The Sun.
London, England, 1839-11-19 00:00:00

(From the Morning Advertiser.)
Well, the Dissenters of Leicester have met for the
purpose of expressing sympathy with poor Mr. Thoro-
good, and raising a subscription on his behalf. And a
great and glorious meeting it was—in every respect
worthy of the noble, nay, heavenly, cause of Scriptural
non-conformity to State religions and State Churches.
Give us within the next two months a dozen such meet-
ings in the leading towns in England, and we pledge
ourselves that before the approaching Session of Parlia-
ment shall have passed away, we shall not only witnesss
the liberation of Mr. Thorogood from Chelmsford gaol,
but the extinction of those iniquitous imposts known by
the name of Church-rates, for his non-payment of which
he is now suffering, and has suffered for ten months past,
the pains of martyrdom. What, we should like to know,
do the London Dissenters—those of them especially
who, in the capacity of Members of Committees,
have professedly taken the cause of the persecuted
friends of religious freedom under their special pro-
tection—what, we wonder, do such persons now
think of themselves? If they have any sense of
self-respect remaining—if they be not lost to all
perception of what was due to their own character
as men, as Dissenters, but, above all, as Christians, they
must now suffer the pangs of self-reproach at their
criminal inac•ivity and criminal indifference in the case
of the Chelmsford martyr, to an extent of which none
but themselves can form any conception. We blush
for the Metropolitan Dissenters, and especially for those
who have constituted themselves the professed guardians
of the interests of Dissent, when we thus see that our
Dissenting friends in the provinces have been left to
set the example of rushing to the rescue—or if not the
rescue, to the asistance—of Mr. Thorogood from the
fangs of a State Church. We beg to disclaim all indi-
vidual allusions in thus arraigning the conduct of per-
sons who have arrogated to themselves the title of
the leaders and protectors of the Dissenters of England.
We do not say, for we do not know, with what parti-
cular individuals the blame rests, of not taking any
steps to alleviate the sufferings and solace the
spirits of Mr. Thorogood ; what we say is, that
blame of the most awful magnitude that indif-
ference of the most criminal and inexcusable kind,
rest somewhere. It is therefore, for those who can
vindicate their own characters as men, as Dissenters,
and as Christians, to come forward and exonerate them-
selves from the charges preferred against the Com-
mittee of which they are members. If those who feel
that the criminality does not rest with them, do not
forthwith come forward and at once establish their inno-
cence, and publicly disavow all future connexion or
sympathy with such Committees—their Dissenting bre-
thren will henceforth feel themselves perfectly justified
in holding them up as participators in the guilt of suf-
fering John Thorogood to pine away_ in Chelmsford gaol
for ten months without having made so much as one
effort to
without
toou e
rvraeeglreease him from his bondage. Nay, more,
conveyingone solitary
expressionpoor victima
f of honestysympathy.
e
Shame on those whose consciences plead guilty to this
charge! What Dissenter
does not blush to think that
persons who
so
this could be true ofcnoontsiodnlryedelabim to be,
but actually were for a time
the guides, philosophers, and protectorse &ernDaniys-
,
Dis-
senters throughout the country ? Had those Dis-
senting Societies in London, undertaking to lead
and direct the Dissenters in all parts of the king-
dom, only done their duty ; had they but performed