ing. In Cornwall and other counties where the Methodists have made wonderful progress by what are called their Class-Meetings,' some clergymen encourage social meetings of the well-disposed, for reading the Scriptures and prayers, and find them very useful in perpetuating the attachment of the people to the Church. At Oakhampton, where I was last Sunday, I was much gratified with another judicious improvement. After reading the prayers in the afternoon, the minister continued in the desk, and when the psalm had been sung, he expounded a few verses in the Epistle to the Hebrews, in a very sensible manner, without the formality of a sermon, which I understand is his regular practice during the winter months. It is allowed on all hands, that expounding the whole, or part of a chapter in the Bible, was the primitive mode of preaching; and nothing can be more acceptable to the common people than a plain explanation of the Scriptures; learned disquisitions they have not ability to understand. I ought to have stated, that a few worthy clergymen expound in the poor-houses of their parishes, and at their own houses, on Sunday evenings. Every thing of this kind is very commendable, and I cannot see why clergymen should consider them TO THE MEMORY OF JOHN THOMSON, M. D. BORN AT KENDAL, AUG. 16, 1783. WHERE HE DIED, MAY 18, 1818. AGED 35 YEARS. IN TESTIMONY OF PUBLIC RESPECT FOR GREAT TALENTS IMPROVED BY EXTENSIVE LEARNING, AND EMPLOYED IN THE FAITHFUL DISCHARGE OF DUTY BOTH TO GOD AND MAN; FOR UNWEARIED ACTIVITY IN THE EXERCISE OF AN USEFUL AND HONOURABLE PROFESSION, WITHOUT DISTINCTION OF RICH OR POOR; FOR ENLIGHTENED ZEAL TO PROMOTE THE PURITY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH, AND ESPECIALLY THE PURITY OF CHRISTIAN PRACTICE; FOR ANIMATED ELOQUENCE ALWAYS READY IN THE SUPPORT OF PLANS OF OF SEMINARIES OF USEFUL LEARNING, AND OF THE PRINCIPLES OF THIS MONUMENT HAS BEEN ERECTED BY THE VOLUNTARY SUBSCRIPTIONS With respect to the design and the execution of the Monument, I wish to add, for the information of distant subscribers, and in justice to the artist, that the only sentiments I have heard expressed, have been unequivocally those of admiration and entire satisfaction. Mr. Chantrey has rendered the Monument highly interesting and valuable, by introducing a Medallion, containing a profile likeness of the subject in bass-relief, which, in the opinion of several of his most intimate friends, is considered as bearing a very strong resemblance. I beg leave further to state, that, in addition to the subscriptions reported in November, 1818, amounting to £172. 68. 6d., and those announced on the cover of the Monthly Repository for January, 1819, amounting to £35. 178., the following have been either since received, or had been inadvertently omitted in the former lists; viz. Thomas Gibson, Esq., Newcastle-upon-Tyne Mrs. Pattison, ditto Rev. H. H. Piper, Norton, near Sheffield. Rev. Edward Higginson, Derby.... Sundry Subscriptions from Lidyate, near Holmfirth... Rev. J. Ashworth and Friends, Newchurch £9. 18s. 10d. has been allowed as interest upon the subscriptions received, and a further sum of £7. 188. has been contributed towards the deficiency by two of the original subscribers at Manchester. Thus the total amount of receipts will be £234. 4s. 4d. £213. 7. has been remitted to Mr. Chantrey, viz. £200 for the execution of the Monument, and the remainder for packing cases, travelling expenses of one of his workmen, &c. The expenses of printing, advertising, postage, carriage, and fixing up of the Monument, have altogether amounted to £26. 68. 5d. The trifling deficiency still remaining will be met by some friends in this immediate neighbourhood. RICHARD ASTLEY. The Nonconformist. Inquiry into the Operation of Mr. senters. THE Education of the People, in whatever point of view it be considered, is a subject of transcendant importance. Public attention has of late years been happily attracted towards it, and measures have been adopted with unexampled benevolence and zeal to raise "Schools for All." Of the effects of this general instruction some persons entertain gloomy apprehensions. Their fears are, it may be hoped, groundless; although it must be allowed, that the education of the people is the introduction of a new power into the machine of society, and without experience we cannot tell exactly how it will work. Some confusion may ensue from its earliest ope rations. But in this, as in many other moral cases, we must determine particular questions by general principles; and no principle seems better entitled to the force of an axiom than, that whatever increases the power of mankind must upon the whole promote their happiness, and ought therefore to be welcomed as a blessing to the world. Were the means discovered of imparting a new sense to man, equal in influence to any of the five senses, he would be accounted a timid reasoner and a cool friend to his species who should object to the promulgation of the discovery, lest it should interfere with and correct the customary impressions of sense, and produce a temporary hesitation and embarrassment. Knowledge is a new sense; and what⚫ ever may be its immediate effect on the public mind-even should the sudden influx of unaccustomed light occasion for a moment blindness-no doubt can be entertained by him that holds Man in reverence or places any confidence in Truth, that its final results will be great and salutary. It may be still a question how far it is desirable that general education should be forced by public authority. The interference of governments with private concerns has been often mischievous, and as the world is managed their patronage is always suspicious. All the beneficial moral changes that have taken place in society have been effected by private activity and benevolence, and commonly in opposition to political power. Governments follow rather than lead the public mind. They cannot go before the general intellect without endangering their own safety. It is well, perhaps, when they are content to move in the path which the people have already made common, and to assist rather than to institute schemes of public benevolence. Scope is thus allowed for the exercise of private benevolent genius, the encouragement of which is of more importance to the character and happiness of a nation, than the execution of any works of magnificence, or the establishment of any institutions, however specious and imposing. But, without meaning to object absolutely to a national and compulsory scheme of education, I will venture to lay it down as an indisputable principle, that that plan is best, with a view to this end, which embodies the largest portion of the individual feeling of a community, and co-operates with, instead of superseding, private virtue. Nay, I will further assume, that any measure designed for the benefit of the mass of the people will be inefficient if mere power be calculated on as the instrument of success; and, indeed, if the feelings of the people be not enlisted in what is regarded as their own cause, and a certain popular character be not given to plans involving their interests, but in which if they concur not cheerfully, nothing is done. * After these general remarks which I have made at the outset to prevent the necessity of repetition and to guard against misconstruction, I proceed to examine Mr. Brougham's recent Bill providing a new plan of Education for England. I shall consider it in connexion with his own speech on the introduction of it into the House of Commons, and with an elaborate, and as it may be termed official, justification of it in the Edinburgh Review.↑ My object is to ascertain in what manner and degree the Bill, if passed into a law, may affect Nonconformists to the Church of England, and particularly Protestant Dissenters, and consequently how far it may be expedient or necessary for them to oppose its progress. The Bill is avowedly and designedly framed and fitted for the Church. The author of it, in his opening speech, called upon the House of Commons to "observe how he had united and knit As reported in the Times, June 29, 1820. ↑ No. LXVII., for August, 1820. * ted the system with the Church Establishment." He addressed himself on that occasion to the prejudices, the fears, the vanity and ambition of the clergy, whom he loaded with extravagant compliments. He did not overlook the Dissenters, but he evidently considered them as too insignificant to be allowed to be an obstacle to a great measure. He almost confessed that he meditated some wrong to them, when in a conversation in the House upon the extension of the Bill to Ireland, he said, "If the Dissenters in England bore the same proportion to the Established Church as they did in Ireland, he should never have brought forward the motion:" that is to say, if the Dissenters had been to Churchmen as 4 to 1, instead of being as 1 to 4, he would have framed a different measure, or none at all; so that whatever merit the Bill may have on the score of expediency and policy, public or private, we are entitled by the author's own confession to pronounce it to be "not absolute wisdom." Some complimentary expressions as to the Dissenters also are inserted into the Review, but these are evidently designed to conciliate them to nonresistance to the Bill, which the style of persuasion adopted by the writer plainly shews that he considered not favourable to their interests. We have only to look at the Bill to see how undisguisedly it aims at being auxiliary, as the proposer more than once in his speech avows that he in made prompt and full returns in answer The clergy are praised for having to the circulars of the Parliamentary rather bold to have refused to reply to Committee. But they must have been the application of such a body, with such a Chairman at its head. And if they be so praiseworthy, what must be the merits of the Scottish clergy, who made returns not less ample or expeditious, though they have not quite so much reason to be satisfied with their station in society, and are less interested in the promotion of mentioned, that the Scottish clergy had, national education? Here it may be without parliamentary dictation, and merely for the sake of promoting the national welfare, furnished Sir John Sinclair with copious materials for his great Statistical work-which he acknowledges with strong gratitude in a letter to the last General Assembly. tended it to be, to the English hierarchy. In all its operation, from first to last, nothing is done without the clergy, and some of the provisions lodge a power in their hands without any responsibility, and for which I know not that there is any precedent in Protestant history. The establishment of the new school in the beginning is to be by the order of Justices of the Peace at the Quarter Sessions, on the presentment of a Grand Jury, or the application, amongst other persons, of the rector, vicar, perpetual curate, or actual incumbent of the parish. Now when it is borne in mind how large a proportion of the country magistracy are clergymen, and how naturally they consult in their decisions their mutual accommodation, it will appear that in many instances it would depend upon the clergyman himself whether a school should be set up in his parish. The school being established, the next step in the order of proceeding is the appointment of a master. On his character and qualifications the utility of the school absolutely depends; and one should have expected that in order to gain the fittest person for the situation, the freest competition, the widest latitude of selection, and the most popular basis of appointment, would have been provided. But here nothing is consulted in the Bill but clerical dignity and power. The candidate must be a member of the Established Church, and must produce a certificate to that effect, as well as to general character, from the parish priest. The granting of such certificate is, as far as appears, quite discretionary, and therefore the minister really nominates the candidate. As the Bill stood originally, a new sacramental test was imposed, "He, doubtless, would here have the Church with him, but he feared that the sectaries would be against him. It did, however, appear to him, that the system of public education should be closely connected with the Church of England, as established by law. He stated this after the most mature consideration; and he was anxious to make the statement, because on a former occasion he did not go quite so far as he now did: he had abstained from going so far, because he dreaded the opposition of the sectaries." and the candidate was required to have taken the sacrament in his parish church within one month previous to the day of election. This clause was withdrawn on the second reading, but its having been proposed is a memorable fact, as shewing to what lengths the proposer was willing to go in order to conciliate the Church. The very moment that both Protestant and Catholic Dissenters had judged favourable, from the apparent relaxation of prejudice and bigotry, for the abolition of the test as a qualification for civil office, was chosen by Mr. Brougham for introducing it in another case, in which no political reasons could be pleaded for its adoption, and in which it seemed to be a gratuitous effort of intolerance, as the office to which it had reference was to be instituted for the professed benefit of Dissenters as well as others, and was to be remunerated by them equally with other taxable inhabitants of parishes. If we allow the proposer the praise of good sense for erasing this part of the Bill, we may surely reason upon its introduction as a proof of a design to go as far as the spirit of the times would allow in making it subservient to sectarian interests, for sectarian all interests are that are not co-extensive with the community.*-But though the test is not to be imposed, the master must have the testimonial of the clergyman of the parish that he is a bonâ fide Churchman. This would seem quite needless to his functions, as a teacher of reading, writing and arithmetic and this limitation of the choice of the parishioners, lessens the probability of a fit appointment. No Dissenter, of any description, no member of the Church of Scotland, no liberal Churchman who may not have quitted the It may be here remarked by the way, that the term "sectaries," so frequently in Mr. Brougham's mouth, savours a little of hierarchical assumption. Still more objectionable is his using the term "Protestant" to designate the Church of England, in contradistinction from the Dissenters. "No conscientious Dissenter would allow his child to go to a Protestant church," &c. This narrow sense of the term is of Irish origin, and in Ireland it may admit of explanation: in the British House of Commons it is absurd. Church, but whose opinions are more free than his priest approves, and no one scarcely who has been educated under the auspices of the British and Foreign School Society, can be even named for the office. A premium is hereby held out to conformity, and a penalty to nonconformity. The Dissenter may sit in Parliament, and may be one of his Majesty's Ministers, and, under cover of the Act of Indemnity, may fill almost any post in the state, of whatever trust or honour; but he must not think of being master of one of these schools, though his own children may be entered in the school, and the children of Dissenters may form a majority of the scholars, and the expenses of the establishment may fall principally upon Dissenters: this in the year 1820, in a bill proposed by Mr. Brougham, a bill, the professed object of which is National Education! To shut out all suspicious Church men, even should the watchmen of the Church suffer them to pass without giving the watch-word, the shibboleth of the age, the Bill declares that parishclerks are eligible as masters. Nothing could have led any one to suspect that they were ineligible; the declaration therefore means that they are the persons contemplated by the Bill, and that to them a preference should be given. This Mr. Brougham explicitly avows. * He confesses, moreover, that the schools are to do as much good to them as they are to do to the schools. Their condition as a class is to be improved by the new appointment. Nay, they are to become by mans of it a sort of spiritual body." That ancient but degraded order of men," he says, were viewed in the older and better times of the Church, in the light of spiritual assistants," and, borrowing the style and tone of the Quarterly Review, he seems to long for their recovery to the rank of ecclesiastical auxiliaries, and to congratulate himself upon the probability of his 66 "It was provided that parish-clerks should be eligible to the office. Without that specific statement, they would have been eligible; but it was thought right to mention parish-clerks particularly, as it would be a hint that that body were the best calculated to fill the office of school masters." being instrumental to this pious end. The climax of his spiritual desires is, that the parson may condescend and the clerk be exalted, or, to use his own words, "that the parson may become a clerical schoolmaster, and the schoolmaster a lay parson." * To speak of the character of so obscure a body of men, requires more knowledge of them than I can pretend to possess; but, judging from what I have seen and from general opinion, I should say, that no class of men could have been selected more unfit for the duty of schoolmasters than parishclerks. + Whatever may be their qua "Their (the sectaries") argument was, You are making this a new system of tithe. You are placing a second parson in each parish, whom we must pay, though we cannot conscientiously attend to his instruction.' He bowed to this position."-"The clergy were the teachers of the poor, not only teachers of religion, but, in the eye of the law, they were teachers generally.” [The reader is requested to compare this passage with one that will be presently extracted from the Edinburgh Review, in its better days.} «What, then, could be more natural than that they (the clergy) should have a control over those (the schoolmasters contemplated by the Bill) who were selected to assist them?" + Mr. Brougham has himself drawn the picture of one member of this spiritual body: "He recollected one of that fraternity who, to procure a livelihood, went about singing, or rather disturbing the slumbers of the neighbourhood, if not depressing the spirits of those who did not sleep. In truth, he could not say that his voice was remarkable for its sweetness, or the ditties which he poured forth remarkable for their elegance. Having refreshed the parishioners in this manner, the worthy man regularly proceeded to refresh himself-and, for the most part, it was necessary to carry him home. These were his nightly amusements-his occupation during the day was mole-catching. (A laugh.) On Sunday he appeared in church, reading-not indeed with a distinct voice, but as audible as he could, and as far as his abilities enabled him to read-that part of the divine service which was allotted to him. He (Mr. Brougham) was not very squeamish about these things; but he thought when he witnessed this exbibition, (and it was a long time ago,) that it was a very undig |