The Sun.
London, England, 1839-10-22 00:00:00

saying that the penny rate is sufficient ; more
would be a tax--less could not well be collected ;
though we have no objection to a halfpenny uniform
rate if that will suit the Tories. Indeed we know
no other objection to the penny rate than that it
will in fact, if the number of letters materially
increase, be a greater sum than is really necessary
to carry en the service of the post-office, and will
arnount,prc (auto, to a tax on communication,which
we abhor.

We have dealt only with the principle of the
plan, and with the principle laid down in the
Review. A great many of the writer's remarks ap-
ply to matters of detail, into which we shall not
follow him, because we doubt if any of them would
exist when the new plan, with all the improve-
ments of which it is susceptible, conies into. opera-
tion. False, however, as is the principle adopted
by the Reviewer, so false are his details ; and the
falsity of both is quite worthy of the hypocritical
pretence that the Tory, who advocates the starva-
tion law, is anxious that justice should be done.

Sir R. PEEL, in his letter which we published
• yesterday, is extremely anxious to deny, and denies
most positively, that he has given any assurance to
any Protestant Irish gentlemen, or any other per-
sons, that there was no design on his part
of pushing the exterminating principle in
Ireland so far as actually to excite rebel-
lion. His partizans, however, have pushed
it fully that length, and insist on its being driven
completely home. Now, as he does not say one
word against them, as he denies having repu-
diated their doctrines, and does not repudiated the
doctrines themselves, he must be held to approve
of them, as we said on Friday, in reference to the
contradiction previously given by the Times to the
article in the Observer. The Right Hon. Baro-
net is prepared, according to his own statement,
to push the exterminating doctrines preached by
his supporters to the utmost extremity. He goes
the whole hog with the the politico-religious fana-
tics. The Times was authorised to contradict the
Observer, and must be considered as the crgan of
the Right Hon. Baronet, as it is of the politico-
religious and whole-hog gentry. That Journal
threatens the " Papists and Whigs " with a day of
rcekonin2, and calls them " criminals." To
exterminate criminals is held by many lawgivers to
be a duty, and on this principle we understand why
the Times, the Protestant fanatics, and Sir ROBERT
PEEL, are ready and willing to push the exter-
minating principle, so as to provoke rebellion, and
have a pretext for wholesale slaughter. It would
have been more humane, though less factious, in
Sir ROBERT PEEL to have adopted the version of
the Observer rather than that of the Times, and con-
fessed himself a poor politician intriguang for place,
rather than seeking power on the principle of
shedding his country's , blood. We believe all
wickedness of the Tories as politicians ; for those
who doom a portion of the people to starvation
cannot commit a greater crime.

We beg to call attention to a letter inviting the
public to form an Anti-Interference Society. The
intention seems to be to endeavour, by the ordi-
nary and usual practice of co-operation, to attain
an end which the several individuals and classes
who are now annoyed by sabbatical and other
puritans, cannot reach by themselves. To us it
appears that if such a Society were properly or-
ganized, it might be of great public service, and
we recommend the letter to the perusal, and the
plan to the support, of the public.

In looking over the Report of the proceedings
of the Church-rate meetings at Leicester, which
we noticed yesterday, we observe that in one of the
parishes, the most strenuous advocate of the motion
made for levying a contribution on the Dissenters for
the support of a system of religion against which they
feel themselves bound in conscience to protest, was
a Dissenter. The reasons assigned by this sapient
personage, why the " nefarious exaction"—to use
the expressive phrase of the Times—should be
saddled upon him and his brethren, if not very
profound, are at least curious, and therefore we
allude to them, as they may afford our Dissenting
readers a little amusement.

First, then, argues Mr. RozzELL, the churches,
though in the possession of the Episcopalians,
who happen at present to be the majority,
may at some future time be handed over to the
Presbyterians, Independents, or Baptists, supposing
any of these sects, or each of them in turn, should
gain a numerical superiority over that which now
domineers over all. it is therefore a point of in-
terest, and of sound worldly discretion, in the Dis-
senters to pay Church-rates that they may keep up
their title to the reversion of the Cathedrals and
other ecclesiastical buildings when these shall be
evacuated by the present tenants.
Whenever this happy era arrives, we may
confidently assure this far-reaching gentleman,
the Dissenters will not require any such argu-
ment as this to justify their occupation of the
churches. It will be a sufficient answer to any one
who shall then object to their entrance into posses-
sion on the ground of non-payment of Church-
rates, to say that. the least that those could do who
have had the use of the national fabrics rent free,
was to keep them in repair. The fabrics themselves,
as well as the ground on which they stand, belong
to the nation, and may be converted to any purpose
that it may determine.

Mr. ROZZELL'S second argument in favour of
Church-rates is the benefit which the Dissenters
derive from the ringing of the church bells. When
a Non-conformist in Leicester is called to his long
home, the passing bell, it seems, tolls for him as
well as for the Churchman. Be it so. Does
the bell toll for nothing ? Let the undertaker's
bill be examined, and it will answer the
question. But were the sound of the passing bell
never heard, we should not think the Dissenters
would much regret the silence of its consecrated
tongue. The ringing of the bell, when a death
takes place, is nothing else than a remnant of super-
stition—a rag of the garment of the old lady of
Babylon—and one of its objects was to give notice
to the faithful that a soul had passed into eternity,
in order that they might afford it the benefit of
their prayers. It also served to frighten away evil
spirits. For this latter reason, bells were baptized
in Catholic times, and are consecrated in our more
enlightened Protestant days.