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DISESTABLISHMENT OR REFORM.
BY
Sir GEORGE WILLIAM DENYS, Bart.
PUBLISHED BY THOMAS SCOTT,
NO. 11, THE TERRACE, FARQUHAR ROAD,
UPPER NORWOOD, LONDON, S.E.
Price Fourpence.
��DISESTABLISHMENT OR REFORM.
Mr Bright's Speech at Birmingham.
Problem of the World, and the Church. J. Booth, C.B.
Longmans. Crown 8w.
Rocks Ahead, or the Warnings of Cassandra. W.
R. Greg. Trubner.
The Nationalisation of the Established Church. Ed.
Maitland. Westminster Review, July 1874.
The cry for Disestablishment becomes every day
louder and more general.
11 So schreiten auch die grossen Geschicken ihre
Geister schon voran, und in dem Heute wandelt schon
das Morgen.” *
It is a significant fact that a man so capable of
reading the signs of the times as Mr Bright should
have chosen this for the topic of his much-looked-for
speech to his constituents at Birmingham on the eve
of the present session.
Can we doubt, that before very long, the Established
Church will be put on her trial, and the great
question raised of Disestablishment or Reform ?
It becomes all those therefore, who, like myself, are
desirous to preserve what is valuable in the establish
ment to prepare for the coming struggle.
* “’Tis thus the ghosts of great events stride on before, and in
to-day, to-morrow wanders. ”—Schiller’s Wallenstein.
Usually Anglicised by—“Coming events cast their shadows
before.”
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Disestablishment or Reform.
Lamentable, indeed, would it be if the Established
Church, with its vast organisation and means of use
fulness, if only a proper direction were given to its
powers, should end in merely adding one more to the
sects already too numerous, and its great wealth be thus
frittered away. Surely the Church is fated for some
thing better than this. It is true that things cannot
remain much longer as they are. The world, the
intelligent part of it at least, is fast coming to the con
clusion that the Church cannot go on much longer on
its present dogmatic footing. The truths of science
are gradually making their way, and the revelation
conveyed in the divine order of the universe as inter
preted by the men of science, is superseding that con
veyed in the teaching of the men of old claiming to
be supernaturally inspired. “ Disguise the matter as
we will,” says Mr Booth, “ it cannot be concealed that
the Church, in any of‘its orthodox phases, is no longer
in harmony with the age. Its teachings are altogether
at variance with the teachings of science.” *
Mr Bright, in the speech above referred to, said,
11 that the Church of England was out of harmony
with the times we live in.” He did not say that all
or any of the other existing churches were more in
harmony with the thoughts and wants of the age than
is the Church of England. He was studiously reticent
on this point.
He did not, as too many of his hearers were pre
pared to expect, “ cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of
war,” nor hint at a general division of the property of
the Church; far from it, he said the country was not
yet ripe to deal with the question.
Surely the Liberationists were a little premature in
stating that Mr Bright had given the “ coup de grace ”
to the Establishment.
On the other hand, his opponents could see nothing
in the speech but signs of approaching mental decay in
* “ Problem of the World and the Church,” pp. 35, 36.
�Disestablishment or Reform.
7
the speaker. To me, his mental vision is as clear and
his intellect as bright as ever. His voice has the old
ring, and when he does give the word, “ to your tents,
0 Israel,” to their tents Israel will go. The line of
march will, however, not be exactly to the point aimed
at by the Liberationists ; minds, of the calibre of Mr
Bright’s, are rarely behind the thoughts of their age, the
influence of the “ Zeit Geist ” is too strong for them.
The Bishop of Lichfield thought that Mr Bright’s
speech hit but one real blot, and that was the intestine
divisions of the clergy. The excellent bishop kindly
hinting at several other blots himself; but I need
hardly say that he is mistaken if he thinks that the
reform of the abuses he points at will satisfy the wants
of the age. The paring off a few superfluities, the
healing of clerical squabbles, the better distribution of
the Church funds, will as little satisfy the wants of
the New Reformation as did the calling together of
the States-General the wants of the French Revolu
tion.
If Disestablishment is to be avoided, it will not be
by the reforms the Bishop of Lichfield suggests. The
“ existing basis ” will not be the starting point. I
cannot doubt that there is, among what is called the
“ Broad Church,” a large number of persons conform
ing to the Established Church, not because they
entirely approve of its doctrines, but because it is
the Established Church, and, like myself, feeling the
want of worshipping somewhere, prefer to worship in
the “ old places ”—who would be glad to join a third
party in the Church, when it is found, that it is not
Disestablishment that is aimed at, but only to reform
the Church so as to accommodate it to the intelligence
of the present times.
Now that the cry for “ Disestablishment ” is heard
on all sides, it appears to me of great moment at once
to take up our ground, and let it appear that
“ Disestablishment ” is not the only alternative, but
�8
Disestablishment or Reform.
that there is a third party, quite alive to the defects of
the Church, and anxious to reform them ; but desirous
at the same time to preserve what is valuable in it, and
to whose standard reasonable people might resort.
That many of the clergy would gladly help to widen
and reform the “present dogmatic basis,” and many
more gratefully accept the change when it comes, I feel
sure. We must not conclude because they remain in
the Church that they therefore approve of all its
doctrines. Many of them committed themselves to
their present position before they had any such
opportunity of inquiry as would enable them to judge
how much they were taking upon themselves. Many
of them, as Mr Booth says, “would probably feel
strongly that the old dogmatic system of the Church
is no longer suited to the religious wants of the age,
and desire nothing more than to let it fall quietly into
disuse if only their over-zealous brethren in the Church
would allow it do so.” * They share possibly the con
fident belief of that large-minded man, the late Dean
Milman, avowed in his “ History of Latin Chris
tianity” that the words of Christ, and His words
alone—the primal and indefeasible truths of Chris
tianity—shall not pass away.” And what they have
at heart is to hasten the blessed consummation when
the simple creed of its great founder, The Love of God
and the Love of Man, shall generally prevail.
When we find the Dean of Westminster prepared
openly to give up the scriptural account of the creation,
involving as it does the Fall of Man, which is the
corner stone of the dogmatic system of the Church,
can we doubt that a great change is at hand in the
opinions of the more intelligent members of the
Church ?
On the occasion of the sermon preached by the
Dean on the admission of Sir Charles Lyell into
Westminster Abbey,! it was hardly possible for a
* “Problem,” &c., p. 39.
See Times, March 1st.
�Disestablishment or Reform.
9
preacher so straightforward and courageous to avoid
grappling with the question of disagreement between
the truths, of which the illustrious deceased was the
chief instrument in clearly setting forth and establish
ing, and the account given in the Bible of the Creation
and Fall of Mau. After giving an outline of the
doctrine established by Sir Charles Lyell, the Dean
says, “ there need be no question whether this doctrine
agrees or not with the letter of the Bible j we do not
expect it should.” .... “It is now known that the
vast epochs demanded by scientific observation are
incompatible with the 6000 years of Mosaic chrono
logy, and the six days of Mosaic creation.......... Surely,
he says, the view of the gradual preparation of the
earth for mankind is grander than that which makes
him coeval with the beasts which perish, and we ought
to honour the archaeologist who, by unhasting, unrest
ing research, revealed, in all its length and breadth,
the genealogy and antiquity of man and of his habita
tion............. To invest the pursuit of truth with the
sanctity of a religious duty is the true reconciliation of
religion and science.” (Vide Sermon as printed in
Times.)
Surely, when such opinions are openly avowed by
one of the most respected dignitaries of our church,
the time is come for a revision, not of the text of the
scriptures, but of the substance of the Church’s doctrine
in the interests of truth.
It will, no doubt, be startling to many of the
members of the Broad Church party who believe
themselves prepared to accept, without qualification,
the truths of science, and to give up whatever in the
historical records of our religion is at variance with
those truths, when they are asked to give up the
“ supernatural ” in religion. It is very difficult to
shake off the dogmatic trammels of a faith in which,
from our childhood, we have been educated, however
satisfied we may be that they are devoid of truth.
�io
Disestablishment or Reform.
As the Templar says to Saladin, in Lessing’s great play
of “ Nathan der Weise,” Act iv., Scene 4 :
“Der Aberglaube in dem wir aufgewachsen verliert,
auch wenn wir ihn verkennen, darum doch nicht seine
Macht aber uns. Es sind nicht alle frei die ihre
Ketten spotten.” *
We have been so accustomed to accept as an article
of faith, from our youth upwards, that what is called
revealed religion is the only true religion, that we find
it difficult to believe that we can part with what is
supposed to be supernaturally revealed without giving
up religion altogether. To use the words of the late
illustrious deceased, quoted by the Dean in his sermon,
“ we have, in our bones, the chill of the contracted
view of the past, in which, till now, we have been
brought up.”
We must not, however, suppose (says Mr Booth)
that, if it should appear “ that the received scheme of
revealed religion is not founded in truth, religion is
therefore banished from the world. The spiritual and
permanent element of religion, apart from dogma—
that which may be called the religion of nature—a
feeling of reverence for something greater and better
than ourselves, strengthening and sanctioning our
feeling of duty, and capable, if well directed, of
influencing our conduct for good more powerfully than
any other agency, or, if perverted, of producing just
the contrary effect—this will still remain, and being
no longer incumbered with a creed which has ceased
to be vital, will, for the great end of religion—the
elevation and improvement of our nature and faculties—
exert a higher and purer influence, in harmony, from
time to time, with the intelligence and spirit of the
age.” (Problem, p. 14.)
* “ The superstition in which we have been reared, even though
we may have ceased to believe in it, does not thereby cease to
have its power over us. Those are not all free who mock their
chains.”
�Disestablishment or Reform.
11
These are brave words, but not more so than those
spoken by David Page in his introduction to “ Man,
Where, Whence, and Whither,” p. 24, he says—“ Be
liefs we may and must have ; but a belief to be changed
with new and advancing knowledge impedes no pro
gress, while a creed subscribed to as ultimate truth,
and sworn to be defended, not only puts a bar to further
research, but as a consequence throws the odium of
distrust on all that may seem to oppose it. Even
where such odium cannot deter, it annoys and irritates;
hence the frequent unwillingness of men of science to
come prominently forward with the avowal of their
beliefs. It is time this delicacy were thrown aside, and
theologians plainly told that the scepticism and in
fidelity—if scepticism and infidelity there be—lies all
on their own side. There is no scepticism so offensive
as that which doubts the facts of honest and careful
observation ; no infidelity so gross as that which dis
believes the deductions of competent and unbiassed
judgments. There can be no reverence more sacred
than that which springs from a knowledge of God’s
workings in nature ; no religion more sincere than that
which flows from the enlightened understanding of the
methods and laws of the Creator. The more intimate
our acquaintance with the works of God, the stronger
our convictions of his power, wisdom, and goodness.
The holiest beliefs are those founded on informed
reason, all besides are little better than superstition
and mechanical formality. It is of no use then when
new questions like the present are mooted for certain
minds to work themselves into a frenzy of ‘ Orthodoxy ’
—to savagely smear themselves with war paint and
raise the old war-whoop of ‘the Bible in danger.’ These
questions, whatever they may be, will be agitated and
discussed, and men’s convictions will ultimately take
their hue from that which most commends itself to
their understanding.”
It is now eight years since Mr Page’s work appeared,
�12
Disestablishment or Reform.
and many men of science have in the mean time bravely
responded to his challenge regardless of the 11 odium
theologicum.”* Mr Booth is one of them, and the
proposition which he undertakes to establish in the
“Problem of the World and the Church” is that our
main business is with the world in which we find our
selves. That we are to devote the whole of our moral
and intellectual powers to promoting the happiness and
well-being of ourselves and our fellow-creatures here.
That we have been placed in this world with every
thing to find out for ourselves, and that the history of
the world from the beginning has been one of develop
ment and progress, from barbarism to civilization, and
that this progress has been made by acting on the
scientific principle of accepting nothing on authority—
of questioning everything, and accepting it as true only
on verification. If a future life be in store for us (and
the author states the argument for this) there is, he
contends, no sufficient grounds to suppose that what is
calculated to promote our highest good in this life
would be an unfitting preparation for the life to come.
On the contrary, the most reasonable view of a future
existence is one in which there would be a continuation
and further development of all that is noblest, purest,
and most conducive to real happiness in this life.
The Church’s dogma of a Fall and Redemption,
according to which countless millions of human beings
have been brought into the world with no other pro
spect than that of endless unspeakable suffering, he
maintains cannot be reconciled with the Church’s
belief in an all powerful and benevolent creator.
Our author would desire to see the Church established
as a great organization for the spiritual elevation of the
nation. Recognising it as a branch of the public
service admirably adapted for promoting religion and
morality, and with boundless wealth at its command,
he laments, that it should not have taken its true
* “ Problem of the World and the Church.”
�Disestablishment or Reform.
13
position of leader of the intelligence and piety of the
nation, giving to the religious spirit a direction in
harmony with the progress of knowledge, and at the
same time acting as a mighty agency for promoting the
education of the people. Unless it is prepared to
establish itself upon some such footing as this, he
sees no chance of the Church’s escaping disestablish
ment, forming unhappily one sect more, and suffering
its vast means of usefulness to be frittered away.
Although giving up the supernatural in religion as
at variance with the intelligence of the present times,
the author is not insensible to the inestimable value of
the religious sentiment implanted within us. To cul
tivate and strengthen this sentiment he regards as one
great purpose of a Church. Jesus Christ, he looks
upon as the highest type of goodness and moral
excellence the world has ever seen. His spiritual
pre-eminence he deems to be beyond question, though
his practical teaching was not unaffected by the im
perfect knowledge of his age.
So with regard to the Bible, he fully acknowledges
the deep religious feeling which breathes through the
sacred volume, which gave the Hebrew prophets such
an ascendancy over the hearts of their people, which
still holds, and will go on to hold its sway over our
hearts. But he sees nothing of a supernatural character
in the inspiration of their writings, nothing that should
induce us to accept the historical facts there recorded
as infallibly true. The marks of human error with
which they abound, make it, he says, as certain as any
thing can be in this world, that the book in, which
they are contained did not proceed from the immediate
inspiration of an Ommiscient Being.
The work is full of a hopeful spirit for the future,
and breathes a religious spirit throughout. The
author must have thought long and deeply over it,
“The World and the Church” will do well to take
heed to its contents.
�14
Disestablishment or Reform.
The title of Mr Maitland’s article in the Westminister
Review, at once proclaims its practical objects, “The
*
Nationalization of the English Church.” He treats the
question, neither as a churchman nor as a Nonconformist,
but simply as a member of the State. It is as a
citizen, he says, that I see with regret an ancient and
noble department of the State, endowed with vast
wealth of resource, high prestige, magnificent organiza
tion, with every appliance for promoting in the highest
degree the welfare of the whole nation, restricting its
benefits to a moiety of the nation. That the Noncon
formist should regard the Church as a grievance is, he
says, natural and inevitable. They are unanimous in
charging all the blame of the existing evils upon the
connection of the Church with the State, and loudly
call for its liberation from State control. Within
the Church there are two parties, one party desiring to
be separated from the State solely in order, apparently,
to be free to return to the doctrine and practice of
Rome, . . . the other party desiring to retain the
State connection, but at the same time to obtain
various degrees of relaxation in the conditions of
membership, f
“ For the simple unattached citizen who views things
from a stand point at once practical and ideal . . .
neither of these parties has lighted upon either the
true grievance or the true remedy.” He maintains
that the true ground of objection to the Established
Church is to the limitations placed by her upon
opinion and expression, and that to the citizen, the
desired, end is only to be attained by applying afresh
the principles of the Reformation, and completing that
great movement by emancipating the CLurch from all
its trammels. These trammels are not what the Non
conformist imagines, nor is the end that which the
High Churchman desires. Those who come nearest to
* “ Westminster Review,” July 1874.
4 Do., p. 201.
�Disestablishment or Reform.
i5
the author’s view, are the “ Broad Church ” party,
whose views he formulates.
“While freedom is what, in the view of all the
parties concerned, the Church requires ; the freedom
which alone the citizen can reasonably grant is not of
the kind imagined by the other” (p. 202).
“ It does not seem to have occurred to the Noncon
formists, he says, while calling for the liberation of
religion from State control, that it is not the religion,
but the ecclesiastical organisation of the establishment
which is really controlled by the State. The State has
no interest whatever in narrowing the intellectual
boundaries of the Church . . . The limitations under
which the Church suffers are really self-imposed; and
though they have the sanction of the State, and are
enforced by the law, in common with the conditions of
other corporate bodies . . . they were specified and
insisted on by those whom we may consider as the
officials of the department. The State, to which the
reformation was orginally due, would doubtless have
acquiesced in complete freedom, but for the action of
those churchmen whose influence was paramount, and
who used it to arrest and subvert the movement ”
(p. 202).
“By demanding the separation of the Church from the
State, while failingto object to the imposition of dogmatic
limitations, the Noncomformists have betrayed their ig
norance of the real significance of the reformation, as well
as the point where the pressure really falls. Had they
raised their voices in behalf of freedom of opinion andexpression, and shewn by example their faith in the
power of truth to win its way in a fair field, they
might then indeed claim to be true children of the re
formation, and worthy to aid in completing it by
striving for the emancipation of the Church from its
fetters. Not having this insight, they have subjected
their own religion to precisely the same bondage ”
(p. 203).
�16
Disestablishment or Reform.
“ Having, however, by the part they have taken in
promoting the School Board system, consented to, or
rather insisted on, State interference on behalf of the
education of the young, they have cut from under
themselves the ground of their objection to the prin
ciple of a State Church..................... For, rightly con
sidered, what the school is to the youth, that the
Church is, or ought to be, to maturity—the continual
developer of the mind and spirit in a continually
ascending progression as co-architects of the fabric of
man” (p. 204).
“ Our recent school legislation, in which University
reform is included, is based on two broad principles.
One, that the State, as a State, should provide facili
ties for the development of the faculties, moral, intel
lectual, and spiritual, of its members. The other, that
it should not control the direction or limit the extent
of that development.”
“ Now as it is impossible to draw a line between the
rudimentary education of the youth and the higher
education of the adult, it is impossible consistently to
call upon the State to provide the school, and at the
same time forbid it to establish the Church. For what
but a part of the higher or highest education of man
is the teaching that an enlightened Church ought to
afford” (p. 204).
“To be consistent, therefore, the Nonconformists
should seek to aid in the liberation of religion from its
dogmatic limitations; but instead of this the ‘ Society
for the Liberation of Religion’ proposes to appropriate
the property of the Establishment to the endowment
in perpetuity of the very system of dogma to which
alone religion is really in bondage, ignoring the selfevident proposition that religion cannot be free when
opinion is biassed and fettered.......................... Instead
of calling upon the State ‘ to exercise once more the
power it wielded at the Reformation and itself to set
“religion” free,’ abolishing the articles, tests, creeds,
�Disestablishment or Reform.
17
and whatever else tends to fetter religion in the Estab
lishment, they ask the State to do that which must
inevitably tend to fasten the ‘ fetters upon religion
ten-fold more firmly than before’ (p. 210). For the
experience of all dogmatic religious organizations
proves how delusive would be any expectation that
the Church when liberated from State control would
reform itself.”
« For the citizen, therefore,” our author continues,
11 there is but one way of adapting the Church estab
lishment to the national needs, and that is by freeing,
not its organisation from State control but its formulas
and teaching from all limitation by article, test, and
creed, and whatever serves to make it an exclusive and
sectarian body, so that the whole spiritual and intellec
tual life of the country may have room to develop
freely within its pale without rebuke or dictation from
any quarter whatever................................From the pul
pits of such a Church no genuine student or thinker
will be excluded, but will find welcome everywhere
from congregations composed, not of the weaker
brethren and women only but of men, men with
brains and culture.................................... Thus reformed,
amended, and enlarged, the Established Churches of
Great Britain will be no exclusive corporations watched
with jealous eyes of less favoured sects. Nonconfor
mity will disappear, for there will be nothing to con
form to ; fanaticism, for there will be no dogma;
intolerance and bigotry, for there will be no infalli
bility.......................... Lit by the clear light of the cul
tivated intellect, and watered by the pure river of the
developed moral sense, the State will be free to grow
into a veritable city of God, where there shall be no
more curse of poverty or crime, no night of intolerant
stupidity, but all shall know that which is good for all
from the least to the greatest” (p. 213).
“ In the meantime,” says Mr Maitland, in conclu
sion (p. 213), “why should not a society be formed
�18
Disestablishment or Reform.
having for its object and designation, the Nationalisa
tion of the English Church ?” It may be, as has been
asserted, that such a reconstruction would have the
effect of turning the Church out of the Establishment,
but I rather incline to Mr Maitland’s opinion, that it
would give admission to that half of the Church which
is now out of it. “ The religion of a nation,” says Mr
W. E. Greg, in “Rocks Ahead” (p. 117), “ought to
be the embodiment of its highest intelligence in the
most solemn moments of that intelligence. It should
be, if not the outcome, at least in harmony with the
outcome of the deepest thoughts, the richest experi
ence, the widest culture, the finest intuitions of the
best and wisest minds that nation counts among its
children.”
“Now I allege,” he says further on, “that in
England the highest intelligence of the nation is not
only not in harmony with the nation’s creed but is
directly at issue with it.”
It would be easy to multiply indefinitely such state
ments. The truth of Mr Bright’s dictum seems to
stand confessed all round. How are we to escape the
dilemma t
I see no escape from the present perplexities of the
Church except by a thorough revision and reform of
her formularies. How is this reform to be brought
about 1 It cannot and never will be done from within
the Establishment, the pressure must come from with
out, from the national will, loudly and clearly ex
pressed, which must be left to the wisdom of Parlia
ment to carry out. It was by the will of the nation,
carried into effect by Parliament, that the Church of
England was by law established ; it is neither more
nor’less than an Act of Parliament Church, and what
Parliament has made Parliament can unmake, with the
same national sanction. It must, however, be con
fessed that the nation is not ripe for carrying out a
reform such as we suggest, any more than it is for
�disestablishment or Reform.
19
carrying out the views of the Liberationists. There
are tw parties in our Church, neither of them having
the courage to act consistently up to its principles.
There is a Piotestant party afraid to adopt unflinch
ingly the true Protestant principle of the right of pri
vate judgment and an unswerving loyalty to reason;
and there is a Romanising party encouraged in its
practices by the Romish complexion of the formularies
but not having the courage to avow that it is Roman
Catholic, the mixed character of our formularies being
admirably adapted to perpetuate the confusion. We
are essentially a Protestant nation, and the time is now
come for completing the Reformation begun three cen
turies ago, but for the completion of which the world
was not then ripe. In the interval the world has made
wonderful advances in knowledge ; and if religion is to
retain its benign influence over our hearts it is neces
sary that the services of our Church should be brought
iato harmony with the wider and more enlightened
views of the creation and the Divine government that
characterise the present age.
The Legislature, by passing the Public Worship Act,
has shown itself not indisposed to repress the extrava
gance of the Ritualistic priests, however inadequate
may be the means to which it has had recourse. The
aetton required would be mainly of the negative kind,
the elimination from the formulas of the Church of
whatever is inconsistent with the acknowledged scien^5° ^ru^ls ^ie Preserd day, and is calculated to give
offence to those who are at once sincerely and reason
ably religious. The religious spirit is by no means
wanting, if only, without offence to the judgment, it
could be aided by the warmth and elevation which are
ever the accompaniments, and indeed I may almost
®ay? the main end of social worship. The reorganisa
tion of the Church’s temporalities can be effected by
Parliament with or without the consent of the clergy ;
but with religion itself, the State does not and never
�20
Disestablishment or Reform.
ought to have pretended to have anything whatever to
do. It does not pretend to dictate what the religion of
the nation ought to be ; its business is solely in this
respect to give effect to the will of the nation when
once clearly expressed. With respect to doctrine and
ritual, it is as futile to expect from an exclusively
privileged ecclesiastical body a reform such as we
have described, as it would be to expect it from the
Council of the Vatican, and seeing that the nation is
not yet ready for the change we advocate, we must have
the patience to wait for it. The way to hasten so de
sirable an event is certainly not to give up the vast
wealth of the Church to be scrambled for by the
sects, which would practically result in the concur
rent endowment of all, the effect of which would be
not more freedom of opinion but more slavishness,
for the clerical element in all the sects would be
supreme, and with it farewell to liberty. Romanists,
Ritualists, Evangelicals, or Dissenters, they are all alike
in this respect.
Our only hope is in the Broad
Church party. I say, then, let the State keep what
the State has got; by keeping the strings of the
purse it will best protect our religious liberties. The
Church property, however great, will always be needed,
and if rightly applied will be capable of conferring
inestimable benefits not upon one sect only but upon
the whole nation. We shall not have to wait long.
In these days ideas, as well as things, move on at
a wondrous pace. The process of bringing the minds
of the people into comformity with the most en
lightened intelligence of the age is going on with rail
way speed, and will be carried on by hosts of writers
equal in earnestness, zeal, and ability to those quoted
in this article, and those whose leases of life last to the
end of the century will, I fully believe, have lived to
see the “Nationalisation of the English Church,” and
the “Reformation” thus completed.
�
Dublin Core
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Title
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Victorian Blogging
Description
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
Creator
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
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2018
Publisher
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Original Format
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Pamphlet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Disestablishment or reform
Creator
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Denys, George William [Sir, Bart.]
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: London
Collation: 20 p. ; 18 cm.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references. Reviews of Mr [John] Bright's speech at Birmingham; Problem of the world and the church (J. Booth); Rocks ahead, or the warnings of Cassandra (W. R. Greg); The nationalisation of the established church (Maitland). From the library of Dr Moncure Conway.
Publisher
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Thomas Scott
Date
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[1875]
Identifier
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CT101
Subject
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Disestablishment
Rights
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (Disestablishment or reform), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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application/pdf
Type
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Text
Language
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English
Conway Tracts
Disestablishment of Churches