To J. B. Innes   1 December 1868

Dec 1. 68

Dear Innes

I write a line to ask you whether you intend to subscribe this year to the C. & C. Club, as we must immediately have our annual meeting.—1 I suppose that Mr Robinson applied to you for your subscription for the Nat. School.—2 He has suddenly left us to stay for 3 months in Ireland, & as I did not anticipate anything of the kind, I passed over the school account to him, & know nothing about the subscriptions, & have ⁠⟨⁠5 words illeg⁠⟩⁠.— The curate, whom Mr Robinson has sent here does not appear any great [acquisition]. Mr Horsman, now that he is known to have been a complete & [premeditated] swindler (for no other intepretation as it seems to me can be put on his conduct about the Organ)3 has done much injury in the Parish & some of the subscribers to the School were actually afraid to pay the subscriptions to Mr Robinson apparently merely for being a clergyman; & what they will think now that he has gone off for 3 months, I know not.— As I fully believe that you are anxious to do all the good that you can to your Parish, I am sure you will allow me to say, that unless you can very soon make some fixed arrangement, so that some respectable man may hold the living permanently, great injury will be done here, which it will take years to repair, & what you will consider of importance the Church will be lowered in the estimation of the whole neighbourhood— Already so staunch a tory & [church-goer], as old Mr Abraham Smith goes to dissenting chapel & [propounded] the doctrine so astounding as coming from him, that perhaps the disestablishment of the English Church wd be no bad thing.4

I hope that you will ⁠⟨⁠illeg⁠⟩⁠ [reflect] over the state of things in the Parish, & excuse me for frankly telling you the state of things.—

ADraft

1
CD was treasurer of the Down Coal and Clothing Club, which supplied parishioners with coal and clothes in exchange for regular savings. Innes had previously been treasurer of the club and retained a close interest in its affairs (see Correspondence vol. 4, letter to John Innes, [8 May 1848] and n. 2, and Moore 1985, pp. 468–9).
2
John Warburton Robinson had recently become curate of Down (see letter to J. B. Innes, 2 September 1868 and n. 6). CD also refers to the Down National School for boys.
3
Samuel James O’Hara Horsman, Robinson’s predecessor as curate of Down, had collected money for the purchase of a new organ for the church (see letter to J. B. Innes, 15 June [1868], and letter from J. B. Innes, 18 June [1868]).
4
CD recorded a contribution of 5s. for 1868 from Abraham Smith in his Down Coal and Clothing Club account book (Down House MS). This was half the amount Smith contributed in the previous and subsequent years. There was a Baptist chapel in Down (Post Office directory of the six home counties 1859–66).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.1 this year] interl
1.1 C.] after del ‘D.’
1.3 applied] after del ‘has’
1.3 He] after del ‘I never supposed’
1.4. to stay] interl
1.4 anticipate … kind 1.5] above del ‘think of doing such a thing’
1.5 subscriptions 1.6] del and stet
1.6 , & have … [acquisition]. 1.7] interl above del ‘I presume that it will end in my paying for the repair, for it does not seem that [anyone] [cares]’
1.8 & [premeditated]] interl
1.8 no other] after del ‘I can put’
1.8 as it] after del ‘on his’
1.9 about the Organ] interl
1.9 in the Parish 1.10] interl
1.10 actually] interl
1.11 Mr Robinson] after del ‘him’
1.11 apparently … clergyman;] interl
1.13 are anxious] above del ‘wish’
1.14 very] interl
1.14 fixed] above del ‘permanent’
1.16 here, … repair] above del ‘to the parish’
1.18 tory &] interl
1.19 as coming] after del ‘doctrine’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-6486,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-6486