Star.
London, England, 1803-05-06 00:00:00

CLERGY RESIDENCE SILL.

The Houfe then refolved itfelf into a Committee.
for the farther confikterstion of the Clergy Ref,-
dent Bill.

The claufe being read, which extends the period
for which a Clergyman may be abfent from his
living, without aiking leave of his Medan, or
being liable to penalty, from one month, as here-
tofore, to three months.
The Arroa sr Geo ARAI. role, and in a fpeech
of confxterThle length and argumentative force,
expreffed his opinion that the time propofed by this
claufe WAS much too long : for however highly he
relpefted the Reverend body, f"r whole regulation
this Bill was intended, he could not bring his mind
at once to confent to extend the time to three times
the ufual indulgence in a Bill, which was profef-
fedly brought forward for the purpore of correfling
an evil, univerfally complained id through every
cc unty in this kingdom, and which this Bill pur-
poled effellually to prevent—namely, the non-refs-
dence of the Clergy; and looking to every other
claufe of the Bill except this, it appeared to him
rather as a Bill of Relaxation than a Bill of Refiric.
tion. He reprobated in the flrongeß terms the
principle of depriving the parifhioners in every part
of England, of the advantages of a refidenttary I
clergyman for one quarter of the year; and point. j
ed out the glaring difadvantages which the parifh ;
mull Wain, not only in its piety and morals, but
in the abfence of that man who ought to be the j
protellor of his parilhioners, the advifer under all
difficulties, their umpire in all difputes, their con-
Nation in ficknels and forrow,and the example for
their manners and deportment. lithe Committee
paled this claufe in its prefent fhape, what opinion I
would the country form, but that the farther the
Houle proceeded in difcuffing a Bill for more ef-
featially reflriaing the refidence of the parochial
Clergy, the more lax became their notions of the
neceffity for that refidence ? Paying every compli.
ment to the wifdom, deliberation, found judgment,
difcretion, and good intentions of his Learned and
Right Hon. Friend who introduced this Bill, Rill, 4
in the controlled view he had taken of the fubjea,
he thought the period of three months, without
any licenca from his Bithop, was not required„by
any of thofe ordinary occanons, which might call
for the temporary abfence of a Clergyman from
his parilis, and therefore he was for modifying the
claufe to fix weeks at any one time, or three months
at different periods within the fame year ; and he
moved an amendment to that circa, wifhing at the
fame time to apportion the penalty to length of
abfence beyond the time limited.
This produced a debate of very confiderable ex.
tent and zeal, in which feveral Members (poke re-
peatedly. .
Mr. Girona differed front the Arroam Ga-
msaaL, as dui Mr. Rose.

le

Lord Poa ea ESTER was afraid that leaving th,
Clergyman (lin liable to the informer, a nd nndci
fuels a penalty as that propofed by the claufe, of
furrendering one fourth of the emoluments of liii
living for the year, would ad as a pa 'emium to
ftimulate the vigilance of the informer, in watch.
ing every day for which a Clergyman might t
abfent ; and thus, under the 'modificatit in propofed
by the Hon. and Learned Gentlema A, all fuch
days throughout the year added together, Would
loon amount to three months. The penalty too
would, in many inflances, be enormous, as many
livings in this country were adequate to Come bi.
thoprics ; fo that the toleration of the Clergy under
this Bill, of probation and indulgence, would be
work than it was under the ftatute of Henry VIII.
which this Bill was to repeal.
The ATTORNEY G reminded the Noble
Lord that he had exprefsly propofed to do that by
amendment Which the Bill did not now do, namely,
to apportion the penalty to the period of abfence ;
for under the Bill as it now flood, a Clergyman
would incur no snore penalty by an abfence of live
months than by one of three.
The Ca A Meaccoa of the Excu soy as differed
entirely from the Right Hon. and Learned Gen-
tleman, and fully acceded to the clank as it flood
in the bill. The Houfe, he Paid, in framing this
bill, Would confider the body of men with whom
it had to deal, and deal with them with that de-
gree of liberality, refpe&, and confidence, which
was due to their charaelers ; and not as men who
were not to be visaed with any difcretion out of
the aria letter of an A 6 of Parliament. This was
not the way in which a Britifli Legiflature Would
treat that learned. venerable, and pious body of
men ; to whom this country owed not left of its
important advantages, than to any other in the
Empire. Their learning, their charaaer, their
exemplary conduct, and their ardent love of the
Conftitution, demanded a different treatment than
that of a galling reftriaion, under the liability of
pains and penalties, to a coercive refidence, which
would convert their parifhes and parfonage houfes
into a fpecies of ?rifon, and deprive them of thofe
relaxations and tntercourfe amongft their friends.
and connexions, or for their temporal bufinefi, or
their health, which every other liberal profeSon
enjoyed. This was not the way for their parikes
to derive the advantages of a cheerful and cordial
exercife of their facred funaions ;—but was rather
calculated to difguft them with thofe duties impof
ed under pains and penalties, and meted as the
talk of bondfmen, wit ho ut remittance or relaxation;
he therefore moll cheerfully fupported the clank.
as it flood for three months.

!I'

Mr. BuRTON faid, be had attended clofely to the
fentiments of Gentlemen on both fides oftbe Hou.fe.
In his opinion Acre was much of ftrong readmits
on both fides ; and whatever might have been his
own opinion on the tubjea before be came into the
Houte, the leaning of his mind now, upon the fulleft
confideration, was in favourof the clan& as it flood.
He was convinced it never could be the with of the
Honk of Commons to convert the parfonages of
the Clergy into prifons ; all that could be reafen.
ably defired was a &blonde' relidence. If the
Clergyman was obliged to refide ten lunar months
out of thirteen, if he wits taught to confider his
parfonage houfe his home, there would be alto the
feene of his don:clic comforts, and the point of
his attraaion ; nor would he be eatUy tempted
frequently to abfent himfelf for three mouths to-
gether in diftant journies from his pease, which
could not be undertaken without confiderable
trouble and heavy expence.
Sir WILLIAM Scorr (poke at confiderable length
in fupport of the claufe. and Paid, the Right Hon.
and Learned Gentleman who moved the amend-
ment, teemed either not to hove read the Bill. or
to forget, that though a Clergyman might be ab-
fent for three months without aCking leave of his
Bithop, yet his Bithop was at liberty to idue a mo.
nition for his recal to his pan& at the end of two
months t and if he difobeyed, had the power, br
a fummary procefs in the Ecclefiaffical Court, to
deprive him of his living. His Right Hon. and
Learned Friend teemed to apprehend that every
Clergyman in the country would make a point,
under the privileges of this Bill, of running away
from his living three months in every year; where-
as there was no probability to be deduced from the
example of one Clergyman in twenty. of fucb an
abfence thrice in the courfe of a long life; and, on
thole eccafions, the duty of the Church WAS done
by a Curate. He coincided in the argument of the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, as to the illiberali.
ty and implied opprobrium of loch a reftriaion on
the Clergy, as if no confidence was to be placed
in their own confcientious fenfe of duty, beyond
the length of that chain in which an A(l of Perlis.
ment fhould bind them.
The Arrota sv Gas 111 AL replied, in fupport of
his former argument, and appealed to the Houk,
if the non-refidence of the Clergy was not, at this
moment, a crying grievance throughout every
county in the kingdom. It was (aid. that if they
were abfent for three months, there were Clergy.
men to adminitler fpiritual duties in their abfence.
There were indeed dilrenting Clergymen to preach
to their flocks. But this was a circumftance pro.
dative of political mitchief, incalculably beyond
any thing which thole who had not an opportunity
of clofely obferving could potfibly conceive. The
three months of abfence, for the amufement or
relaxation of the perils Clergyrnen,might be chofen
in the depth of winter, when the ficknefs. the dif.
trellis, and the dying fituations of his poor pan-
thioners moft urgently demanded his fpiritual aids
and was not tome limitation necefary on this head t
—lt was, betides, in his mind, idle to fuppote
that any Bilbao on the whole bench would eser-
cite the feverities of a privilege to recal a aer►
gyman from that abfence in which he was indulged
under the sawed hint and trisritie of an A& of
Parliament. And even if this privilege was eur-
cited, it would take a procefs of two months more
to render it effean Al.

The MAISTIR or ?NI ROLLS fpoke at much
length in fupport of the clank, and lid, he wiled
the indulgence had been even greater. The pre-
fent Bill, fo far from being, as Hated, a Bill of re-
Limekiln, was a Bill of re&riaions from PPlenary
indulgence; for it repealed an Ad of Parliimettt

*MA nailed le the extretaes et fererity and in.
efficiency, and which for centuries was dormant
and inoperative. The AEI of Henry VIII. in fact,
took the Clergyman out of the jurifdielion of the
Difhop, and placed him in that of the common
informer, in whofe power it virtually was to en—
force to, or abfolve from refidence every Clergy.
Iran in the kingdom. The prefent Bill was to rid
the Clergyman of the jurifdiaion of the Informer,
and Mime him to that of the Bi&op: but at the
fame time that he wifhed to fecure the fubfiantial
refidenee of the clergyman within hii parifh, he
fully coincided with his Right Honourable Friend,
who did not wifh to ftigmatizethe Clergyman with
difiruft, under a fyfiem of pains and penalties, and
render his parfonage a prifon. He fhonli feel
himfelf inclined to extend the indulgence fin far
ther, or indeed to do away reftriaion altogether ;
bat in events he thought thtterm in this claufe
extremely moderate, and Iltould flipport it.
The Cnaacstecat or ruts Excites:Lusa, and the
Arroatisr GENERAL, (poke again in rapport of
their former arguments; and the queftion being
put, theOommittee divided.-..-Ayes for the Amend-
ment, 17—Noes, 53—Majority for the Claufe 36.
The Gallery being cleared on the divifion,
firangers were excluded for the remainder of the
night. At eleven o'clock the Chairman reported
progrefs, and obtained leave to fit again tumor.
row.—Adjourned.

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