The Sun.
London, England, 1855-05-14 00:00:00

it, a claim for Church Rates on a poor cottager
has au ugly look with it not at all consonant with
the obligations•. of a National Church'; but an
attempt to enforce such a claim, when the money,
whether owing to conscientious scruples or to
poverty, is not forthcoming, is really shocking—
every religious feeling is outraged by it ; and yet
such an attempt at enforcement took place in this
instance. The churchwarden got two magistrates
to issue a warrant of distress on the recusant cot-
tager for the fifteenpence ; and—let the reader
mark it—ien shillings more for the churchwarden
as " his reasonable costs and charges." The war-
rant was executed, goods valued at thirty-five
shillings were seized and carried off and sold.
The account then ran :

Rate
Churchwarden's costs los. Od.
Constable's charges 7s. 6d.

Total lBs. 9d.
Goods sold for lBs. Od.

Deficiency Os. 9d.
Thirty-five shillings worth of goods seized and
sold for an unrighteous claim of fifteenpence—
and Mother Church gains sixpence, and the
victim is still ninepence in debt. We don't
mean to say anything against the Churchwarden.
No doubt he followed the dictates of an elevated
nature--far removed from pity, or any other
little weakness of humanity, or had never an old
coat in his wardrobe to pawn for the occasion.
But we really have . something to say to the
Bench of Bishops. We would ask their
Right Reverend Lordships if this is quite
';,he sort of thing, the toleration of which
can add dignity to the lawn and stability
to the Establishment t Passing hopelessly from
them, we would appeal on higher considerations
to good men of all creeds, and say—ls it not your
duty to put a stop to such proceedings—proceed-
ings that sap all respect for religion in the minds
of the masses, which become cognisant of them,
and convert what should be a powerful engine of
morality into a deadly and wide-spread snare ?
Thirty-five shillings worth of goods seized and
sold for a rate of fifteenpence, and the poor cot-
tager whose modest dwelling has been gutted—
still 9d. in debt. A fatality surely attends the
Establishment.

The Duke and Duchess of Northumberland have arrived
n Paris, and alighted at the HOtel, Bristol, Place Yen-
lOme.

The Marquis of Abercorn, Colonel of the Donegal Re-
giment, has resigned, and the Marquis of Conyngham,
Lieutenant-Colonel, has been appointed Colonel, the
[lon. Major Clements to be Lieutenant-Colonel, and
Captain Todd to be Major.

A deputation from Lambeth, consisting of Mr. W.
Williams, M.P., Mr. T. P. Murrougb, M.P., Messrs.
Stratton (churchwarden), Robert Taylor, Charles Evans,
Fredk. Doulton, Chas. Barker, and Amos Cane, had an
interview with Sir George Grey, on Friday, at the Home
Office.

men. The nation will not be cajoled or hum
bugged any longer. It requires the service of
men aware of what is required at their hands,
and with firmness and resolution to discharge
their duty despite of any interference. We will
not have " Muscovitism" or " Germanism"—no,
nor " Coburgism "—prevalent in the National
Councils. The nation requires truly English
Ministers, and that it will have at any price, or
under any circumstances. Although not indiffe-
rent to other matters, we feel that the paramount
consideration at present is the energetic and
manly conduct of the War, until "an honour-
able and manly peace be conquered," and to that
all other subjects must, for the time being, give
place.

Some time ago we strongly urged the import-•
ante of opening at once the Sulina mouth of the
Danube. We are glad to see that one of the morn-
ing journals has at length taken up the subject
in connection with the exclusive power at present
enjoyed by the Allies in the Black Sea. It will
not be long before harvest again waves on

the plains of the unhappy Danubian pro-
vinces—a smaller one probably than in years
of peace, for Russian barbarities and Aus-
trian brutalities, and the absorption of seed
corn, perhaps, by the two classes of invaders,
may have prevented the sowing of as much land
as usual. Still, beyond doubt, tkere will be' a
large surplus on the rich and extensive plains
lying on both sides of the Danube. Why should
not we and all Europe have the benefit of this
supply ? It may also be of great value to our
Commissariat in the East ; whether we winter
our troops in the Crimea (which we hope
smaller numbers will suffice for before autumn) in
Bessarabia, or in Turkey, the free navigation of

the Danube will be a great commissariat adYan
tage to us.

The object is fully worth all the gun-boats re-
quired. Under their protection, lighters might
load the larger vessels as they already do, and
those of lighter draft perform the whole voyage.
The batteries at the Sulina mouth are already de-
stroyed, nor is there anything that we remember
which could resist our gun-boats, either afloat or
ashore, from Galatz to the Black Sea. Steam
dredges might also, under the same protection,
commence removing the mud at once. Besides
the liberation of the Moldavian, Wallachian, and
Bulgarian harvests, the clear and undeniable
opening of the Danube would be like the absolute
control of the Black Sea, and the re-conquest
of the Provinces ; it would be a third
point wrested from Russia, which at any
other conference she could again be told was
wrested from her already, and could never be re-
stored. M. DROWYN DE L'E[l7YS' principle is of
wide application, and deeply it is to be regretted
that so able a statesman should have been the
first practically to renounce it. The Allies have
annihilated Russian ships of war in the Black Sea;
they must be forbidden to exist there again. In
like manner we must now take possession of the
mouths of the Danube, and never again ask the
leave of Russia to keep them open.

Either we underrate the patience of the coun-
try, or the Established Church overrates it. While
every governmental organisation may be said to
tremble in anticipation of an overhauling--re-
trench its arrogance, and mitigate the offensive-
ness of its pretensions--while every other religious
ministry devotes its best energies and employs its
most persuasive arts to conciliate the goodwill of
of the masses, and thereby conduce to their moral
welfare—the State Church—the Church whose
claim to be deemed the People's Church, is the
most effective in securing its toleration as an
establishment, the Church that is endowed with
wealth such as no other Church throughout the
entire world possesses in any corresponding de-
gree, must advance its most offensive claims, and
outrage humanity, and common sense, by
the persecution of indu4rious individuals,
for the recovery of amounts too small to be re-
fused save for conscience' sake! Does the Estab •
lishment think this is to be permitted to go on?
Just let our readers take the following case as
an illustration of what we mean. It is by no
means the only one, nor the worst we have heard
of during the last year ; but it is the latest that
has come before us, and on that account we have
selected it. The scene is in Cornwall ; the victim,
a cottager ; the sum sought, fifteenpence ; and
the claim for Church Rates. Now, on the face of