The Sun.
London, England, 1839-05-30 00:00:00

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(From the Lti,estPr illercqry of May 25, 1839. )
The moral weight which it is in the power of the
j Dissenters to throw into the political scale, ought
to he a subject of the most serious consideration
i with that portion of the community, not only as af-
ifecting their own, bet the interests of the whole
: empire. To Dissenters mainly, if not exclusively,
is committed the sacred charge of preserving fe-let
1
: and Religious Liberty.
How have they acquitted themselves of this high
I and solemn trust ? With all the advantages on
.1
their side of a righteous cause, strength of numbers,
courage, tale..s, and influence, we find that their
i grievances—a puling phrase—call them wrongs I
L) —remain unrcdressed and unregarded. And why
is this ? The blame cannot rest on the various
t Cabinets which, one by one, undertake the ma-
nagement of our national affairs. They can have
• I no sympathy with Dissenters, and they profess none.
The Voluntary System with them must be either
odious or ridiculous. They must therefore be hos-
. tile to the complete redress of the wrongs complained
of by Dissenters.
Surely, then, the natural, the necessary, the
almost instinctive feeling of Dissenters, would be
(adopting the language of Mr. Berry, at the meet-
i ing in the Town Hall on Wednesday last), to put
no confidence in Princes, of whatever sex, or in
their minions, of whatever degree, but acting under
a sense of their supreme resposibility to conscience,
rely in all single-heartedness and simplicity on
themselves, their cause, and their God ; and so
work out and achieve their own political salvation !
But what is the fact ? Why, the broad, staring
fact of making this, the highest of all causes, a
mere paltry engine for the tniserable purposes of
a most miserable Court fantion ; and can we won-
der, then, at the slow progress of their cause in the
high places of the land, or that a King's or Queen's
Ministers—who are made and unmade by a breath
of the imperial phantom—should treat the
4/fields, who are thus content to place their
cause an abeyance, with open contempt or
clever trickery ? To speak less figuratively,
but with equal gravity, we must say, that so
long as they find the recognized bodies, acting
in the name and on the behalf of the Dissenters,
willing to throw aside the instant and serious con-
. stderation of their claims for the sake of a particte-
lar set of men, ready at the expense of all principle
I to uphold a Whig Ministry, so long shall we find
I the recipients of that support treating those claims
as visionary or imaginary wrongs.
: 'No wonder these men play us fast and loose
with a vengeance. These mighty friends, whose
I education in the clubs has taught them all the
f tricks of their trade, find they can gull the poor
Dissenters with less than the instalment, or bit-by-
I bit policy ; the system of the promissory note re-
Ihewed and protested over and over again, without
any intention of payment unless on compulsion ;
! while the Tory party either scorn the demands we
make with cool contempt, or offer a sort of corn-
] position, expecting it to be thankfully accepted,
1 " in satisfaction of a debt not justly
due and attempted to be enforced for sel-
fish ends, by means riot the most respectable.
How is it that the Dissenters have been placed in
this most disgraceful situation ? We appeal to the
country whether the fault does not lie with a clique
I iil London. On the London bodies rest the odium
I of having betrayed the cause of the Dissenters for
i the sake of bolstering up the Whigs. This is a
I question which involves the rights of the whole na-
,
tion, and the prosperity of religion itself. The
1 main principle of true Protestant Dissent, dividing
it, far as the poles asunder, from Popery and Esta-
I blishments—is the Separation of Church and State?
This we fearlessly proclaim, by this we will abide,
1 and further, we defy the London Deputies to deny
I that they have not shirked this vital principle 'l
- Look to their course of procedure—with high-
sounding names, and vast pretensions to confidence,
triy have for years played the game of a faction.
They are all of the Whigs—Whiggish—and what
has the Voluntary Principle in common with that
faded party ?—Nothing—yea, more, they are, as
well as the Tories, its avowed enemies.
Their organ, the peddling Patriot, displays its
I i
mere Whig wares with a mighty self-complacency ;
Mid there may be a few who are dupes enough to
regard its trimming and shuffling, as indubitable
signs of the prodigious prudence and profound
polity it affects.
The country Dissenters have relied too confi-
dently on London ; the Capital is not the field
jnow, whatever it may have been, for agitation. It
has no neighbourhoods. It is a vast conelomera-
ition of bricks and bodies, without any reciprocity
' of spirit or soul of communion in its huge carcase.
I An angel from heaven would not he a seven days'
wonder there. But the provincial cities and towns
are more manageable. One association can corn-
Ipass, agitate, electrify, combine the whole ;—and
therefore it is, to say nought of plain individual
i duty, that the battle tnust he fought and won in
localities—by detail—and London is a great Babel-
-1 Idee place, where the victory can be celebrated. It
) may do very well for the triumph, but it is foolish
to look to so distant a point for signs to guide us
lin the straight path of duty. Our duty is a
personal matter, and we neither can nor ought to
farm it out among the Patriot clique. It is high
time for the country Dissenters to repudiate this
centralization system, and act for themselves. To
the men of Leicester we need make no further
lappeal on this subject ; but we must conjure our
is friends and neighbours all over the kingdom, by their
icommon sense, by their devotion to the cause of
Civil and Religious Liberty, not to be any
longer entangled in the net of the London Com-
mittees,
What, we ask, has the Committee of Deputies
been doing since the passing of the Reform Bill ?
They have done nothing more than to enact the
part of slavish Whig tools, ready to agitate for the
I 'Whigs when the Tories come in ; and just as
ready to keep quiet, to keep in the Whigs—and
why ? Let the Chairman, the '[measurer, the
Secretary, and the successive Committees, com-
1i prising, we suppose, the elite of the London Dis-
-11
senters, answer. Then we have another Society,
called the Society for the Protection of Civil
and Religious Liberty. What does it do ? It
seems comprised in the sole person of the Whig
Secretary—the celebrated ex-M.P. for Boston ;
fsometimes it meets once a-year, and some-
times not. When it does, it has a Royal
or a Noble Chairman, a long Report, a " much
1 ado about nothing" sort of affair, a longer speech
from the said Whig Secretary ; but—never, newer,
never any cash account—a set of resolutions are
I moved and passed,—and so that farce ends ; but
Iwhat practical good does this Society effect ? Let
1 those who know tell : to us its doings and deservings
are as great a mystery as its receipts and expendi-
ture. Then we had (for we hear nothing of its meet-
eing in 1839) the Church-Rate Abolition Society,
it issued forth with a flourish of trumpets, and it
seems to go out in a sort of Torn Thumb apotheo-
sis. Will the illtestrious, honourable, and honorary
Secretary tell what good has been done by this
gently-merged, or. suddenly-defunct Church-Rate
Aholition,Sciciety P If any has been done, the
bcriefitstauferred -are hidden from our eyes, after
le fashion of the lather Societies' performaoces.
It has peelrelss done -good, and '' would blush
es find it fame," eithoa on the score of its
I procaredingii,S or its accounts. But this trio
of Societies, with their officials of one sort
or another, was not enough for the glutton appe-
iite ofthe London agitation monopolizers ; arid, 10.
We have a new one, using the tide of the RA- 1
eious Freedom Society, with Josiah Cornier, Esq.,
-
the pliable, but gifted Patriot at its tail, and the
erafound Charles Lushington, Esq., M.P., at its
' :lead. The London Tavern was the lively scene
on Wednesday week of its initiatory orgies. The
hantling was christened some months before ; but
its first public cry Of scream was heard at this feed;
and who were the sponsors ? Charles Buller
stood fur godfather, and Charles Luehington for
eodinothese. With whom do the members of this
''Society avow on alliance, but with downright
Church-Establishment men. Is this the way for
Discerners to progress ? Are the men who took
the prominent part at that dinner likely to ad-
vance the cause of Voluntaryism ? Not a whit of it
They advocate Establishments, they deign " liberty to
profess such as their opinion,"—and this they call
Relig •us Freedom. Is this honest ? We confess our
.(04 7,...,4.6 finding
some good men, and true, giving
Visfr eto a Society putting forth the princi-
I
Is. es. -,,4 , i OW—yet
.backine it with such friends.
~h.,..,,i,,_ concern is a rank Whig job.
fet ski4wir .:e two walk together except they les ,
i '‘'..Z' " • '.7. 7

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