"
These curates were full of strong, High-Church feeling. Belligerent by
nature, it was well for their professional character that they had, as
clergymen, sufficient scope for the exercise of their warlike
propensities. Mr. Bronte, with all his warm regard for Church and State,
had a great respect for mental freedom; and, though he was the last man
in the world to conceal his opinions, he lived in perfect amity with all
the respectable part of those who differed from him. Not so the curates.
Dissent was schism, and schism was condemned in the Bible. In default of
turbaned Saracens, they entered on a crusade against Methodists in
broadcloth; and the consequence was that the Methodists and Baptists
refused to pay the church-rates. Miss Bronte thus describes the state of
things at this time:--
"Little Haworth has been all in a bustle about church-rates, since you
were here. We had a stirring meeting in the schoolroom. Papa took
the chair, and Mr. C. and Mr. W. acted as his supporters, one on each
side. There was violent opposition, which set Mr. C.'s Irish blood in
a ferment, and if papa had not kept him quiet, partly by persuasion
and partly by compulsion, he would have given the Dissenters their
kale through the reek--a Scotch proverb, which I will explain to you
another time.
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