Civil department of the navy-royal dock-yards Increase of peace-establishments Expenditure of the Colonies-utility of Expenses of a coronation-absurdity of the pageant Taxes on newspapers, and their influence on the press · Monopoly of the press, and mode of influencing it Dangerous irresponsible power of "The Times". Advantages from cheap political pamphlets Knowledge the great instrument of social improvement .... CHAPTER XII. .... Exclusive privileges of the Bank .. Directors have not acted on sound principles of banking CHAPTER XIV. Salaries and number of persons employed in the public offices.... 393 One million per annum might be saved by reduction in salaries List of forty-two placemen whose incomes exceeded £339,809.... 411 General statement of annual expenditure of the country in salaries, 7. Application of money paid from the hereditary revenues .... 8. Number of public annuitants, and amount of their dividends.. 545 9. Assessment and expenditure on account of the New Police.. 546 10. Return of number of Metropolitan Police and divisions 11. Returns of the half-pay and retired allowances of the army New prospects of reform-Question discussed, by whom ought the elective franchise to be exercised, and in what manner, whe- THE Extraordinary Black Book; OR, PUBLIC ABUSES UNVEILED. THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. RELIGION and the pursuits of science and commerce have greatly benefited the human race. Christianity is peculiarly the worship of the people among them it originated, and to the promotion of their welfare its precepts are especially directed. Under the influence of its dogmas the pride of man is rebuked, the prejudices of birth annihilated, and the equal claim to honour and enjoyment of the whole family of mankind impartially admitted. Men of liberal principles have sometimes shown themselves hostile to the Gospel; forgetting, apparently, that it has been the handmaid of civilization, and that for a long time it mitigated, and, finally, greatly aided in breaking the yoke of feudality. They are shocked at the corruptions of the popular faith, and hastily confound its genuine principles with the intolerance of Bigotry, the oppression of tithes, the ostentation of prelacy, and the delicts of its inferior agents, who pervert a humble and consoling dispensation into an engine of mere gain and worldliness. In spite, however, of these adulterations, the most careless observer cannot deny the generally beneficial influence of the Christian doctrine, in promoting decorum, and a spirit of peace, charity, and universal benevolence. As education becomes more diffused, the ancillary power of the best of creeds will become less essential to the well-being of society. Religions have mostly had their origin in our depravity and ignorance; they have been the devices of man's primitive legislators, who sought, by the creations of the imagination, to control the violence of his passions, and satisfy an urgent curiosity concerning the phenomena by which he is B |