THE CHURCH.

To the EDITOR of the NOTTINGHAM JOURNAL.

SIR,—Having in obedience to the King’s Letter for the Building of Churches, called the attention of my parishioners to the well-balanced union of an Established and voluntary principle in the Church of England, I feel myself honoured by the notice of the Nottingham Review, long famed for elegance of composition, and correctness as to facts.

Had I come but recently into this parish, I might, perhaps, have had fears, lest such a tissue of coarseness and falsehood might have had some effect in alienating some of my parishioners from me: but after more than twenty years disinterested residence amongst them, I have not even a wish to clear myself from what is not correct in the article headed “Church of England Bigotry.”

May I, however, request your insertion of the following extract from the Quarterly, as fully corroborating the views brought before my parish concerning the sublime advantages of having an Established Church, with a faithful resident Clergy:—

“It is of great public convenience, independently of the question of religious instruction, to have in a nation a body of individuals of the station, class, and character of the Clergy—male adults, upon the whole, to trust; intelligent, from their education; pledged to good behaviour, from their profession; known in their several districts, from their functions; at hand, from the necessity of their residence; universal in their presence, from the parochial divisions to which they are severally attached; and executing every work where it is wished, that a law or a regulation, public or private, shall supersede. And accordingly it is difficult to frame an Act of Parliament for any improvement whatever in our internal economy, without some appeal or other to the Clergy—reference to some trust which they never undertook to discharge, but which, when required of them, they discharge cheerfully, under a feeling, that whilst the nation, without any distinction of creed, maintains a Church Establishment, of which they are the ministers, they owe to the nation, without any distinction of creed, whatever services their favourable position in society enables them to afford. Thus, if the Government is called upon to meet any emergency—any national visitation or distress, the Clergy are the organs of which it avails itself to get upon the people—prudence, the energies, the benevolence of the people. If the Government has occasion to ascertain the life, the identity, the character, the conduct of persons who have claims upon it—of say soldiers or sailors—it resorts to the Clergy for its information, as the readiest and most trustworthy it can procure. If the Government has need of any statistical details, such as may conduce to the public welfare, the Clergy are the quarter to which it chiefly looks for satisfactory intelligence. If, again, in private life, friendly societies have need of certificates of the bona-fide sickness of their members, for certificates for relief, the signature of the Clergyman is that they insist on. If he is to take to the War Office, or to the Admiralty, it is to the Clergyman that he has any commission on his part to make to the War Office, or to the Admiralty, it is to the Clergyman that he repairs for assistance and advice. If a poor man falls under any family disaster, his limb broken, his pig dead, it is to the Clergyman that he goes for a testimony to the truth of his tale and the fairness of his fame, and that testimony secured to him the help of the district in which he lives. If the thrifty cottager wants his little earnings deposited in the Savings Bank, by the Clergyman he confides it to appreciate the matter for him. If he desires to have his frugal will made, that the little he possesses may be secured to the parties whom he loves best, it is the Clergyman that he applies to draw it out. These are but a mere sample, nedio exercere, of the little services of a hundred kinds which the Clergyman renders to the country at large, as a free gift, quite independently of his ministerial duties, and without any reference whatever to sect, or sentiment.”

I am, Sir, yours, faithfully,

J. D. WAWN,

Domestic Chaplain to the Earl Stanhope.

Stanton Rectory, December 29, 1836.

📚 Sources

• Type: newspaper
  Title: Nottingham Journal
  Date: 1836-12-30