The National Register.
London, England, 1817-07-21 00:00:00

REVIEW OF LITERA'T'URE.

The Basis of National Welfare: considered in Refer-
ence chiefly to Me Prosperity of Britain, and Safety
of Me Church of England.
By the Rev. RICHARD YATES, B.D. F.S.A.

IN our further attention to this important work, we
cannot but accord with the Rev. Author's zeal in repre-
senting the constitutional necessity of the parochial
administration of Religion, under the established sys-
tem of toleration, and the great danger inherent in a
neglected superabundant parochial population, where
too little care has been taken to provide sufficient places
for public worship, to accommodate extensive and po-
pulous districts.
In speaking of what lie terms the Chapel System, he
says— .

" The same inconsistency of the law which has permitted
the chapel system to gain such ground in the metropolis, ab-
solutely prohibits (according to its present interpretation)
the ministers of chapels from performing all the pastoral
offices, under the penalty of ecclesiastical censure and punish-
ment. The cure of souls, and the pastoral offices thereunto
appended, are in many over sown pat-kite.; still committed
to one individual, in the same manner as when they did not
-contain one twentieth, and iu some inatances a fiftieth, part
of their pft s gut inhabitants. Such a charge is of course only
a nominal one. Fur an individual to perform its duties is au
evident, positive, and physical impossibility.
" But though the congregations attending chapels are thins
deprived of the parochial advantages of the established
.church, they pay to the proprietors of the buildings a consi
derahle annual tax, dissimilar, deitinet from, and additional
to, the payments saaetioned and anthorized by the laws.
" Those who live under such eiremnstances, whenever
they are led to think at all upon the anbjret, naturally think
that a parish church, a parish priest, and episcopal motto-
iity, are .ei•y useless things ;—they have been long habitu•
ated to live without them, and are therefore so fat• prepared
to join in any effints is remove and overthrow that establish-
ment, winch, according to their reasoning, gives them no
protection, and affords them no benefit.
" From these considerations it therefore seems evident
that,—if the present prevailing negligence and disuse of pub-
lie worship oe suffered to increase ;—if no additional facili
ties he gisen by the Le.isliture to its correctii n ; —if the
-friends guardians ur the church confine their attention
and exertions more ;to the cliscu•sioa of doctrinal difierences.
than to tin• removal of those habits, which evenly disregarn
all the doers nes of Scriptette, and all thoughts or an existence
bevontl the grave• the opinion be once smith tett to gain
geomid, that it is possible, by any NTH!, it mode of instruction,
to sanely the WANT Or public parochial worship-:—es en if
Oa opinion be disavowed in words, hut tacitly ullowed, or
rather by the practice of supporting chapels in iiii-
fereeee to parish churches; and of directing the public zeal
and attention exclusively, or even chiefly, to education in
schools; while it appears to be taken for granted, that our
aecestors have made such sufficient provision for the public
services of the church, that no additional care or chargo nu
our part i 6 requisite; notwithstanding that neither the chil.
dren in the 5ch001..., nor their parents out of them, receive
ans benefs from the impressive soicininties of mitotic worship
In ch, parish church; ac•cotn &Jinni in most instances of
populous parishes nut bring provided for a fiftieth part of the
poor: if the,e circumstances be permitted to continue, the
consequences .n.xessarily to be apprehended arc, that those
who never enter the parish church, and are wholly unknown
to the parish minister; those who receive no benetit,—no
consol•etion,—front the established church, will
not only feel no respect and attachment to it ; but will also
soon prom (A to coesider it as a useless, and then as an op-
pressive but-then."

And one of the serious consequences of this matter,
the circulation of licentious principles, is thus stated,
apparently from the Author's own obsservation—

" One instance may be adduced, and which I can state as
the result of a personal and minute enquiry : it indicates the
extent of circulation given to papers and pamphlets injurious
to morals, and of an ihfamous, loose, and irreligious chavar.
ter. There arc many printers and publishers of such works :
one of whom employs from ten to twenty persons (men and
women) to traverse the town and country with packages: to
find their way into the kitchens and stables of the higher
'classes ; and into the shops, mainehictories, public-houses,
and all the resorts of the numerous servants, artizans, meclue
sties, and labourers, the greater part of whom in all the large
parishes are left totally destitute of the care of We national
religion ; wholly without any participation in the instructions
of a parish minister, or in the benefits of the established
church. Bow successfully these sheep without a shepherd
wee sought alter by the destructive zeal of the enemy, may
appe it tiota Ike fact, that each of these emissaries of vice
maintain themselves by a profit of from ten to forty shinnies
each per week, after their employers have teceived an ample
gain upon the printing and publishing : each of these venders -
aof-Good Books (as they term themselves on their catalogues
and packages) bring a sum seldom less than five pounds in
•r.•ady money, or a sufficient seenrity for a like ruin, and re-
ateives books to that amount at the wholesale price; living
upon the retail and ready manes profit, and when all are soled
returning with the capital fur a fresh supply. A circulation
almost beyond credibility is thus given to the silent and insi-
dious vehicles of licentionsnvss, disaffection, and every de.
eeription of vice : and, if even, v.hen the good seed is sown,
the enemy intermixes his tares, how abundant must he the
farmed' of evil when the uncultivated soil is left entirely
t • him."
" It is, therefore, net only a patriotic and Christian ditty,
but it is also a most urgent claim of .If-preservation,—that
the learned and the wealthy should devote a liberal portion or
their time, their attention, and their substance, to extend to
the pour and ignorant the instruction intended fur them by
the piety and wisdom of the British cohstitution, in the paw-
-chial ministrations of the established church: proxiding fir
them parish churches, and parish ministers,—torming each
sr icor:hitt' district upon such an extent of population, that the
appointed ;Shepherd may beabic, as well as willing, to give
♦r.t. his Flock We benefusuf religions hope and religions fear ;
-teaching than to know and to feel the necessary and evident"
.advantages of grateful piety and contented industry,—leading
• them to statue the inestimable blessings of scriptural know-
ledge,—and awakening in them an increasing regard to the
troths of the gospel; by regularly beartng God's holy word,
sod joining km the prayers and prams of our admirable and