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    Sib , August 16 , 1821 . WHEN I first glanced upon the communication of your respectable correspondent Mr . Cornish , in the last Repository , ( p . 390 , ) and saw that it was introduced with the venerable name of Mr . Howe , I was led , by an immediate association , to expect

    some very useful and benevolent proposals . In this expectation , however , I was greatly disappointed , and I suspect the same disappointment was experienced by most of your readers .

    That the condition of Dissenting Ministers in general , is unfavourable to matrimonial engagements , etfen to the degree represented by your correspondent , is a truth which , unfortunately , I cannot question ; but in what manner the remarks of Mr . Cornish

    are calculated to ameliorate that condition , it is impossible to perceive . Are our congregations and wealthy individuals at present so very liberal to their ministers , that they need to be publicly furnished with authorities und arguments for checking the overflowings of their benevolence ? Mr . Cornish recommends that ministers

    should exercise that restraint which the present state of society requires . If any man has , or flatters himself that he has exercised such restraint , from prudent and virtuous motives , it is not for me to question the merit of his conduct . But is it even just that ministers should be constrained

    to make such a sacrifice of comfort and happiness , and be precluded by poverty from forming a connexion which religion sanctions , and which is , perhaps , highly favourable to virtue ?

    This , I think , will hardly be maintained for a moment . If . it be unjust , then , would not the pages of the Repository be better occupied with plans and recommendations , in the spirit of " our dear and lamented brother

    Howe , " assisting the needy families of those ministers who may chance to be unfortunate , than with hints and anecdotes which , with whatever good intentions they may have been written , can have no other tendency than to enervate the efforts of charity ?

    Mr . Cornish relates , with apparent approbation , the conduct of an acquaintance , who , when applied to for the elief of a minister ' s widow and eight children , refused , —because young A was about to-marry Miss B ,

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    and such imprudencie * should be di $ ~ couraged . Now , Sir , after considering and re-considering this conduct with the help of all the candour which I could summon to my breast , I

    cannot possibly discover in what manner it redounds to the honour of Mr . Cornish ' s acquaintance . Supposing that young A was about to form a connexion imprudently , were the widow

    and eight poor orphans of a departed and eight poor orphans of a departed minister to suffer on that account ? I never , for my life , could avoid a slight degree of suspicion , when persons in affluence turn a deaf ear to the

    immediate calls of charity , from such very comprehensive views . If the principle of this conduct can be justified , I do not see why the subscribers to the " Fund for the Relief of the

    Widows and Orphans of Dissenting Ministers , " should not immediately withdraw their subscriptions . By shewing , as the friends of that most excellent institution now do , that they

    are generously inclined to assist the families of faithful ministers , when they are gone to receive their reward in a better life , there is certainly a possibility that they may encourage some to commit the sin of marriage .

    Dissenting Ministers , as all other men , are to be censured for imprudencies , but if they are bound to lead a solitary life until they are certain that their income will enable them to leave their families in a state of

    independence , they must usually wait , a long time indeed . If , in addition , to the narrow circumstances of a Dissenting Minister , his home , to which from his retired and studious habits he must be almost constantly confined , is always to be a home of mere brick and

    mortar , where he may vainly g * aze around him , till his eye and heart ache , for objects of domestic affection ; then it is clear to me , Sir , that any man of refined and social feelings , who chooses this profession , makesa sacrifice very little short of martyrdom . The

    character of Mr . Cornish is a satisfactory pledge that j his intentions were good , but the tendency of his paper has appeared to me to justify these remarks . If you can give them insertion in your next , you will oblige a constant reader and A MINISTER .

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    648 Marriages of Dissenting Ministers .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1821, page 648, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2506/page/16/