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AYTITUDE Of THE CLERGY. 233

Pressing elaim of the poor is for food : all other wants are 1842.
Secondary to this. Tf is fn vain to try and elevate the moral Zr. 38.
ind religions character of a people whose physical condition
8 degraded by the privation of the first necessaries of life;
80d hence we are taught to pray for ‘our daily bread’
before spiritual graces. There is a legislative enactment
Which prevents the poor of this town from obtaining a
Sufficiency of wholesome food, and I am sure the law only
TeQuires to be understood by our clergy to receive their
Uhanimous condemnation. Surely a law of this kind,
Opposed alike fo the laws of nature, the obvious dispensa~
lions of divine providence, and the revealed word of God,
ust be denounced by the ministers of the Gospel. So
Convinced am T that there is no other mode of raising the
Condition of the working classes in the scale of morality or
religion, whilst they are denied by Act of Parliament a suffitency
 of food, that I have set apart as much of my income
I can spare from other claims for the purpose of effecting
the abolition of the Corn Law and Provision Law. Until this
Object be attained I shall be compelled to deny myself the
Satisfaction of contributing to other public undertakings of
Brea importance in themselves, and secondary only to the
first of all duties——the feeding of the hungry. It is for this
*ea50n that I am reluctantly obliged to decline to contribute
bo the fung for building ten pew churches. My course is, 1
Submit, in gic harmony with the example afforded us by
the divine author of Christionity, who preached upon the
Mountain ard in the desert, beneath no other roof than the
S&nopy of heaven, and who yet, we are told, was careful to
feed the multitude that flocked around him. You will, I
Sm Sure, excnse me troubling you at such length upon a
*ubject which I conscientiously believe to be the mont
Wportaut in relation to the peor of any thai can engage
Tome gttantion 9%

F Bohroayy, 164d