The Sun.
London, England, 1853-01-25 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

Having read with interest thy remarks upon
Church-rates, and the, important information re-
lating thereto elicited by the Select Committee of
the Commons House of Parliament obtained by
the late member for Tavistock, J. S. Trelawney,—l
request leave to be allowed to suggest a very simple
plan for the immediate relief of DisSenters ; viz.,
that so long as it is thought best to raise funds
for the repair of churches, and defraying the costs
of public worship by a parochial rate upon pro-
perty, all known Dissenters be written off exempt,
as when a house is void.

If any object to this that it will be a premium for
professing to be Dissenters, or that there is any
moral obligation to pay these rates arising out of
the tenure of the property rated (as is understood
to have been urged by Sir R. Inglis), both these
objections may be removed by requiring the person
claiming to be a Dissenter to show to what sect he
belongs, and also that he has contributed to its
funds. It appears to me that it is only in ac-
cordance with the Act of Toleration, which
justifies Dissenters in absenting themselves from
the parish church, and in erecting, maintain-,
ing, and frequenting their own places of worship,
to exempt them from the payment of Church-
rates ; and that on the other hand it would be
more consistent (with the compulsory payment of
these rates) to revive the fines and imprisonments'
inflicted for non-attendance of the parochial
churches. Soon after the Restoration of Charles
the Second, and the re-establishment of the present
Episcopal Church, notwithstanding the King had
promised to maintain liberty of conscience, an at-
tempt was made to destroy dissent by inflicting the
most enormous and apparently ruinous fines for
the non-attendance of the parish churches, and.
"for meeting in what were called conventi-
cles. Of the small religious Society of Friends
several thousands of its members were at one time
incarcerated in noisome prisons, where numbers
died for such offences as these, or for not taking the
Oath of Allegiance, &c., simply because they would
not swear aeall, in obedience to the commands of
their Saviour, although they offered freely to de-
clare solemnly to the same effect. - All those who
are liberally and kindly disposed, but who really
fear that without legal enactments due provision for
public worship cannot be secured, I would, not
boastfully, but respectfully, invite to a considera-
tion of the experience of the Society of Friends,
although a very small body, during the two hundred
years which have passed since its organisation. In
all this time, it has built and maintained its own
places of worship, purchased and maintained its
own burial-grounds, supported and educated its
own poor members, whilst all its members have
had to contribute their full share of the national
and parochial taxation, and in the cases of Church-
rates, and other ecclesiastical demands generally,
with heavy expenses added to the demand. Yet
the society has never found it difficult to raise
by the voluntary contributions of its members,
besides bearing all the before mentioned items,
whatever it has thought it right for it to expend in
any foreign or domestic object of benevolence. The
annual meeting, or legislative body of the society,
communicates its wishes to the county or quarterly
meetings of the society. In every district meeting,
a committee is then appointed to communicate the
subject to each individual member, and to receive
any voluntary contribution ; but no one is assessed
or rated, much less compelled in any way. If a few
hundred or thousands of pounds are wanted for
any such objects, I should as much expect the
course of nature to be changed as any diffi-
culty to be experienced in obtaining a satisfactory
response to such applications so MADE ; and I be-
lieve it will ever be so whilst the society continues
to maintain the principles it has professed from the
beginning.
Some may object that similar reasons may be
urged for exempting Dissenters from all claims for
ecclesiastical purposes connected with the Esta-
blished Church. To some extent this is true, but
the different claims would require different treat-
ment. Church-rates are a mere tax, imposed
or not, from time to time by , the decision
of a majority of the parishioners assem-
bled in vestry for the purpose. They are
most unjustly levied upon Dissenters, because,
national property))
I consider to
although ratesil according to the property occupied,
they are considered as due personally for the health
or good of the soul of the occupant. I would,
therefore, abolish the power to raise them, or exempt
dnd (a
tithe-rent
charge
unjustly applied to one sect of Christians in the
present state of religious belief. I would, therefore,
hope that it may be handed over to the Commis-
sionersbe charge Dissenters.
upon The
the lan
for the Reduction of. the National Debt,
leaving every person at liberty to free his land, by
redeeming it, as in the case of the Land Tax.—l
am, respectfully,

pIIILIP D. TUCKETT.
Frenehay, near Bristol, 20th let Month, 1853.

SUSPECTED CHILD MURDER AND SUICIDE OF THE
PUTATIVE FATHER.—The locality of the Wyndham-road, '
Camberwell, has again become the scene of another
supposed murder, and consequent suicide, connected
with disclosures f awful depravity. It appears that a
Nothing lignigrl was,Nva
taken very ill,
girl, named Eliza Pullinger, aged only 15, had been living
as a servant with Mr. Cooper, grocer, of 3, Clarence-
place, near the Duke of Clarence, Camberwell. On
s however, said
Thursday afternoon last her mistress suspected that she
at(P uthllaintgtcirm)e%;vabsutconncisuda
oattte.rNy
and applied to Mr. Blackstone, surgeon, Camberwell, by
whose direction she went home to the house of her
parents, No. 7, Nelson-street. She sent a younger sister
to officiate for her at Mrs. Cooper s, who in the course
of the day, upon going to a cupboard in the back
kitchen for de purpose of procuring a flannel to clean
the floor, took hold of an old rag, and was much sur-
prised and alarmed at finding the body of a newly born
infant, which had been rolled therein, fall to the ground.
The girl Pullinger was subsequently taxed with having
given birth to this child, which she eventually admitted,
stating that she had delivered herself, and placed it in
the eipboard alluded to. She further stated that the
father was a man named James Brown, a bonnet blocker,
living at No. 3 in the same street, and upwards a 40
years of age. The man Brown has subsequently to this
ditc)very committed suicide by cutting his throat, and
his body, together with that of the child, now await 'a
coroner's inquest. The woman, who is in a very danger-
ous condition, is of course under the surveillance of the
, police.