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our youth; but above all" (this is (of the Church upon the minds of the main thing that you rest upon), the people. This is the assertion, "above all to the religion admi- to which I beg the public to attend. I shall afterwards have to show, that (to use the elegant

"nistered by a body of clergy, who, from their external con"dition, and, still more from their expression of Castlereagh) "peolearning and piety, have an in-ple, ought not to hollow before "fluence on the minds of the" they are out of the wood."

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people, not only through the But, allowing; indeed, the thing "medium of their pastoral func-is notorious; that all change; "tions, but by the effect of their that all revolution; that all re "writings, and the estimation form; granted that this was pre"they bear in the community."

vented, I am about to show that it

is false to impute the prevention
to the influence of the parsons
over the minds of the people.
You are not aware, perhaps,

What does this fairly mean? As to the free Constitution of Government and the equal administration of the laws, and the principles of the people at Ox-that you and your parsons have ford and Cambridge, I may allude two mighty rivals here. The to all these by-and-by; though Knights of Waterloo insist that it really after the affair so recently was they that saved the nation the subject of public interest and from what you called "destrucdiscussion, it would hardly seem tion." If they did not, I am sure necessary. It is your last cause we have paid, and are paying of preservation that is most wor- enormous sums of money into The thy of our attention. Here you 66 DEAD assert that the main cause of re- WEIGHT," as it is now elegantly volution having been prevented termed in the official papers laid here (for that is your meaning), before Parliament, amounts to was the influence of the Parsons 5,315,6927. 9s. 7d.; that is to

wrong hands.

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say, five millions three hundred indeed, had always contended, and fifteen thousand, six hundred that the French had been defeated

by paper-money; and when it was proposed to erect monuments and triumphal arches, I said that they ought to be dedicated to the Bank and the paper-money ma

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and ninety-two pounds, nine shillings and sevenpence. There you see; that is what we pay for the dead weight created by the war to prevent our destruction. I will say nothing at present, kers generally; and that, if posabout the six hundred millions of sible, the materials should be fadebt, due to 'Change Alley; and per. In 1819, Sir ROBERT PEEL the hundred millions of debt (for put in the claim of the Bank, in it grows out of the same cause), a formal, if not an official manner. in the shape of poor rates. I will The Bank Directors themselves say nothing about these; but, for broadly hinted, that it was they who had gained the victory; that it was they who had preserved the country from" destruction;" but Sir ROBERT PEEL made the claim in direct terms. He said,

the present, refer you solely to

the "DEAD WRIGHT;" and I re

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peat, that, if we owe our preser

vation to the parsons, this dead

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weight money would appear to be given for nothing; and the par- on the 18th of May 1819, As sons ought to put in their claim" an Englishman, he could not to it. "but feel the services rendered However, you have another" to the country by the Bank. stout rival, in this claim to the ho- Through its means the country nour of having preserved the na- « was enabled to pass successtion from "destruction;" namely," fully through all its difficulties, the BANK! Until 1319 the peo-to terminate a long and arduous ple had always been taught to struggle with glory, and to give

loola to the army as the defenders" and saviours of the nation.

security and independence to I," Europe."

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Thus, then, we have seen, that | public mind. If it was effected

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ing and piety;" by their "writings" by the estimation which they bore in the community - if this was the case, will you be so

first the army, and then the Bank by the parsons; by their “learnclaimed the merit of that preservation and that glory of which you talk, and the claim to the merit of having effected which you now put in so boldly on behalf of good as to tell us, Bishop, what the parsons. How will you set-was the use of a hundred and fifty tle the account with these two thousand men in arms, kept on rivals? The army has been paid foot in these islands during the pretty decently; nor has the Bank war; what was the use of procla gone unpaid. We shall see by-mations to suppress writings in and-by, perhaps, that the parsons favour of the French Revolution; have had a little payment as well what was the use of prosecutions as the others; but, before we innumerable of writings in favour come to that part of the subject, af Reform here; what was the use let us return and stick a little of transporting the leaders of the closer to this assertion of yours, Scotch Reformers to Botany Bay, which I have declared to be false. and what was the use of new ...It is true that the parsons, the Treason and Sedition Bills of 'Bank, and the army, all had a several new laws to cramp the hand in preserving us from "de-press; and what was the use of a struction," that is to say, from seven years' suspension of the Act Parliamentary Reform; for as to of Habeas Corpus, and a Bill of "any other sort of "destruction," Indemnity to those who had been from which we have been pre- guilty of violations of the law dur served, we may defy you to point ing the suspensions of that Act? it out. I agree, then, that the What was the use of all these, Bishop? If those of your cloth;

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parsons had their full share in those acts, which prevented a if the parsons by their learning change. But I deny, that the and piety, and by the effect of change was prevented, by any their writings, and the estimation influence, exercised by any body, they were held in by the commuover the "MINDS of the peonity; if, by these means, the parple." The change was prevented sons had such a saving influence by means very different indeed over the minds of the people, be from that of influence over the so good as to tell us, Bishop, why

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the Government resorted to all out the whole of the interior of these restraints upon their bodies? the kingdom? Could the im But, was there nothing more? mense magazines at WELD ON in Nothing but the spiritual influence, Northamptonshire be necessary except the few trifling things that for defence of the country against I have just mentioned? Was the French! Was there danger there no "Loyal Association," that the French Sans Culottes at the Crown and Anchor in the would land at WELDON, at ManStrand, of which Mr. REEVES, chester, at Chelmsford or at then Chief Justice of Newfound- Guildford? If your parsons had land, was Chairman, and which made all secure by the influence Association was entitled, “against which their "learning and piety” Republicans and Levellers," and had given them over the minds which Association notoriously, of the people, how came it to be openly, and boastingly, employed necessary to bring a German spies and informers? Was there army into the heart of England; nothing of this sort, and if there to keep it here till the very close was, with what propriety do you of the war; to give the chief boast, that it was the influence of command of districts of England your parsons over the minds of to German Generals, putting Enthe people, that effected, what glish regiments, militia as well you call preservation from "de-as regulars under their com struction," and which other peo-mand? If the influence over the ple call a prevention of Reform? English mind given to the par

If the thing; if the mighty sons by their learning and piety; good were effected by the influ- if this were sufficient, why were ence of your parsons over the German troops brought to the minds of the people, whence the town of Ely to superintend the necessity of arming loyal asso- flogging of the English Local Miciations of Yeomanry, to keep hitia-men? If this blessed influthe disaffected in awe? Whence ence were sufficient for the purthe necessity of barracks near pose of leading the people wil every populous town in the lingly along, why was the nation kingdom; whence the necessity saddled with the enormous exof magazines of arms and am- pense of a German army; the munition and of troops stationed half-pay of which, Bishop, now at convenient distances, through-costs this nation, according to the

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statement in the account of the would require a very large vo"DEAD WEIGHT," one hundred lume. To deny their efficiency and fourteen thousand, eight in preserving us from “destruchundred and seventy pounds a year?

tion" would be impudent indeed, when scarcely a week has passed for the last thirty years, without our reading in the newspapers of some Reverend person or other, who has been engaged (either in England or in Ireland) in the coercing of “ seditious li

That the parsons acted their part, I am the last man in the world to deny; but, it was not through the means of an influence over the MIND. From the moment that the war commenced, a very considerable part of them bellers," or in marching at the became very active indeed; and head of troops to suppress rioters it did not surprise, some persons and rebels! Two memorable ina little to see them so zealous, instances occur to me at this moa war against a people, whose ment; two memorable instances principal crime seemed to be the of their "influence;" but, Fahaving cast off a religion, or, ther in God, was it an influence rather, idolatry, at the head of over the MIND, which Purson which was Anti-Christ, as those Hay exercised at Manchester;

parsons had always told us. or that the Reverend se

Henry However, as I have very lately, in Bate Dudley, Bart., exercised, my letter to the Hampshire Par-at the head of a detachment of sons, fully explained this matter, Dragoons, in the Isle of Ely? I shall not go into it again here. Are you tired, Bishop? If you It was not with the word, but are not, I am; and I now leave with the magistrate's power; the public to judge, whether that the civil power, occasionally aid which you call a preservation ed by the military; the civil from destruction, and which I power, occasionally assisted by call a prevention of reform was Dragoons, that the parsons were effected by an influence over the most efficient in effecting what mind, or by an influence over you call our preservation from the body; and whether, as far DESTRUCTION." To enumerate as the parsons were concerned, only a thousandth part of the in- that which was effected, was efstances, in which they exercised an influence of this sort,

fected by means of their learning and piety, and by means of the

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