of Parliament to give it: it has been assumed by inference; it has been usurped under cover of an equivocal phrase, which by lawyer-craft has been interpreted to mean more than was avowed or intended by the framers of the act, unless the intention was to deceive. And in the manner in which the Commissioners have gone about the establishment of their ecclesiastical power in this matter, there has been displayed a disingenuousness, a stealthiness of procedure, that deserves to be held up to public reprobation. By means of secret edicts issued from Somerset House, in the shape of orders and regulations to be observed,' they have endeavored to do what no minister of the crown would have ventured to propose in parliament, and what Lord Brougham ridiculed the Dissenters for deeming it necessary to guard against by express provision; namely, to deprive the poor of this country, as the condition of parochial relief, of their religious liberty, and to affix a fresh stigma upon the dissenting ministers of all denominations as ineligible to a workhouse chaplaincy, and not fit to be trusted as religious instructors within the walls of a pauper gaol.

These are serious charges: we will proceed to make them good.

By the nineteenth section of the Poor Law Amendment Act, it is enacted:

'That no rules, orders, or regulations of the said commissioners, nor any bye-laws at present in force, or to be hereafter made, shall oblige any inmate of any workhouse to attend any religious service which may be celebrated in a mode contrary to the religious principles of such inmate, nor shall authorize the education of any child in such workhouse in any religious creed other than that professed by the parents or surviving parent of such child, and to which such parents or parent shall object, or, in the case of an orphan, to which the godfather or godmother of such orphan shall so object: provided also that it shall and may be lawful for any licensed minister of the religious persuasion of any inmate of such workhouse, at all times in the day, on the request of such inmate, to visit such workhouse for the purpose of affording religious assistance to such inmate, and also for the purpose of instructing his child or children in the principle of their religion.'

Exception may be taken, as we shall show presently, against the phrasing of this clause; but the general principle is obviously protective of the religious rights of the poor; and its design is not to tie up the hands of the Commissioners or of Boards of Guardians, to prevent their allowing too much liberty, or acting too liberally and too tolerantly, but to prohibit them from passing intolerant and illiberal regulations. Such is clearly the spirit of the restriction, as it was understood at the time of the passing of the Bill, and on this understanding it was

supported by the Liberal members. The ingenuity of the Commissioners, or of their very self-sufficient and pragmatical secretary, Mr. Edwin Chadwick, has nevertheless been exercised in direct contrariety to the spirit of the enactment, in construing its provisions so as to authorize any rules, orders, or regulations, how intolerant and vexatious soever, that are not forbidden by the letter of the law. It is in this respect that we regard their conduct as so reprehensible. Errors in judgment may be pardoned, but the whole conduct of the Commissioners has been systematically opposed to the tolerant intention of the Legislature.

Our exceptions to the clause relate chiefly to the wording of it. In the first place, the phrase 'licensed minister' is inaccurate as applied to dissenting ministers, who are not licensed, nor required to be so. And this blunder runs through all recent enactments of the kind. Surely, the House of Commons ought not to be ignorant of the state of the law, under which ministers and lay teachers are alike protected. A magistrate's certificate of their having taken certain oaths is all that is requisite to secure them against penalties, and this only if their right is called in question; and no license whatever is necessary, even in the case of pastors of separate congregations, not being in trade, to whom alone the special exemptions from civil service, equally with the clergy, belong. A curate must be licensed by his bishop, but curates are evidently not hereby intended. The words licensed minister,' therefore, if strictly interpreted-we almost wonder the Commissioners have not hit upon this method of evading and defeating the provision-would exclude all dissenting ministers as unlicensed! The term certificated would have been more correct, but equally useless, and liable to become vexatious. In the eyes of the Church of England, all dissenting teachers are laymen: why then confine the permission to ministers? Under the old poor law regime, the students at our theological academies were in the practice of visiting workhouses, as well as almshouses, for the purpose of imparting religious instruction; and pious laymen of the Church of England, as well as of dissenting communions, have been wont to employ part of the leisure of the sabbath in similar visits of Christian kindness to the poor. Why should an end be put to all this by an ecclesiastical restriction, founded on the technical meaning of the word minister? It must have been either in ignorance of these facts, or from inadvertence, that the phrase has been adopted in modern legislation.

But the words, 'on the request of such inmate,' are also exceptionable, as well in reference to the inmates of workhouses as to those of gaols. If there are any who more peculiarly tand in need of the 'religious assistance' of ministers of their own persuasion, it is those who, whether degraded by pauperism

or suffering from crime, are too ignorant or too hardened to wish for the visit of a religious instructor. The idea of their requesting that a minister may come to them, is absurd. The last person that a Roman Catholic culprit, for instance, would wish to see, except in extremis,' would be his priest. Those who have visited our prisons on errands of mercy know how often, in the case of offenders who have stifled religious convictions, there is a sullenness, a doggedness, a despondency to be overcome, before the voice of admonition or of consolation will be listened to. In either case (and this more especially applies to workhouses), there is an ignorance almost as difficult to be dealt with, and which will never request an instructor. Not only so, but there may be inmates who stand in conscious need of religious instruction or consolation, and who may even desire to be visited by some Christian minister of their own persuasion, and yet may never make the request-through diffidence possibly, and still more probably as not knowing of their right to make it, and not having the power to assert the right, if the request should not be complied with. For, unless it is conveyed by writing or message to the minister (which may not always be very easy), how is the request to take effect? In every point of view, the required condition is at variance with the dictates of good sense and philanthropy.

A third exception to the clause relates to the introduction of the terms godfather,' and 'godmother,' as egregiously inappropriate; since it is well known that the larger portion of the poorer classes contrive to make shift without any baptismal sponsors. For the orphans of Presbyterian, Independent, Baptist, or Wesleyan parents, the clause makes no provision.

Having now examined the text of this section of the Act, we proceed to notice the comments of the Commissioners. The first occasion upon which they deemed themselves called upon to interpose in their legislative capacity in the matter of religious instruction, appears to have been in the case of the Abingdon Union, to which reference is made in the following letter of a subsequent date, printed in the Appendix to the Second Annual Report of the Poor Law Commissioners: we deem it proper to give the document at length, because it lets us into the views of the Commissioners upon the whole subject of religious instruction.

'Letter to the right honorable Lord John Russell, on the subject of the religious instruction of the inmates of workhouses.

'Poor Law Commission Office, Somerset House, 4 Feb. 1836. 'MY LORD,

We have had under our consideration the letter referred to us by your Lordship's direction, in which the writer, Mr. Copeland, desires to be informed whether there is any obstacle in the way of a respect

VOL. IX.

3 B

able dissenting minister, who offers voluntarily to give an address to the poor inmates of the workhouse, putting his benevolent design into practice, provided it meets with the consent of the majority of the board of guardians.

In answer to this inquiry, we beg leave to point out that there is nothing in the Act which it is our duty to administer, or in the rules issued by us for the management of workhouses, which will prevent the Rev. William Wilkins, who appears to be a minister of a congregation of Independents (provided he is duly licensed), from affording religious assistance to any of the inmates of the workhouse who may require the same, and who are also of the same religious persuasion with himself; and this explanation (mutatis mutandis) applies equally to the Rev. John Kershaw, M.A., who is stated to be a Baptist minister.

'On this subject the Commissioners are desirous of drawing your Lordship's attention to the provisions of the 19th section of the Poor Law Amendment act, and also to the directions contained in the rules and regulations issued for the management of the workhouse of the Abingdon Union, in which the Commissioners have endeavoured to give effect to the above-mentioned section of the statute.

For the sake of easier reference copies and extracts of the passages alluded to are hereto annexed.

It appears to us that paupers, living within the walls of a workhouse, have a right to claim to be protected from all annoyance on account of religious belief. They are so situated as to be deprived of the means of defending themselves against intrusion, which a man living in his own cottage is fortunate enough to possess.

To place any one under circumstances in which he cannot but be present at, and in some degree take a share in, the forms of religious worship which are not consistent with his own belief, is evidently an undue breach of religious liberty.

This is peculiarly evident with respect to Roman Catholics, whose clergy maintain and enforce among their flocks, to its fullest extent, the rule, Nulla communio in sacris cum hereticis.

'That Roman Catholics should be placed in a situation in which they could not easily avoid forming part of a Protestant congregation, is evidently improper. It would, we think, in like manner, and by a strict parity of reasoning, be improper also that members of the Church of England, Unitarians, Baptists, Wesleyans, or Independents, should be either induced or constrained to join in a form of worship which is not that of their own religious community.

The Commissioners, therefore, in the detailed rules they have issued for the management of workhouses, require that, on admission into a workhouse, each pauper should be called on to declare to what denomination of Christians he or she belongs, that, on application to the master of the workhouse, he should have the means of communicating with a licensed minister of his own persuasion, either for the purpose of religious consolation or the instruction of his children. But these interviews are not permitted to take place in the presence of persons who profess a different religious creed, or use a different form of religious worship.

The enforcement of these regulations rests on the main fundamental

principle, that the master of the workhouse is not to admit

into

persons the workhouse without they have actual and necessary business there; and the minister of any religious persuasion would necessarily be excluded without his admission was in exact conformity with the foregoing regulations.

We think it our duty to add, that the law enables us to make provision for reading prayers and the performance of divine service within a workhouse according to the forms of the Church of England, as for this purpose a chaplain may be provided with a salary.

In this arrangement the same principle appears to be followed out with respect to a workhouse which prevails with reference to the established church throughout the country; but though not at liberty to provide the means of divine worship for any class of dissenters, we have anxiously established such regulations as, in all cases in which we have issued workhouse regulations, will exempt all persons dissent from the church from a compulsory compliance with its form of worship. We have &c.

(signed)

To the Right Hon. Lord John Russell,

&c. &c. &c.'

who

T. FRANKLAND LEWIS. 'JOHN G. S. LEFEVRE. 'GEORGE NICHOLLS.'

The articles in the Orders and Regulations to be observed in the workhouse of the Abingdon Union,' to which the letter refers, are as follows:

23rd article of the orders and regulations to be observed in the workhouse of the Abingdon Union :

"No person shall be allowed to visit any pauper in the workhouse, except by permission of the master, and subject to such conditions and restrictions as the board of guardians may direct, provided that the interview shall always take place in the presence of the master or matron, and in a room separate from the other inmates of the workhouse, unless in case of sickness : provided also, that any licensed minister of the religious persuasion of any inmate of such workhouse, at all times in the day, on the request of such inmate, may visit such workhouse for the purpose of affording religious assistance to such inmate, and also at all reasonable times for the purpose of instructing his child or children in the principles of their religion, such religious assistance and such instruction being strictly confined to inmates who are of the religious persuasion of such licensed minister and to the children of such inmates, and not so given as to interfere with the good order and discipline of the other inmates of the establishment.'

25th article of the orders and regulations to be observed in the workhouse of the Abingdon Union :

Divine service shall be performed every Sunday in the workhouse, at which all the paupers shall attend, except the sick and the young children, and such as are too infirm to do so, and except also those who paupers may object so to attend on account of their professing religious principles differing from those of the Church of England.' 33rd article of the orders and regulations to be observed in the workhouse of the Abingdon Union (3rd section):

3 B 2