The Express.
London, England, 1849-03-02 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, FRIDAY EVENING, MARCH 2, 1849.

diem Yawl of by ether ewe emy sad restate mans.
The adle bled soma to think Owe was more &natation
ia loge the to smsn paddies ; hat he would undertake to
poses the esatrary. He ailed maks many objections
to the mak lord's asetioa,
_but would now only
moss, u an aisteamest. die boreitoedea stow the word
=ion" et these weeds "'leisellas to the Church of
" and the addllisa M the sad of the motion of
thsee weds—" also is *she Me the but mode of potting
la cad to all etolesiselleel shams plisse and pluralities,
mod of uniting perishis whisk estoreiely contain only a
wide limited number lisiseslag to the Church of England."
- - - - - '

Mr. HEALD said tint although net a member-of the
Church of England, ha was sincerely attached to its prin.
*des. Although a noseoeformist, he begged to express his
entire concurrence In the object of the noble lord's motion.
(Cheers.) He felt that not only the church of England, but
the great body of the nenseaformists, were under an obliga-
tion to the noble lord the brlogiws leeward such a resolution,
and would, notwithstanding theseideme of the hon. member
' for Montrose, so canner Ewa to be. (Hear, hear.)
He (Mr. Heald), believed est noments for rendering the
established church of de sonatry more efficient were those
which were most likely to institution of the country
on a permanent bens leers) ; and the effect of the
noble lord's resolution he considered vronll be to set the
Church of England more at liberty to effect that object. It
would enable her to do that which the nonconformists were
at liberty to do—to extend the means of religious instruction.
As a absconformlat he ea honey conceded that right to the
establithed thatch as he demanded it for himself (Hear,
hear.) One of the faults of the motion appeared to him to
be appointing a swassisea to inquire when they wanted one
to act; still be thought the coentry was indebted to the noble
lord for coming forward with a distinct plan. Another fault
he saw in it was the subdivision of large parishes into dis-
tricts combining 40,000 moult. Now he did not attribute to
the noble lord the least wish to east say reflection an the
nonconforming body, but it was to be observed that there
was that peculiarity about the ;population of our 'manufac-
turing :thstricts of Lancashire Sad Yorkshire which made
Momuirehend that the eppliostiem to them of sae a plan
w be attended with a good deal of contention and strife.
(Hear, bear.) Taking, as an example, the town of Stock-
port, there would be found to exist there two or three chapels
for every church. (Cheers from Mr. Hums and others.)
Therewere 12,000 children out of a population of 60,000
educated In the Sunday schools of the nonconformists—
(hoot, hear)—and he hoped he might say, without any viola-
tion of modesty, that 10,000 of those children were taught
by voluntary contribution. lie might say the same of all
the commercial towns of Laneashire ; and, as a amiable*
of the county, he was compelled to bear testimony
to this fact, that, in the outbreak of 1842,
when almost the entire population left their work,
in the time of harvest, and when a spark would have sufficed
to peadose a conflagration, not a single breach of the peace
had been committed by any one of the thousands who at-
tended those Sunday schools of the nouconformists. At any
time, but particularly at the present, he thought it would be
most unwise I. throw into the field the nods of religious
strife and contention, or run the dancer of exciting a feeling
of opposition between the church of England and the non•
infonaut/. (Hear, hear.)
• •

Mr. BRIGHT would forgive tl e hon. gentleman what he
stated in the beginning of his speech, on account of the facts
he brought forward at the end of it. The noble lord protested
it was not his intention to ask for a vote of money ; hut they
had bad protestations of the same kind before which ended
differently. He (Mr. Bright) lived in a parish of the
character described by the noble lord as 8t for the ap-
plication of his plan. It was a pariah of 80,000 lake-
bitantg, including ten miles spare of country, and the
vicar of which was not unknown to fame, one of those semi-
bishops alluded to by the noble lord, and he appointed to
eight or ten churches in his district. He (Mr. Bright) had
heard it made matter of oomplaint by churchmen that as
there never had been there an evangelical vicar, there never
bad been an evantical clergyman. With regard to the
doable rates, it been constantly complained that
portions were obliged to pay to mother time, living at
one end of the parish and probably never having travelled
to the other. If parliament took upon itself to look after
these funds he should not deny their right to do so. The
time was not come yet, though it was fast hastening on
when the principles he held on this sub;ect would re-
ceive a mon favourable hearing in that house, end be carried
oat in the administration of the affairs of the country. The
noble lord was in error in supposing that either in the north
of England or in that metropolis, clergymen could have that
precise position he hoped for. Looking at the education of
clergymen, their habits, tendencies and sympathies, and
seeing how upon all peat public questions they differed
from the great MAN of those with whom the noble
lord wirhed them to be brought Into contact, he
thought there never could be that sympathy, as there
was not now, which the noble lord desired
between the people and the clergy. The noble lard slid
the labouring people of St. Pancras did not go to
church. He believed the same might be maid of large rpu-
lations all ovtr the country. When they did go—they went
to chapels more than to churches. Thetas was not long gone
by when 'Roughen of parliament would not see any greet evil
in the fact of the people not going to church. He (Mr.
Bright) had been investigating the number of clergymen
compared with the population, and be found that it was
amply sufficient for all the purposes of supervision, preaching,
and ministering, in every way a clergyman was competent to
do, as the following table would show :
ENGLAND saw Wars.
Total benefices
Curates

Add dignitaries, heads of collet" &e.

Benedoes and curates
Dana haying no duties, or pluralists

10,513
6,230

13,763
1,017

16,610
13,763
3,067

Total working clergy 12,676
Bente= end curates 15,763
Population
Or 1 clergyman to every 1,143 of population
Total poralstion of England and Wales
Deduct 3,000,000 who attend free or dimenting
churches, and who mama 4300,000 population 4,000,000
13,500,000
Now, of that 13,500,000 who nominally belonged to the
church, a considerable number did no; belong to it, and
would not thank the noble lord for including them within
its pale. But admitting them to be churchmen, then the
supply of 15,763 clergymen amounted to 1 for awry 856 of
church population. lie would now give them a few facts
about the dissenter, of whom the noble lord had said no-
thing. The free churches in England and Wahl amount to
lionalista, 1,840 ; baptists, 1,741; various metho-
dists, Tg; prabyteriase, &c., 130: total, 7,950 congrega-
tions having no connexion with the church of England.
Now let them look to the distribution of the clergy power
of the establidunent.
kOnietten
Huntingdon l9ia2lL 97 or lin 646
Suffolk
Lincoln. 317,000 607 or lin Or
Norfolk 390,000 639 ....or lln 553

Lomita
York

193 or 1 In 4,678
780 at 1 in 1,104

1,036,409 1.904 .....a lln 854
1,388,854
1,378,839

Laudon isd Middle= 1,U8,300

Mona
.4 Oxams

246 .46 1 bi 6.221

PoPulotloa. HeseSoo. K. Pop.
6,46,661 2.644
6,753,339 6,114 ...... 1 1011,644

10 dloomess

Amuintim Mantes.
London endlesez
lan-
caster end Taft 4,066,315 1,294
Huntingdon, Norfolk, and
&¢Sulk 730,303 1,191
Of the 12,923 working clergy, 6,681 bad parishes with
populetione below 300 each, and 6,242 had parishes
averaging less than 2,300 each. He should like to
ask the noble lord why he did not turn his attention to these
facts, and to the vast mass of abuses which he was leaving
untouched, instead of applying himself to the small mass of
abuses which he (Mr. Bright) admitted ought also to be
touched, but in a different direction. Why. did not the
noble lord turn his attention to that state of things which
upended -one-half at 'the clergy-power on one-eighth of the
population, leaving the remaining esven•eighthe of the
population with the provision of only ono-half of the clergy
power. (Hear, bear.) The noble lord said he could get
the money by voluntary contribution. He could get
all the money required for the inch of Eng-
land in the same way if he asked far it. (Hear,
hear.) But as that was not dose, would it not be
better for the noble lord to consolidate NOM el the parishes
and remove as vacancies sad death would wait, when
there was a small population. He would now draw atten-
tion to the increase which bad taken plass fadttings In
places of worship since liasiiilte foll=aspissors, draw-
n a comparison between sad
Wand. 0111 i.
=an, hoeirkit.thliCliwpaktits at whisk Mer weeshon ...
M 1.224.7011
enge.
Clainhaa. lairs 1100
Putieweisera apasea._anas
Volturno, aselclannene 1100
92fa 9250,3043
500 511,145

Mapes, before 1300 N
Do. 'Noe 1500
868 302,754

Of chapels-314d1y by voluntary 4on-
tributlos
He wou'd now take the cotton and woollen districts of
Lancashire and Yorkshire, showing an excess of chapels,
schools, and scholars of dissenters:
Iloaday
Ch. BMWs& %hods. Temehey. @sham.
Ertablbbenat .. 367 357,964 1179 12,916 116,429
Disinters O6l 339,318 707 61,717 156,601
05 dial 264 1,339 326 15,769 42,172
sentare

Population ciao. 1601. 1641. Inceeess. Per C
lADeliagre 493,634 1,214,706 710,314 146
York6Eln
- - • • • • •

And, instead of the destitution inaeasino with the popula-
tion, it had signally decreased in proportion ; for while the
population had increased 148 pa ant. in Lancashire
sines 1801, and the population of the woollen die-
triet of Yorkshire 104 par ant., there had been an
increase in that time in the seeeinasele,on in places
than 240 - cent Thee.

of worship of more . per
hate did not show that the motion ought not to be carried;
but showed that it was a =ldaho to suppose that that
extraordinary destitution azhted which some persons ima-
gined, when they heard of nothing but the effort. of the
church. It sou true that church people were much fettered
in their operations with regard to the ministering of their
clergymen, the building and endowing of churches, and a
variety of other smatter% which they were becoming very