76 Note* of the Month on [JAN, 



age of miracles is past. We cannot expect to give sight to the blind,, nor 

 to reach by reason understandings constructed on a scale so singularly 

 beyond our comprehension. 



But we believe that the people of England are naturally attached to 

 the Church of England ; and that in thousands of instances, secession is 

 merely the result of some local inconvenience. We are equally per- 

 suaded that the recovery of those seceders would be in a vast majority of 

 cases effected with perfect ease by a little diligence on the part of the 

 establishment itself. Laws will not do it : the influence of both the 

 executive and the legislative will fail ; but the renewed activity, decency, 

 and zeal of the Church itself will be successful, and be the only thing 

 that will. On this subject we submit a curious document : the attempt 

 of a military man to reform a singular piece of negligence in the present 

 Church service : 



(Copy of a Petition presented to the House of Lords on the 4th of June last. 



A similar Petition was presented to the House of Commons on the 1st of 



June last, and was ordered to be printed) 



" To the Lords Spiritual and Temporal of the United Kingdom of Great 

 Britain and Ireland, in Parliament assembled : 



" The humble Petition of Lieutenant-General William Thornton, of Grosvenor 

 Gate, Park Lane, in the County of Middlesex, 



" Sheweth That your Petitioner humbly prays your Lordships to take into 

 consideration the danger arising to the Established Church, from the forbear- 

 ance of enforcing the performance of both Morning and Evening Service on 

 Sundays, in every Parish Church and Parochial Chapel, and the Chapel of 

 every Extra-parochial Place, throughout England and Ireland, whereby it is 

 rendered impossible for many persons to obey the laws, or the dictates of 

 their own conscience, by resorting to their Parish Church or Chapel accus- 

 tomed upon every Sunday, without leaving their habitations unoccupied, and 

 thereby exposing their property to loss by robbers ; the alternative obliging 

 those persons who are by such omission deprived of the opportunity of attend- 

 ing the Established Service, and who think it a duty incumbent on them to go 

 to some place of public worship, to resort to Dissenting Meeting Houses, to 

 Roman Catholic Chapels, or to Congregations denying the Doctrine of the 

 Blessed Trinity; the only course, as it appears to your Petitioner, by which 

 they can legally exonerate themselves from the penalties to which they are 

 liable for not resorting to their Parish Church or Chapel. 



" Your Petitioner had the honour of a seat in Parliament when the Act of 

 the 57th year of King George the Third, commonly called " The Clergy 

 Residence Act," was passing ; and as it appeared to your Petitioner that the 

 forbearance of the Bishops to enforce the power given to them by the said 

 Act would be no excuse to the Clergy for such a neglect of duty as the non- 

 performance of either the Morning or Evening Service on Sundays, your Peti- 

 tioner strenuously urged, but without success, that the Clergy should be liable 

 to some pecuniary penalty or forfeiture for any such omission, which should 

 go and be paid to the person or persons who should inform and sue for the 

 same. It was asserted, that it might be safely intrusted to the Bishops to 

 enforce the two services, but nearly twelve years of trial, since the Act was 

 passed, have but too truly proved the correctness of your Petitioner's senti- 

 ments. 



" In conclusion, your Petitioner humbJy prays your Lordships to adopt 

 such measures as shall, in future, make imperative the performance of both 

 Morning and Evening Service on Sundays, in every Parish Church and Paro- 

 chial Chapel, and the Chapel of any Extra-parochial Place throughout 

 England and Ireland, for the benefit and security of the members of the 

 Established Church. " WILLIAM THORNTON/' 



