Church Reform

"I have long and deliberately thought, that the state of the Country, the state of the Church, and the state of the Public Mind in relation to the Church, calls upon me to offer myself for an interview with your Lordship, as my Diocesan, that your Lordship may hear from me what I have to advance against the present state and condition of the Church, and what I have to propose as an immediately necessary and proper Reform.

"I offer to wait on your Lordship, with your Lordship's consent; and promise, that my conversation shall be altogether courteous and reasonable.

"I am one of your Lordship's scattered sheep, wishing for the fold of a good shepherd,--(which is Christ Jesus),--

"RICHARD CARLILE."

"P. S.--I may add, my Lord Bishop, that I am altogether a Christian; save the mark at which superstition has been planted upon Christianity."

*****

"Fulham, November 20,1833.

"Sir,

"I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, in which you propose an interview with me, for the purpose of making known to me your opinions respecting the present state of the Church.

"I beg to say, that I shall be ready to receive, and to give all due consideration to any communication which you may think proper to make me in writing; as being, on many accounts, a more convenient method than that of personal conference.

"I remain, Sir,

"Your obedient Servant,

"C. J. LONDON."

*****

"To the Right Reverend Father in God, the Lord Bishop of London.

"62, Fleet Street, November 24,1833.

"My Lord Bishop,

"In answer to my proposal to meet your Lordship in conversation, on the state of the Country, the state of the Church, and the state of the Public Mind with relation to the Church, your Lordship has encouraged me to write what I have to say, and has promised to receive it and to give it due consideration. I write as early as my circumstances have afforded me the necessary leisure and composure of mind.

"The first point to which I beg leave to call your Lordship's attention is--that there is a very numerous degree of dissent from the Established Church among the people of this country.

"The second point is, that this spirit of dissent has led to a very extended opposition to the support of the Church in its fiscal claims.

"The third point is, that there is a preparation of a public mind going forward for the putting of the present Established Church on the same footing as the present Establishments of the Dissenters--the footing of voluntary rather than legal support; and that the preparation of this state of mind is accelerated by the embarrassed state of the country.

"The evidence of these three points in prospect is, that the present state of the Church will be entirely overthrown in the course of two or three Sessions of Parliament.

"On the principle of dissent from the Established Church, I have to observe, that it is desirable there should be no dissent; but then the Church should be invulnerable. There can be no popular dissent from any Institution that can be defended as good and best; and though I am instructed to allow that the general body of dissenters from the Church have dissented on very frivolous, even on indefensible grounds, (inasmuch as the Dissenters have not corrected in themselves the errors of the Church), there still remains the proof that where the Church has been assailed or dissented from, it has not been in a condition to defend and justify itself.