British Quarterly Review, American Edition, Vol. LIV: July and October, 1871Various
History
British Quarterly Review, American Edition, Vol. LIV: July and October, 1871
Various
English periodicals
We have said that the case of the Establishment has been made to rest
solely on the utilitarian argument; and we now add that the range of
that argument is practically limited to the rural parishes. Sir
Roundell Palmer admits that in the large towns the Church of England
is not overtaking the spiritual wants of the population; though he
thinks that its efforts to do so are greater than those of Dissenters.
That is to say, the influence of the Establishment is smallest where
the intellectual and moral forces which ultimately decide the
country's destinies exist--a large admission, and one which will have
cumulative weight as time progresses. Mr. Miall, he complained, 'did
not sufficiently distinguish between the position of the working
classes in the towns and the working classes in the country,' and,
with regard to the last, he affirmed that, 'speaking generally, they
are members of the Church, and through the Church they are partakers
of benefits of every description, spiritual, moral, and even
temporal.' 'Those,' he added, 'who know the rural districts of this
country, will bear testimony to the existence of multitudes upon
multitudes of poor people who have in them both "sweetness and
light."' And then--utterly ignoring the influence exercised by all
other agencies--he stated that he could not 'imagine any institution
to which this character of the labouring poor is due more than to that
which has placed in the centre of the population of every part of the
country a man educated and intelligent, whose business it is to do
them good, whose whole and sole business is to take care of their
souls as far as by God's help he is enabled to do so, in every way and
in all circumstances of life to be their friend and counsellor.'
We assume that Scotland is not included in the sphere within which the
Established system has wrought thus beneficently. We assume also that,
after the facts and figures for which the House and country are
indebted to Mr. Richard, M.P., the Principality of Wales also may be
excluded from the map of the territory over which the sun of the
Establishment sheds these blessings, and, probably, a candid
Episcopalian would hesitate to claim for his Church credit for all the
civilization and Christianity to be found in Cornwall, and some other
districts. So that, tried by a geographical test, the argument may be
pared down even yet lower than it has been by the speaker himself.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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