The Sun.
London, England, 1864-11-26 00:00:00

lir Disraeli and Mr Cardwell on Church
Matters,

OXFORD, Friday.
A meting or the Association for Augmenting
Poor Benefices in the Diocese of Oxford was held
this afternoon in the Sheldonian Theatre—the
Bishop of Oxford in the chair. The attendance,
which was very large, included the Right Hon. E.
Cardwell, M P. ; the Right Hon. B. Disraeli, M.P.;
r W. Walter, M.P.; Mr Hubbard, M.P.; Co!onel
Nadi:, M.P. ; Mr Beresford Hope, the Vice-Chan-
cellor, and several other leading members of the
university.

The Right Rev. CHAIRMAN, in openicg the pro-
ceedings, said that the object of the meeting was to
move the diocese and the friends of the Church gene-
rally to assist in amending the small endowments in
the diocese. His lordship entered into a variety of
statistic s for the purpose of showing that, min if
all the livings were lumped together', and then dia
vided, they would not produce more than £270
a-year to each. It could not be expected that a
clergyman of the Church of England, educated as a
gentleman, with gentlemanly feelings, cculd main-
tain his position, educate his family, and perform
the functions appertaining to his office with the
small amount which he received for his labours, and
he trusted that such an effort would now be made as
would place him in a much better position. (Cheers.)
Mr WALTER, MX., moved the first resolution—
" That the very small endowment of so many small
livings throughout the country is injurious to the
best interests of the Church, and a reproach to the
wealth and civilisation of the age."
Mr 11. BARRETT seconded the motion, which was
approved of.
Mr CARDWELL, who was most cordially received,
said—My Lord Bishop and gentlemen, 1 have very
great pleasure in moving the resolution which
has been placed in my hand, for I think that no
object of public benevolence for which you
could have assembled the clergy and laity of this
diocese could possibly be higher in its character or
more practical in its scope and object than that
for which we are met together this day. (Cheers.)
The position of the parochial clergy must
ever be an object of primary interest to a Chris-
tian land. (Hear, hear.) It would not become me
as a layman to speak of that which is their highest
attribute, their special character, their sacred calls .
ing. As a layman, I would rather speak of those
great services to the moral and social welfare of the
monarchy in which it is permitted to us, the laity,
to participate with them. We know them as the
friends and companions of the rich, but to the
poor they are the guides and the advisers in every
season of adversity. (Cheers.) They are the link
which unites the different classes of sooiety together
and they are the welcome channel through which
flews the stream of kindliness to the poor which
mitigates their privations, and which ensures their
comforts. Nor are these, the humblest duties of
their calling, any part of their high religious voca-
tion. In the eloquent work which one of the most
eloquent of Frenchmen, M. Guizot, wrote on the
characteristics of the present age, when speaking
of the unceasing efforts of the rich to promote the
welfare of the poor, and the confidence of
the poor in the kindliness and benevolence
of the rich, he wound up with the eloquent words,
"These are the virtues of Christianity, faith, and
charity and hope." And now I appeal to my brother
laymen whether, in undertaking any case of social
improvement they do not feel that their success de-
pends in a very great degree upon their enlisting
the aid and assistance of the clergy. Take, for in-
stance, the building of a school. The landlord may
raise the material edifice. He may pay the stipend
of the master, he may invite the scholars to attend,
but in 99 cases out of every 100 the teaching is
superintended by the clergyman. It is he who gives
to the establishment its vitality and its animating
Power: (Cheers.) And so, if you pursue him through
every work of real usefulness—it you examine the
attempt to build dwellings for the labourers, or to
raise societies for the promotion of their temporal
or their fu•ure welfare, in every one of these
cases we may labour as we will, but we always rely
in a very great degree upon the support and
assistance of the clergy. (enure.) Ido not think
it would ho too much to say that, in the warfare
which we are now actuary waging against all those
evils that oppress the lower classes o: society, we,
the laity, are the volunteers, but the clergy deserve
to be considered as the regular army. (Cheers.) It
hes been said that within the last 50 years the
greatest improvement has taken place in the ma
terial prosperity of the country. When the
eovereigne of Europe visited this country, and were
received with a magnificent demonstration in the
hall in which we arc now assembled, one of them
made a remark which is very agreeable to the na-
tional vanity—so much so that it has been remem-
bered ever since. He said, "England is a country
in which I could see no poor." New, if that same
observer could have stood here to-day, he would
have learnt that although in England there are
poor, yet such has been the change during 50 years
that have passed that the England of this day is as
superior to that of 1814 as the England of 1814 was
superior to the country with which he compared it.
(Cheers.) There has been an increase of material
prosperity with respect to which no country can be
compared with our own. It has been widely dis-
tributed—it has been spread over all classes. The
rich have become richer—the poor have become
leas poor. But lam afraid there is one class of the
community who have not participated and taken
their fair share in the great increase of material
prosperity. Greatly as the parochial clergy contri
buts to the distribution of these blessings, I am
efraid their participation in them has not been re-
latively what it ought to have been. (Hear, hear.)
Thirty years ego much was said about building
churches, and large sums of money were expnded
for that purpose. Very recently much was said
about the churches of parishes. Sir Robert Peel
and the noble duke whose absence we regret to-
dey, passed useful measures for the division of
paiislles. In church building and the division
of parishes much has been done. Lord Derby,
I should think at a great sacrifice to himself, divided
the richest living in the country—the most valuable
piece of ecclesiastical patronage of that description.
What remains to be done is to increase the endow-
ments. Much has been done in that direction, but
still mere remains to be done. Allusion has been
made to gentlemen who have contributed large sums
towards the increase of those endowments. Refer-
ence has been made to the measure which passed in
the last session, on the motion of the Lord Chan-
cellor, for the improvement of the poor livings of
the Crown. Bat, R hilst exigency on the one hand
increases, and the material wealth and prosperity
of the country increases on the other, these two
ehould be brought together, and the contributions
from assemblies like this should be poured in to
meet the wants of the times is which we live.
It was an old remark and a very true one, that a
house going clergy makes a church-going people.
Bat if you are to have a house-going clergy, it is
not the clergyman alone whose visits are beneficial
and
his
to the people. The visits of the ladies
e
is family are most highly appreciated, and are
still more advantageous and beneficial than his own.
Bat if you axe to enable him to make these visits,
you must enable him to maintain a family, and to
obtain for the sons and daughters of that familyednottion which is worthy of the children of a sch an
o-
lar and a gentleman. (Loud cheers.) Reference has
been made to another topic on which I will ve
lightly touch. We cannot safely afford to have the
a
education of our clergy and the mental power of
I am not alarmed at what I
our clergy reduced.
see around me in the temper of the present age. I
telit e there is a deeper and more sincere convic-

lion bro,d in this age than in former ages, btitTi

am sure of this, that we do not live in times when
the citadel of truth should be defended by feeble
hands ; and if arms of precision are brought to bear
upon the fortress, we should have a garrison within
not untrained in the art of defence. (C leers.) Over
the surface of the globe, wherever British enter-
prise can penetrate—and that means wherever the
sun shines, wherever land exists and waters roll,
the British name is spread—and wherever the Bri•
tish name is found the English Church is domiciled.
(Cheers.) But I wish to as you whether, when
great sums of money are wisely and worthily ex,