The National Register. — London, England, 1817-08-04 00:00:00

i•tri rbt No. 495.—V0L. X. POLITICAL DISQUISITION. ON THE INJUSTICE OF THE CONTINENTAL PRESS TOWARDS RUSSIA. EUROPE has so long been accustomed to the leotage, that, now it is removed, she cats hardly be lieve it possible that her deliverers should not, in their turn, become her oppressors ; she can hardly believe, that a Power which the false refinement of France has designated us barbarous, should know how to forgive in the moment of victory ; and this feeling is most carefully kept up by the unceasing endeavours of a set of despicable men, who, having been driven from their own country for their crimes, have seized on the public press in almost every neighbouring states and through it poison the very source of public opinion. During the long and destructive war which Eng. land has carried on for the deliverance of the world, she has a thousand times been accused of interested motives; and when the termination of that war proved how false all these charges were, that, instead of aggrandisement she only sought security, and that instead of enslaving her neighbours, her only aim was to give them peace, her libellers, both abroad and at home, shifted their ground, and pointed to Russia as the nation whose overwhelming power will ero long crush the independence of surrounding states. Day after day, the presses of the Continent have teemed with accusations against her, all as false as those which have been levelled against ourselves. One writer sees the destruction of European liberty in the ascendancy which Alexander is gaining in Poland ; another in his " meditated" conquest of the Ottoman Empire; and a third, the union of the Imperial Family with the houses of Orange, Wirtem burg, and Brandenburg ; while another sot of writers discover the danger In the increasing civili 'ration of the North ; and descry, in the looms of Russia, the annihilation of English wealth and pros perity. - - If we have no regard for the feelings of a ln'ave and noble minded people, thus libelled by the rump of a jacobinical tyranny, let us at least, for our own hon. our, discountenance opinions, which if entertained by us, must lessen us in the estimation of our neighbours. Let us bear in mind bow nobly disinterested the con duct of Russia has been t With every motive for re. venge, her only object has been to save ; with every opportunity for aggrandizement, she has taken almost nothing ; with the power to keep aloof from all engage ments that might bind her, contrary to her interests, she has courted alliances founded upon the only just principle that can exist, the principle of Christian Charity. Had her views been what these mischievous writers would insinuate, could she hope for a more favourable opportunity than that which lately present ed itself? With a million of men in the field, could she not have wrung from exhausted Europe con tentions which would have facilitated her a.vent to that supremacy which she is described as aiming at ? The period of peace is the period of renovation, and Europe, recovering from her wounds, will surely oppose a more formidable resistance to any aggression, than when ex hausted by a conflict of five-and-twenty years duration. Russia, with all the policy which her enemies ascribe to her, may be supposed to have thought of this, and yet shehas acted as if she never had. She has been un ambitious, unrevengeful, betting ail example of political forbearance and of moral rectitude, and for this she is accused of every bud motive, and held up as an object to be dreaded and detested. The cause of all this abuse will be llama to arise from Russia's having been lately so mainly instrumental in the destruction of that tyranny which the scribes of die Continental press called liberty, and in the downfal of that man whose crimes are, in their eyes, virtues. Let us, however, guard against their insidious doctrines, and rather rely on the fisith of a Nation which has hitherto proved itself true to its engagements, than insult it by countenancing the libels of a swarm of wretches who have fled from their country to avoid the punishments due to their innumerable villainies. MO nail Our iltings ConOtittitiott attb I abuS. MONDAY, AUGUST 4, 1817. REVIEW O LITERATURE The Basis of National Welfare considered, in li'lfer ence chiefly to the Prosperity of Great Britain, and the Sqlet,y of the Church of England. fly the Rev. RICHARD YATF-S, 8.11 F S.A. When we last noticed this much esteemed work, we had not room to atliml sufficient testimony by our ex tracts from it, but to which we now desire to rccal our readers attention —ln hia section on National habits, in opposition to acknowledged truths, where the Au thor treats on the comparatively small supplies of re ligious information and worship, be justly awaken our attention by the fbllowing interesting. remarks "How great, thereforeonnet be the iniory to Religion when these Pastoral, Instrnelive, Correcting 'unties, cannot be, in any adetinate degree, ditty performed : when indeed, by the gradual intervention of ohstrneting eirctimstances, they are, to the deep concern of the frirnds of Social nrder and tine Religion, so much fallen into Muse. and Habits of Neglect are grown so inveterate, s apparently to indicate an almost genet al forgetfulness of the shbject. "Two painful evidences of such a habit have lately pre sented themselves. "The parish of St. Mary.le-horme has by degrees accnmn hated a population of SEVENTY rite Itiousarsb persons, with onesmall Parish Church and she Parish Minivtet,—ihtrosterl alone by the Law (as at present interpreted) with the cure of Souk : it is evident that to fulfil the pastoral ditties of this Charge, as requited and intended by the Law, is an absolute The parish recently obtained an Act of Par liaioent. and eieeted a New Church. in which two or three thousand persons may hear the Minister's voice, and may re evive iwnefit from the celebration of our instructive Liturgy ; tint no Anner(isal. provision Whatever has been made to give the inhabitants of this enormous parish, itself more po pulous than most English cities) any further participation in the beneficial duties of the pastoral office. The appointment or Lecturers and Assistant Preachers is provided for in the Art ; but as neither these Ministers, nor any of the Chapel Ministers, are permitted by the law to excereise the func tions of a parish priest, the rare of souls, lea parish of 75,000 is still charmed out one individual ; and of course the bene ficial influence intended by the Church of England to be con veyed to the people, through the office and character of pa. coehial Ministers, Is here absolutely lest. A similar oblivion for the benefit accruing to the State from the pastorial office, is evident also in the more retell Act of the last Session, for the parish of St. Patterns: ander the authority of this Act a rhnrch is to be erected, which is intended to accommodate a congregation of two or three thousand in the public worship of the Church of England but NO PROVISION whatever bas been wade to etym.:. the benefits of the Itustorlal office in a parish which returned a population of 46,333. Some ad.:tidbit to the number of Chap els is indeed directed ; but as no Chapel Minister is permut ed by the Law to have the authority and Inflnenee of a Parish Priest, the Cure o* Souls and the important duties Implied in that trust, remain, even niter a recent Parliamentary enact ment, stillwh•dl y charged by the Lim on omit individual, in a parish. containing nearly 50,000 inhabitants. " It is impossible to adduce any instance crf the prevalent and much to he lamented habit in regard toddle subject, more remarkable than that two such Acts, for two parishes of such excessive population, should piss throat,' both Houses of Parlinment without any notice of the benefits to the State, no less than to individuals, of flue pastorial office. and of the character and duties of a legally ahtborised Parish Minister : the sense of these benefits seems indeed, as to all practical and useful purposes, tv have passed entirely from public re membrance. " And as to the administration of the Saeramrnts, that of Baptism is indeed generally required : by many from the ne cessity of obtaining a Parurhial Registration; and by many as a remnant of nursery faith still aillierine to public manners. But how far the present mode and circumstances of its ad ' • ation, in parishes consisting of fifty or sixty thousand inhabitants, are lilely to impress a deep and awful sense of its [(elisions lorportence, 1 am nnwilling to enquire. '• The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper., considered by oar Church as the most solemn and sacred of All her services, is so frequently neglected in the higher ranks of society, and so totally disregarded and ()kilted by the lower classes, that the contemplation of this fart must br a sithject most afflict ing and heart-rending, to all those who feel as mod; lose fur their country, as to wish and pray for the increase and per manence of its domestic peace, liberties and prosperity ; and so much lose for their Saviour 15 to witness with regret and pain, the contemptuous neglect of his dying command, and of the pious and grateful remembrance of that death and passion whereby slime man is rescued frosuoite consetpteneet of Silt, and restored to life and immortality. "'This is one of the most evident and most slamming roost,- quences, of the present sire dthe immense and overwhelm ing population of many parishes that require subdivision. " La their present flute it is as absdimite impossibility to ad minister the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, according to the order and regniations of the Established Church. " The 21st Canon enjoins ilmax- , -s-ln every Parish Church and Chapel *here Sacraments are in he administered within this realm, the Holy Communion shall be ministered so often and at catch times ac erery pal isliivarr may communicate at least thrice io a year.' " The 28th Gummi also enjoins that, --e The Churrhwardens and Questmen or aril. Assistants shall utark, es well as the Minister, whether all sad er ells of the parishioners come so often every year to the Holy Comintinion, as the Laws and our Constitutions do requite : and if soy strangers from PRICE 91d other parishes should come, they are to remit such home to their own parish Chnrch and Minister, there to receive with the rest of their own neighbours.' ' The Rubric therefore directs that every member of the Church of England arrived at sews of discretion, should re. ceire this Sacrament of the least three times In the year. To vsmnine how fat it is possible in tile presets , condition alba Church •o obey these injunctions, it is neerssary to consider that die administration to one liondred conminiiirants oren pies smarty an hour; and com 4 regations, after has in attended the morning Pr:lye's slid Sermon, are general unwilling to he detained notch beyond an additional hour ; if therefore this service were celebrated in -dr') pat Ciitireli cry Sunday in the year, and it Different Coogregction of two bundled at tended each of those iiss-s, not more !lint) Monsand persons stotild perferrti this duty in such Chinch c' .m price to the 'eat. " rids number is not mot, than one third, ere fourth, or one fifth of several of the present parishes a it iN therefore dilintably evident that In those parishes Iwo thirds, three t"iiurths, tour fifths, and in some even a et eater proportion, of the inhabitants are abiolnteiy perch/deft n ,J Apt wet (tom the possibility of performing this Christian i)u:y in their polish Chnrch, and of giving this proof of obedience to their Sa viiinr's command with the Church of England. in the peculiar service which the Law bath selected as • designat ion of Cone. " Dot even this small and most lamentable proportion of Communicants, is ronsiderably more than can be substantiat ed by a reference to Part. " In most of the parish Churches, and In all the Chapel., PO far from n weekly administration of the Sacrament of this Lord's Sapper, It *ill be found that the Holy Communion is generally celebrated only once a month, conseqhently, firm the painful snppositiou that if the monthly attend-nee even • amounted to the minther before speeifird—two hundred dyre• rent g - rsolu every month. instead of every week, in the year, • the Real proportion of Communicants ramiot be mnrh more than one fourth of the above estimation for each of those par• bites. " This lamentable dearth of Christian obedience and Com. menioh with the Estohlished Church undeniably proves the necessity of stibdividing the superabundant population of many parishes, and by that meant of augmenting the very insufficient maintenance at lit esent allotted to laborions pare child ministers, whirls Mice npon them a responsibility and • course of ditties far beyond any human powers to discharge ; while in the orate parish pet haps four ur live Chapels, with out bring permitted by the law to take any part in the paro chial duties, draw, tee* of Mew, a revenue from the parish ioners equal to font or five times (and in some instanees to nso times) the amount received by the parochial Curates. "the doe discharge, by a Rector and a Curate or two, of the pastoral and parochial duties required by a popelatiou of forty, fifty, or sixty thousand souls, is so evident an itopossi bility, that the fact of such a condition of the Chinch of Eng land remaining so long almost unnoticed, and altogether vu. confer ted, is indeed a most painful aid alarming considera. tion ; to impress upon the public mind, an idea of its full ex tent, a public enquiry and examivation may be necessary ; no individual who hat the means of personal investigation, would venture to subject himself to the probable Ontonagon of calumny, by publishing facts that may be within his know ledge : the point under consideration may be in some degree illustrated, without the possibility of misapplication to the injury of any individual, by stating what occurred to myself some years since on taking for a friend me Sululay's Duty. "1 attended at the Church at nine o'clock, on account of expected marriages, the service was once performed : then the full morning service, the Rector preiehing the sermon : alter the departure of the congregation, the service of church. ing of wattle's, twice performed: afternoon foil service, pray. cry, and Sermon: after which seventeen children baptised: then seven funerals performed, the burial service read user five times :--conchnling between seven and right o'clock in the evening : the whole of which, except the mot cling sermon. I perforated as the tinty of a Curate ; and as this was under stood to be snore than the average Sunday employment, it plainly evinces, in addition to other injnrions effects, and other obstructing circumelances, how impossible it is for the present parochial Clergy to administer the Sacrament of the Lord's Sapper to any considerable number of constinsui cants, in the existing note of many parishes. " Thus it appears, that the want of parish Churches and parishes Ministers occusioning other difficulties, —ea the le ngth of time fur the service, distance (rein the pla ce of ce lebration and other kindred causes of neglect,—in addition to the deficiency of space, bath for many years past absolutely eideded an immense majority,—nineteen twentieths at least, —in most of our populous districts, from a possibility of par ticipation in the duties of the Lord's Supper; and hail' been the mearts of indite/Op a HABIT Or NPULECTIMG Tills sea. vice so inveterate, that an accurate exeminotaos might sub stantiate the ntelmickuly fact, that not meet than one to TEM of the attending congregations, and not mote than OAL in P; tarTv of the general population, are consul •ansit t and it is b to be feared this Holy Sacrament is not even thought of, by the far greater part of the Professiog Members of ibis Church of England, in all the most numerously inhabited pa rish, a. A consideration this most distresslag to the Sincere Chris. tian, and sufficient to fill with agonizineapprithension every heart duly sensible• of the value and Iniporeanee of the Ordi nances and Sacraments of our Venerable Church, avid of ;ho t absolute Neeessity to the formation nod pet inaueuce of National Religious Character." The Author's proofs arc partly drawn, most judici ously, from the Police Report, an authority of the ut most weight in this case, and from whence he offers very appropriate r as:..t g l,:s, upon which he gives the following commentary:— " It is somewhat sun,. i!.ins that the OR !GIN. the Sonnet.. the CAllk, Oi this increased priidigac), W nutrced to) IIIIWOe \ r" . • \ e e rr h.„l *'* ( ".'•: .1.-- . `.4...1.--