The Sun.
London, England, 1839-10-26 00:00:00

right to the education of the people at large, includ
SIR LIONEL SMITH, AND THE
ing that portion of the people, millions nunber,
BAPTIST MINISTERS.
who do not belong to the Church ?" My answer
was as follows :—" The Church has no right to
claim the enforcement of any system of education on
the people, or any part of the people, least of all
on that part which does not belong to the Ch.irch.
But, my Lords, the Church has a right to de-
mand of the State—and if the State, as well as
the Church, is prepared to do its duty, that de-
mand will be answered—the Church, I say, has
a right to demand of the State the means of offer-
ing education to all, whether they are members
of the Church, or not. God forbid that the
Church should have either the power, or the
will, to compel any person, or class of persons, to
accept its system of education ! But we have a
right, my Lords, to demand that the State, acknow-
ledging the Church to be the true Church, ac-
knowledging it to profess and teach the true reli-
gion, and thereby implying the duty of the Church
to inculcate—aye, and not only to inculcate, but
to spread that blessed truth which it professes ;
we have a right to demand that the State
shall supply the necessary means to enable the
Church to discharge its high functions. I ask,
then, the Noble Marquis to call on that Govern-
ment, in which he bears so high a place, to pro-
pose to Parliament such a grant as will enable the
Church to educate all within its pale, who need
public aid ; and to offer to educate all without its
pale who will accept the offer, in that holy religion
which the Noble Marquis and his colleagues, and
which the State itself, acknowledge to be true ;
and if true, of course to be alone true. Will the
Noble Marquis do this his duty ?"
I am not aware that I could have used words
more directly contrary to the sentiment ascribed to
me in the Committee's pamphlet, even if I had an-
ticipated, and laboured to prevent, the possibility of
such a mis-statement.

" ADDRESS
,‘ To his Excellency Sir Lionel Smith, Baronet,
Knight Commander of the most Honourable Mili-
tary Order of the Bath, Knight Grand Cross of the
Royal Hanoverian Order, a Lieutenant-General
of her Majesty's Land Forces, and Colonel of
the Fortieth Regiment of Foot, Captain-Gene-
ral, Governor-in-Chief, and Commander of the
Forces in and over the Island of Jamaica and
the Territories thereon depending in America,
Chancellor and Vice-Admiral of the same.
" May it please your Excellency, We, the mi-
nisters of the " Baptist Western Union" on our
own part, and on behalf of the churches and con-
gregations over which we preside, beg leave to ap-
proach your Excellency, to express the unfeigned
and deep regret we feel at your retirement from the
government of this island, an event which we can-
not but deplore, as inimical to the prosperity of the
colony, and as jeopardizing the welfare of those
around whom you have thrown the shield of your
protection.
" W e beg leave to assure your Excellency, that
in offering to you our heartfelt thanks for the many
benefits resulting from your administration, we are
impelled solely by the honest conviction, that you
are justly entitled, not only to the gratitude, but to
the fervent prayers of those whom you have defended
whenever unjustly accused.
" Now that your Excellency is about to leave
us, we can, without exposing ourselves to the im-
putation of flattery, with a view of obtaining your
favour, fearlessly, and unequivocally express our
admiration of the wisdom and equity which have
characterized your administration. The admirable
tact displayed by your Excellency in effecting the
termination of the apprenticeship system, in your
treatment of the contumacious members of the
House of Assembly, and in preserving the peace
of the colony, during a period of unusual excite-
ment, without the aid of a police force, must excite
in the mind of every loyal subject feelings of ad-
miration and gratitude, and will lead us ever to as-
sociate the name of Sir Lionel Smith with the li-
berty and happiness of our people.
" It is not for the purpose of securing any poli-
tical ascendancy that we have employed our influ-
ence for the extension of the civil and religious
rights of our emancipated fellow-subjects, but from
a firm conviction that to act otherwise would be to
sacrifice the noble principles of Christianity to po-
litical expediency, and thus ingloriously to purchase
the commendations of a faction inimical to the
welfare of man.
" 'We feel confident, notwithstanding the senseless
clamour by which we have been assailed, that, in
our efforts for the public weal, your Excellency has
recognised an earnest desire to employ our influence
to maintain the dignity of the British Crown, and
uphold the majesty of the law.
" At any period we should have deplored the loss
which the colony in general, and ourselves in par-
ticular, would sustain by the removal of your Ex-
cellency ; but we peculiarly feel it at this juncture,
when we are convinced we are entirely defenceless,
without the least protection from the law, that por-
tion of the community from whom our juries are
selected being, for the most part, our relentless
enemies ; many of whom have violated the solemn
sanction of an oath to gratify their feelings of hos-
tility towards us.
" We most earnestly implore your Excellency to
use the influence you possess, on your arrival in
England, to secure for us that protection to which
we are entitled, and to obtain the repeal of those
cruel and oppressive laws which still disgrace the
statute-books of Jamaica.

At pp. 10, 11, of the enclosed, your Lordship
will find the interlocutory remarks between the
Lord President and myself, which are more imme-
diately referred to in the pamplet ; and on reading
them you will observe that they relate not to the
point stated in the pamphlet, but to one of a very
different kind, viz,—whether the State may assist
in teaching religious doctrines which it believes to
be false. _

Vv
Your Lordship will also perceive that I did not
assent to the Lord President's principle ; but the
Lord President assented to mine, and joined me in
disclaiming the pernicious principle that the State
may lawfully assist in teaching such doctrines. It
is true that he qualified this declaimer by limiting
its operation to England ; but this very limitation
marks the more strongly the principle of which we
were speaking, and which, as your Lordship per-
ceives, is very different from that which is put into
our mouths by the Committee's pamphlet.
I regret the absence of the Lord President ; for
he, I am confident, if he were in England, would
confirm the accuracy of my statement ; but I ven-
ture to refer your Lordship to any Noble Lord who
attended to the debate.
Should your Lordship do me the honour of
reading the whole of the reported speech, which I
now enclose, you will not find a single sentence
which affords any shadow of justification of the
passage of which I complain—but very much
which,' if I mistake not, your Lordship will think
directly contrary to it.
I have the honour to be, my Lord,
Your Lordship's most obedient servant,
H. EXETER.
The Right Hon. the Lord John Russell, &c.

Buckhurst, Oct. 15, 1839.

My Lord—l have had the honour of receiving
your Lordship's letter of the 10th inst. It certainly
appears to me that the writer of the pamphlet has
mistaken your Lordship's meaning. He was pro-
bably misled by some incorrect report in the news-
papers of what took place in the House of Lords.
I will take care to suspend for the present any dis-
tribution of the pamphlet by the Committee of
Privy Council.
I am much obliged to your Lordship for the
copy of your Lordship's speech, delivered in the
House of Lords on the sth of July of the present
year—a speech marked by the ability which
distinguishes all that proceeds from your Lord-
.ehlp. That I ca.nnnot but observe that there are
some misconceptions of the design of the members
of the Committee quite as extraordinary as that
which your Lordship has pointed out in the
pamphlet. But I will not occupy your Lordship's
time upon this subject, engaged as you now are in
the labours of your diocese. I will therefore con-
tent myself with saying that it has been the main
object of the Committee to extend and encourage
the religious instruction of the people, but that
while they have endeavoured to insist on the in-
struction of the children of Churchmen in the doc-
trines of the Church of England, they have not con-
ceived themselves justified in withholding all public
aid for the instruction of those children of the poor
whose parents conscientiously object to allow their
children to be taught the Church Catechism, or to
be compelled, as the price of their instruction, to
attend Divine service in any other than their own
places of worship.
I have the honour, &c.

" Your Excellency may regard our past, as a
specimen of our future conduct, and vre beg to as-
sure you that, by a continued obedience to the laws,
combined with a determination to use every consti-

tutional means to obtain equal and impartial justice,
we will endeavour to carry out those firm princi-
ples of liberty which your Excellency has so nobly
maintained during your eventful and glorious ad-
ministration.

" We naturally feel that, in your Excellency, we
lose a friend, who has defended us, not on account
of any obtrusiveness on our part, or from any desire
to obtain your applause. Your Excellency has, we
think, been convinced that we were using our efforts
for the temporal and eternal welfare of oqr fellow-
men, and that we ought not to be sacrificed to a
faction, either on account of our peculiar views of
divine truth, or our advocacy of the cause of the
oppressed. We have, therefore, to tender our
thanks that your Excellency has had magnanimity
to share the reproach, and to defend the reputation
of men, whose only crime is, that they have been
determined to protect their fellow-men in the enjoy-
ment of that liberty which has been purchased for
them by the inhabitants of Great Britain.
" In conclusion, we assure your Excellency that,
in leaving our shores, you will carry with you the
fervent prayers of ourselves and people, for your
present and eternal happiness, that you may be
conducted to the bosom of your family, and be long
spared to promote the happiness of mankind in
whatever part of the world the Providence of God
may call you.
" We have the honour to remain,
" Your Excellency's most obedient humble servants,
(Signed)
" THOS. BURCHELL. " JOHN CLARK.
KNIBB. DAVID DAY.

J. RUSSELL,
The Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of Exeter.

Exeter, 16th October, 1839.

THOS. F. ABBOTT.
WALTER DUNDY.
BENJ. B. DEXTER.
JOHN HUTCHINS.

E. J. FRANCIES.
GEORGE WEBI3.
THOS. E. WARD,

My Lord—l request your Lordship to accept
my thanks for the letter of the 15th, which I have
this day had the honour of receiving. The conclu-
sion of that letter gives me peculiar gratification, as
it shows that no practical difficulties need any
longer exist in combining due regard for the duties
of the State to the Church, with full security to the
rights of conscience in those who dissent from her
doctrines, and do not join in her worship. For
myself, I have no hesitation in avowing, that,
in my judgment, it would be wrong to " with-
hold all public aid for the instruction of those
children of the poor, whose parents consci-
entiously object to allow their children to be taught
the Church Catechism, or to be compelled, as the
price of their instruction, to attend Divine' service
in other than their own places of worship." I
should rejoice to see instituted a conference be-
tween the " Committee of the Privy Council on
Education" and the Bishops, for the purpose of
devising measures to carry into effect your Lord-
ship's very just and moderate principle, and at the
same time to give to the Church that public recog-
nition of her being the fit guardian and adminis-
tratrix of National Education, with which your
Loidship's principle can so well be reconciled.
The charge which I have delivered to my clergy,
and NS hich has been announced for publication, has
noticed the pamphlet sent forth by the Committee,
entitled, " Recent Measures for the Promotion of
Public Education in England," and has dealt with
its contents as authorised by the Committee. Not
only the passages read by me to my clergy, but
also a longer one prepared by me, in which I com-
ment on that pamphlet, will make part of the
charge when published. In truth, your Lordship
will perceive that the mere suspension of the cir-
culation of a document which has already been
dispersed so widely and so authoritatively, will not
remove the necessity of such comments, as I other-
wise have thought it my duty to make.
It will give me, however, great pleasure to pub-
lish the correspondence which I have had the
honour to hold with your Lordship, in my Ap-
pendix. It will, lam confident, be read (espe-
ciallv
that part of your Lordship's letter of the
15th, to which I have already referred) with the
highest satisfaction by others, whose suffrages are
more valuable than mine.
I have the honour to be, my Lord,
Your Lordship's most obedient servant,
H. EXETER.
The Right Hon. the Lord John Russell, &c. &c.

" Jamaica, King's House, August 28, 1839.

" Reverend Gentlemen,—l receive this address
with mixed sensations of pleasure and pain ; first,
I am gratified by the acknowledgment which it con-
veys, that under my administration you have been
protected in your duties towards the followers of
your faith, though I have all along regretted that
even my best means of encouragement amounted to
little more than the just defence of your truly
righteous labours.
On the other hand, I feel pain you should be
under apprehensions that in consequence of my re-
moval from this Government your efforts in support
of the civil and religious rights of your community
can never want the countenance of those in autho-
rity, or indeed of any class of society where you
are known, whose minds have not been tainted with
the love of slavery.
" On my assuming the government of this co-
lony, I strongly expressed my reliance on the whole
body of missionaries—in their high integrity of
purpose, and in their loyal principles. You more
than realised all the benefits I expected; from
your ministry, by raising the negroes from the
mental degradations of slavery to the cheering ob-
ligations of Christianity : and they were thus
taught that patient endurance of evil, which has
so materially contributed to the general tranquillity.
Even with the aid of a vicious and well paid press,
both in England and Jamaica, and, it may be pre-
sumed, some habitual confidence in Jamaica Juries,
the enemies of your religion have never dared to
go to the proof of their audacious accusations
against you.
" Gentlemen, the first year of general freedom
has passed away. What were the forebodings of
its enemies ? Where are the vagrants—where the
squatters—N./here the injuries against properties, or
the persons of white men ? Out of the 300,000
oppressed slaves, let loose in one day, to equal
rights and liberty, not a human being of that mass
has committed himself in any of those dreaded
offences. _