WHAT OUGHT TO BE DONE FOR THE CHURCH. 551 



the present state of things ; and if these alterations be not effected, 

 neither the abolition of tithes and church-rates, nor the extension of 

 pluralities and non-residence all of which we hope to see accomplished 

 will alone render her prosperous. Emancipations of different kinds > 

 we rejoice to observe, have lately been the order of the day, and we trust 

 the principle will soon be applied to the church ; and then a bright mor- 

 ning of glory will dawn upon her, such as she has not seen since the 

 time of reformation from popery. 



Amongst the things requisite to be done for the benefit of the esta- 

 blishment, nothing is half so much needed, nor half so essential to her 

 welfare, as the freeing her from a number of restrictions which are now upon 

 her. One attempt of this kind, and only one, has recently been made ; 

 and we grieve to say, the effort was unsuccessful. We allude to the 

 bill brought in by Mr. Hardy, the member for Bradford, the session be- 

 fore last, to do away with the registration of places of worship. The 

 law, as it now stands, is thus : if twenty persons assemble for divine 

 worship in a place which is not licensed for that purpose, each individual 

 so present, and the proprietor of the room, or whatever the place of 

 meeting may be, is liable to a fine. This would not be of much conse- 

 quence, as a licence could be obtained, were it not that such licence 

 can only be procured, on the parties applying for it professing them- 

 selves to be dissenters. Now, the effect of this is, dissenters can get 

 these licences without difficulty ; but a churchman cannot, because he is 

 a churchman, and unable to profess himself to be a dissenter, and there- 

 fore he is prevented from applying in the form required. Let us now 

 mark how the system works in respect to this particular. 



Here is a place containing say two, three, or five hundred, or even a 

 thousand inhabitants, and the parish church is two, three, or five miles off; 

 and there can be found many such cases. Here too one, or perhaps a few 

 wealthy churchmen reside, to whom it is no particular inconvenience to 

 attend the establishment, though at so great a distance, because a carriage 

 is kept, but with the bulk of the people it is otherwise : some are old, 

 others are infirm, and so far as regards these, the church might as we-H 

 be in India, as five miles away, for any spiritual advantage they can de- 

 rive from it. By great efforts they visit it, once in two or three years, 

 at a funeral, or sometimes at a christening -that is all. So ignorant are 

 these of the church, that they hardly know that it exists for any other 

 purpose than to sprinkle infants in, and read a form of words over the 

 dead ! Now, suppose a wealthy resident churchman considers the case 

 of the religious destitution of his poor, old, and sickly neighbours ; and 

 that he proposes to the clergyman, as there is no service in the church, 

 later than prayers at two o'clock, to take a seat in his carriage, and after 

 tea to instruct, for an hour or so, a number of parishioners who may be 

 assembled in his servants' hall. Would there be any harm or heresy in 

 this ? or would it tend to the overthrowing of the church ? Yet it can- 

 not be done as the law now stands, because the house must either be 

 licensed as a dissenting meeting -house, or a penalty is incurred, and the 

 poor persons present, not being able to pay it, might be seat to prison, in 

 England ; and for what ? why, for " worshipping God according to the 

 forms of the established church of England." This is literally the state 

 in which our church lawgivers have left her, in the nineteenth century* 



