HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



147 



loan catholic church, even for the 

 reliefof the poor, a practice which 

 she had usually adopted for en- 

 riching the aflBuent. It had been 

 said, that the measure proposed 

 was incomplete : this was un- 

 doubtedly true, and no man re- 

 gretted it more than himself. Ithad 

 been hoped that some more com- 

 prehensive plan might have been 

 submitted to parliament this ses- 

 sion; but it was a subject of great 

 extent and considerable difficulty, 

 and more information was neces- 

 sary. Lord Harrowby having re- 

 plied to Lord Vassal Holland's ob- 

 jections to the appropriation of 

 100,000/. to Queen Anne's bounty 

 for the poorer clergj', proceeded 

 to state the case of this class, 

 which appeared, from the inform- 

 ation received since last year, still 

 stronger, andalsotosuggestmeans 

 by which this evil might be gra- 

 dually remedied ; — not to pro- 

 pose a plan for the adoption of 

 their lordships, but to throw out 

 hints which might be improved 

 by others into a plan fit to be 

 adopted. Lord Harrowby, in the 

 course of his speech, stated a pal- 

 try and most pitiful practice, de- 

 grading in the Iiighest degree to 

 the character of the church. It 

 was a practice with the non-resi- 

 dent incumbents of livings of 70/. 

 60/. and even of 50/.?a year, to 

 put into their own pockets a por- 

 tion of this wretched pittance, and 

 to leave much less than the wages 

 of a day-labourer for the subsist- 

 ence of their curates.— -The Earl 

 of Stanhope praised the sincerity, 

 candour, and openness of Lord 

 Harrowby, which he contrasted 

 with the affected obscurity and 

 evasions of many of his colleagues. 

 In his present speech there was 



much to approve ; but if similar 

 observations had fallen from hig 

 (Lord Stanhope's) lips, he would 

 have been charged as the libeller 

 of the church, and the plague 

 knew what — for what said the 

 noble earl in defence of this grant? 

 — that the church of England was 

 poor, and utterly unable to hold 

 up against its numerous foes, un- 

 less it should be supported in all 

 its strength and dignity. Lord 

 Melville had said, that the kirk of 

 Scotland was founded on the rock 

 of poverty. Did Lord Harrowby 

 mean to say, that the only way to 

 support the religious establish- 

 ment was by voting to it the pub- 

 lic money ? But he could tell the 

 noble earl, that those dissenters, 

 those foes to the church, as he had 

 perhaps rather warmly designated 

 them, would still continue to in- 

 crease, when they found that the 

 advocates of the church establish- 

 ment conceived that its best means 

 of security was, to be continually 

 applying for public money; and 

 as long as they, its prelates, were 

 translated and preferred, not for 

 their religious merits, but their 

 slavish support of the minister of 

 the day.— Lord V. Holland, too, 

 in an animated reply to Lord Har- 

 rowby, maintained, that an in- 

 crease of salary to the church esta- 

 blishment was no security of the 

 increase of their followers, but 

 rather of the reverse. After a 

 few words from the Earl of Liver- 

 pool and Lord Harrowby, in reply 

 to Lord Stanhope, in favour of the 

 grant, the bill passed through a 

 committee, and was ordered to 

 be reported without any amend- 

 ment- 



Next day, June 19, Lord Vis- 

 count Sidmouth stated a great,ia- 



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