The Sun.
London, England, 1838-08-22 00:00:00

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'WITH WHICH
THE ~ TRUE SUN " IS NOW

INCORPORATED.

LONDON :
WEDNESDAY EVENING, AUGUST 22, 1838.

When our pious ancestors devoted large masses of
property to the service of the Church, the Priesthood
formed in a great measure a part of the people. They
were at least the friends and protectors of the people,
and frequently stood :betwixt them and the wrath of a
furious soldier, or of an enraged lay tyrant. The
property they received, too, they asked in the name of
the poor, and they devoted much of it to their use.
They built splendid cathedrals, adorned them with
paintings and images, hired or formed good singers,
kept the cathedrals continually open, and invited the
poor to enter them ; they filled the cathedrals with
sweet fragrance, and displayed for the behoof and the
delusion of the poor, all the gorgeous pomp of the
Roman Catholic worship. We frequently hear of the
tender and strong associations formed by our rural
population with their village Church, and with all the
endearing ceremonies of their religion ; but their asso-
ciations, rude and ignorant as they are, must, we appre-
hend, be feeble compared to those similar associations
which exist now amongst a Roman Catholic population,
and which did exist when the Reformation essayed here
to snap them asunder. Solemn and splendid
masses,
performed by richly-clad Priests, the bewildering effects
of pompous ceremonies and strong scents on weak
people, such as the greater portion of the service of
the Church of RoY.-oe is made up of, are poorly corn •
pensated by the eolder, and not more meaning or more
useful, service of the Church of England. When to this
we add the circumstance—of which the Ville of Dunkirk,
as mentioned in our paper of the day before yesterday,
may be taken as the example and the illustration—of the
property which our pious ancestors devoted to the plea-
sures, though deluding pleasures of the people,being
now wholly appropriated to the selfish uses of
rich Churchmen, who leave the people with-
out any instruction, and without a Church or a
school, we must conclude that the Reformation, what-
ever it might have done for the RUSSELLS and other
opulent families, has really turned out a great loss to
the lower classes. For delightful ceremonies, in which
all freely shared, they have received nothing but ex-
hortations and far-fetched prayers,—the masses
of Rome, without their music and fragrance,
and for the sports of the Roman Sabbath, they have
the rigidity and restrictions of Geneva. Our pea-
santry, in fact, have only the restraints of CALVIN
and tho mummeries of Popery, without its gauds and
its delusions. They have been deprived of all that was
pleasing, in the service of the Romish Church, and
are denied all that is manly and independent
in that of the Presbyterian. They are still the
dupes or slaves of a Pricsthoood, but of a
Priesthood which disdains to gild their chains, or per-
suade them that they are not deluded. If, then, the
Reformation is to stop where the English Church has
planted it—if its principles are not to be carried through
and carried out—if the property that was given to say
masses and provide fine ceremonies in costly cathe-
dra's, is all to be devoted to rich Bishops and
canons learned in Greek—if the poor are neither to 1
have the splendours of the Romish form of worship,
nor the instruction of rational and intelligent men—if
none of the property devoted to prous uses is to go
to provide them useful instruction,instead of the
delusion of the Rornish priesthood, we must say that
they are a much injured race, and that to them the
Reformation will be a curse, not a blessing. To re-
deem its character, and restoreit to the respect of
mankind, it must he carried farther, and the priesthood
of the Church of England must be made to know that
the piety of our ancestors did not intend to endow
them, so that they may have time enough and means
enough to worry the people of whom they
pretend to
be the Pastors.

We have inserted elsewhere the Report of a meet-
hie of the working classes, held at Aberdeen last week.
It will be perceived from the tenor of the proceedings
that the hard-working men of Aberdeen are not dis-