Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 6.djvu/114

104 opinions about ecclesiastical establishments; the only wonder is that these opinions were so moderate as the following passages show them to have been:

Priestley goes on to suggest four such reforms of a capital nature:

The second reform suggested is the equalization, in proportion to work done, of the stipends of the clergy; the third, the exclusion of the bishops from Parliament; and the fourth, complete toleration, so that every man may enjoy the rights of a citizen, and be qualified to serve his country, whether he belong to the Established Church or not.

Opinions such as those I have quoted, respecting the duties and the responsibilities of governors, are the commonplaces of modern Liberalism; and Priestley's views on ecclesiastical establishments would, I fear, meet with but a cool reception, as altogether too conservative, from a large proportion of the lineal descendants of the people who taught their children to cry "Damn Priestley," and, with that love for the practical application of science which is the source of the greatness of Birmingham, tried to set fire to the doctor's house with sparks from his own electrical machine, thereby giving the man, they called an incendiary and raiser of sedition against Church and king, an appropriately experimental illustration of the nature of arson and riot.

If I have succeeded in putting before you the main features of Priestley's work, its value will become apparent when we compare the condition of the English nation, as we knew it, with its present state.

The fact, that France has been for eighty-five years trying, without