[65] [See Note B.]—B. Flower.
[66] Regarding the attitude of the English government, at the time, towards emigration to America, [see Preface] to the present volume.—Ed.
[67] [See Note C.]—B. Flower.
[68] As already explained in [note 55,] ante, the writer of these Notes was Benjamin Flower, brother of the author of the Letters.—Ed.
[69] The last word of the title should be Englishwoman. The author, Miss Frances Wright, was born in Dundee, Scotland (1795) and at an early age became interested in sociological questions. She came to America in 1812 and made one of the earliest attempts to solve the slavery problem; but her practical experiment in employing negro labor on a Tennessee plantation ended in failure. Removing to New Harmony, she conducted, with the assistance of Robert Dale Owen, a socialistic journal. From 1829 to 1836 she lectured throughout the United States, being one of the earliest women lecturers on the American platform. Returning to Europe, she married M. Darusmont (1838), and did not again appear in public life.—Ed.
[70] A modern divine gives us the following curious description of the Church of England.—"The governors of this society form a kind of aristocracy respecting the community at large, but each particular governor in his proper district is a sort of monarch, exercising his function both towards the inferior ministers and laity, according to the will of the supreme head of the church."—The English Liturgy a Form of Sound Words; a Sermon delivered in the Parish Churches of St. Benet, Gracechurch Street, &c. by George Gaskin, D.D.
How any man, with the New Testament before him, could possibly call such an aristocratical and monarchical church, one "formed according to the will of the Supreme Head," when he well knew that it was diametrically opposite to the letter and spirit of the most solemn, particular, and repeated directions of the Great Head of the Church on this subject:—"Call no man your master on earth; one is your master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren, &c."—I shall not stay to inquire; but it may amuse the reader just to observe how this clerical pluralist exercises "his function towards the laity," and more especially as it relates to tythes:—that species of property which was first voluntarily given by the people for various benevolent purposes, but of which they were afterwards robbed by the clergy, who appropriated them to their own sole use. How they are sometimes raised, even in the present enlightened age, I lately discovered in a catalogue, at a sale of pawnbroker's unredeemed pledges, where, amongst other names and descriptions of property, I read as follows:
"Lots sold under a distress for tythes due to the Rev. Dr. Gaskin, Rector of the United Parishes of St. Benet, Gracechurch Street, of St. Leonard, Eastcheap, [and of St. Mary, Newington">[.
Then follow eight lots of writing paper, silver table and tea spoons, &c.
"The following sold under a distress for tythes due to the Rev. Mr. Parker, (son in law of Dr Gaskin) Rector of St. Ethelburga."