The Sun.
London, England, 1839-05-31 00:00:00

daunts us not. The time is gone by for such in
terested and selfish persons to have a commanding
influence over public opinion. If the Church and
its allies could have stopped the tide which has
happily set against them, they would have been
successful when they were stronger, and the stream
run slow and weak, in 1828,and the repeal of the
Test Act with all the subsequent consequences
could never have been granted. Everybody is
aware that the Priesthood are using the name of
religion to preserve a vast system of Clerical extor-
tion and abuse, and no person of the. t discern-
ment gives them credit for sincerity. Their
present display is only a dying struggle. The
Church has no foundation in the natural
order of society or in the permanent in-
terests of mankind. It may flourish as long
as the ignorance it panders to remains ; but as
knowledge advances, which happily the Priesthood
cannot prevent while the Press exists, and men are
not, as a punishment for worshipping them, de-
prived of their senses, the dominant Priesthood
must, in spite of such things as Bishops and Earls,
pass, like their still more arrogant, though not
more mischievous predecessors, into nothingness.
The monster is, in fact, fatally wounded, and the
convulsions with which it now shakes society are its
death throes.
WC are the more convinced of this from the fact,
that this assembly was wholly composed of Tories
and Priests, of those who insist on subduing man-
kind to their will by the sword, and of those who
impiously call on mankind to submit to the
tyranny of their Tory allies as an ordinance
of GOD. The politicians of the Tory school
teach " a right divine to govern wrong,"
which they uphold by force, and their priestly
allies inculcate submission to it as a duty. Poverty
and misery are to be borne with contentment, ac-
cording to them, while they are always to be main-
tained in splendid opulence and luxurious leisure
by the labour of others, as suitable and appropriate
to the station in life " in which it has pleased GOD
to call " the industrious classes. For their spout-
ing at Willis's Rooms to have any beneficial effect
for themselves, it should have been echoed and
cheered, not by their brothers and sisters in wrong-
doing, but by those who suffer wrong. The recipients
of their pretended bounties should have been
brought forward to justify their assertions. The
men and women whose youth they have conducted to
virtuous and contented maturity, during the twenty-
eight years the National Society has flourished—some
of the vast congregations taught by the receivers of
six millions a-year, for the purpose of teaching the
people their moral duties, should have been sum-
moned to testify to the benefits conferred on them
by our opulent Priesthood and their Tory allies.
The whole assembly were interested witnesses,
flattering each other into false confidence by falla-
cious testimony.
They could not even appeal to any public facts
as proofs of their usefulness. Respect for moral
duties, together with a knowledge of the social
relations of man to man—not as they might have
existed, amongst the shepherds of Palestine, but
as they exist i❑ modern society, growing out of
the great, the natural, and ever-extending sys-
tem of division of labour—are rather to be taught
by the Priesthood, than enforced by the Govern-
ment ; and in what condition are the flocks,
the congregations, the pupils of the Priest-
hood now ? The National Society boasts of teach-
ing in schools connected with it, or under its au-
spices, in 1837, 1,003,087 scholars. Now, that
number is the full half of all the children in England
and Wales requiring education between the ages of
five and twelve. For twenty-eight years the Society
has been in operation, and allowing for the pro-
gress of its efforts, nearly one-half of the existing
generation must have been drilled by its care. The
present and all preceding generations ought to
have been fashioned by the Clergy, bad they pro-
perly used the ample means in their hands.
What, then, is the condition of the people now,
what their knowledge of social relations, what their
mutual respect for mutual rights, which the Priest
hood are bound to teach ?
To answer the last question first, the Constabu-
lary Commissioners inform us that 100,000 corn_
mitments to gaol take place in a year, and that ex-
presses a small part only of the crimes committed,
many of which are discovered and not prosecuted,
and many more of which are undiscovered. To an-
swer the second, let the Bishops consult Lord JOHN
RUSSELL and the Chartists ; who, according to
the Noble Lord, being utterly ignorant of the
natural laws which regulate rent, wages, profits,
Ministers' salaries and Bishops' incomes, are
engaged in an impossible scheme to procure more
wages for less work, by a change of the persons
who make the laws. To answer the third, we
shall quote a high Tory authority, deeply in love
with the Church and the Constitution, whose lucu

brations filled three columns nearly of the Times
I yesterday. Mr. OASTLER thus describes the
present condition of the pupils of the Church ;
and with a quotation from his letter, as a testi-
mony to the value of the moral teaching of the
Priesthood, we shall at present leave the subject,
remarking merely that till the Church can subvert
the testimony of facts, it will be unable by any
assemblies, however numerous, by any speeches,
however rabid, by any contrivance, however cun-
ning, to avert the fate, which is plainly written,
and to which all things mistreated and monstrous
like it, are destined
The whole social system is on the brink of ruin, and
Ireland is worse than in a 'state of rebellion. I would
seriously ask you—is this the time to widen the
breach between yourselves and the hardy sons of toil ?
I tell you the truth when I assert that labour and industry
are doomed, in your presence, to poverty and want, to
hunger and nakedness ; such a state of things is unjust; it
is incompatible with the principles of our glorious con-
stitution ; it is in direct contradiction to our holy religion ;
nay, it is utterly inimical with your own interest and safety.
The question is already decided—the working men have
resolved no longer to be robbed and cheated out of' their
fiod and raiment and homes; they are an industrious, mo-
ral, and loyal race ; they arc cool, deliberating, and thinking
men. They are horrified with the sight of leanness, of hunger,
and despair, which their wives and children almost uni-

versally apresent to them ; the craving calls of their little
ones for " bread, bread," have pierced their very souls !
They remember that they are men I that they are Britons I
Your agricultural labourers arc wearied of dragging their
aching limbs and hearts to a home of despair. The artisans
can bear no longer to sit in silence at home, waiting for the
return of their wives and children from their labour. They
know that this is a state as hateful to God as degrading to
man, and at all hazards they have sworn " it shall not long
continue." If they have a national fault, it is that they
arc too patient. They are not, however, any longer to be
trifled with • they know that their demand is just, and
they know also how to obtain it.

These charges may appear extravagant; you may think
my language violent; the working men know, however,
that every word is true, and they have resolved not much
longer to groan under the tyranny of their cowardly tor-
mentors.

" But," say you, "we have just cause to be alarmed
when we know that the working people are arming." In-
deed ! Why ? flow ? You are then conscious that you
have wronged them ? You know that you have deceived
them ? You are aware that you have robbed them ? Ah:l
then, well may you fear their anger. But no, they are not

revengeful. Cease any longer to oppreis them, and your
fears will vanish with their cause. For a moment look at

the amount of your own rents, livings, produce, and pro-
fits; then at the wages (?) of the manufacturing artisans
and of the agricultural labourers, and answer does justice
hold the beam ? I need say no more. There is not a man
amongst you who does not know that the working classes
are robed, regularly robbed, on an average of nearly one-
half of their just and equitable due. This wrong must be
redressed, or your fears will increase.
These are the emphatic words in which Mr.
OASTLEIt tells the Clergy and Nobility that the
people are prepared to make a Moscow of all our
cities :

Remember, before it be too late, that the close of the
long war, the finish at Moscow, proved that a determined
people could not be overcome, and that there is sometimes
a crisis, even in war, when military shill and military
prowess must yield to the last effort of despair. You
may, if you are so determined, force the labourers and ar-
tisans of England to war for their cottages, as the Mus-
covites warred for their capital. You cannot subdue the
people. Jus:ice will pacify them. It is yours to grant,
they arc I,vaiting to receive; but if they are now denied