A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND 



duced. The diocese as a whole had been devoted to the support of the 

 Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, as representing the work of 

 the church at home, and to the Society for the Propagation of the 

 Gospel, which embodied the corporate action of the church in the 

 mission field. It was customary for churchwardens to make a house to 

 house collection every year in their several parishes for these societies. 

 As the dean was a great favourite with nonconformists, the agents of 

 the British and Foreign Bible Society prevailed upon him to establish an 

 auxiliary branch in the cathedral city. This was done in 1813 to the 

 delight of ' all the meetings,' and Lord Morpeth was appointed the first 

 president. 1 The introduction of the Church Missionary Society was a 

 task of greater delicacy. Bishop Goodenough remained aloof ; in the 

 capitular body the dean stood alone ; few persons of rank or station 

 among the laity enrolled themselves among the supporters of the scheme. 

 But Dean Milner was not to be thwarted, for he accepted the presidency 

 of the Carlisle association in February 1818. Nor did he confine his 

 sympathies to missionary agencies within the church : he was a warm 

 advocate of Moravian and Methodist missions and a liberal subscriber to 

 their funds.* Nowhere can the bent of his mind be better gauged than 

 by his action with regard to the management of the central or diocesan 

 school which the bishop had founded in Carlisle in 1812. The dean 

 was for the admission of the children of dissenters with certain privileges 

 by way of ' a conscience clause.' The bishop's firmness may be gathered 

 from his rejoinder to these proposals : * I have no idea of refusing the 

 benefit of education upon account of his or her parents' religious prin- 

 ciples. Any child will be allowed to enter, provided he will conform 

 to the rules of the school. The principal of those rules will be that 

 they learn the Catechism of the Church of England, be instructed in 

 our Liturgy, and give their regular attendance on the Sundays at our 

 church. These are indispensable conditions, if I have anything to do 

 with the conduct of the school.' 3 But the seed sown by this eminent 

 man took root downward and bore fruit upward. The principles of 

 which Dean Milner was the champion are stamped broad and visible 

 on the ecclesiastical life of the nineteenth century in the diocese of 

 Carlisle. 



The spread of nonconformity in country villages was largely due to 

 the system of pluralities which prevailed to such an alarming extent 

 during the period immediately before the accession of Queen Victoria. 

 When the heads of the church like bishops, deans, and prebendaries held 

 more than one dignity, it was impossible to deny the parish priests a 

 participation in the same system. In 1835 about one-half of the bene- 

 fices of the diocese were filled in plurality.* To one of these the 

 incumbent as a rule gave his attention, but the other was delivered over 



1 Life of Dean Milner, pp. 565, 577-8. 



Ibid. pp. 608, 610, 672. ' Ibid. pp. 486-9, etc., 574. 



* Rep. of the Commissioners on Eccl. Revenues (1835), pp. 214-22. Of the bishops of Carlisle, Dr. 

 Percy was the last pluralist. At this date he held the chancellorship of Salisbury Cathedral and a prebend 

 in St. Paul's (ibid. p. 3). 



