The Sun.
London, England, 1839-05-13 00:00:00

A very numerous and highly respectable meeting of
the friends of religious liberty was held on Saturday at
the London Tavern, Bishopegate-street. For nearly an
hour before the business of the day commenced the great
room was crowned in every part ; many people went away
and those who remained, dissatisfied at being so closely
crowded, called for an adjournment to a larger place. Dr.
Brown came forward upon the cries of adjourn, adjourn,
being reiterated, and said they could not adjourn to any
larger place. They had not been able to get the use of
Exeter-hall. " That," it seemed, " was only for attack-
ing Roman Catholics,and not for defending Protestants."
Among those present on the platform were the Rev.
Dr. Beaman, Rev. Dr. Patton, Rev. Dr. Wardlaw,
Rev. Thomas Binney, Rev. Alexander Fletcher, Dr.
Baldwin Brown. At the lower end of the room a tern
porary gallery was erected, principally for the accom-
modation of ladies.
The Duke of SUSSEX, who had consented to take the
chair, entered the room shortly before twelve, and was
received with several rounds of the most enthusiastic
cheers. His Royal Highness, as soon as the cheering
had subsided, said, it always afforded him the greatest
pleasure when he met his fellow-citizens and countrymen
on any subject materially interesting the benefit of
society and the liberties of the country.—(Loud cheers.)
He never came into this room without having brought
to his mind many recollections, and agreeable recollec-
tions too, of the great events produced by the meetings
held in this room.—(Renewed cheers.) He need not
say how deeply interesting was the cause which had
brought them. together on the present occasion. He
thought his presence was a proof of the interest which
he took in it, and however much he might give credit
to the professions and good wishes of individuals, yet he
(the Duke of Sussex) put greater value upon works
than upon promises.---(Loud cheers.) They had for a
number of years met to watch over the liberty
of conscience, and with it the liberties of the country.
For it was impossible the one could be separated
from the other, and as far as that might be considered
as " Church and State," so far he (the Duke of Sussex)
was with it.—(Loud cheering accompanied with laugh-
ter.) No one was more anxious to support those prin-
ciples, and he would venture to say no man had been
more consistent to this principle than he had been.—
(Great cheering.) He saw a great many young faces
among them, but he also saw some old faces, which he
recollected twenty years ago, when the principles which
they were now rather carrying into effect than fighting
for were not so fashionable as they were now.—(Cheers
and laughter.) The cause they were engaged in was
a righteous cause, and it only required that coolness,
firmness, and discretion should be exercised to carry
it through. In the nature of things, there was
nothing perfect in this world.—(Hear.) It was only
by experience, and by seeing how the machine worked,
that they could find out its good qualities or its defects,
and these were only discovered by keeping the mind
clear.—(Cheers.) If this were a question of pounds,
shillings, and pence lie (the Duke of Sussex) would
have left it to his fellow citizens at the east end of
the town, as understanding it much better than him-
self. But this being a question on which depended
the peace, happiness, and security of this world, he
took it up with as great interest as any of them.—
(Loud cheers.) After some further remarks on the
importance and necessity of liberty of conscience, ho
sat down amid loud cheering, calling upon Mr. Wilks,
the Hon. Secretary to the Society, to real the Report.
Mr. WILES then proceeded to read the Report, which
complained of the persecution and bigotry of the High
Church party, and stated that in no one year during the
last thirty had there been so many applications for ad-
vice and assistance on the matters of Church-rates, Sun-
day tolls, poor rates improperly levied, refusals to bury
the children of Dissenters, refusals to marry Baptists,
persecutions in ecclesiastical courts, and many other
matters.
At the conc'usion of the Report.
The Rev. JOHN BURNETT came forward to propose
the firet resolution, to the effect, " That at this time,
when it was very likely that Parliament might be dis-
solved, and when her Majesty had been called on to
form a new Government, it was a peculiarly proper time
for this annual meeting to express their unabated. at-
tachment to those great principles of religious freedom
which this Society was established to promulgate,
and had for thirty years laboured to maintain ; that
they consider the rights of conscience to be above hu-
man controul, and that all proffers of toleration, whether
by monarchs or legislators, are objectionable
.and arro-
gant ; and that they firmly believe that religion best
prospers while sustained by the spontaneous affections
and voluntary contributions of the people, and when un-
allied to the State."
The Rev. Gentleman said the last time he had the
honour of seeing his Royal Highness's face, they were
engaged in lending their aid to the total abolition of
black slavery ; now they were engaged in the same holy
cause on behalf of the whites.—(Cheers.) They

bad succeeded, by the blessing of God, in their endea-
vours in the former cause ; by the same blessing he
trusted that they would also succeed in the object of
the Society, which was to declare that #no one sect or
class should monopolise the sweet blefsings of religious
liberty.—(Cheers.) It might be objected that he came
forward as a Christian Minister to meddle in matters
political, but it was because he was a Christian that he
was there.—(Cheers.) Nay, he would go further, and
say that a good Christian Minister was labouring in his
lawful vocation when he employed those talents which
it had pleased Providence to endow him with towards
the removal of those trammels and barriers which po-
litics alone had thrown around them.—(Cheers.) The
resolution he had read to them alluded to the state of
affairs at that moment ; it was a moment of difficulty
and the result no one could yet tell ; Parliament might
be dissolved ; well, then it behoved them to put upon
record their sentiments with respect to the grand cause
in which they were engaged. These dissolutions of
Parliament were a disease which characterised the age,
but still they were as necessary as the thunder and te
lightning which were sent for the beneficial purpose
of clearing the air of its impurities. That disease ex-
isted—the crisis had come, and therefore it was their
duty to improve it by a strong expression of loyal attach-
' ment to the Throne.—(Cheers.) Religious freedom
was not a boon which it was in the power of man to give
—it was the gift of God.—(Cheers.) God alone had
given them minds to discern the nature of the gift, and
he for one would not accept of toleration.—(Cheers.)
Power was in the hands of the State, and they might
give him a confessor's prison or a martyr's grave ; but
even if they did the former they could not take from a
his religious liberty, and if they gave him the latter it
would accompany him still, and would expand into im-
mortality.—(Cheers.) If he was prohibited from wor-
shipping his God in the:manner and form which his con_
science dictated, then let him seek out some solitary
isle—some Juan Fernandez, and let him along with the
feathered songsters there praise his Maker according to
the dictates of that mind which God had given him.—
(Loud cheers.) He loved his country—he loved its
Constitution—and he loved its Sovereign—(Cheers)—
but he loved above them all religious liberty.—(Loud
cheers.) An alliance was said to be necessary between
Church and State for the safety and protection of both ;
but it was a well-known fact, that religion existed, and
in a pure state, long before the State invited the alliance,
and it was quite philosophical to suppose that what had
existed before might again.—(Loud cheers.) Let
them take a look at the connection be-
tween Church and State in France. In
that country the State pays all religions, in France the
State pays for the maintenance of the Synagogue, but
all appointments in the Church must be sanctioned by
the Crown—it supports the Roman Catholic worship—
it paid towards the maintenance of the ceremonies of the
followers of Luther, who protested against the doctrines
1 of the Roman Catholics, but it equally supported the
followers of Calvin in their ceremonies, and who pro-
tested against the doctrines of both parties—(Cheers
and laughter)—and it supported the ceremonies of the
Jews, who said that all were wrong together, and so it
would always be when the State interfered with the re•
ligion of a country.—(Cheers.)
Mr. TOOKE said he had been suddenly called upon to
second the resolution, which was a duty that was very
pleasing to him and one which he could not refuse to
perform. He was very happy to congratulate the meeting
on the transactions of yesterday, as they had every reason
to expect that her Majesty's late Ministers had been re-
instated in power. If such should be the case he would
be very happy of the position in which they had been
placed, for it would show them the necessity of leaning
for support upon their friends, and show them the folly
of attempting to propitiate those who had always been
the decided enemies of religious liberty.—(lmmense
cheering.) His Rev. Friend had said everything neces
sary respecting the resolution, he would therefore con•
tent himself with simply seconding it.
The resolution was then put and carried unani-
mously.
Dr. BALDWIN BROWNE then rose to move the se-
cond resolution.
" 2. That this Meeting regard with retrospective plea-
sure the great and righteous improvements that have been
achieved since the establishment of this Society, in favour
of religious liberty and constitutional Reform, and notice
with special delight that the Test and Corporation Acts
have been repealed ; Sunday turnpike tolls on Dissenters
discontinued ; Poor and Church rates on places of wor-
ship abolished; marriages by Dissenters rendered valid ;
civil registries of births, marriages, and deaths usefully
established; and the principles of religious equality in
many practical matters introduced and confirmed ; and are
encouraged by such successful results to manifest the zeal
and perseverance that are yet indispensably required."
He had risen to address the meeting under very dif-
ferent feelings to what he had expected yesterday. He
had been afraid that it would have been his duty to ad-
vise them to take certain measures against a Tory Mi-
nistry, but there was then no doubt but that in a few
days the Whigs would be restored to the Council table
of her Majesty. He was proud of that, because in
looking over a list of all that bad been obtained since
the formation of the Society, everything had been done
by the Whigs and nothing by the Tories. A.llthey had
obtained had been given them by the Whigs—from the
repeal of the 'Pest and Corporation Acts down to the
registration of births and deaths. The Tories who had
so nearly again got into power were their bitter foes, and
would give them nothing, but would grasp at more power
to put them down. They were anxious now to have
the education of the whole youth of the country under
the controul of the Established Church so that they
might inculcate their own doctrines upon their young
minds. He was deeply obliged to the clergy for their
proceedings during the last two years. By their con-
duct in the case of the Widow Woolfrey—(Cheers)—
and in the case of the poor shoemaker at Chelmsford,
they had opened the eyes of the public to the iniquities
of the infamous Ecclesiastical Courts—(Cheers)—
and the public feeling having been once roused to their
iniquities, their end was fast approaching. Look at the
conduct of Sir R. Peel and the Tories respecting the
marriages of the Dissenters—he would not allow them
to be married by their own pastor, but he insisted that
their marriages, if they did not like to go to the Church,
must be altogether a civil contract. But the Whigs
had given them a Bill, according to which any
person might be married by his own minister. Again
the Whigs had introduced and passed through
the House of Commons triumphantly a Bill for
opening the Universities of Oxford and Cam-
bridge to the Dissenters—that Bill, however
was thrown out in a House, of which he would not then
say more than that it had most bitterly opposed every
measure which tended towards the liberty of the sub-
ject during the last eight years. Immediately up on
that vote, then came the Whigs forward, and gave a
charter to the University of London so that now
Dissenters could educate and obtain
degrees for their
sons in spite of that House.--(Cheers.) They had at-
tempted to abolish Church-rates by making a wealthy
Church, by proper management, support itself. That
Committee was still sitting, and he hoped it would soon
be able to report, so that they should again bebeholden
to the Whigs for the abolition of Church-rates.—
(Cheers.) The Church-rates raised in 1827 amounted
to .564,3881., and the journal which arrogated to itself
the title of the " Leading. Journal of Europe" that
journal which was now the favoured supporter of Sir
Robert Peel and the Tories—on the 19th of March,
1834, in one of its leading articles commented most
strongly upon the one half of the community being
robbed to such an amount to support an enormously
rich and overgrown •Church.—(Cheers.) Those sinks
of iniquity, the Ecclesiastical Courts, which had no
power to do more than condemn any one to do penance
in a winding-sheet—(Laughter)—what could they know
of wills ? It was ridiculous that they should have
jurisdiction over all the property of the country. Was
it not anomalous that a question of personal property,
to even a small amount, was decided in open court, and
by a jury of twelve men, having the witnesses examined
before them, and that a question involving millions of
real property, should be decided by the son or nephew
of a Bishop, in one of these Courts, and upon written
pleadings ? He trusted that every one present
would live to see the day when they would
no longer have the power of punishment by imprisoning
for the enormous bills of costs of their proctors,—
(Loud cheers.) There was one question much agitated
—whether, after a parish had refused to me
Ch ke a rate,
the Archdeacon had power to compel thurch-
warden to make a rate upon his own responsibility.
He was of opinion he had that power, and his advice
would be to press onwards to have the law alt ered,
rather than resist it while it remained in the Statute
Book. Let them steadily pursue their present course,
and relief was not far distant.
Sir CULLING E. SMITH seconded the resolution.
He would yield to any one in the talent displayed in
advocating the objects of the Society, but h
see them
e would
yield to no man in an ardent desire to
fully carried out.—(Hear, hear.) There was now a
considerable stir made respecting national educe-
tion, and it demanded the utmost and closest at-
tention on the part of the public, as the clergy of the
country had made a demand that it should be entirely
left in their hands—he trusted the country were not
prepared to retrograde so far as to permit such a
stretch of authority. By the showing of the Tories
themselves it was manifest they had made a demand
upon the Queen which it was also clear they had no
right to make.—( Loud cheers.) He was proud of the
position the Queen had taken—(Cheers)—and he was
sure if her Majesty would only stand by the people,
they would stand by her—(Tremendous applause).—
and would never allow any authority whatever to ride
roughshod over her.—(Great cheering.) He heartily
agreed in all that had fallen from previous speakers, and
had much pleasure in seconding the resolution—which,
like the preceding one, was uanimously agreed to.
The Rev, Mr. TEEDMAN very shortly proposed
" 3. That while this
Viet
Zre avow
they
°'vth ir principles and
acknowledge the beneficialhave made, their
ip
regret is intense that those principles are not more clearly
understood and widely diffused, and that the sectarian and
tyrannous assumption of spiritual. power, which in every
age and country has occasioned inquisitors and victims,
martyrdoms and persecutions, is yct cherished and extolled ;
and that even throughout the British empire demonstra-
tions of High Church harshness too frequently occur, and