TOPICS OF THE DAY.
ARGUMENTS AGAINST CHURCH REFORM.
THE last Quarterly Review contains a paper on the projected re- forms in the English and Irish Church Establishments, written in a subdued and dejected strain, very different indeed from the ex- asperating style Which the Quarterly has usually adopted when treating of Ecclesiastical matters, and which has won for it the reputation of being one of the main instruments in promoting the cause of Dissent. °The article to which we allude is headed " the Church and the Landlords ;" and is an attempt to persuade the Landowners and Aristocracy, that the payment of rent and the payment of tithe will have a coequal term of existence,—that they have laboured under a gross error in supposing that their rents have been collected and their farms let by the exertions of their agents,—that it is to the Clergy that their gratitude is due for the satisfactory appearance of their bank-book on quarter-day. The
Reviewer also undertakes to prove, that a decline of real religion will be consequent upon the doWnfal of the Establishment, and that the Dissenters " unconsciously derive the means of their own continuance from the continuance of an Establishment, which, in their blindness, they would pull down."
In the course of the argument adduced to prove the beneficial influence of the Clergy in "bracing the upper and lower classes of society together," we find some sound advice to the Landlords, which they would do well to listen to. In the truth of the follow- ing remarks we fully concur.
" We believe that few landlords, especially where the property is large, are aware of the real feelings with which a tenant accedes to a change of his farm ; or resigns a portion of it for an accommodation ; or listens to a suggestion of an improvement in his system of cultivation ; or walks, though he says nothing at the time, the influence of the landlord, direct or indirect, at a vestry ; or submits to a hint about his vote; or watches the devastation occasioned by game ; or with which he waits for the necessary repairs of his house, or, if it he a small tenant, of his cottage—the rain perhaps driving through his thatch Whilst he sees ten times the amount of kis wants lavished on what he considers a whim. We believe that few landlords are conscious of the murmurs to which their rate .of rent, however moderate, gives rise, particularly amongst the small occupants ; or how far the subject of tithe is from being the only one of the kind upon which such persons sit in judgment."
Now, says the Reviewer, all this multifarious lccal knowledge obtrudes itself upon the Clergyman.
" The merest accident that may occur during a call, furnishes an opportunity for the disclosure—more especially in seasons of sickness, which are those when the clergyman has the closest intercourse with his people; for then comes, with the poor at least, the tug of life ; and whatever dregs there may be in their cup are then sure to be cast up—to say nothing that at such moments the heart na- turally opens more than at other times. 'Then the fire kindles, and at the last they speak with their tongue—but it is in accents very different from those they would have addressed to their landlord, of whom they stand in slime fear—or to his agent, of whom they stand in much greater."
The Clergyman is supposed to be on terms of equality with -" my Lord' or" the Squire ;" at any rate, he visits him, and dines with him, and can find many opportunities of saying a kind word for a tenant under notice to quit. On the other hand, it is his interest and duty to speak well of the landlord to his tenantry—to put the best interpretation on an unthinking or unfeeling measure when conversing with the farmer.
Now it must be admitted, that the Reviewer has drawn a very .pleasing and delightful sketch of the duties and character of a parish priest. But is it a faithful one ? We grieve to say that there is much more imagination than truth in the picture. The kind friend and lowly instructor of the peasantry is not the man who is admitted to the lordly table. It is not the poor Curate of 100/. per annum, but the fox-hunting, tithe-exacting Rector, who cracks a bottle of champagne with the Squire at the hall. The fact is, that the wholerace of Beneficed Clergy in England are regarded with feelings little short of detestation by the farmers and peasantry ; while, on the other band, the half-starved Curate and his family are considered very much as belonging to the same class, and possessing the same prejudices against the Squire -and the Rector, as themselves. If any body imagines that the
• Working Clergy look with any dislike or dread at the expected reforms in our Church Establishment, we are persuaded that the experience of a few-years' residence in the Midland and Northern counties is all that is wanting to undeceive him on that point. The Landlords may rest assured that they are under no obligations to the Beneficed Clergy as a body. They are under decided obliga- tions to the WOrkino-. Clergy, but they have not generally had the .sense and gratitude to own or return them. We suspect that the Quarterly will be laughed at by the know- ing ones among the Landlords; who are in the habit of consoling themselves with the reflection, that if mortgages and settlements compel them to rack their tenants, and consequently to earn their hatred, still there is always one man at least in the parish who -comes in for a greater share of detestation; and that man is the Rector—the peacemaking go-between of the Quarterly Review ! The existence of so numerous a body as that of the Dissenters an England, supporting their respective clergy in decency and comfort by voluntary contributions, renders it somewhat difficult to prove the necessity of an Establishment for the maintenance of religion. The Quarterly asserts, that if the Church were to fall, the Dissenters would fall also. But this is mere assertion, unsup- ported by a shadow of proof; and the American .instances which are quoted to bolster it up, tell in fact the other way. Dr. Dwionas it seems has declared that the Rhode Islanders, who have always resisted the support of the public worship of God by law," are
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in a very immoral and irreligious state, With scarcely a well-edu• cated minister among them, except in the large towns. But the fact is, that the religious opinions which flourish in Rhode Island are precisely those which Dr. DWIGHT, an extremely prejudiced man, regarded with especial abhorrence. He has grossly misrepre- sented the state of morals and religion in Rhode Island, as they ap- pear to non-sectarian eyes. Connecticut, however, had a Church Establishment; and there, we are given to understand, piety flourished "and the knowledge of' God was kept alive." Now the Church Establishment of Connecticut amounted to this. Every per- son was compelled to contribute something to the public support of religion. He was at full liberty to choose the sect to which Fe would belong, awl was not called upon to support any other. If he professed no particular opinion, and was attached to no society, then he was held to belong to the Congregationalist—the standing order, as it was called—and taxed for its support. This shadow of an Establishment was destroyed in 1818; and no man at present is compelled to contribute to the support of religion at all. The Quarterly insinuates, that the consequences have been fatal to religion. The fact is, that they have been just the reverse. In the capital of that state, Hartford, during the last ten years, a Congregational; an Episcopalian, a Catholic, a Universalist, and we believe a Methodist church, have been erected; and regular ministers appointed to them. An Episcopal College, under the patronage and care of the Bishop, has also been established. In other parts of the State, similar exertions, though not to so great an extent, have been made. The selection of Connec- ticut to prove, first, the advantages of an Establishment, and then the melancholy consequences to religion arising from its overthrow, was most unfortunate.
I'Ve do not wish to be misunderstood on this subject. We are not advocating the ruin of the Church. But when the reform of that Church is opposed on such ground as the Quarterly assumes, it is but fair to expose the weakness of the arguinent. To tell the Landlords that the payment of thoir rents depends upon the good offices of the Beneficed Clergy, and to tell the Nation at large that Dissent from the Church is synonymous with workinc, the overthrow of religion, is an absurd mode of arguing the question, which deserves to be stigmatized. It is an appeal to the fears and prejudices of men, when their good sense and sober feelings ought only to be consulted. But this is ever the way in which reforms both in Church and State are opposed by the enemies to improve- ment. We rather think, however, that the Quarterly has overshot the mark, and taxed the credulity of County Gentlemen somewhat too heavily in this instance.
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