England, and examined several of our great towns. It is said 
 that on one occasion he fell back in the carriage with a look of 
 horror, and exclaimed, " What ! are the two largest buildings in 
 all your towns a poorhouse and a jail ?" Here was an instance 
 of the false reasoning which we are obliged to expose. He 
 thought that paupers and criminals were more numerous in 
 England than in any country which he had previously known, 
 whereas both classes are more numerous in his own country. 
 But the poor are not cared for by the law ; and the profession of 
 Barabbas is one of honour and profit in Turkey. 
 
 Admitting for the sake of argument that all the quotations 
 from the Blue-books are correctly given, we yet utterly deny the 
 proposition suggested in Mr. MialFs rhetorical questions, and 
 sanctioned in the title of the paper, and virtually defended 
 throughout. It is, like many others, so false and absurd that it 
 requires only to be stated in detail to be rejected as false. The 
 Church of England cannot be responsible, and is not, for the 
 temporal condition of farm-labourers. Some of the clergy have 
 observed and noted the facts which it is attempted to turn to 
 their disadvantage, while others have contributed the informa- 
 tion. And in the wide extent of our shires, none will be found 
 more ready than they to support any well-devised scheme for 
 elevating the working man in this world, and preparing him for 
 the higher destinies of the world to come. 
 
 III. Fallacies Latent and Patent. 
 
 The Church of England has not provided suitable dwellings 
 for the labouring poor ; therefore she should be disendowed and 
 disestablished. Such is something like the abbreviated syllogism 
 of Mr. Miall and his lieutenant in the Nonconformist Very
 
 11 
 
 well, — let us cany out the princij^le and see to what it leads. 
 The Queen in Council, the House of Lords, the House of Com- 
 mons elected by the jDeople, have neither jointly nor severally 
 provided suitable homes for the labouring poor of our rural 
 parishes ; therefore, if the decision be just, they must all be dis- 
 endowed and disestablished together. It is an immense gratifi- 
 cation to a gentlemanly man to know that he shall die as he has 
 lived, in good company. The common proverb that '^ What is 
 sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander," does not apply 
 here except very imperfectly ; for if such secular duties be the 
 business of a Church having cure of the souls of men, much 
 more must it be the business of those departments of the State 
 which have the charge of their bodies, and look to their w^orldly 
 interests only. Yet not one word of reproof is uttered against 
 those whose special duty it was to inaugurate, promote, and 
 complete the necessary reforms ; the blame is reserved for a 
 class w^ho looked on with anxiety, but were almost pow^erless in 
 the matter. 
 
 It is a maxim of logic that an argument which can be re- 
 retorted is good for nothing; and there never was a better 
 opening for a telhng rejoinder than here. Let some one who 
 has leisure write a few solemn and forcible essays upon Spi- 
 ritual Destitution in Populous Places ; on which subject he w411 
 find numerous passages suitable for quotation in the Report of 
 the Bishop of Exeter s Committee, 1858. Let him consult also 
 the Reports of the Ecclesiastical Comissioners, and such books as 
 Mr. Huntington's Church Work in our Large Towns, and 
 having referred to Miss Bj'addon's writings for the most telling 
 way to introduce the horrors, he can wind up with a pathetic 
 appeal on behalf of Christianity, and an onslaught on our truce- 
 breaking and godless legislators who Avould drive us back to 
 Thor and Woden, the deities of our Scandinavian forefathers. 
 The " House of Lords, if we are to believe the prophets of the 
 Hole-in-the-Wall, is an effete institution, already past praying 
 for : but the House of Commons, — ah ! there where w^e had 
 garnered up om' heart, — what right has it to neglect the Crom- 
 wellian duties of preaching and praying, trusting in God and 
 keeping its powder dry ? Down with it even to the ground. 
 The whole really appears to be a grim joke, if it were not that 
 Mr. Miall, finding his way harder and harder, is past joking 
 long ago. Young Mr. Venables has placed him in an undigni- 
 fied position in his racy little pamphlet, Hoic our Church became 
 a DrinMng Saloon ; so his followers, finding themselves in deep 
 waters, fulfil an old proverb by catching at a straw. It would 
 be inhuman to denv them such moderate consolation.
 
 12 
 
 AVill the reader kindly excuse a few words more on the same 
 subject. Scarcely two centuries have passed by since Sir Wil- 
 liam Petty, ancestor of Lord Lansdowne, found in that which 
 is now the garden of Ulster, hardly any habitation but v/hat 
 was known as creaclits. '' These were huts of hurdle-work, or 
 constructed of posts and wattles, so that by pulling up the stakes 
 inserted at the extremities, the \vhole side-wall or gable, such as 
 it was, could be taken up and carried to another spot for re- 
 erection. It was, perhaps, pasted over with clay, in which moss 
 or dried grass was then inserted, while it was yet plastic.^' 
 Now, neither the Protestant nor the Roman Catholic Church of 
 the country had much to boast of at that time ; but assuredly, if 
 any man had attempted to impute to either the blame for the 
 low social condition of the people, and especially if he had tried 
 to invoke punishment in consequence of that alleged blanie, he 
 would first have excited peals of laughter, and on his persistence 
 he would have been ignominiously ejected from the society of 
 sensible men. 
 
 But let us descend to modern times. The Irish cabin of to- 
 day does not require to be figured in HalVs Ireland, or other 
 books of the kind, for tourists from all points of the compass 
 are familiar with it. Inferior to the wigwam of the prairie in 
 comfort, respectability, and simplicity of construction — more 
 uncleanly and less warm and healthful than the hut of the Maori 
 of New Zealand — and only a little, if at all, superior to the Hot- 
 tentot kraal of South Africa — it yet holds its place against the 
 advancing wave of civilisation, with a firmness which places it 
 beyond a doubt that the people are conservative at heart, how- 
 ever politicians may vote. Yet, what sane man ever thought of 
 basing on such facts as these a charge against the clergy, to 
 whom the peasantry own allegiance, and especially the imputa- 
 tion that they had not been sufficiently attentive to the religious 
 instruction of the labouring classes ? Nor are these facts con- 
 fined to any one portion of the British Islands. In the summer 
 of 1858 the writer visited the Isle of Skye, and one of his com- 
 panions, who was anxious to see the condition of the people, 
 entered a cottage at a wild district, known as Loch Skavaig, 
 near the black lake of Corriskin. At first, all seemed dark ; 
 then his foot sunk in something soft, which it is inconvenient to 
 describe ; presently he fell over an object large and warm, and 
 on feeling it he discovered it was a cow; but soon his eyes 
 became accustomed to the light, and he found civil and courteous 
 inhabitants beyond. Now this is not an exception, but is better 
 
 * Dr. Hume's Illustrations of British Antiquities, derived from Objects found 
 in South America. 1808.
 
 13 
 
 or worse than liimdreds of other cottages, especially the ^'bothies," 
 whicli are a class by themselves. Yet, is there a single plattbrm 
 in the United Kingdom, where a slanderer would be listened to, 
 who should bring a railing accusation on such grounds as these, 
 ao;ainst the P'ood old Kirk of Scotland ? So far as instructino; 
 her people intellectually in the doctrines of Christianity, there 
 is no Church in Europe can claim precedence, and as for secular 
 education, even the wild Gael at Braccadaile, whom some one 
 introduced to us as Tonald MacChimpanzee, was able to sign 
 his name promptly and legibly ! 
 
 But the w^riter in the Nonconformist must not lay the flatter- 
 ing unction to his soul that we have yet done with him. On 
 the contrary, w^e have a good deal more to say, and heavier 
 blows to deliver. 
 
 Let us take a long stride in advance. Let us pass far beyond 
 the beggarly elements of food and clothing, and lodging of field- 
 workers, no matter in what part of England they may be found. 
 We are willing to play the game with our opponent, and confi- 
 dent of giving him check-mate, though allowing to him at first 
 half the pieces on the board. 
 
 Instead of the sneaking and surreptitious manner in which he 
 tries to drag in and attribute religious deficiencies to the Church 
 of England, in a discussion on subjects purely secular and social 
 — instead of coolly assuming what till the end of time can never 
 be proved — instead of making up for lack of argument at one 
 moment, by sly insinuations, at another by bold asertion, and 
 throw^ing dust in the eyes of readers, till they can perceive only 
 the object aimed at — let us adopt another course. We will as- 
 sume, for the sake of argument, the following : — 
 
 (1). That the discussion is not respecting secular, but 
 
 sacred subjects. 
 
 (2). That it has been convincingly shown that the Church 
 
 of England has not carried the Gospel to the lowest 
 
 class. 
 
 (o). That this applies not to rural districts only, where she 
 
 maintains her place by endowments, but also to towns, 
 
 wdiere pew rents (an undesirable source of income, but 
 
 a necessary one) form a large portion of her revenues. 
 
 (4). Tliat these great fiicts are not matters of controversy 
 
 maintained only by opponents, or sanctioned by the 
 
 occasional utterances of men, who, though sound in 
 
 disposition, have crotchets to maintain. 
 
 Even in these circumstances, with a calm confidence in a 
 
 good cause and a pure conscience, wc plead ''Xot Guilty" to 
 
 the indictment submitted to the public as jury. It is not true
 
 14 
 
 that, therefore, the Church has failed in her great mission ; and 
 accordingly we scorn to speak either in arrest of judgment or 
 mitigation of sentence. We demand, and are confident of re- 
 civing an honourable acquittal. 
 
 Alas ! that the gentlemen on the staff* of an ordinary news- 
 paper have so seldom gone through a course of systematic edu- 
 cation ; and alas ! further, that even in our colleges the subject 
 of logic is so little cultivated. How otherwise could it happen 
 that the elements of syllogistic reasoning are unknown, and its 
 principles outraged by those who aspire to teach the multitude 
 how to think ? With the Nonconformist before us, we can only 
 say, "' they be blind leaders of the blind," or passing from sacred 
 to secular literature : '"' God help thee, Southey, and thy readers 
 too." 
 
 Almost every one knows that the fallacy usually lurks in 
 the suppressed premiss, which is assumed, or referred to only in 
 the most indistinct way, but is not explicitly stated in words. 
 In a large number of cases no more is necessary than to supply 
 the ellipsis ; and by the distinct statement of the missing propo- 
 sition the error is at once seen. The writer here proceeds upon 
 the supposition or general principle, that " every institution 
 which has not accomplished all the task set before it, must be 
 regarded as a failure ! " This is the proposition which we shall 
 examine ; but even suppose it proved, and that we admitted 
 that the Church of England is found in this category, it by no 
 means follows that she should be either disendowed or disesta- 
 blished. Reformation, i.e. reconstruction or adaptation, is better 
 than destruction ; and though the varieties of medical and sur- 
 gical practice are very great, who ever heard of homicide being 
 prescribed as the cure for a trifling complaint ? 
 
 And to what institution shall Ave look, guided or impelled as 
 they all are by frail beings, which fulfils in every respect its de- 
 clared objects. The enthusiasm of friends has exaggerated its 
 early promise; and the antagonism of opponents retarded or 
 misdirected its movements ; so that we are obliged to be content 
 with a modest per-centage of good results, and to leave the rest 
 to the future. A few examples will suffice. 
 
 1. This is the case with public enlightenment. It dispels 
 superstitions of the grosser kind, realises to a certain extent the 
 saying that " knowledge is power," and like the opening up of 
 a new channel to the soul by the restoration of one of the senses 
 which had been in abeyance, afibrds a world of innocent plea- 
 sure. But mere intelligence goes only a limited way : the clear 
 head is not always accompanied by the sound heart ; and neither 
 in communities nor in individuals do we find that intellectual
 
 15 
 
 knowledge achieves all we expected of it. The fault may have 
 been ours in expecting too much, at all events the fact is there ; 
 and if we make allowance for our own exaggerated expectations, 
 and our forgetfulness of difficulties, the system can hardly be 
 said to have failed which realises from eighty to ninety per cent, 
 of all which could reasonably have been expected of it. 
 
 2. Weighed in the same balances, the sciolist and pretender 
 may say that civilization itself has failed. It is true that both 
 men and nations rise higher and higher as law and order receive 
 a full development ; and that the tide of barbarism which blotted 
 out the landmarks in a former age has been driven back. Yet, 
 even now, some gloomy spirit could say how little has been done 
 for the world, and that little how imperfectly ; till a poet of our 
 own times asks to be shown a map of the world, and he says 
 that he will cover with his hand the homes of civilization on 
 the globe. 
 
 3. And how many are there who openly assert that Missions 
 to the heathen serve no good purpose, except, perhaps, to scatter 
 British gold, satisfy the morbid cravings of religious enthusiasts, 
 and supply sensational matter for young and old ladies at the 
 May Meetings ? A large number refuse to propagate Chris- 
 tianity by these means ; and though we can state in historical 
 detail the period at Avhich the various nations, including our 
 own, embraced the doctrines of the Cross, these refiise to be 
 convinced, and revert to the old cuckoo song, that '' Missions 
 have failed." 
 
 4. On the same principle Christianity itself has failed. It is 
 all but unknown to the teeming millions of India and China. 
 It appears but as a speck on the map of Africa ; wliile in the 
 religion of many in both Europe and America we notice a com- 
 promise between heathenism and the pure Gospel. Again, how 
 many are there who never advance beyond the outward and 
 visible sign ? And what intense bitterness is added by religious 
 hate, whether in families or in nations ? And how bloody are 
 religious wars ? A volume could be written on this subject, 
 which would compel the scribe of the Nonconformist to burn his 
 Blue-books, and hide his diminished head. Not one of us be- 
 lieves that Christianity is a failm'e ; though it follows almost as 
 an irresistible truism, according to Mr. Miall's Art of Keason- 
 
 Human progress is like the gradual change of seasons, or like 
 the creeping shadow on the dial. To a mere momentary ob- 
 server the condition of things seems to be permanent ; but when 
 we compare intervals of time (and the longer they are the clearer 
 is the evidence), we see the advances that have been made.
 
 16 
 
 Space forbids us to examine the condition of the agricultural 
 labourer a hundred years ago, though we are not without the 
 materials^ or to forecast his condition for the future, when 
 machinery will be substituted for brute force, and every agent 
 (even the child, youth, or woman) will bring to the market skill 
 as well as strength ; looking down upon the condition then 
 unknown in England, of the hewers of Avood and drawers of 
 water. Even on the secular part of the writer's subject, there- 
 fore, his statements are " inexact," as the French pohtely say. 
 We have really made progress, the Church aiding and blessing 
 the authors of it, and we are still in a transition state to a much 
 higher grade. 
 
 IV. The Church as a Civiliser. 
 
 Let us bring this writer again to the test of plain rational 
 principles, and, weighed in their balances, he will be found 
 wanting. Mr. Miall gives the cue, and asserts indirectly that 
 the Church is accountable for the civilisation of all, down to the 
 outcast and serf. Nowhere is this statement distinctly made, 
 but in a series of rhetorical questions, each of which is equi- 
 valent to an assertion, he makes his meaning perfectly clear. 
 Then comes his admirer and imitator, resembling Billy Bluff of 
 fiction, who, when reciting to Squire Firebrand some incoherent 
 words which he had overheard, adds, " If your honour can make 
 up the. middle, I'll swear to the whole." This gentleman also 
 asserts in his title, indirectly, as before, that the Church is the 
 accountable body ; and then with a great show of candour pro- 
 ceeds to state, in a paragraph which we have already quoted, 
 ^' that all Churches and all classes " are included in the indict- 
 ment. But, as if repenting of having uttered a few words of 
 indisputable truth, he lets us know incidentally, both before and 
 after, what thought his wish is father to. It is this. " Not- 
 withstanding this admission, we contend that the Church has 
 failed and the clergy have failed to effect that which both are 
 credited with effecting." That is to say: We know in our in- 
 most hearts that the Church of England alone is not the offender, 
 but that every one has failed in his duty ; we know also that it is 
 a secular and social and moral subject, not a religious one ; 
 nevertheless it is desirable to make a case against her at any risk 
 or by any means whatsoever ; for the motion which has been so 
 ignominiously defeated will come on again. It is possible that 
 no one will take the trouble to reply ; and, in any case, some of 
 the mud which we throw will stick. 
 
 The simple fact is that though the Church of England, like
 
 17 
 
 any other body of faithful men, promotes the best interests of 
 humanity in reference to both worlds, she is not accountable for 
 what is called civilisation. The Church of Rome is so to a great 
 extent, for she undertakes a more thorough direction of the man, 
 body and soul, in his secular as well as in his religious duties. 
 
 But ajDart from all Churches and creeds, and, indeed, inde- 
 pendent of religion altogether, there are special reasons why the 
 people of rural districts should be far behind those of towns. 
 They are few by comparison, and isolated ; neither in their 
 homes nor in their employments are they brought into close 
 relationship with their fellows, nor have they the same stimulants 
 to intellectual activity. In general they have learned little of 
 the appreciation of nature, so, that, as in the case of Peter 
 Bell, 
 
 A primrose by the river's brim 
 A yellow primrose is to them, 
 And it is nothing more. 
 
 They have few opportunities for intellectual advancement, and 
 these few are little regarded. The monotony of their daily 
 duties keeps them doAvn nearly at the level of mere animal 
 existence ; and the means which mechanics and other towns- 
 people have long known for improving their condition, by strikes 
 and combinations, the agricultural mind has only awakened to 
 within the last few weeks. 
 
 Nor is this a solitary fact? Ethnologists have long 
 known that among savages, those who inhabit an island are 
 usually of a much higher class than those on a continent ; and 
 a ready means of comparison exists in the athletic and talented 
 natives of Xew Zealand with the revolting wanderers of 
 Australia. In the one case the people are gregarious of necessity, 
 they cultivate the arts of life more or less, build houses, live in 
 fortified villages, rear domestic animals, cultivate the ground, 
 hold solemn assemblies, declare war and make peace, and in 
 numerous other ways show that they have left far behind the 
 pit from which they were digged. In the other case, the small 
 number of heads and hands renders them incapable of any great 
 ejffort ; they plunder the stock of the Colonist or hunt down the 
 emu or kangaroo : they eat fruits, uncooked vegetables, or shell- 
 fish, or pound the nardoo seeds between stones ; while they "coil" 
 or sleep back and front on the lee side of a " mi-mi " or pile of 
 bark. Even among the lower animals this principle is seen. 
 The humble steeds of the conquering Spaniards were subdued 
 beasts of burden, with only sufficient instinct to enable them to 
 perform their drudgery and continue their race ; for each, 
 except in the military troop, was an exile from his fellows. But 
 
 B
 
 18 
 
 on the extensive ' prairies of Central and 8outh America the 
 descendants of these same horses live in immense herds, as in 
 the steppes of Southern Russia ; they have laws of their own 
 enactment ; rules of feeding and of fighting ; they plant sentinels 
 and mount guards ; and they have signals as distinct and as 
 significant as the calls of a regimental bugler. Our agricultural 
 population, therefoi'e, or the same grade of people in any other 
 country of the world, is in a great degree moulded by circum- 
 stances ; and it is idle to talk of neglect by this or that class, 
 when, with the most careful attention, they would have presented 
 anywhere the same general features as at present, but perhaps 
 not so marked. 
 
 But let us suppose for a moment, what of course is not fact, 
 that the Church is really accountable for the civilisation of the 
 country ; in the lowest grades, which are influenced with the 
 greatest difficulty, and especially in the higher and more intelli- 
 gent circles. Then the question like every other has two sides 
 to it. She has done her duty, or she has not ; or what is more 
 probable than either, she has done her duty to some extent, and 
 left it undone in certain other cases. The writer in the Noncon- 
 forinist treats of short comings only ; he states half a truth 
 merely, and thus (designedly or undesignedly, that is a question 
 for himself), propagates a falsehood. Let us restore the balance, 
 and show the credit side of the account; 
 
 Still going on the hypothesis that the Church is responsible 
 for civilisation, w^e find that so much has been done that it would 
 require almost a volume to give the mere titles of the subjects. 
 That is, of course, impossible in a brief sketch like this ; but by 
 way of specimen,' and in illustration of our meaning, we may 
 enumerate a very few facts indicative of progress. 
 
 No one can have failed to notice the growing respect for 
 human life ; though still " flesh and blood are cheap." What is 
 the value of the ship or cargo, provided human life is secure ? 
 There is a tendency in antagonism with brute instincts which 
 declares that wars shall cease ; and that national quarrels, like 
 any others, shall be equitably adjusted. Duelling is a matter of 
 history, the dexterous use of sword or pistol not necessarily 
 demonstrating that a man was in the right. The laws of health 
 are now more carefully observed, and public bodies have suc- 
 ceeded in increasing the average of human existence. We try 
 even to save men from themselv^es ; for while the drinking cus- 
 toms of a past age have long passed away from good society, 
 both the legislature and the people are moving in the same 
 direction. Slavery has been abolished, and the example of 
 England has been imitated by other countries. The protection
 
 19 
 
 of the law has also been given, first to the brute creation, in 
 Martin's Act, and then to human beings, both by sea and on 
 land. Persons of delicate bodily structure, viz., women and 
 children, must regulate their avarice and their toil, for they 
 belong to the State as well as to themselves. The religious disa- 
 bilities of former years have been swept away. Swearing and 
 profanity of language have disappeared in almost all grades of 
 society. Liberty of conscience and freedom of speech belong to 
 all. Even the working classes possess a voice in the election of 
 our senators ; and the latter, in the promotion of education, are 
 now "teaching their masters to learn their letters." 
 
 If, therefore, we are to be held responsible for the social 
 condition of the country, be it so. We are not afraid to look at 
 the balance-sheet. It shows a marked advance since 1820, almost 
 equal to what we find from the Revolution to that date ; and 
 thi"oughout the whole period the clergy have acted no ignoble 
 part. They have taken a double flight. On the one hand, they 
 have been found in the colleges of our universities, in our 
 learned societies and scientific journals, in our public schools, 
 and in the general miscellaneous literature of the country, doing 
 far more than their share of work ; trimming and brightening 
 the lamp of Science. On the other hand, they have stooped 
 lower than before, to give the hand of affection and brotherly 
 kindness to the poor ; the sick and the sorrowing are faithfully 
 looked after ; and, as Dr. Chalmers said, " the house-visiting 
 minister makes a church-going people." 
 
 Here, however, the very persons who have challenged us stop 
 short, for they find they have gone too far. Like Mr. Nupkins, 
 the justice, they have committed themselves more than they can 
 commit any one else ; and they object that they did not speak 
 of merit, they only meant that the Church should be maligned 
 and injured for alleged and imaginary short-comings. Just so ! 
 We knew this all^.along. Our friends of the Congregationalist 
 and other bodies, who persist in occupying a position of hostility, 
 are like a tradesman whose selfishness is greater than his 
 honesty, and who but for the coercion of the County Court 
 would collect all his own accounts, yet never pay his debts. It 
 is said also that the person known as a "black-leg" in a 
 gambling-house claims all his winnings, but repudiates liis 
 losings. So it may be useftil to show that the alleged responsi- 
 bility of the Church involves merit as well as blame ; and the 
 man Avho, to serve some private purpose, will look to only one 
 of these — we do not care which — is either a rogue or a fool, 
 " especially a good deal of both." 
 
 b2
 
 20 
 
 V. Importance of a Resident Clergy. 
 
 Mr. Miall seems to have forgotten a great fact in the history 
 of mankind, for we must assume that he once knew it — viz., 
 that Christianity, like civihsation, at first found a home in the 
 great towns, and that the scattered people who sat under their 
 vine and fig-tree in the rural districts, remained, to a great 
 extent, unchanged. Jerusalem, Antioch, Rome, Corinth, the 
 Seven Churches of Asia, are all familiar to us — in short, the 
 strongholds of population Avere seized, if possible in the early 
 days, just as in our own, and apostles visited them as mission- 
 aries do with us. It was in this way that the term " pagan," 
 originally no more than a rustic or " feld-man," as our Saxon 
 forefathers called him, came to have a secondary meaning, with 
 which we are now more familiar. It is said that in the first 
 draft of his well-known Missionary Hymn, Heber wrote '' the 
 Pagan J in his blindness, &c., and that the single instance of an 
 erasure is that in which he substituted the synonymous, though 
 perhaps better, word ^' Heathen.'^ 
 
 Elsewhere similar causes produced similar effects, as where 
 towns were few in number or small in size, the rustic element 
 prei^onderated, as it did also among seafaring populations where 
 houses lay scattered along the beach. It is in this way, to a 
 great extent at least, that we account for the slow progress of 
 Christianity in the north of Europe, and for the firm hold which 
 the ancient deities maintained during many centuries after 
 Britain had been converted. Those Avho think history dry 
 reading may find the subject pleasantly brought before them in 
 Longfellow's Tales of a Wayside Inn^ in the manner and treat- 
 ment of which he has imitated various distinguished prede- 
 cessors. 
 
 Even in the rural districts of the British Islands it is astonish- 
 ing how many of the superstitions of a pre-Christian period 
 linger among the peasantry, who, especially when books and 
 readers were few in number, were very conservative of the oral 
 traditions of their sires. This was largely the case in Scotland, 
 where the Scandinavian element was strong ; and it travelled to 
 the north of Ireland, where, at the close of the last century and 
 the beginning of this, the Presbyterian excelled his Roman 
 Catholic neighbour in the number of his legends, his reference 
 to particular days, and the corresponding observances. Intel- 
 lectual materials of this kind have been gleaned from all the 
 kingdom, and locally in special shires, after the manner Avisely 
 inaugurated by Mr. Thoms. A new department of literature
 
 21 
 
 has been struck out, and a new and significant term has been 
 added to our language, the word " folk-lore." 
 
 Whj do we refer to facts of this kind ? For the purpose of 
 showing that rural populations have always differed from those 
 of toAvns, and will continue to do so ; that though there is a gra- 
 dual process of assimilation going on since education became 
 extended, and intercommunication by railways began, neither of 
 these causes, nor others that might he named, have yet sensibly 
 affected the lowest stratum of the population. The adsfrictl glehce 
 retain their normal character long, for there is little to alter it, 
 and though occasional examples of godliness may be found 
 among them, not unfrequently the animal portion of their nature 
 is the predominant one. In short, they have vices and virtues 
 of their own. For the former no church can be accountable, 
 and the latter no church wholly can claim. 
 
 But let us take a rural district as we find it in England. The 
 ponderous county history carries us back to a time when each 
 estate was identical with a parish, and a Church was erected 
 and endowed by the proprietor for the benefit of his tenants and 
 dependants. The clergyman was his chaplain, and therefore 
 was selected by him ; and the tenantry were supposed to under- 
 take the maintenance of their place of worship in proper repair. 
 Thus the origin of parishes, varying in wealth and extent with 
 the means of the proprietors, also of tithes. Church-rates, patron- 
 age, (fee, was originally very simple. The proprietor is called 
 the squire of the parish down to our own time : but from the 
 great increase of wealth there are now many squires in some, 
 while the accumulation of numerous small possessions in one 
 gigantic estate, embracing half a county, has quite destroyed 
 the smaller gentry, and converted the Halls of the various town- 
 ships into farm-houses or laboui'ers' cottages. This has occurred 
 so frequently, especially in places remote from large towns, that 
 many writers have spoken warmly of the great value of the resi- 
 dence of the clergy in rural districts, even apart from their reli- 
 gious ministrations. 
 
 Now let us take an average parish in an agricultural county. 
 It embraces 3,000 acres, or an area of nearly five square miles, 
 and its population is under 2,000. These are widely scattered, 
 many of them residing near the leading arterial road, but others 
 in byeways, and some in places almost inaccessible for any but a 
 foot-passenger. There is a village, which contains the post- 
 office, the residence of a few tradespeople, and, of course, the 
 beer-house ; but the people seldom assemble for any purpose ex- 
 cept on Sunday, and they hold no social intercourse and see 
 little of each other. There are only ^bout half-a-dozen who are
 
 22 
 
 paupers, and those are so from sickness or old age ; the rest are 
 comfortable, but not rich, and present nearly a dead level of in- 
 telligence. There is a school, and several successive sets of 
 boys and girls have passed through it since the present clergy- 
 man came to the parish ; so that, directly or indirectly, he is 
 acquainted with every household, and almost every person. 
 But, with perhaps a single exception, his own house is the only 
 one where prayer is heard morning and evening. He is the 
 only person who sees a daily newspaper or a weekly illustrated 
 one ; the only one wdio has a library, or who cares or even seeks 
 to keep up an acquaintance with modern literature and current 
 events. He is therefore in many things the model, and in 
 still more the guide, of his people. By his advice and assist- 
 ance every lad is launched in the great world ; and his wife cul- 
 tivates the sound principles or silently corrects the follies of the 
 girls, not losing sight of them, but exhibiting a kindly interest 
 when they become women, and are queens within their own 
 respective thresholds. There is a good deal of ingratitude in the 
 world ; but it is not in human nature to look lightly on advan- 
 tages of this kind, the character, high tone, and culture of a 
 single family supplying the one thing which farm produce could 
 not purchase. 
 
 In all this we have said scarcely a word respecting religion, 
 the higher and holier subject on which it is the professional duty 
 of the clergyman carefully to instruct his people, our object 
 being to show that even in minor matters his presence is a 
 blessing, and his influence felt for good among old and young. 
 It is unnecessary to quote testimony on such a subject, though 
 many writers have drawn attention to the facts, and common 
 observation confirms the statement. In the Book of the Church 
 there are some very pointed and pithy remarks, and Mr. Ffoulkes, 
 who has had experience in many parts of Europe, and in the 
 Church of Rome as well as the Church of England, admits that 
 he knows of no place in wdiich more genuine piety and pure 
 happiness can be seen than around a clergyman's fireside. I 
 will, however, quote from the columns of the Nonconformist 
 itself a portion of Sir Roundell Palmer's speech : 
 
 The best light is that which is the light of life, which makes men contented, 
 virtuous, and happy in the positions of life which they occupy, and if that 
 position be humble, without many superfluities or any excess of comforts, then I 
 venture to say, those who know the rural districts of this country will bear testi- 
 mony to the existence of multitudes upon multitudes of poor people who have in 
 them both sweetness and light. There is among them an abundance of those 
 virtues which I honour, and which I wish were to be found in an equal degree in 
 the classes above them. I do not wish to speak against any class, but I must 
 say that the class of all others which has attracted my sympathies, according to 
 the opportunities I have of observing them, is the class of the poor, and not least
 
 23 
 
 of the rural poor. I caunot imagine any institution to Avhich this character oi: 
 the labouring poor is due more than to that which has placed in the centre of 
 ever}' part of the countiy a man educated and intelligent, whose business it is to 
 do them good, whose whole and sole business is to take care of their souls, as far 
 as by God's help he is enabled to do, in every way and in all circumstances of 
 life to be their friend and counsellor. In proportion as he does that work, he 
 does a thing of inestimable value. 
 
 For many of these advantages it is not necessary to suppose 
 the minister of the Gospel to be a clergyman of the English 
 church. We have known not a few instances in which Non- 
 conformist ministers occupied nearly the same position ; their 
 chapels being in rural districts, and the Church at a village in a 
 remote part of the parish. These were, in like manner, the 
 centre of numerous advantages to the residents in their 
 respective localities, especially when they rose, as they often 
 did, above sectarian narrowness, and acted in the spirit of an 
 extended charity. The writer in the Nonco7ifonnist, therefore, 
 injures many of those whom he washes to benefit, by sneering at 
 the advantages of a resident clergy ; and he must be indeed a 
 base bird to foul his own nest, in his desire to bring a charge of 
 uncleanliness against an unoffending neighbour. 
 
 But less us suppose that the clergy in rural districts did not 
 reside among the people, that they lived apart in neighbouring 
 towns, and came on horseback or by rail to do Sunday duty 
 merely. This approaches the Dissenting ideal of clerical labour ; 
 for pastoral work is unknown to them. Is it not clear that, the 
 consciousness of moral control being removed, things would be 
 infinitely worse than they are now ; and that the parishes would 
 sink from the lowest deep to a lower deep ? The poacher, in- 
 stead of slinking out of sight, as one whose offences were well 
 known, would be a hero, and the seducer of the sons of moral 
 parents ; scenes of drunkenness would become more common ; 
 licentiousness w^ould stalk abroad unrebuked and taint the moral 
 atmosphere ; pugilism would be resorted to from time to time 
 as a rough and ready way of settling disputes ; mere brute force 
 would be appealed to instead of reason, and the cock-pit, if not 
 the bull-ring, would be re-opened. Education would become a 
 mockery and a delusion, from the absence of all proper superin- 
 tendence of the schools ; the Sunday School w^ould be closed, 
 as there would be no one to award blame for negligence, or 
 honour for the fulfilment of duty ; and Church attendance would 
 diminish as spirituality of character gradually died out. We do 
 not sketch a fancy picture, as we have witnessed such scenes at 
 home, and read of their existence in the United States. Indeed, 
 in some of our most populous rural districts, wdiere, from the 
 existence of mining or manufacturing industry, the people are
 
 24 
 
 paid good wages, they become so independent in character as 
 often to be a law unto themselves and a terror to the peaceable 
 and orderly inhabitants. Nothing is more dangerous than for 
 rudeness and immorality to become the rule instead of the ex- 
 ception ; it is then fashionable, and offenders are shielded when 
 they should be denounced, neither the honour of man nor the 
 purity of woman being respected, and the hospitable greeting 
 accorded to an inoffensive stranger being — '' 'Eave 'arf a brick 
 at 'im." We can hardly give the writer credit for being such a 
 simpleton as to think that the clergy receive too much credit^ in 
 the advantages said to flow from residence on their respective 
 benefices. Truth lies in the opposite direction ; the more the 
 subject is examined the more important will the arrangement 
 appear to be to peace, order, and public morals. 
 
 VI. Statistics of Religious Worship. 
 
 In 1851 a " Census of Eeligious Worship " was taken, the 
 first and last that we have had ; and an account of it, both valu- 
 able and interesting, was given by Mr. Horace Mann, to whom 
 that duty had been entrusted. In 1855, when the results of the 
 whole Census had been for some time before the public, Mr. 
 Mann entered into a computation respecting the number of bo7id 
 fide adherents or worshipping members connected with the 
 Established Church, the Roman Catholic Church, " Protestant 
 Dissenters and others," including Jews, Mormons, &c. These 
 three sections of the community, however, did not make up the 
 whole, for there still remained those who were nominally con- 
 nected with the various religious bodies, or with no religious body 
 whatever ; who, in short, were non-worshippers. It was only 
 necessary to throw these numbers into per-centages, and the 
 following facts came to light : There were in England andWales, 
 in 1851, the following: 
 
 Church of England 42 per cent. 
 
 Roman Catholics 3^ „ 
 
 Protestant Dissenters and others . . . . 29^ „ 
 
 Worshipping Community 75 „ 
 
 Non-worshippers, constituting the home-missionary 
 field of the Established Chm'ch . . . . 25 „ 
 
 100 
 
 But Mr. Mann did more than this. He selected 73 large 
 towns, and gave separately the details respecting them ; so that 
 if any one took the trouble to go through the computations in 
 the same manner as for the whole country, he would analyse the 
 population of a given area, — as a registration district, county, or
 
 25 
 
 town. Those wlio are familiar with such things know that the 
 larger the numbers the less is the liability to error ; but even in 
 anal_ysing the population of a borough, the result is a nearer ap- 
 proximation to truth than we can get in any other way. The 
 trouble has been taken, the calculations have been made, the 
 general results have been long before the public. * 
 
 In 1851 the 73 towms contained a population of 5,952,353, 
 wdiile the remainder of England and Wales — that is to say, the 
 small towns, villages, and rural districts — contained a popu- 
 lation of 11,975,256. For the sake of simplicity, we may adopt 
 the approximate numbers — six millions and twelve millions, and 
 say that the 73 towns contained one-third of the gross po- 
 pulation, and the rest of the country, nearly all rural, two- 
 thirds. The characteristics of these two sections of population 
 are in many respects widely different ; and I claim some credit 
 for having brought to light the facts in 1859, and subsequently. 
 
 Now, as a general rule, the principal chapels of Protestant 
 Dissenters, and nearly all those of Roman Catholics, are found 
 in the large towns ; wdiile in rural districts smaller chapels and 
 mere " rooms " are found ; and the services are inexpensive, 
 there being frequently no fixed minister, or one minister taking 
 charge of two or three chapels. Mr. Miall not only admits this, 
 but assumes it to be well known, and hence he says, that in 
 the rural districts the Church has been left a good deal to take 
 her own way. This is true, but with very important modifi- 
 cations. I demonstrated in 1862 that dissent studiously avoids 
 the dark masses of our town populations, and throw^s its strength 
 into those select places which are easily worked. Thus, in the 
 registration divisions, Wales and Monmouth are ten times as 
 well supplied with chapels, in proportion to the population, as 
 London ; in the forty-four county divisions, North Wales is thir- 
 teen times as well provided for as Middlesex, and nearly nine times 
 as weU as Surrey ; while in the registration districts wdthin a 
 division, Lewisham is from five to six times as w^ell supplied as 
 St. George's, Hanover Square, and Dolgelly four-and-a-half 
 times as well as Merthyr Tydfil. " The best district in Wales is 
 more than fifi^y-three times better off than the worst in London." 
 Even within the limits of a single shire, one can trace Dis- 
 senting chapels gradually retiring from the poor to the comfort- 
 able, from the greater necessity to the less necessity; Thus, in 
 Salford we find one chapel of some kind or other for every 3,501 
 souls, and chapels go on increasing step by step in Manchester, 
 Chorlton-on-Medlock, Barton-on-Irwell, Burnley, and Clitheroe. 
 "The last has a chapel for every 561, or is nearly seven times as 
 
 * See Map, in Report by a Select Committee of the Lords on Church Rates. 
 1859.
 
 26 
 
 well supplied as Salford. Thus we have the umbra and 
 penumbra, as in the case of an eclipse. 
 
 Mr. Miall may be interested in know^ing how his own par- 
 ticular denomination stands in this respect, and I am happy to 
 be able to inform him. For the six millions in the 73 great 
 towns, the Independents had in 1851, 432 chapels ; for the 
 twelve milKons in the country they had 2,812, or about six-and- 
 a-half times as many ; while the Established Church had 1,216 
 Churches for the six millions, and 12,638, or nine-and-a-half 
 times as many for the twelve millions. There is an Independent 
 chapel in the towns for every 13,889 persons, and in the country 
 for every 4,265. There is a Church for every 4,934 in the 
 towns, and for every 950 in the country. The principle there- 
 fore is apparent at once. Dissent is eclectic, choosing its 
 localities of labour as it sees a prospect of harvest ; and as the 
 little boy said about the leopard changing his spots, moving from 
 one spot to another spot, as occasion requires. The Church, on 
 the other hand, must be present in every place where there is a 
 distinct community ; whether it be only one hundred — in which 
 case there is an apparent waste of power — or thirty thousand, 
 in which case there is a lamentable deficiency. 
 
 But let us return to the analysis of the two great sections of 
 the population. According to Mr. Miall and his alter ego in the 
 Nonconformist, the largest number of worshippers is to be 
 found in the great towns, the homes of intelligence, the nurseries 
 of eloquence, the centres of newspaper radiation ; while the 
 benighted rural districts, where the Hodges, clodpates, and 
 chawbacons reside —for by these elegant designations they are 
 often known — the clergyman officiates to " Dearly beloved 
 Roger," the labourers being in the alehouse if it be raining, or 
 rabbit-hunting with dogs if it be fine and fair. He will forgive 
 me for dispelling the illusion. As a countryman once remarked, 
 it is just vice re-verscc. 
 
 Of the six millions in the 73 towns, 45 per cent., say 
 2,700,000, were non-worshipping. 
 
 Of the twelve millions in the country, 15 per cent., say 
 1,800,000, were non-worshipping. 
 
 In other words, the population of our great towns showed in 
 1851 only 55 worshippers per cent, of all creeds ; while the rest 
 of the country where population was more widely diffused, 
 showed 85. The villages and rural districts were, therefore, 
 better than the towns in the ratio of 17 to 11. I think I might 
 here close the case; for tliis fact will tax all the ingeniu'ty of 
 opponents to reply to it, In twenty years, it is true, the figures 
 may have altered, and I believe that we have made greater 
 advances than any other religious community, or than all of
 
 27 
 
 them ; but I cannot stoop to surmises or guesses with abundance 
 of facts at hand. 
 
 Let us, however, examine the figures more narrowly. The 
 Church of England had 2S worshippers per cent, in the 73 
 towns, and 49 in the rest of the country, that is to say, 75 per 
 cent, more ; so that her duty was fully and fairly performed 
 where she had even an approximation to fair play, and where 
 the clergy were not overweighted. Roman Catholics had 6 per 
 cent, in the towns, and only two in the country ; while the 
 numbers for " Protestant Dissenters and others " were 21 and 
 34 respectively. Hence it follows that all other religious com- 
 munities were more successful in the rural districts in the pro- 
 portion of 36 to 27, or four to three. And it is further self- 
 evident, that whatever may be the condition of the rural districts 
 Protestant Dissenters and others share in the honour, or are 
 partakers in the culpability. Of course it will be said, for 
 anything can be asserted, that dissent is prevalent among good 
 people, and absent where they are worst ; but this is only admit- 
 ting, in other words, that they select for tillage the fertile soil, 
 and leave the sterile to be cultivated by others. 
 
 In 1860 I published a pamphlet,* the concluding remarks of 
 which bear on tliis branch of the subject : 
 
 It does not appear that the injury of one religious body contributes to the 
 success of another, or that any two of them exist in an inverse ratio. In other 
 words, the high numbers of one do not indicate low numbers of another, but the 
 contrary. Thus, let us arrange the per-centages of Churchmen and Dissenters in 
 the counties, from the highest to the lowest in each, and call the upper half of 
 the per-centages high numbers and the remainder low ones. Of the 22 places 
 which show a high per-centage of Churchmen, so many as 13 show a high per- 
 centage of Dissenters also; so that much more depends upon the moral and 
 religious tone of any particular place than upon the success of one denomination 
 OA'er another. Nor is this all, for if we take a smaller number, such as ten places 
 indicating the highest Church numbers, we find several of tliem also in the first 
 ten Dissenting numbers; while on the contrary, Surrey is forty-third in order, 
 or the lowest but one in both scales! In the towns there is not the same re- 
 markable correspondence, because the disturbing influences are more powerful 
 in their operation; yet we find Colchester, Heading, and Wakefield in the 
 highest ten of both columns, and Manchester in the lowest ten of both. There 
 is, however, a very marked and suggestive correspondence between the numbers 
 which indicate the non-worshipping community and those which refer to the two 
 leading religious communities. Thus, the place which is highest in irreligion is 
 that in which Dissenters have done least, viz., Southwark, there being 68 per 
 cent, non-worshippers to eight Dissenters. If we take the nine places where the 
 Church is weakest, we find seven of them among the 34 most irreligious towns; 
 and if we take the nine in which Dissenters are weal^est, they are all found in 
 the same 34. In ^Manchester, Chmx-hmen and Dissenters are nearly equal, but 
 
 * Remarks on the Census of Religious Worship for England and Wales, with 
 Suggestions for an improved Census in 1861; and a Map illustrating the Re- 
 ligious Condition of the Country. Pp. 35. 1800.
 
 28 
 
 the irreligious are half as many more as hoth united. In Oldham, Chm*chmen 
 and Dissenters together are a little more than a third of the population, but the 
 irreligious amount to more than three-fifths. 
 
 Let us examine the facts more narrowly still. An important 
 test of the desire to worship God is the attendance at the after- 
 noon service. People who have perfect command of their own 
 time attend usually in the morning ; and Roman Catholics for 
 other reasons do so almost exclusively. Tn towns, Churchmen 
 and Dissenters, especially the latter, attend in large numbers in 
 the evening ; but in towns afternoon services are very rare, and 
 where they exist the attendances are small. In the rural dis- 
 tricts the contrary is the case. Members of famihes who have 
 morning duties to perform, domestics, labourers, farm servants, 
 and others of that class are disengaged ; and the cpestion is how 
 do they attend ? 
 
 Keeping to counties, in illustration of the principle, there are 
 nine in which the afternoon attendance exceeds that of the 
 morning. (Bedford, Dorset, Essex, Hants, Norfolk, North- 
 ampton, Oxford, Rutland, Suffolk.) In two others (Cambridge 
 and Herts) the numbers are practically equal. In ten more, 
 the afternoon attendance, as compared with that of the morning, 
 varies from three-fourths to nine-tenths and upwards (Bucks, 
 Chester, Derby, Devon, Kent, Leicester, Lincoln, Somerset, 
 Sussex, Wilts). 
 
 It may be objected, however, that this only shows the period 
 of the day at which country folks can most conveniently attend 
 Church ; but it shows us nothing of the actual attendance, which 
 may have been low both morning and afternoon. Very well ! 
 We are prepared for this objection also. 
 
 William Cobbett was once asked what county of England he 
 thought was the happiest, and he at once replied Suffolk. The 
 reason assigned was a perfectly natural one, viz. that at every 
 interval of two or three miles on almost any road, one was sure 
 to find a village, a neat church and spire, and a comfortable 
 modest parsonage. He was an accurate and original observer, 
 Avho could, and did reason well, yet he never spoke more sen- 
 sibly in his life. In 1858 I made the computations referred to 
 from the Census of Religious Worship ; and though I knew 
 nothing of this remark at the time, it was corroborated in a 
 remarkable manner. For, in attendance SuflPolk stood at the 
 top of the list, showing nearly 64 per cent, as worshippers in the 
 Established Church ! Nor was this all, of the remaining 36 per 
 cent, nearly all were adherents of one or other of the fourteen 
 sects which had a representation in the county ; Independents 
 and Baptists being most numerous. Forming part of the ancient
 
 29 
 
 Kingdom of East Aiiglia, and lying far out of the way of modern 
 innovations, it is a fair specimen of what an agricultural district 
 may be made. Of course, there were non-worshipj3ers in the 
 county: but the frequency of church and chapel attendance was 
 so much greater than that in England generally, that in com- 
 ])uting by the usual formula they practically disappeared. 
 
 It should be mentioned that in 1851 England and AVales 
 were divided into 44 nominal counties, Yorkshire being regarded 
 as tluee, and Wales as only two. And, though Suffolk stood at 
 the top, there were other counties which came close to it in the 
 matter of church attendance. Thus in Northampton and Wilts 
 the per-centage was 63 ; in Bucks, Q2 ; and in Hereford and Rut- 
 land, 61. All of these are agricultural counties; and if we 
 remember that for all England the per-centage of church 
 attendance is 42 of the gross population, counties of this class 
 occupy an unusually favourable position. That is to say, the 
 Church is Ministenal to 42 per cent., and Home Missio?iary 
 to 2o more, who attend no place of worship, making her field of 
 labour 67, or upwards of two-thirds, without detracting a unit 
 from the useful labom's of other religious bodies. 
 
 Along with the pamphlet issued in 1860, I published a unique 
 map, showing the state of religion in the 44 comities, and also 
 in the 73 great towns. In the counties the population was 
 divided into three parts : — (1), worshipping Churchmen ; (2), 
 worshippers of all other creeds ; and (3), non-worshippers. 
 Each set was again divided into two sections, according as the 
 numbers exceeded 50 per cent, of the gross population, or were 
 only more numerous than either of the other two, viz., varying 
 from 34 to 50. The following is the result, as summarised on 
 the margin of the map : — 
 
 There are no Roman Catholics in Hunts and Rutland ; i. e. , 
 as represented by congregations. The irreligious are not appa- 
 rent in Hunts, Northampton, and Suffolk. The Church is 
 strongest in Suffolk and weakest in Durham. Dissent is 
 strongest in South Wales and weakest in Hunts, Northampton, 
 and Suffolk. The irreligious are most numerous in Surrey. 
 The field of the Church, that is to say. Church worshij^pers and 
 irreligious together, varies from 30 in South Wales to 86 in 
 Westmoreland. 
 
 There are 17 counties in which the worshippers in the Church 
 of England exceed 50 per cent, of the gross population : — Bed- 
 ford, Berks, Bucks, Cambridge, Devon, Hants, Hereford, Herts, 
 Hunts, Kent, Northampton, Oxford, Rutland, Shropshire, Suf- 
 folk, Sussex, Wilts. There are nine others in which Church
 
 30 
 
 worshippers are the most numerous of the three classes : — Derby, 
 Gloucester, Leicester, Lincoln, Norfolk, Warwick, Westmore- 
 land, Worcester, and North Riding of York. 
 
 There are three in which Dissenters exceed 50 per cent. : — 
 North Wales, South Wales, and Monmouth ; and two others, 
 Cornwall and the East Riding, in which they are the most 
 numerous of the three classes. 
 
 The irreligious or non-worshijjpers exceed 50 per cent, in four 
 shires : — Cumberland, Durham, Middlesex, Surrey ; and there 
 are nine others in which they are the most numerous of the 
 three classes : — Cheshire, Devon, Essex, Lancashire, Northum- 
 berland, Nottingham, Somerset, Stafford, West Riding. 
 
 It would be worse than idle to waste Avords in commenting 
 upon facts like these. If they be genuine, — and, with the ex- 
 ception of what are called, somewhat unhappily, '^ clerical " 
 errors, I believe them to be correct, — they speak emphatically 
 for themselves. The man who can say that the Church of 
 England has not done her duty in the rural counties and parishes 
 must be either sadly deficient in information or labouring under 
 some strong political or sectarian bias. The indictment is in 
 one respect greatly to be regretted. The poor cottagers and 
 field labourers, whose morality and religion have been impugned, 
 are in blissful ignorance of the natm-e and extent of the charges 
 brought against them ; but even if they knew them, are they not 
 powerless for the purpose of defence ? Let us cherish the 
 pleasing hope that when next the subject is under the considera- 
 tion of statesmen, some amende may be made for an accusation 
 as unseemly as it is opposed to facts. 
 
 The following facts are interesting, and they may be welcome 
 to the reader were it only as a ^^ set off" to these dry figures. 
 Mrs. Hemans was minutely acquainted with the details of rural 
 life in England, Wales, and Ireland ; she knew the habits of 
 the people, and gave them credit for all their qualities, — not for 
 a few only, and these the worst. Some days before she was 
 called to her rest, viz., Sunday morning, 26th April, 1835, she 
 dictated from her death-bed her last lines of verse, which remind 
 us by their sweetness of the fabled song of the swan. They 
 stand out in marked contrast with the odious ideas suggested by 
 Mr. Miall, and the details called up by the writer in the Non- 
 conformist^ and they possess the marked advantages of being 
 both relevant and true. 
 
 How many blessed groups this hour are bending, 
 Through England's primrose meadow paths, their way 
 Towards spire and tower, 'midst shadowy elms ascending, 
 Whence the sweet chimes proclaim the hallow 'd day !
 
 31 
 
 The halls, from old heroic ages grey, 
 
 Pour their fair children forth ; and hamlets low, 
 
 With whose thick orchard blooms the soft winds play, 
 
 Send out their inmates in a happy flow, 
 
 Like a freed vernal stream. 
 
 VII. Morality in the Rural Districts. 
 
 The mode in which truth is violated throughout the article of 
 the Nonconformist is very interesting, for it shows on a grand 
 scale that which takes place in a small way in our daily and 
 hourly intercourse Avith the world. On the sands which fringe 
 the shore of North Lancashire, and which touch lightly on 
 Cumberland and Westmorland, cockles are found; and a 
 number of children live by procuring them and selling them to 
 intermediate people who supply the consumers. They receive 
 little or no schooling ; and at fourteen both boys and girls oc- 
 casionally become independent, as is not unusual with the mill- 
 workers in manufacturing towns, and live apart from their 
 parents. Their number is not stated ; but they may amount to 
 a hundred in all, though that does not affect the argument. It 
 was right and proper that the Commissioners should take cog- 
 nizance of them, as an example of the employment of the young, 
 if they had amounted to no more than a-dozen : it is quite 
 another thing when these special young people are paraded as a 
 specimen of the rural population of three counties ! In 1871, 
 these three counties contained a population of somewhat more 
 than three millions — nearly equal to that of London or of all 
 Scotland — or, if we omit the population of the large towns, of 
 more than l,372,O0O ; and these few wretched children are 
 quoted as a specimen of the peasantry! It would have been 
 just as logical, and rather more true, to have quoted as a repre- 
 sentation of the people, a band of gipsies who were temporarily 
 plying their trades of tinkering and horse-dealing in some of the 
 green lanes. And then, forsooth, the existence of such a state 
 of things is a disgrace to the Established Church, and an argu- 
 ment for her Disendowment and Disestablishment ! Truly the 
 writer is little credit to the Church which claims him for a 
 member. Did he never hear of the patience «nd good order of 
 our manufacturing people, during the famine brought on by the 
 war in the United States, of enforced idleness and hunger on 
 one side, and of a noble sympathy and brotherly feeling on the 
 other, showing that both had profited by the possession of 
 religion and true principles, and that both were in advance of 
 other places in practical education.
 
 32 
 
 The charges brought against the rural districts are three in 
 number ; though both order and distinctness seem to be carefully 
 avoided. The first, the falseliood of which appears in the very 
 statement, is that the criminal classes are more numerous in the 
 rural districts than in the towns , as they amount to 1 in 254 in 
 the former, and 1 in 371 in the latter. Here is an example of 
 the way in which facts are perverted by one who does not under- 
 stand them. It is natural that crimes should take place fre- 
 quently in the country, where property is to a large extent 
 unprotected ; and less frequently in the town where, owing to 
 om- police system, we are almost as safe by night as by day. 
 But, who does not know that the dens of thieves are in our 
 towns ; that they scour the country sometimes for twenty miles 
 in every direction round the limits of a borough ; that their spies 
 '^ set " the places by day which are to be assailed at night ; and 
 that the receivers of stolen goods always reside in towns. There 
 is vice enough in rural districts, but when crime exists it is 
 usually connected with property. 
 
 The other two are brought in a single sentence. ^' It is evident 
 that the two deepest stains on the moral character of the English 
 peasantry are drunkenness and unchastity." The proposition 
 is very probably true as it stands, for it would be difficult to 
 name more prominent offences against morality ; but suggestively 
 it is flagrantly untrue. It is meant to convey the idea that these 
 people are extremely drunken, which we utterly deny ; and that 
 they present the most shocking examples of unchastity, which is 
 equally at variance with facts. 
 
 Now what is the evidence in support of the charge of drunken- 
 ness ? Why, that in the Eastern Counties masters frequently 
 give their harvest supper at a public house, and that the next 
 day some of the youngsters and unemployed workmen patrol the 
 country begging ^Margesse" which is usually spent in drink. 
 The quotation given appears fi'om internal evidence to be a gross 
 exaggeration of the facts ; but suppose it true, and w ho is 
 primarily to blame? The employer of course, who leads the 
 people under his protection into temptation, and then leaves 
 them there instead of providing for them a comfortable meal 
 and innocent amusements in a position of safety near their own 
 homes. The evil, such as it is, could be remedied in a single 
 season, and by any farmer who pleased ; but it is very hard to 
 blame the poor men for a little excess on the occurrence of their 
 one holiday, the one break in their dreary round of employment ; 
 and it is almost unnecessary to say that it is still more unfeeling 
 and absurd to blame the Church of England, because employers 
 are injudicious in the management of their workpeople.
 
 33 
 
 Let us examine the normal condition of these supposed 
 drunken wretches, and the writer shall himself be our Avitness. 
 
 The Dorsetshire labourer " is under-fed. He seldoni touches 
 any fresh meat. The wives do not know how to cook it, and if 
 they did, they have not the means of doing so. Even their 
 supplies in the necessaries of life are sometimes insufficient. 
 * * " There can be no doubt that in the greater part of these 
 counties,* the laboui'ers are sadly underfed, especially where not 
 allowed to keep a pig. In such a case, unless their earnings very 
 far exceed the usual average, even those men who are most regu- 
 larly employed have to be content with a diet which consists 
 almost entirely of bread, potatoes, and cheese." * * * The wife 
 of a Dorsetshire shepherd said, " We do'nt have a bit of butcher's 
 meat not for half a year ; we live on potatoes, bread, and pig 
 meat, and are very thankful if we can get a bit of pig-meat ; we 
 often sit down to dry bread." * * * Much of the physical in- 
 feriority of the people of Somerset is attributed to " their living 
 so much on nothing but w^heaten bread." 
 
 Enough of these quotations. Is there a sane man within the 
 four seas of Britain, wdio can believe that the English labourer is 
 a debased drunken wretch, when day by day he and his family 
 are heroic examples of self-denial, and even throughout these 
 disgusting and sometimes appalling extracts no one has ventured 
 to impugn his honesty. If men whose daily food is below the 
 rations of the jail-prisoner or the workhouse-pauper, and whose 
 homes are a blot upon our boasted modern civilization, maintain 
 their integrity through lives of drudgery and deprivation, and 
 respect the property of their employers while witnessing the 
 abundance which they have contributed to produce ; if they live 
 miserably and die prematm-ely, as uncomplainingly as sheep 
 before their shearers, they are in this respect at least worthy of 
 being enrolled among nature's nobility, and they are a^ living 
 testimony that they have been taught and have learned some 
 good principles. 
 
 We come now to the last principal charge against the people 
 of the rural districts, viz., that among the young of both sexes a 
 considerable amount of immorality prevails. This is unfortu- 
 nately true ; they would be more or less than human ^ if with 
 their limited education, and in the circumstances in which they 
 are placed, it were otherwise. The lower classes in every 
 country anticipate marriage when opportunity and temptation 
 coincide, so that the culpability is general and differs merely in 
 degree. 
 
 * Dorset, Kent, Chester, Salop, Stafford. 
 C
 
 34 
 
 Now we shall assume that this is true, nay more that it is 
 within the truth ; yet we have no hesitation in declaring that it 
 is quite insufficient to sustain the inferences which the writer in 
 the Nonconformist desires to place upon it. Lord Bacon has 
 shown us that our induction should take place from a broad 
 basis of facts ; but when broad inferences are drawn from a 
 few select facts the process is inverted, and the pyramid is 
 placed upon its point. What wonder if it topples over ? The 
 inferences suggested by the writer from these facts, but nowhere 
 distinctly stated, are the following : — 
 
 1. That because such facts exist they are general ; because 
 they can be found they are only illustrative examples. This has 
 been noticed already. 
 
 2. That the country is worse than the town. No such infer- 
 ence is admissible ; though only one side of the question is dis- 
 cussed in the Nonconformist. A similar exposure of town morals 
 would, I fear, disturb om' faith in human nature. 
 
 3. That England is worse in this respect than other parts of 
 the United Kingdom. The writer may possibly mean this in 
 honesty, judging according to the light that is in him, but if so, 
 how great is his darkness. There are six counties of which no 
 notice is taken in these extracts from Blue-books, viz. Durham, 
 Hunts, Middlesex, Monmouth, Rutland, Suffolk. Were these 
 not examined by the Commissioners, or did they not furnish a 
 single example of immorality? When all the contradictory 
 tittle-tattle which the Commissioners could pick up from 
 persons anxious to say something effective is gravely re- 
 corded, the case of these counties, if no blot could be found, 
 must be strong indeed. Further, no portion of Wales was ex- 
 amined, though Dissent claims the principality mainly for its 
 own ; perhaps it was thought that we had had enough of evidence 
 on the subject of Welsh immorality. So many as %^ per cent, 
 of the people worship in dissenting chapels, yet the practice 
 known as ^^ bundling " continues to disgrace the land, and in- 
 stead of any attempt to check it, we have godly men and staid 
 matrons trying to apologise for it. No part of North Britain 
 has been examined, yet we may not infer that Scotland can 
 throw stones at her southern neighbours. 
 
 Ireland is not included in this inquiry ; but we know that 
 many of our romantic ideas have been rudely dispelled by 
 figures, and that notwithstanding the early marriages of the 
 Celtic portion of the population, impropriety is far from rare. 
 Some of the Protestants are quite as bad, perhaps worse. There 
 is a small parish in the north, which in 1861 contained 962 in- 
 habitants, and of these 921 were Presbyterians of Scottish de-
 
 35 
 
 scent. It was well that there was no Commissioner at hand to 
 note the w^ords of a Presbyterian gentlemen, who described it as 
 "a second Sodom or Gomorrah;" for though the idea com- 
 municated was substantially true, he used a well understood 
 hyperbole. 
 
 4. The grossest inference of all which is suggested is that the 
 Church of England is responsible for the irregularities which 
 we have been noticing. 
 
 It is unquestionable that a great many statements have been 
 made which are of little or no value, being sometimes contra- 
 dictory and sometimes by incompetent witnesses. But our 
 Gallio of the Nonconformist cares for none of these things ; "all 
 is fish that comes into his net," and the most offensive statement 
 is accepted as if it were a new revelation. Thus in Somerset, 
 the cm'ate of Porlock, on the Bristol Channel, and among the 
 hills of Dartmoor forest, says that " about one child in twenty is 
 perhaps illegitimate; " and Dr. Wills of Crewkerne says "there 
 are not many illegitimate children ; " but the curate of Gaer- 
 hill, a place which cannot be found either in Crockford's Clerical 
 Directory, Cox's Clergy List, or Lewis's Topographical Dictionary, 
 says " nearly half the children are illegitimate " ! ! That gentle- 
 man ought certainly to be promoted to Gotham, as his talents 
 show him to be particularly suitable for that parish. 
 
 Let us now hear one or two pleas in defence ; and the reader 
 wiU please to observe that they are not mine. Fortunately they 
 are given by one of the Commissioners by whom the inquiry 
 was conducted, viz., Mr. Henley, who had charge of Northum- 
 berland. 
 
 "It is important that the discredit arising from bastardy 
 should not he exaggerated. In comparing the statistics of 
 different districts it must be borne in mind that there are several 
 circumstances lohich tend to make a rural district appear ivorse 
 than it really is. 
 
 1 . In the first place nearly all the births are registered in the 
 country ; in the large towns it is probable that the children born 
 out of wedlock are not registered to the same extent as other 
 children. 
 
 2. In the next case many illegitimate children in towns are 
 registered as legitimate, the proceeding being possible there 
 though not in the country, where every one is known. 
 
 3. Further, the figures given by the Registrar- General show 
 the numbers only of the children who are born alive. Now the 
 proportion of such children, born of the healthy women of the 
 country, is no doubt larger than in other cases.
 
 36 
 
 4. Infanticide, which is supposed to be very common in some 
 towns, is rarer in the country. Dr. Wilks says that in his part 
 of Somerset 'Hhere is no infanticide; and women will work very 
 hard to support a bastard." 
 
 VIII. Causes of Unchastity. 
 
 We have thus reached two or three very definite points, viz., 
 (1.) That criminals usually herd together in towns, but often 
 commit their depredations in the country, thus apparently mul- 
 tiplying the number of offenders in the rural districts ; (2.) That 
 the imputation of drunkenness as a common vice is absurb, the 
 poor people having an inadequate supply of the cheapest food ; 
 and (3.) That the unchastity of the rural districts is much 
 greater in appearance than in reality, owing to a variety of 
 causes, while even the worst locality is far better than our great 
 towns. Let us next inquire what are the causes of the amount 
 of immorality which exists, that we may see whether or not they 
 are removeaJble. 
 
 1. Ignorance. '^ The practical working is that now, as a rule, 
 boys leave day-schools entirely at nine years of age, never to 
 return." — " Many of the children employed in field labour never 
 learn to read and write. They are usually sent to a Sunday 
 School ; but scarce anything can be taught thus, when the body 
 is exhausted from the week's work, and the mental powers are 
 dormant. Taking the lowest standard of a sufiicient education 
 for an agricultural labourer, i.e, reading, writing, and some 
 knowledge of arithmetic, with an elementary knowledge of 
 Scriptui^e and the formularies of the Church, I believe that more 
 than one-half of the population is growing up without it." 
 '' Whole families are uneducated, on account of the distance 
 from any scJiooV ^' The children have to go to school two 
 miles. This is too far, children cannot go above half-a-mile to 
 school in winter." 
 
 2. Fojndar Feeling. In " King^s Vale Royal of Chester^'' 
 we have a specimen of the matter-of-fact way in which offences 
 of this kind were spoken of in the seventeenth century. " The 
 people there live till they be very old ; some are grandfathers 
 their fathers yet living, and some be grandfathers before they be 
 married." * * * u Likewise the women are very friendly 
 and loving, painful in labour, and in all other kind of house- 
 wifery expert, fruitful in bearing children after they be married, 
 and sometimes before." '' Bastardy is not looked 'upon as any 
 disgrace in woman, nor is any discredit thrown upon the
 
 37 
 
 ofFending man." "It is considered a misfortune rather than a 
 fault." "They have not the same ideas of shame about it as 
 we have." " Girls think it no disgrace to be the mother of one 
 illegitimate child, nor do their friends regard it as such, but it 
 must be allowed that marriage not unfrequently follows." 
 
 3. The Mops or Statute Fairs. " They know nothing of deli- 
 cacy, little of decency, and are not in the least aware of incur- 
 ring degradation by standing in the market-place at statutes to 
 be hired." " It might easily and very advantageously be 
 changed for the system of hiring at register offices, if it were not 
 for the pig-headedness of the people, who are averse to changing 
 a bad system for a good one, and for the immorality of the females, 
 who know that if the system were adopted they would have to 
 conduct themselves with propriety so as to ensure a character." 
 " Mops are a great evil, the greatest evil that can be ; they are a 
 perfect heathendom ; they do no good except to the public 
 houses. They are held in October in all the principal towns ; 
 they are among the most immoral things we have. It is a holi- 
 day for farm-servants, and the only one they have." " And so 
 the moral plague spreads like a fearful gangrene among the 
 lower orders ; all the efforts that the clergyman, the school- 
 master, and the philanthropist can bring to bear are powerless 
 against this gigantic system of profligacy and crime." 
 
 4. Meetings for Amusement and Excitement. — Cumberland 
 and Westmoreland are celebrated for their " murry neets," 
 which often lead to the condition known as the " happron up." 
 Of the former, it is said, " I think the immorality for which this 
 county has a bad repute is attributable chiefly to the half-yearly 
 hiring-fairs, and to \he frequent halls which are held throughout 
 the year for the entertainment of the working classes. Girls 
 who*^ are taught nothing else are taught to dance, and the 
 dancing master is as regular in his visits from house to house as 
 the tax collector." * * * " Female servants spend the greater 
 part of their wages on dress, and it would be difficult to distin- 
 guish at church a farm servant-girl from the daughter of her 
 employer." But even religious meetings are attended with 
 danger. The "revivals" of Down and Antrim in 1858 left 
 some unpleasant memories ; and the reason why Evening Ser- 
 vice is so rare in the country districts has less to do with the 
 absence of moonlight than with the obvious danger attendant on 
 long walks by night. But there is danger even by day. Burns 
 did not invent the term " Holy Fair :" it was a common one in 
 the west of Scotland before his time, as it has been since. He
 
 38 
 
 described it however, and the concluding half-stanza, it is to 
 be feared, is only too true : 
 
 There's some are fou o' love divine; 
 
 There's some are fou o' brandy; 
 An' mony jobs that day begin 
 
 May end in houghmagandie 
 Some ither day. 
 
 5. Bad Cottages. " Miserably deficient," ^' wretchedly bad," 
 * labourers as a rule are worse lodged than cattle, and less cared 
 for." " Miserably bad," " dark damp unhealthy holes," '' mere 
 ruinous hovels," '' their condition is adverse to morality and 
 decency." The cottages in a parish in Somersetshire were 
 ^* mostly squatters' huts, and most of them no better than stables, 
 and some of them so filled that it was impossible morality or 
 decency could exist. " The bad cottages of the poor throughout 
 the kingdom is a great source of immorality and bad health." 
 
 6. Want of separate Sleeping Accommodation. "A great deal 
 of unchastity is owing to the promiscuous way in which the 
 people live." '^ Morality and decency are all but impossible." 
 *' Half the fruit of the schools is lost through the way in which 
 the people are herded in their homes." " Until better cottage 
 accommodation is provided, the instruction given in either 
 church or school will be comparatively useless in forming habits 
 of decency and morality." 
 
 For this state of things, what are to be the remedies. The 
 Bishop of Manchester, who was one of the Commissioners, but 
 whom the writer in the Nonconformist does not recognise, sees 
 the difficulty of the case : — 
 
 I do not know when I have felt more depressed or more conscious of the dif- 
 ficulties that suri'ound this great question, how to elevate the condition of the 
 Q'liralpoor, than after my return from a drive of inspection which I had been taken 
 by a medical gentleman whose practice lies in this district, and in which I had 
 seen type after type of social life almost degraded to the level of barbarism." 
 
 The Rector of Walton in Somerset says : — 
 
 " In face of rents increasing with the demand for land, it is very difficult for 
 wages to rise ; the only means by which they could, would be a combination 
 among the labourers ; but that never occurs to them ; they are a stupid, down- 
 trodden race, and then they have not the same opportunities of meeting enjoyed 
 by people in the towns, who can combine, and form trades unions." 
 
 The following testimony is borne to the usefulness of the 
 clergy. The Bishop of Manchester says : — 
 
 But — for the zeal and activity of the clergy, and their large sacrifices,— not 
 only of money but of labour and of time, — in three-fourths of the rural parishes 
 of England there would either be no school at all, or at best only the semblance 
 of a school. I believe myself that where parochial apathy exists it is because the
 
 39 
 
 people want stirring. An active, zealons clergyman coming into one of these 
 stagnant parishes has been kno wn in a few months to work wonders. 
 
 In three of the Midland counties, Mr. Stanhope says, 
 
 The supply of schools is satisfactory, a fact due almost exclusively to the self- 
 sacrifice of the clergy. 
 
 Of Somerset, Mr. Boyle says, 
 
 It is an extraordinary fact how great a change the influence of an energetic 
 man can work in a family in a few years. 
 
 And, after all that has been said about the small importance 
 of the residence of the clergy at remote points throughout our 
 rural shires, the following testimony is not without value : 
 
 There has never been a resident clergyman, which lias told imfaxowahhj on 
 tlie ])ari8li^ 
 
 is a frequent statement. Of an Essex parish it is said : 
 
 There has been no resident clergyman for fifty years, and consequently the 
 people have had very little done for them spiiitually or educationally. 
 
 IX. Conclusion. 
 
 The reader is respectfully informed, that we have never seen 
 these marvellous Blue-books, nor sought to see them. Every 
 one of our quotations from them has been taken fr-om the Non- 
 conformist ; so that we nonsuit our accuser, and then put him 
 into the criminal's dock and convict him on his own evidence. It 
 might have been easier to get up a set of opposing quotations ; 
 for we have no doubt that these extracts contain less than half 
 the truth, andthe refore convey to the reader a falsehood. Still, 
 they are more than sufficient for our purpose. Unmounted, we 
 unhorse the assailant with his own spear ; unarmed, we slay him 
 with his own sword. 
 
 To any man of common sense, it was abundantly evident from 
 the first that Mr. Miall had made a mistake ; for lie might just 
 as well refer to the '''• Encydopcedia Britannica,^^ or to ^^ Gulliver^s 
 Travels,^' for proofs that the Church has not done her duty. 
 Still, as "a pugilist is the god of a dog," so there is no man of 
 any mark but has some admirers or worshippers. Mr. Miall's 
 henchman is desirous to show that the idea about rural dis- 
 tricts was a grand moral discovery ; he cries ^^ yea " and ^^amen" 
 the more loudly as he understands less ; and ends by bringing 
 to light an important specimen of the nidus equinus. In those 
 districts where intellectual development assists j^eople very little, 
 but physical strength a great deal, where the demand for 
 labour is scarcely equal to the supply, where cottages are bad
 
 40 
 
 and sanitary arrangements two generations behind, where, 
 owing to sparse population schools are distant and cannot be 
 attended by infants, where suitable arrangements are unknown 
 for the healthful and becoming recreation of the young, where the 
 isolation of employment tempts to sin, and public morality is 
 not high — in those districts something is evidently out of joint, 
 and any one can propose his little scheme for reform. So the 
 nostrum for the nation " disendowment and disestablishment" 
 is proposed as a cure for all these evils and any others that may 
 arise. It is true that the Church did not contribute to cause 
 them ; but on the contrary, has amended some and prevented 
 many others ; nevertheless let her be abused. Perhaps the 
 clergy may not reply. If so the case may be considered as 
 having gone by default, and '^sufferance is the badge of all 
 their tribe ; " but if they do reply it is easy to abuse them as 
 worldly men, whose time is wasted in barren controversy. The 
 confidence of these people in their religious specific reminds 
 one of a paragraph in a little Treatise on the value of Brandy 
 and Salt. It had never been applied in the case of a bite of 
 a mad dog ; but, as it had cured many complaints equally 
 difficult and dangerous, there could be no doubt of its success. 
 What brandy and salt are to one monomaniac, Disendowment 
 and Disestablishment are to another ; and we have yet to see 
 that either Mr. Miall or his eulogist has the slightest care for 
 the rural districts of the country, except so far as a present 
 purpose, and that not a very creditable one, can be served. 
 
 It w^as our intentien to give a consecutive list of false propo- 
 sitions which have been exposed and answered here ; but we will 
 give the reader credit for more ability than to require such a 
 summing up. It is our earnest desire to live in charity and peace 
 with all men, and our happiness to realise that wish ; but there 
 must be police and magistrates to protect the weak against the 
 wicked. ''Who steals my purse steals trash;" but he who 
 would for private purposes beguile us from the right paths into 
 by-ways, or who would poison the fountains of public opinion, is 
 anything but a l^enefactor of mankind. In all probability, how- 
 ever, the offender will find that he has for the present taken 
 nothing by his mo tion ; and it rests with himself whether or not 
 we shall ever be called upon again to perform the important duty 
 indicated by Solomon in one of his triads, commencing " a 
 whip for the horse." 
 
 FINIS. 
 
 Westminster: Printed by Nichols and Sons, 25, Parliament Street,
 
 ^-•^^ 
 
 •» . .- «! 
 
 ^•m^m'.:M.' 
 
 ^^ ..^::^ 
 
 •^4#^r 
 
 mm% 
 
 sir* 
 
 's^ V^^V 
 
 M^-'mm 
 
 •^ '3.. 
 
 '3 
 
 
 ^^ 
 
 
 &^ 
 
 ^^i 
 
 '^'^r^ 
 
 il^' #i: