with-unlefs I fay, they utterly difclaim the written Word as the fource and fountain of their doârines, they surely ought to be competent to the understanding of that word, to be acquainted with the language at least, in which it was originally written, if they be not deeply read in other writings that have been confidered as necessary to elucidate the Scriptures and fit them for teachers of religion. It might be too much to expect them to be men of erudition, to be well acquainted with all thofe preparatory fubjects which are confidered not only by ourselves, but by the diffenters, as neceffary to form a public teacher of religion. The aids which religion may borrow from other fciences, the enthufiaftic evangelical teacher may despise, but he muft not be suffered to despise the word of God. The book in which the religion which he profeffes to teach is contained, it is at least to be expected that he be able to read, and in its own language, that he may draw it pure from the fountain head. There can be no hardship in requiring this. It is the leaft that is due to the care of the people in the highest of all their concerns, to fee that they be not left exposed to the dangers of delufion and error that may be fatal to their future peace, if it be not injurious to their own, or the peace of fociety in the prefent ftate. There can here be no juft cause to complain of perfecution. There can be no fcruples of conscience to alledge as an exemption from the teft propofed. The New Teftament is the bafis on which all denominations of Christians build their faith; and to be able to read this in the original, is the lowest qualification that can be admitted to make them competent to understand the religion which they are to teach, and to give them any pretensions to fet up for the inftructors of others. The teacher cannot complain that he is required to give this proof of his competency: his hearers will be benefited. The regular diffenters fo far from complaining of infringement of the Act of Toleration, will rejoice with ourselves in feeing the care of the principles and morals of the public put into better hands; and the clergy will, if they shall still see a falling off from their church, and their labours still too much obftructed by diffenfion, at least have the fatisfaction to know that their people are not led away by every illiterate pretender to knowledge, who may have the vanity to think himself qualified for a teacher; that it cannot be the lowest of the people to whom they commit themselves when they leave their appointed paftor; and that those who do intrude themselves into the prieft's office cannot be fuch as are altogether without knowledge, or have affumed this office without fome previous fteps that must be attended with more labour and expence of time, if nothing elfe, than many of the prefent fort of teachers would like to undergo. But I have another provision to recommend in addition to the one which we have been confidering, and that is, that every person who fhall apply for a licence to fet up for a public teacher, fhall either enter into a recognizance to con fine himself entirely to that profeffion, or be fubject to the fame reftrictions and penalties as the clergy, who are not permitted to follow any other bufinefs, but are required when they have made their choice of this profeffion, to devote their whole attention to it. Neither in this can there be any hardship. The fame ground on which the clergy are reftricted from all worldly occupations and cares, will apply to all other teachers of religion. Their minds fhould be wholly occupied by the fpiritual and important cares which they have undertaken. If it be fo in one cafe it must be equally fo in the other. And if it should be said that fufficient provifion is made for the former, but no adequate remunera tion is provided for the latter, that is a question which is to be confidered by themselves before they enter upon the office, not for the legislature, who if they voluntarily chufe that courfe of life in preference to their own, have a right to lay them under fuch reftrictions as fhall appear neceffary to the due discharge of the duties of their profeffion. Very inadequate in a number of cafes is the provision of the clergy, and yet they are obliged to fubmit to this condition, except in one inftance only, that of farming, and this not without a fpecial provifion in the act, and a licence to be obtained for that purpose from their bishop. At prefent the licensed teacher has greatly the advantage of the regular clergy: he can follow a profitable business, or even as a mechanic in many cases earn more by his daily labour than the parochial curate, and pocket all the emoluments of his conventicle without any authority to reftrain him, or fear of profecution from the tribe of informers whom the clergy have to keep them in awe. He has in common with the clergy the privileges and exemptions which they can only claim after a long and expenfive courfe of education, while he has only to apply to the quarter feffions, and for a single fixpence, purchase a license that will exempt him from ballots, and procure him other privileges, which are in themselves of fo much value, that I' have no doubt many fet up for preachers for the fake of thefe. Indeed I have often wondered that government fhould allow fo many able and well bodied men, who might be be fo much better employed in the fervice of their country, to avail themselves of the pretext of a call in the service of God, to fhun the burdens which fall upon the rest of his majefty's fubjects. More, even to a great extent, might, if they knew this advantage, take the benefit of these unquali fied exemptions. The provifion which I have been speaking of would be a qualification that would meet all these abuses, and confine the privileges to thofe alone who devote their whole time to the profeffion. Let none be licensed but those who do fo engage to make that their fole employment, and the legislature will filence the voice and quench the zeal of many a faint, who will not leave his earthly calling to obey the call of God, and many an artful knave, who with all his pretended zeal for the Gofpel, will not chufe to purchase the privileges and exemptions that fhall be annexed to the profeffion, at fuch an expence. Here, as in the former cafe, the principle of the Toleration Act is not affected. Here is no infringement of religious liberty. The profeffion of a teacher is open to all perfuafions, but fubject to thefe fimple but just conditions; conditions no lefs reasonable in them felves, than beneficial to the people, who are to be the ob jets of their care, that they be qualified for the office they undertake, and that they confine themselves to the dif charge of the duties of it. If Mr. Perceval as an Orthodox Churchman, which I hope he is, reads your Magazine, I hope he will give these hints a thought, in the little leisure that the recefs may allow him, and come prepared at the next meeting of parliament, to adopt fuch measures, as may, without militating with the principles of religious liberty, give to the Church established its due ascendancy, and reflore the ftrength it wants. August, 14, 1807. I am, Sir, Yours, U. B. P. ON THE CURATÉS' ACT. TO THE EDITOR OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCHMAN'S SIR, MAGAZINE. EEING in your Magazine for July, fome ftrictures on the am induced to make fome obfervations on them; as if in the next feffion of parliament, or at any future period, the legis lature fhould feel difpofed to reconfider our hard condition, and to do something further in relief of poor Curates; it is not improbable, but that the arguments offered in your pages by the Rector, may have fome weight with the members of both houfes of parliament to abate their zeal in our caufer Your Mifcellany has now affumed an importance and circulation extenfive and commanding, and is a text book in church affairs with many members of the British senate : fuch being the cafe, it is more than probable that all remarks unfavourable to our order appearing there, will operate in a finifter way to us elsewhere. You will confider it therefore, I truft, as a matter of justice, that the remarks of a poor curate, fhould find as easy access to your pages, as those of a beneficed clergyman and pluralift, whofe object feems to be, to deprefs our order beneath what it is at prefent, in its very humiliated ftate; and though I pretend not to brandish the weapons of controverfy with equal skill and adroitness with a Neftor in this art; yet I hope the plain arguments of a plain man, unufed to engage in the field of polemics, will draw the attention of the liberal and generous-minded to the fufferings of the inferior clergy, or excite one of our own order more skillful than myself, to ftand forth in our defence. The Rector fets off with complaining of the arbitrary power the Curates' Act throws into the hands of bishops; because it seems unconftitutional, and that it will fuit better in an arbitrary government than in one which makes every right and obligation as definite as poffible. How can the Rector deem it unconftitutional, when the right itfelf is defined and acknowledged, and the limitations fettled by an act of parlia ment; as the power of the crown itself is, and every other power which is delivered into the hands of a fubject. It is a right established in immemorial practice, for the ftate to fettle the wages of its fervants, and to proportion them to the price of provifions and the exigencies of the times. Curates are recognized by the alliance betwixt the church and ftate, as the fervants of the public, and a right has ever been affumed by parliament to provide for their fupport, out of the property appropriated by the ftate for the main tenance of the clergy. In the prefent act nothing new has been done, but extending the fcale of allowance of falary, in a juft proportion to the quantum of duty performed and the value of the livings, which the bishops are to adjust in all cafes, to the value and merits of each respectively, according to to the best of their judgments; who are, doubtlefs, by far the most competent judges to decide in this bufinefs. Can the Rector point out inftances where the power has been abused? if he cannot, to the exercise of the right itself there can be no objection. If we look into the courts of law, we fhall fee this right practifed from immemorial cuftom, without any positive enactment, so far as I know of, of any law, by the judges who regulate the fees of office and tax the cofts of fuits; and no one complains of its being arbitrary and oppreffive: it is affumed by men who are elevated far above meanness or corruption, whofe practice has advanced them to the fpotlefs ermine, and whose honour and integrity in their profeffion, are the folemn pledges to the public for their future conduct. And this is a cafe exactly in point, the power the Curates' Act vefts in the hands of the bench of bishops, is nearly fimilar in all refpects but one, where the power of granting and apportioning the falary is limited to a specific fum; though I conceive and agree with the Rector,that the fcale of allowance might ftill be enlarged in livings, fuch as Winwick, Doddington, and Simonburn, and other benefices which exceed the ordinary value of livings in favour of the curate; but fuppofing bifhops to be more unjuft than other men, and to efpoufe the cause of curates against the beneficed clergy, which is what he does not directly charge them with, for he warily compliments the present bench of bifhops, at least so far as his knowlege extends, for the disinterested manner in which they have acted, whilst he fuppofes the practice of one fet of bifhops is no fecurity for the practice of another; but even if it fhould be so, the act fecures the due administration of itself; for the mischief could not be extenfive if they fhould lay on £75 per annum, with the ftable and gardens, on benefices that could not well fupport it, but the average. value of livings can fupport it; where it cannot vacate; the emolument of the benefice being the price of fervice, and the labourer being worthy his hire, if you cannot live on the cure, give it up to those who will do the fervice for the emoluments, and then there will be an end to the difpute. But the A&t has ftill provided a remedy in cafe you are oppreffed by your diocefan, you may recur to the archbishop; no fays the rector; because it may make your diocefan more your enemy than he was before; but I will afk, is not this an accident that affects the curate as much as the beneficed clergy? it is an unpleasant thing to go to law, and appeal from one court to another, but no one ever dreams of fuch childish objections, |