the inferior clergy; they must be obvious to every person, who will give himself the trouble to think upon the subject. A more strict injunction concerning residence, and a restriction of pluralities would be neither unreasonable nor unserviceable consequences of it. -- In the former part of this letter I declined entering into the particular mode of accomplishing the change there recommended; I must do the same here, and for the same reason.—I see no difficulties in effecting the business, if the propriety of attempting it be admitted, but others I am sensible will see many : this is to be expected, for we judge of things according to our dispositions, and these nature and education have rendered infinitely various, between the extreme of audacity on the one hand, which scruples not to attempt impossibilities; and the extreme of timidity on the other, which considers the most practicable things as impossible. This I say must be expected in honest men, who are willing to do what they think ought to be done: but if private reasons should chance to render any person averse from the business, the objections to it will be multiplied beyond number, and the difficulties magni fied beyond measure. For, as was said by a worthy senator, when the augmentation of small livings was formerly agitated in the house of commons- "to him that is unwilling to go, there is always a bear or a lion in the way: first let us make ourselves willing, then will the way be easy and safe enough." Though I decline at present entering into any particulars, and omit the mention of many things which, if ever the business is proceeded in, must necessarily be taken into the account; yet I will just give two hints, as each of them may, when properly modified, be a reason recommendatory of the plan itself, and that to different classes of men. 1. It seems highly equitable, that the revenues taken from the churches should be first employed in augmenting, to a sum to be fixed upon, the small livings in the patronage of these churches; and afterwards to the augmentation of small livings in general. 2. That the sum of four or six hundred pounds (if land is to be purchased) should be added to every two hundred raised by benefaction; as it is probable, that the prospect of making at once so large an addition to the income of a small living, would induce both the patrons, especially those who are possessed of impropriations, and the young incumbents of them, to procure such benefactions much more commonly than is done at present. I hasten to release your grace from the trouble I have occasioned you, requesting you to take in good part, what is proposed with a good intention. The moderation of the present age in ecclesiastical matters is great, when contrasted with the violence of the last; all sides have reason to rejoice at the difference; and I would have wished that the hand which has written this letter, had been chilled with the damp of death before it had begun its work, if I had thought, that the business which is now broached was likely, either in itself, or in its consequences, to be attended with any the least diminution of that moderation, with any the least loss of brotherly love, and Christian charity. In all disputes, whether between ourselves of the establishment, or between us and our brethren who dissent from it, the advice of a certain venerable father of the church demands our attention," let us mutually give up a little, that we may receive in return a great deal, unanimity." This unanimity in matters of opinion can, perhaps, never be obtained, but the want of it may be dispensed with, if there be an unanimity in the practice of mutual forbearance, kindness, and goodwill. Having accustomed myself, for years, to look at the subjects here treated of, as of great national importance, and unquestioned utility; it is very probable, that I may have undesignedly considered them with partiality, and overlooked some weighty objections which may be brought against them. If there. are any such objections, they will certainly be discovered, and many improvements probably suggested, when men's minds are turned towards the subject; and the wish of having the subject thoroughly discussed, rather than hastily adopted, or hastily rejected, is the sole occasion of my addressing your grace in this public manner. If any one should think, that it would have been more respectful in me to have submitted this matter privately to the judgment of your grace and the bench of bishops, I must beg leave to differ from him. I have no disposition to be wanting in respect to any of my brethren, but I cannot, out of respect to any man or set of men, give up a decided opinion, and I have not the least doubt or hesitation of mind, as to the utility of making the objects of this letter publicly known. If I had previously consulted the bench of bishops, I might have run the risk of treating them with apparent disrespect; for I should have been under a necessity of neglecting their advice, had it tended to the suppression of what I now offer to the deliberate and impartial examination of the laity and clergy in general. I moreover much dislike all private caballing in matters of public import; if they will not bear the broad face of day, the animadversion of men of different talents and judgments, the thorough sifting of all parties, they are not fit to be encouraged. It is a narrow policy which would teach us to stickle for any interests which the laity would not willingly allow us; they are our fellow Christians and have souls to be saved, we are their fellow citizens and have rights to be maintained, and we are both of us under equal obligations to be fellowlabourers in promoting the welfare of both church and state: they will have no jealousies if we have no reserves, they will not grudge us a single grain of dignity, a single guinea of property NO. XVI. VOL. VIII. Pam. 2 P The busi which tends to the advancement of the common weal. ness thus submitted to the public judgment cannot be stifled by the efforts of interest or prejudice: nor will it ever be brought forward by its proposer in any other way; unless public approbation shall prove that it is calculated for the public good. I may not, perhaps, be able to give up my opinion to the opinion of others; but I shall be both able and willing, in deference to their opinions, to give up my plan; for my zeal for rectifying what seems wrong, is tempered, I hope, by a respect for the judgments of others; by a disposition (after having proposed openly and freely what seems amiss) to acquiesce quietly, in what cannot quietly be amended. As to any censure to which I may have exposed myself in becoming, as some will scoffingly phrase it, a reformer; in disturbing, as others will, or will seem to apprehend, the repose of the establishment, I will, as the apostle recommends, take it patiently: it is much easier to bear the reproach of other men's tongues, than of our own minds; and that I could not have escaped, had I done less than I have done. I flatter myself, however, or rather 1 have good reason to expect, that many of my brethren will see the subject in the same light that I have done, and will concur in recommending it, when the more urgent concerns of the state are in some measure settled, to the notice of parliament. And from the bottom of my heart I beseech both your grace and them, to weigh the matter with great accuracy, and I have no doubt that both you and they will then give judgment concerning it with great sincerity. I have the honor to be, With all possible deference and respect, Most obedient Servant, R. LANDAFF. INDEX TO VOLUMES VII. AND VIII. The Roman figures indicate the Volume, and the Arabic, the Page. Α Account of various schemes for ren- African slave trade, authorities for Agistment, species of tithe, viii, 365 adequate to supply our own con- Agricultural classes, resorted to pa- Agriculture, its advance during the Annuities redeemable, proposal to 287 B Badging the poor, law for, in the Slavery in, viii, 93 Punishment of death in, viii, 94 Bank Stock, Address to the propri- Bishops, proposal for the greater in- Body, its union with soul, supposed Bounty on the export of corn, vii, 520 312 Brewers, the proprietors of low pub- Brewing monopoly, established by British Plantations, treatment of Bullion and exchanges, vii, 440 C Cappe, Catherine, Thoughts on the 456 596 Chalmers, George, Esq. State of the United Kingdom at the peace of Paris, Nov. 20, 1815, vii, 431 Church property, probably endangered by consolidation, vii, 18 Church Establishment, emoluments of in comparison with those of other professions, viii, 573 Church Revenues, inequality of, viii, 574 Clandestine importation of slaves into the West Indies, vii, 552 Clarkson, W. Esq. Inquiry into the cause of the increase of pauperism and poor rates, viii, 386 Clay soils, will defend crops from the mildew better than drier soils, viii, 125 Commerce with the East, after the death of Alexander the Great, vii, 410 Considerations on the propriety of remunerating witnesses for loss of time, by Charles Frost, vii, 191 Considerations on the rate of interest, and on redeemable annuities, by E. B. Sugden, Esq. vii, 271 Copyholders, proposal for extending the right of voting in counties to, vii, 295 Costs, inadequately repaid to the successful party in a suit, vii, 196 Crombie, Dr. A. Letters on the present state of the agricultural interest, viii, 127 Cupid and Psyche, the fable explained, viii, 38 Curwen, J. C. Esq. Speech in the House of Commons on the state of the Poor Laws, viii, 3 D Defects in the representation of counties in Parliament, vii, 294 Demons, material, appeared to the initiated in the Eleusinian mysteries, viii, 43 Discourse delivered to the literary and scientific society at Java, by the Hon. T. S. Raffles, viii, 67 Distilleries and Breweries, competition of the, short letter to Chancellor of the Exchequer on the, by a Freeholder, vii, 497 of Great Britain, an important market for the produce of the land, vii, 517 Distress of the country, its cause, viii, 493 Domestic enterprizes of the people of the United Kingdom, vii, 434 Dunstan, Sir Jeffery, his death by absorption, vii, 500 Dunstan's banishment, occasioned by the resentment of Ethelgiva, vii, 536 E Edinburgh savings bank, vii, 490 Edmeads, Rev. W. National Establishment, National Security, vii, 1 Edwy, King, his commerce with two concubines, vii, 533 -'s marriage, antedated by some annalists, vii, 543 Election, proposed mode of parliamentary, vii, 313 Eleusinian and Bacchic mysteries, dissertation on, by Thomas Taylor, viii, 33 mysteries, part of the shows consisted in the representation of the infernal regions, viii, 35 Elgin, Earl of, Report from the se lect committee on his collection of sculptured marbles, viii, 496 Elgin Marbles, valuation of, viii, 442 Eliot, F. P. Letters on the political and financial situation of the British Empire, vii, 261 Elizabeth, in her reign passed the statute on which is founded the present system of poor laws, viii, 11 Estate owners' public houses, to be encouraged in preference to the brewers, vii, 110 Estates, paying tithes, difference of the tenures on which they are held, vii, 9 Ethelgiva, banished within one or two years after Dunstan, vii, 539 Evidence, act admitting the legal evidence of slaves in Jamaica, vii, 558 |