The Sun.
London, England, 1837-12-29 00:00:00

THE TRUE SUN.

LONDON:

SATURDAY EVENING DECEMBER 28, 1837.

This evening is the last on which the daily True
Sun will appear. We have now for eighteen months
devoted to it every energy of our minds, far more intent
upon national improvement than on success in a mere
commercial undertaking. We have fearlessly advo-
cated the interests of the whole community, as distin-
guished from those of narrow sections. We have
bearded the oligarchy in its strongholds, and exposed
alike the open profligacy of the Tory, and the tortuous
duplicity of the Whig factions.

We do not affect Co be insensible to the strong ap-
probation of our views which has been expressed by
some of the highest minds of our time. We are
deeply grateful to that part of the public press which
has awarded to us its honest praise, and we shall re-
member with pride, that amongst the public and the
press, it is from the intelligent we have received the
most hearty support.
We have neither spared our time nor our capital in
the effort we have made to establish a Daily Journal
unshackled by party ties, untrammelled by the neces-
sity of advocating class interests, and have made consi-
derable sacrifices in so doing. But we do not see a
reasonable prospect of a remunerative return within
such a definite period as would justify a perseverance
on the part of private individuals, who value their
pecuniary independence as the foundation of their
political usefulness.
But let it not be said we have suddenly abandoned
our efforts. We have, for several months, laid before
the more opulent of the Liberal party the actual posi-
tion of the paper. We have informed them that, after
the present period, the distributive efforts of the Liberal
party must be taxed to carry out to ultimate success
the national object we had commenced with much pro-
mise, and continued so long as individual prudence
would permit.

With some generous exceptions, this met with no
efficient response.
We trust that the Liberal cause will not suffer from
the want of a daily organ. We do not attribute our
commercial failure to apathy on the part of the people.
There is scarcely a mechanics' institute, or a place
where industrious and intelligent tradesmen and work-
ing men assemble, that the daily True Sun has not
been found. We have had perhaps a greater number
of readers than any other Newspaper, but the indus-
trious many who have most sympathised with us have
bee❑ so borne down by low profits and scanty wages,
consequences of aristocratic rule, that a daily paper is
an intellectual necessity they have not the means to
attain.

Under these circumstances the daily True Sun
has been disposed of to the proprietor of The Sun,
and will henceforward be merged in that journal. And
we wish and hope that the new vigour which our own
circulation will infuse into our contemporary may enable
him to take that independent political position which
we have ourselves occupied.

Let the people remember that upon the support they
afford him will depend the degree of his independence.
let them remember that the labourer is worthy of his
Fire; and that if they would maintain an independent
pr.ss they must make strenuous efforts in aid of the
journal which dares to be independent. B3yond our
:sincere dosim that The Sun may deserve and command
success, we have not the slightest interest in that

jour 'al.
From some remarks which appear in another part
of the pa-per it will be seen that the True Sun Weekly
Paper wi7l still remain in our hands.
/0 On Monday, and following days, during the
week, The Sun- Evening Paper will be published at
our Office, as a su.hstitute for the True Sun.

TO THE ED: TOR OF THE SUN.

Stn,—l trust you will spore me the appellation of an
offending sinner for presun.log to address myself to the
Liberal Members of the House of Commons, through the
medium of your talented and consistent paper. I have
wished that some person more competeDt to the task had
undertaken to render an important service toe). class of men
who have long since been abused by the Heads of our
cathedral. As it has not been noticed, I cannot longer re-
frain from publishing the injustice with which they are
treated by those whose duty it should be to make a proper
and adequate provision for the Lay Clerks, who, compara-
tively speaking, have the whole services to prrform. The
immense revenues of our Bishop, Dean, and Prebends. are
too well known to need a separate enumeration—it will be
sufficient for my purpose to show the encroachments the
Dean and Chapter have gradually made upon the incomes
of those for whom I am seeking a proper redress. The
Prebends are expected to show themselves and at-
tend cathedral services eight-and-twenty days in the year,
for which they receive on an average, as compensation for
their arduous duties, from 8001. to 1,000/., in addition to
which they have valuable livings, some holding a second,
producing, taking it at the lowest standard, an income of
2,000/. per annum for each individual, and in some few
instances nearly double the amount. Their attendance is
optional, and it frequently happens that one only is resi-
dent and attends duty, save and except the time pay day
arrives, when nearly the whole force is mustered to dis-
tribute the revenue, and misapply some portions of it to
their own use.
Is it not abominable that Christian Ministers should act
so dishonestly as the sequel will explain they have done,
and can they feel surprised that the people should press
upon her Majesty's Ministers a Church Reform ? No :
and I sincerely hope that when a Bill is introduced is Par-
liament for the equalization of Church livings, or for the
better provision of smaller ones, that the Lay Clerks will
find some friend in Parliament who will represent the op-
pression under which they labour. I shall now place in
,juxta-position to the situation of Prebend that of a Lay
Clerk, whose attendance is expected regularly under a for-
feilure twice a day throughout the year, and on Sundays
three times: And I shall surprise the reader when I state
that for his labour he receives the liberal allowance of
from 301. to 60/. per annum—it varies some years, but never
exceeds the last-named sum. In many Cathedrals the
Lay Clerks live rent free, with a much larger salary ; but
here they have only the scanty pittance of, we will say, a
pound a-week. It is monstrous that such irreligious fraud
should be allowed to exist in afree country, and calls loudly
upon the public for their severe disapproval and indignation.
In former times they were better treated, and it is shameful
that the dispensers of religion, who are for ever telling us
that we are daily becoming more civilised, are themselves
retrograding from every species of justice and humanity. I
shall briefly state that not many years since the organist,
enjoying the same salary the present occupant does, had in
virtue of his office a house in the neighbourhood of the
Cathedral of the value of 601. a year, and to which he is
now as much entitled as the Bishop is to his palace. The
Dean and Chapter, with their usual grasping propensity,
wrested that right from his successors, and the gentleman
who now officiates receives in lieu thereof the liberal sum
4of 41. I could, were it not trespassing upon your columns,
recite numberless instances of such like fraud, but I shall
rfterve some as flagrant acts of oppression for a future time.
Being a sincere Protestant, and one wl:o admires as much
as any of its members the beauties of our Church in every
respect " saving one," the conduct of the majority of its
ministers I have tried to expose, not with a wish of making
them more unpopular, but solely with the hope of seeing a
check put upon their growing rapacity, and thereby render-
ing the Establishment what it ever should have been—pure
and holy. One of the gentlemen connected with the
Chapel Royal, Windsor, related to me some time since an
anecdote worthy of being recorded, it having reference to
one of our large Church Establishments. A young man,
who held the situation of clerk at the Registrar's Office,
and who had frequent opportunities of prying into the
Church writings, discovered that the Lay Clerks had long
since beep plundered of their rights ; possessing a fine
voice, he became a candidate for a vacant clerkship, and
was elected to the situation. On the first pay day arriv-
ing, he was tendered his salary, which he indignantly re-
fused, adding that he knew what they were entitled to, and
neothing but his just claim would he receive. His obstinacy
lead the desired effect upon the Chapter, and the Lay Clerks
‘ll.since been furnished with a residence each, and an
pp, amounting to treble the amount formerly
''' '-
/ W,Ofd not such an enterprising man work a
i'''llrdracla for his, Vsethren here ? I have no doubt on the
subject. - e Your's truly,
D. J.

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