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* y* v* ? v«vv *u ***v gvobv nuivu n Wher right* The hon. gentleman then proceeded to read a passage from Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity, cap. vi, sec. 2; but we regret that, owing to the noise and disorder of the house, we were not able to catch the import of it. The hon. member went on to say, that the constitution of England was framed not merely with reference to the acquisition of national riches.' The weal of nations, like that of individuals, depended on pre-eminence of virtue. Two views might be taken of this question—one, the more ecclesiastical ; the other, the more political. The first contemplated the considerations on which the Chnrch might require that the convocation should be revived ; the second, the considerations on which the state required the revival of the convocation. The latter would mainly occupy the attention ot the House of Commons, In another house of parliament, and by a right rey. prelate, the question had been brought under consideration some time ago, and the question then turned chiefly on the utility of the convocation for the guidance of the Church; but in the House of Commons he intended to call attention to the degree in which the state stood in need of the advice of the clergy; and he could not think that he was calling the attention of the house to a mere dogma of constitutional law, or a doctrine of abstract philosophy; but, on the contrary, that this was a question of an eminently practical nature, and well worthy the attention of legislators. Did they not see a ministry, the strongest by far that the country had ever been governed by for 50 years —strong in the esteem of the country—strong in the individual character of its members; the head of which, in the House of Lords, was the Duke of Wellington, and its head in the House of Commons a man whose name would accompany that of the Duke of Wellington through all time—did they not see, he said, a ministry so strong in itself, so strong in the confidence of the country, stumbling on questions which, but for the absence of the convocation, would not have existed, or if they had existed, would have presented no difficulties to the Honse of Commons ? Did not the question of education stop the iFactor}* Bill last year i During the present session, and at the present moment, had they not got into parliamentary difficulties of an unprecedented kind, surrounding the attempt of the government to ameliorate the condition of the factory operatives? Could they forget the startling statements of the noble lord the member for Dorsetshire (Lord Ashley), when he described the condition of the workpeople in the factories and mines of this country —the miserable darkness in which those classes lived, and the scarcely less miserable material evils which pressed upon them ? To what were they to attribute such a state of things but the absence of that high voice which would have pointed out to parliament the origin of these evils as they arose ? If the convocation had been sitting for the last half century, these miseries would have been authoritatively introduced to the knowle4ge of the House of Commons for the purpose of their accommodating the means of the Chnrch to the increase in the- numbers of the people and to their condition. Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, Stockport, Liverpool, and other towns had immensely increased in population, bat the church accommodation had not increased m proportion. Why? Not because the House of Commons liad manifested any unwillingness to grant money for that purpose: not because the people were not willing to support the house in doing so ; but because the house had not been called upon by the adequate and proper authority to fc*ke cognizance of these evils as they arose. Within the last 10 years legislation had proceeded with an almost frightful rapidity; the constitution was not what it was 13 years ago. That was the answer to those who might object to and alteration of the existing practice in this respect. It was true that ^ the bishops might be said to represent the Church in parliament, but it was only in a limited sense; for ! they held theii seats in parliament not as clerevmen but as
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London St James Chronicle Whitehall and General Evening post
London, Middlesex, GB
Tue, Apr 23, 1844
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