The National Register. — London, England, 1812-03-15 00:00:00

I THE NATIONAL REGISTER. Ibut Conottrution, anti iLabl. PRINTED AND PUBLISIIED AT NO. 5, PICKETT-STREET, STRAND, NEAR TEMPLE AAA. N° 220. SUNDAY, MARCif 1.5, 1,412, I pervades all ranks whe, with different objects or compari son, entertain the same feelings, When such is the pro. pensity of human nature, it is undoubtedly necessary to invest the religious instructors of the people with a por tion of that ease and independence which, by securing the respect of the community, arms them with greater power to effect public good. It would be vain to expect that the superiority of their education, should be able to coon (-sr balance the inferiority of their stations, and to raise thee" to that rank in. society which they ought to occupy. A* the world is constituted at present, education, unless it has procured, or is attended with riches, is a neglected jewel which none will snatch from its dunghill. In the cases adduced, its unprofitableness is too evident, not to frustrate every exertion made to redeem its credit with the multitude ; who, instead of wishing tlitir children to learn, rather feel a disposition to withhold from them wan accomplishment, which they see cannot yield its possessor as much profit as the common drudgery of manual labour will produce.—Clergymen are appointed to teach, not only by doctrine and exposition, but by example, They are lights set up on high, Which nothing should conceal. They have a particular work to perform, on which they ought to bestow'all their care, their time and their abilities. But how can they worthily fulfil their task, if the hands which onght to join in prayer over the couch of sickness, the bed of the dying, are toiling to earn a scanty pittance, that can but half satisfy the most common wants of craving nature ?—lf the mind which ought to study and to expound the words of life, to pene, trate into, and to preach, eternity, is busy with schemes and inventions to insure a precarious existence ? Can a heart, torn with parental anguish, supply streams of eloquence to the tongue of a preacher, who, on ascending the pulpit, leaves his wife and children a prey to unre g lieved misery. An affecting picture might be drawn of the feelings of a man, who fitted by a liberal and classica education for the minister, finds himself reduced to a situation, in which all the sensibilities of his, Inanity are wounded, all the hopes of being ex- tensivcly useful to his fellow -creatures, destroye3.—. But this i not an appeal to the passions, but to the sour judgment of men. This is an effort to demonstrate tl a dangers to which the national religion is exposed, by the want of a proper provision for its obscure, bqt frequentl;• 4 its most active members. How often does it not hopper, that in those polishes, where the pastor of the establish- ment lies sank in poverty, unable to rescue his family c r his religion from the contempt, which through his miser:. ble situation is cast upon them, a methodist chapel flail. riches in pie-eminent pomp and prosperity, drawing with, POLTI IC AL DLSQUISI 110 N. No. 206. DISTRESSES OF CLERGYMEN. Whilst our demagogues roar for Revolutionary Re form, it is the duty of every friend to the Constitution and his Country to oppose their innovations, and expose their designs. This we have done without fear, and shall con tinue to do, with a strict regard to truth and justice ; but we are by no means unfriendly to reasonable and useful Reform. We would, on the contrary, that every evil which really presses upon the subject should be remedied, every failure of public duty prevented or punished. But instead of clamouring against pretended evils, we look for those that are real, and point them out to public no tice, in order that their effects may be rendered less op pressive,nntil they may be entirely removed. Among the latter is the want of a suitable provision for great numbers of our Clergy, through many parts of the country in England, and nearly the whole of the Princi pality of Wales. A class of men who, in order to be efficient in their exertions, ought to create respect, are frequently sunk, by the slenderness and total inadequacy of their income, below the level of those whom they are to Instruct and to guide in the path of virtue and of reli ginn. I s it lik e ly t h at P astors s h ou ld retain that autho rity over their flock, which is essential to fulfil the ends for which they have been appointed, if they are labouring under the stigma of poverty ? If they depend for their support on the charity of those who ought rather to look up to them for temporal assistance in the season of adver sitY, as well as for divine consolation at the awful hour of departing existence ? It is true that the noblest spec tacle on earth is that of virtue contending with difficul ties, and that in the eyes of a Christian philosopher, a Minister strictly performing his duty under every priva- tint, acquires greater dignity, and gains augmented esteem from the very humility of his circumstances. But rnen iR general take a different view of things. Opulence is With them the chief scale of met it. A respectable suf . - E.iency scarcely entitles their fellow beings to their. re gard ; a decided inferiority of income excites their con tempt; and poverty, although undeserved, only atti acts frozn them neglect or ridicule. The qualifications of the mind vanish before those of the purse. If the latter be 1 'Weil filled, the absence of the other will not be noticed. f it be empty, the powers of the mightiest genius, the eleties of integrity and holiness will ice disregarded. Nor s this sordid appreciation of menconfined to individuals that ove in the highest sphere of bartune and of fashion. It VOL V. No. CCXX. PRTCR 9(1.