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

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•dlycharged 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 com4regations, 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
length of time fur the service, distance (rein the place 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 ;hot
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 ras:..tgl,: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

ntelligent and active Magis'rates, should not have (as it ap-
pears tl•otn this report) presented itself to their minds, or to
the attention of the Committee. We find no allusion to the
defective state of parochial public aorsltip, of that Instruc•
tion by the solemn and impressive Services of the Church of
England, which is in fact, denied to the greater part of the
people, and of these pastoral labours of the parochial Clergy,
which cannot extend to a fiftieth part of the flock intrusted
by the Law to their charge.
" If the state of PAROCdIAL PURI.LC WORSHIP had been
previously enquired into, or if it should now be caretinly in-
vestigated rand its deep importance certainly demands im-
mediate attention), the Root, the Source, the Productive
Cause of the alarming Deterioration of Motels, and of most
of these consequent Evils would have been, or would soon be,
ascertained and disclosed.
" These Evils, if they do not all originate in, are at least
very much augmented by that injurious dearth and absence
of Religious Principle, which has spread widely in conse-
quence of the very defective means of celebrating the public
parochial worship and Services of the (larch of England.
"The Palliative Remedies that may be resorted to in each
of these several cases, can produce but a very partial allevia-
tion upon the partieuliar evil, and conduce hut very little to
the improvement and security of the Community, unless they
are applied in conjunction with wise and efficacious measures
to give the means of public worship, and the benefit of paro-
chial Communion with the Established Church, to the vast
masses of the population that are at present absolutely ex-
cluded front them.
" The Police may, in the technical application of the word,
be rendered stronger. But the vindictive Police of detection
and punishment, hill still be found inadequate to the protec-
tion and defence of Public Order, without what may be term-
ed the Preventive and Corrective Pollee of the parochial and
Constitutional Administrations of the Church of England,—a
parish Church, a parish Minister, and a tine succession of
parish Officers, giving efficacy and impressian to lite National
Religion, and affording that aid to the Magistracy, upon is loch
4ts effiriency most chiefly depend.
'• Without the -restraint of Religious Principle, Human
taws are untia:ll to the task of steinming the torrent of tut..
balent and selfish passiuns.
"Even the polislird and philosoplii,- Shaftesbury, as a Puli-
llcian, has observed. that • a llu.‘, it and a Hell may prevail,
-where a Jail and a Gallows are thought insufficient.'
"It is also not unworthy of notice, that au acute en•l dis-
criminating observer of the early agents and pi ogress of the
French Revolution, in writing upon the subject of PoEce,
lota stated it as the result of his personal observation, that
's the people being wholly employed in evading or deceiving
lbe Pollee, the Parisians became, by weans of the pahee, the
auost uispiisicipled, and most 'chattily wicked, of all man-

We rejoice to find the Author's work, and the sub-
ject he so ably recommends, are seizing upon the mind
of the people, and that those to w hose reigning au-
thority he has addressed himself, are likely to devote
'their due attention to his appeal.

,From the LONDON GAZETTE, Tmesday, July 29•

WHITEHALL, JULY 16.

His 'Royal Highness the Prince Regent hath been pleased, in the
name and on the behalf of his Majesty, to grant unto Field-Marshal
his Grace the Duke of Wellington, Knight of the Most Noble Order
of the Garter, &c. his Majesty's royal licence and permission that he
may accept and wear the insignia of a Knight of the Grand Cmss of
the Royal Sicilian Military Order of St. Ferdinand and of Merit, and
also of a Knight of the Royal Sicilian Order of St..lanuarius, which
his Majesty the King of the Two Sicilice has been pleased so confer
'upon his Grace, in testimony of the sense that Sovereign enter-
.llauis of his distinguished merits and brilliant atchievements.

CROWN OFFICE, JULY 29.
wittnta RETURNED TO SERVE 'IS THIS P,
liamich—liight Hun. N. Vansinart.