The Sun.
London, England, 1837-11-09 00:00:00

PRICE sd.

the honour of his acquaintance—at the great election
after the passing of the Reform Bill. He thought highly of
the honourable gentleman when he first stood forward as a

candidate for their suffrages, and now he thought yet more
highly of him. His Honourable Friend had. sprung, it
was no disgrace to him, from the Aristocracy. It was no
disgrace to -him, for he bad thrown away his aristocratic
prejudices, and freely associated himself with the friends of
the people. For his own part he (the Chairman) had no
such pretension ; he was but one Of 'themselves—one of the
people. His Honourable Friend desired the happiness of
.the people of England, and used his power to advance their
constitutional rights, and to promote the welfare of the
country. To such claims on their support and gratitude,
this division of the county of Chester could not be insen-
sible, and he hoped the day would speedily arrive when
the electors would give him a colleague worthy of himself,
and of the cause he advocated. In any such event this
district of 'the division might ever be depended upon as the
strong-hold of the reforming interest. It was with great
pleasure, therefore, that he proposed the health of his
Right Honourable—he begged pardon, but coming events
oft cast their shadows before them—his Honourable
Friend.

The toast having been received with all honour, and hav-
ing been. drunk with enthusiasm,
E. J. STANLEy,..Esq., again rose, and was greeted with
renewed cheers. "Itis no mere form of speech," said the
Hon. Member," when I assure you, gentlemen, that I feel

unable. to give expression to the feelings.exeited by your

warm reception
of my name, and the handsome manner in

which your Chairman has introduced that name to your

attention. It has been truly said, that this part of the county
is the strong-hold of political independence. I know it to
be so—l have always found it so—and when I look round
this room I have no reason to doubt its continued worthi-

ness of that enviable superiority. Gentlemen, the Tories in

a moment of intoxication declared, on a recent occasion,

that they would have a re-action at Hyde. To this end, a
short time since, they removed their Orange lodges from
Stockport, parading their banners and other paraphernalia
to this neighbourhood—and this they call re-action. Re-
action, however, they certainly have produced, and (looking

around the room and pointing to the crowded tables) here it
is.—(Applause.) The Tories have thus demonstrated their
own weakness, and added to the strength of the Reformers.
I have heard that, at their meeting, the Tories endeavoured
to raise the outcry that we were only desirous of pulling

down the Church; of establishing popery, destroying pro:

perty, and endangering the institutions of the couniry: • In-
deed they have so often repeated this absurdity, that I
conscientiously believe they have persuaded some old women
and themselves of the truth of their falsehood.—(Cheers

and laughter.) But let us, if you please, examine into the
truth of this allegation. What action of the Ministry has
ever manifested the remotest tendency to the destruction of
the Church ? The Tories say they are willing to redress all
acknowledged grievances, and to remedy all proved abuses.
But some how or other, they have never acknowledged any
grievance but the existence of the people of Ireland, nor re-
formed any abuse till they were no longer strong enough to
uphold it. What act that we have supported has not had
for its object the removal of some grievance, or the reform
of some abuse, or which can fairly be said to have been
calculated to destroy the Church? In the first place, tithes
are acknowledged by most men to be an evil, but if the To-
ries had remained in power v. e should never hue heard of
their grappling with the subject. Her Majelly's Minis-
ters, however, sought and proposed a remedy for this un-
questionable evil. Is the Tithes' Commutation Act a mea-
sure of hostility to the Church ? On the contrary, never
was a measure proposed which offered greater security to
the property of the Church. And I believe other measures
have been in preparation for an increased security of Church
property, and to prevent it from falling into the same con-
dition as that of the Irish Church. Government have also

supported measures for redressing the grievances of the
Dissenters, and one in particular—namely, the imperfect
state of the Registration, affecting not merely the Dis-
senters, but also, if not equally, Churchmen. If this mea-
sure is supposed to be one of hostility to the Church, it may
be well I remind you that it was originally proposed by
Sir Robert Peel ; for it was he who, during his three
months of office, offered the Dissenters a Registration Bill
which, as their phrase now is; -would equally have unchris-
tianized the rite of marriage, and thrown discouragement on
baptism. That it is a measure of great importance to the
public at large, Churchmen as well as Dissenters, few who
have had occasion to examine the disgraceful state of the
old registers will deny. The last measure propcised by the
Reformers was eminently calculated to accomplish its most
desirable object, if the parties opposing it had viewed its
character with candour and impartiality, for that many
were the difficulties is acknowledged on all hands.—
(Hear.) The proposed measure provided for the mainte-
nance of the fabric which, as the law at present exists, de-
pends upon the caprice or pleasure of the lay-payers to be
withheld or granted. A measure moreover, founded on
the self same principle as proposed by Lord Stanley, With
regard to Irish church-rates, was carried into effect by that
Noble Lord, and assented to and approved by Sir Robert
Peel. This could all have been effected without a loss to
the minister of a single farthing of his income. Yet this
measure has been denounced by the Tories as an act of in-
justice and hostility to the Church it was designed to serve,
and for this the Ministers and their friends have been de-
nounced as infidels. But I contend these were not acts of
hostility to the Church. No wild scheme of Church Re-
form has been proposed by Ministers—no proposition for
severing the connection between Church and State, and
creating the clergy of the land into a self-governed repub-
lic, unbound by law, and amenable only to their own canons,
and their Church's infallibility. Yet such propositions have
been made, and from no humble quarter. A voice from a
golden stall in Durham has summoned the clergy of Aller-
tonshire, and the Master Keeper, Rev. G. Townsend, and
his assembled vassals, have passed resolutions, and pre-
sented a petition to the Archbishop of York, for a redress
of grievances. In their scheme of redress they propose in
effect the abolition of the prerogative of the Crown—to de-
prive her Majesty of the right, under the advice of her Mi-
nisters, of appointing Bishops, and proposing instead their
election by the clergy. (I do not know whether they pro-
pose that the people should elect their own clergy.) They
propose that the clergy should no longer be governed by the
laws of the land, but by the canon-law ; that the Act for the
Commutation of Tithes should be repealed, or at least so
far amended as to give the clergy an interest in all future
outlay* upon land not now in a state of cultivation ; and
lastly, that by a convocation of the clergy, they should have
a Parliament of their own, a power in opposition to the
Imperial Legislature. Here, gentlemen, we have revolu-
tionary principles in their extreme developement, and I am
firmly convinced that if ever danger shall arise to the pro-
perty of the Church, it will not be from the quarter whence
the clergy affect to anticipate that evil. These arc mild
and modest propositions, which, if an unlucky wretch
tainted with Whiggism had proposed, he would have been
denounced as an enemy to his country, his God, and his re-
ligion. Look on this picture and on that, and tell me
which is the best friend of the Church. But we are going
to establish Popery. What act of the Ministers or their
supporters ever justified the slightest apprehension of such
intentions ? If such intention there be, it is in other quar-
ters and with other views. They who make these accusa-
tions do not conceal their deep regret, that state provision
was not made for the Catholic Clergy, and still cherish the
idea that corruption might then do its work, and the only
crimes of the Catholic priesthood in their eyes be oblite-
rated, viz., their attachment to the rights of their fellow-
countrymen, and love of their unhappy country. When
did Toryism show hatred to Catholicism when on the side
of Despotism ? It is the cause of religion when in the
bands of Don Carlos. It is the cause of religion in the
Spanish Inquisition. It is the cause of religion in Rome
when the banners of the Pope and of Austria are unfurled
against the struggling efforts *of Italian liberty. It is the
intelligent and growing aspiration of the age. What is it
in their eyes when its exertions are in the people's cause ?
The venerated priesthood of Ireland and Belgium are sur-
pliced ruffians and infidel republicans. They have com-
mitted the unpardonable crime of aiding the people in
the cause of liberty. Religion in their eyes is only a super-
stition which is useful in enslaving a people and subjecting
them to the yoke of power. Believe me there is more
Popery lies under the robes of these modern Lauds, and
more danger of its supremacy than from any act of any
Ministers, or even of the Catholic Members themselves.
The religion they like is that which would give the
same power over the mind that their political aspiration
would give them ever the body. The religion they know is
not that religion which endureth much, which preaches good-
will to all men, and, above all, inculcates the great doctrine
that you should do to others as you would wish they
should do to you. And yet these are they who arrogate
to themselves all claim to religion, morality, and loyalty.
These are the same who, for forty long years, held the reies
of power, without impediment to their will, or difficulty in
its execution, and yet are unable to-point to any single act,
having for its-object the amelioration of the institutions of
the country, or the recognition of our civil and religious
rights !—['l he Hon. Gentleman then adverted to the
charge preferred against the Reformers by the Tories, of