The Sun.
London, England, 1839-11-21 00:00:00

Test and Corporation Acts ; after Parliamentary and
Municipal Reform, we should have imagined that
we should each of us have sat " under our own vine
and fig tree, noue daring to make us afraid ;" and
yet here is John Thorogood,—because he would not
sit under the Vicar's fig tree and pay for the fruit of
his vine—cast into gaol.—(Shame.) And this is the
civil and religious liberty of the year 1839,—the
second or third year of our Most Gracious Queen Vic-
toria.—(Hear, hear.) I ask, is this state of things
to be allowed to continue ? Are we still to submit to
these Ecclesiastical Courts ? I ask this question, and
I beg to say for once, that I ask this question as a
" Political Dissenter."—(Loud cheers.) They taunt
us with being political Dissenters. I say, for once, I
take this question, and stand upon it as a political
Dissenter.—(Cheers.) Leaving conscience, then, out
of the question, are we thus to be tyrannized over, are
we thus to be coerced ? Shall we, who inherit the
principles of Hampden, of Prytne, of Milton, and of
Bunyan—shall we be content to be tyrannized over and
oppressed by the successors of Laud, of Strafford, of
Jefferies, of Sacheverel.—(No, no.) I speak as a Scotch-
man.—(Cheers.) I speak as a Scotchman, and with
something in me of the Cameronian blood—(Great cheer-
ing)—that made Scotland too hot for the King and his
Bishops.—(Loud applause.) And, Mr. Chairman and
Gentlemen, as the descendants of the men of Leicester,
of whom many of you heard last Monday evening ;*
I speak to you, men of Leicester, as the
descendants of those who resisted to the death the King
and all his cavaliers, and his clergy to boot.—(Loud
cheers.) I appeal to you, because you are worthy of
your ancestors ; because I believe you are sprung
" Of earth's best blood, with titles manifold."
I say then, that, as political Dissenters, we take up
this matter. An unjust law must be passively defied ;
an un-English enactment must be constitutionally re-
pealed. There is one other aspect of the question
I dare not touch.—(Go on, go on.) It is one, I say,
which I dare not touch. All this is done in the
name of religion—in the name of Christianity—in
the name and under the authority of Jesus and his
apostles ! I dare not—l need not touch upon it be •
fore this audience. It is no new thing, and you are
aware of it, for Satan to be " transformed into an
angel of light." You can see, through all their
pretences, the cloven foot. Our appeal in this mat-
ter is from you to another court —" How long, 0
Lord, holy and true—wilt thou not avenge ?" Mr.
Chairman, the resolution calls upon us to sympathize
with the principles for which Thorogood is im-
prisoned. This lam sure you all do in your " heart
of hearts." I am sure he does not envy—enjoying,
as he does the approbation of his conscience—l am
sure that, in his narrow cell, he does not envy his per-
secutors, amidst all their luxury and pomp ; and I
feel satisfied that the time is coming when they shall
wish to occupy the same position with him and shall
not be able.—(Loud cheers.) I trust there will go
forth from this meeting a voice that will startle even
the men of Chelmsford—the calves of Essex, as they
ire generally called—from their deep and inglorious
case ; I trust there will emanate -from it an appeal that
will reach the silken courtiers of Victoria, and convince
even then: " that it is high time to awake 'out of sleep."
I Mr. Legge then moved the second resolution, and sat
down amidst loud and continued cheering. _

The Rev. J. GOADBT rose and said, Ladies any
Gentlemen,—l hope I shall be excused if I make bu
a short speech, especially when I tell you that I shal
he succeeded by one to whose thrilling eloquence you
have often listened with admiration.—(Cheers.) It
appears to me, as we have so frequently heard the
cry of " Justice to Ireland," we should now raise that
of " Justice to Dissenters !"—(Hear, hear.) And we
should be content with no less.—( Hear.) We hold it
to he the inalienable right of every man to worship
God according to the dictates of his own conscience—
and there is such a thing as conscience after all—
(Hear, hear)—and we maintain that those who endea-
vour to coerce it, whether they call themselves " Christ's
Vicar upon Earth," or an " Apostolic Establishment,"
are guilty not only of treason against the dignity of hu-
man nature, but treason against God himself. You have
just as much right to compel another man to pay for
your religion, as to force him to pay for your physician,
your lawyer, or your draper, and no more. We only
-sant Churchmen to let us alone. They say we west
to pull down the Church. We say to them, "No !
we want you to keep it up. We only want you to pay
for your own religion yourselves, and keep your hands
out of our pockets.—( Loud cheers.) If this is not jus-
tice, what is ?—( Hear, hear.) Pay for your religion,
and we will pay for ours."—(Cheers.) We think it
a most monstrous injustice to be compelled to pay
For a religion that we neither approve of nor en-
joy. Our friend Mr. Legge has told you that con-
science is sneered at. Those who thus act do so be-
cause they have not got a conscience.—( Hear, hear.)
At least not an enlightened conscience.—( Hear, bear.)
The very existence of an Establishment supposes that
they who support it do not pretend to keep a conscience.
—(Cheers.) We first ask for justice politely, but they
disregard us. We then tell them that we will not
submit to their demands, and then they turn round
upon us in a fury, worthy of the place from whence it
comes, and the cause which it advocates, and abuse us
with every name which the vocabulary of the Prince of
Darkness can supply.—(Hear.) Can such men keep a
conscience ? No ! We tell them we don't mean to pay
for their religion. Then they seize our goods, or put
us in prison. Can these men, then, afford to keep a
conscience ? No more than the highwayman.—( Hear,
hear.) There is as much conscientious and just feeling
in the heart of an highwayman, when he stops me
on the road, and demands my money, as there is in
any Bishop, Priest, or Churchwarden—(Hear, beta)
—who comes and distrains on my goods for Church-
rates.—(Loud cheers.) Besides, if a man meets me on
the road, I can take a look at him, and see whether it
will be wise to encounter him or not ; as the sailor
said when his money was demanded, " I fought for
it ; and if you havd it, you must fight for it ;" but
we cannot adopt this course against the law. Look
at the case of Thorogood. This is an illustration of an
ecclesiastical conscience. For !Ss. 6d. which he was not
willing to be plundered of, it not only put him into a
dungeon, but compels him to remain there till death.—
(Expressions of execration.) One thing is clear ; that,
when we cannot trust to the common honesty of our
neighbours, we must devise rayons to compel them to be
honest. If the Churchwardens had been influenced
by conscientious and just motives, they would have
said, " We will never attempt to enforce a rate from
those who conscientiously object to pay it." If they
had had a conscience, this is the course they would
have adopted. And because they have no conscience
we want to have the law so altered, as to prevent
them from oppressing us.—( Cheers.) When I was a
boy I was very fond of reading a work of Bunyan's.
Bunyan, you know, was a prisoner twelve years in
Bedford gaol, for conscience sake—and I have read it
since I have been grown up with increasing interest.
Bunyan, after describing his pilgrim as going through
many dangers and perils, represents him as pass-
ing by a cave, the entrance of which was strewed
with the blood, bones, and ashes of former pilgrims.
This cave was inhabited by two giants, whom he
calls Pope and Pagan. He goes on to say that the
latter has been dead for sonly time ; as fOr the former
—(and by Pope we are to utiderstaud all ecclesiastical
establishments)—though he is still alive, yet by rea-
son of age, and many shrewd brnshes which he got in
his youth, he is grown so crazy and stiff in his joints,
that he can only sit and grin at the pilgrims as they go
by, biting his nails because he cannot come at them. I
believe the said Pope is the English Church. The very
descent of which the English Church boasts, and the
claims which are so pompously set forth by the Oxford
Divines are from this said Pope.—(Hear, hear.) All I
want with regard to a man w ho cannot keep a conscience
is, that such measures should be taken as will leave him
to grin at our conscience and nothing more.—(Cheers
and laughter.) And when he can only grin, then he
may do so as long as he likes.--(Cheers.) If Church-
rates are to be done awav with, Dissenters must do
it.—(Hear, hear.) No T ory Government will do it.
Lord Melbourne, in his silk gown and silver slippers,
will never think of doing it. The Dissenters must do it
themselves. Go, you that can go, to Vestry and
Church-rate meetings, and *appose this exaction. You,
who have no other means, pits sively resist this unjust law
by suffering the distraint of :your goods. Some will go
further, and go to prison.—(H ear.) I think Thorogood's
is not a course which we shoe ,ld all follow, but we should
all do what we can to procure the abolition of this law.
What is the spirit of those wh o carry this law into effect ?
You can easily perceive that the spirit which sent
if it
himthere, and keeps him there, is the same which woad,
had the power, re-light the fires of Smithfield. Their
conscience is like that of Be >nner, who could not enjoy
his dinner till he had heard of the martyrdom of some
godly man. That is a Churchman's conscience.—
, (Hear, hear.) Is there a strain here who has a vote for
a Member of Parliament I ? Give it not to that man
who will not oppose Chur ch-rates.—(Cheers.) If he
will not take this course, I et him renounce our cause for
ever. Is there a man who will yield to the trickery of
townsmen,
.eevery ranks—
(Hear,
Dissenter leave us ' • and then we shall do the work
ourselves. He who does ; not think with us, let him
leave us ; and then there will be enough of us left. The
condingßev
.Genthtleemreasnalcuotinacal, whip;ude hamwiads put, and unanimously
loud cheers, by se-
. 1, e
,tr whiche a ° gut: d
agreed to.
The Rev. J. P. MuasEt said, it was unnecessary
' for him, after what the met sting had heard, to say much
touchingoni o none the gt
liona
o occupy which
hadthe
ecalled thoughts o themt
together--a question ast, ich, in his opinion, Wal
the
friends of freedom throe lobout the country.--(Hear.)
He could not bring his mind to place the topic im-
mediately before the me ring on a level with the orcii-
"vary secular and politic 11 questions of the day,—os
the slime footing with an Extension of the Suffrage, Vote
by Ballot, and Trienni. d Parliaments. Important as
these and their kindred subjects might be, that which
Alluding to Mr. Ho (linos' lecture on the histo,y
Leicester during the civi I wars; when the town held out
the strongly for the Parliamet st —Ed. L. M.

4:'

had assembled them that evening was more im-

portant still. It assumed to his mioci grayer charac-
ter and was associated with more sacred and vital con-
siderations. It not only affected the conventional but
the religious interests of men. He should, however, be
prepared, with a previous speaker, to try that question
with their opponents on merely political ground ; and,
if there were no other, should be perfectly satisfied
to leave it there, and would be bound to show the
validity of their objections to Church-rates, even on
these inferior premises. They were told that their
example, if it were generally followed, would throw
everything into confusion, and render it impossible
to carry on, with any propriety, the legislation

of the country. If you object to Church-rates (their
adversaries might say,) another may object to some
other tax, and a third take exception to a further,

until there were no laws left, and men would
consult their own whims, and run about like

wild goats of the forest. In reply, it should be
remembered that the subject had a perfect right to take
exception against any law he was • called upon to obey,
and freely to express, and peaceably to discuss the
grounds of his exception, for if men were to be perse-
cuted for their opinions, where was the boasted freedom
of Britain ? If the objections raised were•unreasonable
and factious, they would fail to convince others ; if they
were reasonable and just, the objectors might have their

approbation and secure their co-operation: But, in ad-
dition to this, let them bear in mind that all sound legal
regulations were framed with a view to the general good ;
and that as all inherited their benefits, each was justly
expected to support them. As for instance—if arrange-
ments were made to guard our coasts and to maintain
peace and order in our country, all were equally inter-
ested, and all in equity should assist in bearing the pe-
cuniary burden. But the impost which they were
met to discountenance, was laid to support an ex-
clusive body. Thousands derived no benefit from
it, while in their opinion, the country was incal-
culably injured by it. The argument—the very
just argument, in favour of general political or legisla-

. _
tive regulations, which was founded on the univer-
sality of their aspect, did not, therefore, apply in the
case before them. There could surely be no fitness in
levying payments from a whole people in the support

. _
of arrangements which affected only a part.—(Hear.)
They might as well expect him to pay the taxes for the
. _ _ . _ _

carriage in which his neighbour rode. But beside the
political inconsistency of Church-rates, they were alto-
gether a gratuitous and unnecessary exaction. The
parties who took money from them in this way, had no
valid plea, could make no fair appeal to their benevolence
. .

or their pity.—(Hear, hear.) They were not so very
poor, so badly off in this life as not to be able to afford
to bear their own ecclesiastical expenses—they could
surely find money for the support of charities, as well as
for the keeping open of theatres—they might as easily
pay for their more serious engagements as for their
lighter amusements—they might as well coerce them to
help them in the one case as in the other. But it must
ever lie as a weighty and insuperable argument against
these exactions, that they were a daring invasion of the
rights of conscience.—(Loud cheers.) On this point
he had been anticipated by the appropriate and pun-
gent remarks of Mr. Legge. He had intended al-
luding to a gentleman, once a Dissenter, who had
recently been raised to the Judicial Bench, and who,
as he ascended the steps which conducted him to it,
bowed obsequiously to the Bishops. They might
have given this man credit for conscientiousness in

changing his religious opinions and position, had he
not prevented them, to his undying disgrace, by sneer-

ing at the rights of conscience from the judgment-
seat itself, where all high and honourable minds have
been used to do homage to its chaste and holy prero-
gative.—(Loud cheers.) But, perhaps, desperate as
it was, it was the only consistent course which the
Learned Judge could pursue, and the only possible ex-

planation or apology he could offer for his own beha-
viour. It would be well, however, if these notiens re
latise to conscience, only darkened and degraded as in
this painful instance the judicial bench ; but there were
not wanting men, who in the parlour and the drawing-
room, could cast forth their jeers on these matters, and
affect to despise the man, who for conscience' sake,
could be immured in the common prison, when by pay-
ing a few shillings, he might walk out of it. Such
fanaticism to them was perfectly unintelligible.
It was altogether a burlesque on these enlightened
times. Let these reasoners understand that there
were other great principles of human action beside
self-interest and expediency—(Cheers)—that there
were high and vital considerations which fell within
the hallowed range of moral obligation with which,
perchance, even they might not be familiar, and that
it was because John Thorogood, and those who thought
and felt with him, chose to prefer these principles of
action, and these higher considerations to the maxims
of society or the laws of men, that they repudiated
those imposts whose tyranny they were met that even-
ing to expose. But there remained still stronger ground
of objection to these obnoxious rates—they were levied
to support a system which was diametrically opposed to
the kingdom of the Son of God. On this high and
awful ground be took his stand. They called no man
Master in the great interests of religion. " They had
one Master, even Christ." Thrones, Parliaments, Sy-
nods, tradition, were of no authority with them touching
ho " great things of God's law ;" their only appeal was
to the Scripturrs of revealed truth. Believing secular
establishments to be opposed to the will of the only
Spiritual Legislator, and altogether at variance with the
genius of the kingdom of Christ, they could not con-
tribute to their support, and could never cease on these
grounds, to protest against them. Here it was mani-
fest that many who were attached to liberal opinions
could not side with them. Men who were not accus-
tomed to trouble themselves much about religious mat-
ters, and who, if they would be candid, would tell them
that they cared as much about the kingdom of Christ
as they did about the kingdom of Mohammed.—
(Hear, hear.) But, however, he wished for one to be
distinctly understood that this was the great reason
with him for dissenting from the political Church, and
for opposing all exactions which were levied in its favour.
These, then, were some of the reasons for their con-
duct, In carrying them out they must not conceal
from themselves that they had entered on an ardu.
ous enterprize—that they had undertaken a great and
difficult work. It would be well to take a hasty survey
of the great contest, and to form a correct estimate of
their own strength. There was, then, the High-Church
party, who thought the secular power should throw its
shield over the Christian faith. and that but for its pro-
tection it would wither and expire. A party to whom
they awarded, as to all others, the right of private judg-
ment—a party whose opinions they had no wish to con-
demn any farther than argument and• truth might assist
them—a party comprising a great portion of the rank
and wealth of the empire—this large and influential
body were determinately arrayed against them. Then
there were those—and these by no means an inconsi-
derable number—distinguished, too, by their education,
and generally enlightened opinions, who approved of the
principle of establishments, but dissented from its exclu-
siveness, who thought that Governments should support
religion ; only that it should favour all sects by an equal
distribution of ecclesiastical funds—a most absurd and
anomalous position, but one which, as far as it extended,
separated its adherents from any consistent and earnest
sympathy with the objects of that meeting. Next to
these might be mentioned those who maintained that
while it was the law that Church-rates should be
levied, they ought, in all propriety to be paid—gentle-
men who never waited to inquire into the justice of the
law, or if they did and admitted its injustice, fell into the
egregious error of insulting and violating a great im-
mutable principle, from deference to a temporary and
unrighteous regulation—these, however, by no means
thinly-sprinkled over society, though not amongst its
profoundest thinkers—were all set against them. Then
came the devoted Ministerialists of the day, who
though they entirely disapproved of these wretched
exactions, thought it inexpedient to agitate the public
mind about them lest it should perplex the Ministry !
But did these men see the position to which they
were reducing themselves ? If they had a Tory
Government, these sage advisers would say, 0 ! its
foolish in the extreme to moot this question now I Stop
till we have a Liberal Ministry, and then you may
have some hope of success." Now we have the
very Ministry they profess to admire we must not
say anything on this subject lest we should tie
these good men's legs—lest we should interfere with
the freedom of their gait—we must not do our duty
because the Cabinet won't like it. Last of all come
those who think we are perfectly right and who
wish us success ; but who shrink from the incon-
venience, the labour, the obloquy, the unpopula-
rity which consistency would involve—those who
will take no part in the battle but that of sharing
in its glory. Most virtuous men I the scum
and offscouring of their species. With all these
deductions, then, what had they left? Why a
firm, ardent, intrepid band, positively numerous,
though comparatively few, who were resolved not to
abandon the work till it was accomplished. And
while they had in their ranks such as he whose suffer-
ings they had come together to deplore and to meliorate
—a man of unbending principle, of unflinching courage,
and of untiring endurance—a man who uttered prayers
instead of accusations, who breathed forgiveness in-
stead of malice, who asked the sympathies of his friends
and the consideration of his foes—they should be
mightier than their adversaries, greater than all the t
could come against them. Whilst they had amongst
them those who were ready to tread in his footsteps
and sacrifice themselves as John Thorogood had done,
on the high altar of religious freedom, they had no-
thing to fear. Such men did more to accelerate the
great cause of liberty than all the speeches, argument
and efforts of its firmest friends. He rejoiced to know
that they had such an one in their midst that evening—
one who was not to be driven from his integrity by the
restless and insatiable hatred of his enemies—in a few
days, it might be in a few hours, the doors of their oss'cn
local prison would be thrown open to receive anoti
victim—yes, a peaceful, respectable, and honoured
re
sident of their own town, might presently be torn from
his business and his family, and led to a dungeon,
for the support of the Christian religion ! Might be
inform that assembly that the writ for,, Mr. Baines'