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SUBSTANCE OF A SPEECH,

&c. &c. &c.

THAT part of the speech of the Lords Commissioners which relates to the want of accommodation for Public Worship, having been read by the Chairman, viz. "The Prince Regent has commanded us to direct your particular attention to the deficiency, which has so long existed, in the number of places of Public Worship belonging to the Established Church, when compared with the increased and increasing population of the country. His Royal Highness most earnestly recommends this important subject to your early consideration; deeply impressed, as he has no doubt you are, with a just sense of the many blessings which this country, by the favor of Divine Providence, has enjoyed, and with the conviction that the religious and moral habits of the people are the most sure and firm foundation of national prosperity?"

The Chancellor of the Exchequer observed, that he believed no communication from the throne had ever been expected with greater anxiety, or received with more satisfaction by the public, than that which the Lords Commissioners had made, by command of the Prince Regent, at the opening of the present Session. For more than a century, the want of accommodation for Public Worship had been felt by the members of the Established Church as a most serious evil; and an attempt had been made so long ago by Parliament to remedy it, so far as respected the metropolis, and its immediate vicinity. This attempt, however, though attended with considerable expense, had been very imperfect in its execution, only eleven Churches having been built, out of fifty which it was proposed to erect. Since that time no further steps had been taken by public authority, though the evil had been perpetually increasing with the growing population of the country, which was now pro

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