The Sun.
London, England, 1838-11-03 00:00:00

LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 3, 1838

DISSENT AND EPISCOPACY IN
NEWTOWN, MONTGOMERYSHIRE.

(Extract of a letter to the Right Reverend Dr. Carey, D. D.,
Lord Bishop of St. Asaph.)
The Dissenting bodies of Newtown comprise five denomina-
tions, namely—Wesleyans, Baptists, Independents, Welsh
Methodists, and Primitive Methodists.
The Society of Wesleyans was established by the master-
hand of that great man, John Wesley. Within the last twenty
years this body have expended 4,0001. in erecting chapels for
public worship, independent of the necessary repairs and the
incidental expenses of their edifices. Twice have they been
obliged to erect more commodious buildings ; the last of which
cost upwards of 3,000/., and it is capable of holding upwards
of 1,600 persons; the average number of their hearers are
about 1,000; their communicants consist of a number averag-
ing from 3 to 400 ; the scholars of their Sunday School
amount to 500; arid the gross cost of their ministry, with a
large district attached for its superintendence, is 2061. per
anti um.
The Baptists are an influential and resi ectable body : they
have expended within the last few years 4,0001. on their place
of worship. Their first erection took place in 1803—enlarged
in 1814—extended a second time in 1821— and in 1836 it was
made sufficiently commodious to hold 2 000 persons; the
average attendance being about 1,500. The. communicants of
this body are about 400, and the scholars of their Sunday
School upwards of 600; the expenses of the ministry is 150/.
per annum.
The Independent chapel cost that society about 8001., and
is calculated to hold 600 persons ; its average hearers are
250 • its communicants are 50 ; its Sunday scholars 120 ; and
attached to this body is an academy of students for the ministry,
the salary of which is estimated at 2001. per annum.
The Welsh Methodists have expended cn their chapel from
1,0001. to 1,300/. ; the average hearers are from 8 to 900, but
the building is capable of holding 1,200; the communicants
are 300 ; and their Sunday scholars about 400. The minis-
ters of this body are not stationary, but move alternately, ac-
cording to their re?pective appointments.
The Primitive Methodists have not been long established in
Newtown; they occupy the old Wesleyan chapel, for which
they gave 450/. ; it is capable of holding 500 persons; its
communicants are 60; and hearers, 300. They have also a
Sunday school; and the expense of the ministrysia only 40/.
per annum.
First—That after deducting the 450/. paid by the Primi-
tive Methodists to the Wesleyans, which sum is taken in the
gross amount of the 4,0001. expended by that society, it will
appear that the Dissenting bodies have expended no less a
sum than 10,1001.
Secondly—That the number of their communicants, on
whom the burden of the support lies, amounts to 1,090.
Thirdly—That the regular attendants at the several places
of worship amount to 3,900 souls, and that the chapels are
sufficiently commodious to admit nearly 6,000.
Fourthly—That of this number the Wesleyans have 400
free sittings for indigent hearers ; Baptists, 350; Indepen-
dents, 150; Welsh Methodists, 350; Primitive Methodists,
150; making a total of 1,400 free sittings.
Fifthly—That the Sunday Schools,—comprised of infants,
youths, and adult;—contain an average of 1,600 scholars ;
and many hundreds, my Lord, in this town, who are useful
and intelligent members of society, are indebted to these insti-
tutions alone for the first germ of learning. Men have risen
from that body to whom many divines would owe obligations
for practical wisdom, and whom the scrupulous moralist would
held up as patterns for imitation. The closest zeal, intimacy,
and unanimity pervade each sect on this subject, the scholars
being alternately examined in the respective chapels, and a
general collection made on their behalf.
Sixth and lastly—That the expense of the whole ministry
does not exceed, in the gross amount, more thin 690/. per
annum for these five religious establishments, capable of hold-
ing 6,000 persons ; attached to whose labours are the surround-
ing district, with several chapels. The ministers depend on
their own merits ; the people are the recipients of their in-
struction, and therefore they are the best judges of the worth
of that instruction to their own minds : their pulpit declara-
tions are sustained by the evidence of their lives, and their
doctrine proved by their deeds. The services of Dissenters in
Newton arc unappreciable, as they form the great channel
through which the untaught youth of Newtown receive the
glimpse of moral, religious, and intellectual instruction.
In 1795 the population of Newtown was from 1,200t0 1,300
persons, and in the intermediate period of 26 years to 1821,
inclusive, the increase was about 2,186 ; from 1821 to 1831,
inclusive, a period of ten years, the increase was 1,064. Since
that period we have no authorized data ; but the estimated po-
pulation of the town and parish, including that part of the town
in the perish of Llanllwchairn, is 9,000 inhabitants.
If then, my Lord, in 1795 our present Church was but suffi-
cient as an edifice of our Establishment, when the population
was only 1,300, it is sufficiently clear that in 1831 it was to-
tally inadequate as a place of public worship ; and your Lord-
ship is doubtless aware, that neither prior nor subsequently to
your accession to the See in 1830, any enlargement of the
edifice, nor available extension of the burial ground has taken
place : and I record it, my Lord, as an indisputable fact, to
which I even defy contradiction, that hundreds, born within
the precincts of this parish, have, in consequence of the dis-
graceful and crowded state of the churchyard, been carried to
the adjoining parishes for interment. ,
On referring to an appeal recently published by the mem-
bers of our Church, I find that the smallest Dissenting Place
of worship is calculated to hold a greater number of persons
than the parish church for this town and parish, and which is
maintained at as great a public expense as the whole bodies of
Dissenting Ministers : and that out of the 436 sittings which
the Church is competent to hold, only thirty are free, while the
Dissenters have 1,400 free sittings, and their edifices are ca-
pable of holding 6,000 persons.

A CHURCHMA

The Dublin Pilot of Wednesday, in a long article
on the Precursor Society, and the modification which this So-
ciety underwent a day or two ago, finds fault with the Govern-
ment
paper, and of course by implication with the Government itself, for not having sooner avowed concurrence and-
co-operation with the Association as it was originally consti-
tuted, previous to that modification. " Was it," asks the
Pilot, " a Society for the Ministerial press to preserve a dis-
couraging silence about ; and from which every man was kept
aloof who looked to a favour from the Government? Yet it
was thus treated. The Government paper was silent, and
now boasts it was silent about a Society constituted on such
obvious principles of true justice. Every Government re-
tainer felt, and was made to feel— yes, it was carefully but
covertly inculcated—that to belong to that Society was a bar
to promotion. The consequence was, the wait-a-whiles, the
Leinster declaration men, the office-hunters, high and low,
instinctively shunned that Society as if it were contagion."
After stating that there is in Ireland two classes of Liberals,
the one merely Whig, the other truly Irish, and that the fact
is proved by what has taken place respecting the Precursor
Society, the Pilot goes on to remark that " there were two
objections made by the Whig Liberals to the Precuisor So-
ciety as constituted. These were—the specification by Mr.
O'Connell of the number of Members which should be trans-
ferred from English to Irish representation, and the specifica-
tion of the period—the close of next Session—for declaring
the experiment of justice at an end, and for then unfurling the
Repeal standard. The displeasure of the Government at the
sound Irish principle upon which the meeting was constituted,
vented itself upon these points, and were re-echoed by every
one who basked in its smiles or favours." .
" Encouraged by concession, the organ of the Whigs has
suggested the giving up a principle, by suggesting the giving
up the ' Precursor' name, which indicates a principle. We
can never be a consenting party to giving up any name, which
would imply that we have not a full right to the thing, a do-
mestic Legislature—and that a long hopeless course of injus-
tice will not justify us in asserting that right. Impress upon
the mass of the people once that the question of a domestic
Legislature is totally abandoned by that Society, and it will at
once lose the co-operation of the clergy, independent gentry,
traders, and frieze-coats of Ireland. Whatever has been done
for Ireland has been done by this class ; whatever will be done
must be through the same • and although the Whigs and their
followers have often availed themselves of our successes, and
profited by them, yet the people or their leaders never erred,
except when they surrendered themselves to the guidance of
Whig councils, and agitated and organised only to secure men,
and not to accomplish measures and establish principles."
About ten years ago, says a Correspondent, a wo-
man named Simmonth, then a laundress, residing at Camber-
well, but now cook in a respectable family in Bermondsey-
street, was bitten, severely in the leg by a favourite dog. A
surgeon was immediately called in who cauterised the wound,
which, in about three weeks completely healed over, and no
further notice was taken of the circumstance. In about six
months after the occurrence the unfortunate woman was seized
-with a species of fit, which lasted for several weeks, during
which period she was considered labouring under and treated
for that most appalling disease, hydrophobia. The medical
gentleman who attended her gave her up for lost—but to their
great astonishment she recovered. From that period the wo-
man, who had been of remarkably steady habits, gave way
to drinking-, neglected her business, and thus reduced herself
and family from easy circumstances to a very poor condition.
Mrs. Simmonds has, from the time of the first attack, at in-
asateiaxrdrsemwptlureser,ehakvesiaolrtfysing from five to six months, been afflicted with
the
l together,t dh ie oar
tdt
he
err,
whichappearanceswhich
ti
m time
she invariablyoffoa
hydrophobia,lastsm foams
a t for
e five
mouthev e or yr
successive attack being more severe than the preceding. It
is somewhat singular, that
notwithstandin g
attacks, Mrs. Simmonds, although at • expiration of each,
requested by her relations, would never the
expira
to have the
dog destroyed ; and it died o
f these repeated
consent
old age about a twelvemonth
since.

MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS.... We are glad to per-
ceive that operations go briskly forward in those districts
where a contest is expected. It is only, however, in the
fourth and fifth wards that any struggle
will take place. Iu
the former there are three vacane;es to, supply. For these
there are four candidates in the field three Liberals and one
Tory.—Scotstnan,

THE REGISTRATION OF 1838.

(CONTINUED.)

In replying to the statements contained in the Tory
manifesto put forth by Fraser, it is no part of our duty to
travel out of the record ; we have only to dispose of the
assumed gain, and show to the country that there is no
cause for Tory triumph in the results of the registrations
for this year. We have already shown that the gains
claimed by the Tories upon the counties resolve themselves
into the chance of attacking five seats. We could very
easily have brought that number from the probability of
gain to the certainty of loss. We could have instanced
%Vest Gloucestershire, East Yorkshire, Glamorganshire,
as proofs of Liberal success. We could have given the
number of objections absolutely maintained in North
Derbishire, East Cumberland, North Durham, proving
thereby that the Tory statements are false ; and we might
have pointed attention to the fact that upon Fraser's
own authority the Liberals in North Devon succeeded upon
objections. We might have exposed the sheer nonsense of
taking any precise number of claims in counties as gain ;
for as each county voter sends in a claim to be registered,
nothing but personal knowledge of his politics can enable
any party to classify the new claimant accurately.. We
might have shown the folly of relying upon, and claiming as
earnest of success, a gain upon a county registration (taking
the Tory manifesto as correct) of 20, 73, 3], .51, 59, 81,
31 upon constituencies varying from three to ten thousand ;
when the common mortality upon any onri of the numbers
of registered voters will vary the register more than the
majorities of which they now boast. But it is sufficient to
have reduced the Tory proclamation to a gain of small
amount upon five seats, and to know that not one of those
five could they carry upon the present register.
We shall now treat the boroughs somewhat differently.
We shall first prove many of the Tory statements to be in-
correct, others totally untrue. We will admit any that we
believe to be correct, and, ha%ing done so, we will dispose
of their assumed majority upon the borough registration by
reversing it, and placing it on our own side. The process
is simple, it is easy also ; and although we should not have
boasted of success, we cannot allow others to claim our
victories as theirs, and impudently exult in the triumph of
falsehood. There is this very material difference between
borough and county registration, that whilst in boroughs
the overseers or the town-clerk put down in their respec-
tive lists the names of all who are entitled, according to
their knowledge ; in counties no man's name is put down
until he sends in a claim to be registered. The number of
claims in boroughs are few in proportion, but they form an
item in borough registration very different to their position in
counties. They are generally put in by zealous political parti-
sans, anxious to claim a right to which the overseers or town-
clerks have not judged them entitled ; their right is
thoroughly sifted, and their sentiments clearly ascertained.
In counties it is only parties objected to whose opinions
tr cool
n]
e . b(1, e
Icno nbi eo known,ro
ugi s e
laani htso
ands e rights
pa
rt teos
ovbo teec
taerde tqo uuens
enrlguoe h t
a mheorseomvae r
ioarbdl ee a
bl .
od
yA
tgbaai nn ,
tah
ab
to roof uag he constituency
changesis
in occupation, neglect in payment of rates and taxes, pro-
duce great alterations in each borough ; and thus it is
not from claims and objections alone that any certain
knowledge of political strength can be gained. We will
give one instance. At the lost general election a borough
returning two Members had 1,190 voters on its register ;
it was contested by two Liberals and one Tory ; out of
the 1,190 999 voted. The register for the same town now
contains 1,405 voters ; 327 who were on the register for
1837 are not on the present ; and 540 are on

the present who were not on the register for 1837.
Scarcely an objection was nude on either side
upon this year's revision, and very few claims.
Now, what knowledge of political strength would be
gained by a statement of ten objections and twenty
claims sustained by either party ? And yet we are com-
pelled to meet phantoms of this nature, in order to prevent
the public mind from being abused by Tory mis-statements.
To return to Fraser. We allege the Tory statements to
be incorrect in the following instances :—we print the total
amount of objections and claims sustained added together,
for the sake of brevity, as stated by Fraser, and also as we
aver them to be. If our correctness be doubted, we state
at once that our authority is derived from actual communi-
cations, whilst Fraser's numbers are taken from different
Tory papers, and in almost every case repudiated as false
and incorrect by persons on the spot. Let any one turn
over the files of country newspapers at Peele's Coffee-
house, and the penny-a-line system convicts itself. To show
the importance of such gains, we add the number of the
constituency in each place upon the last parliamentary re-
turns of registration, and the politics of the representatives
at the present moment :

FRASER'S CORRECT
REPREu
STATEMENT. NUMBERS, SENTATION.
Objections Objections Registered
and Claims and Claims Con_
Sustained. Sustained. stitttency.
Tory Liberal ToryfLiberal
_____........-- .._-- Tory Liberal
London ................ 317 '9l 305 140 18,25 S -----
13evizes ................ 37 11 31 rl 321 T 4
Lancaster ............. 61 36 51 32
1,707 2
Scarborough ......... 25 9 14 9 412
Wakefield ............ 56 41 44 30 1 1
617
Lyme Regis .......... 7 5 0 5 1
Andover ............... 15 9 13 10 250 ... 1
Christchurch •••••••" 24 12 17 hi 952 1 1
Bury st. Edmund's 48 23 4 4 os 1,54 1
W00d5t0ck............ 47 39 29 27 633 1 1
Bradford ............... 90 56 75 72 301 1
1,225
Salisbury ............... 13 8 11 9 ... 2
Worcester ............ 154 98 121 108 650 1 1
St. A thaws ............ 1.3 0 13 3 i'.')36 1 1
Blackburn.... ......... 71 1.1 31 1., 544 1 1
Hythe ... ............... 30 10 20 11 7 1
761 1 1
Shrewsbury ..........I 40 `.lB 29 28 4y ...
1,530 1 1
--...,-

la -I

-- ___
It will thus be seen that in 17 boroughs returning SI
Members, of which la are now Tory and 16 Liberal, there
is an apparent gain upon the registration—not any alleged
increase of Tory strength, but merely a majority upon
claims and objections. I here are of these boroughs four
entirely held by Reformers and four by Tories, the re-
mainder being divided between the two parties ; so that
the number of seats to be affected by any probability is
only ONE.
There are many boroughs in Fraser's list in which re-
gistration is an annual farce, played for the benefit of sundry
hungry Tory lawyers and gentlemen, &c., who, having
been brought up in the system, add to their list every year
a set of voters who will agree to give them a preference in
the purchase of their votes when an election may arise, and
this is called "party gain." 10 dispute about such places
is worse than folly : we will name them to clear the list,
and with this assurance, that the voters thus added will
vote for the Tories just as long as they pay them best.
Objections and Claims. Representation.
Tory. Liberal.
Tory. Liberal.
Maidstone..... 81
Ipswich
Leominster..... 11 ......1
Colchester
Beverley O2 ...... 20 ...... ...
Evesham l9 ...... 5 1 1 ......

2
To the triumphs claimed in these six 8 boroughs the
Tories are quite welcome : the increase of honest voters is
in the overseers' lists ; the Swiss are added by hard swear-
ing at the registration. Of the ten representatives eight
are Tory already, so that only two seats can be bought
from the Liberal party at any price. Having thus corrected
the errors upon seventeen boroughs, and cleared away the
rubbish of six, we will on Monday next complete our re-
view of Fraser's manifesto, and give our statement of this
year's borough registration, so far as it is necessary. The
Reformers of England may rely that we can give both a
correct and satisfactory account, and that the Liberal inte-
rest is strengthened thereby.

ADDRESS FROM THE REFORMERS
OF ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, AND WALES, TO
THE IRISH PEOPLE.

The following address has een -adopted by the Working
Men's Associations throughout the kingdom, and is signed on
their behalf, by Mr. Lovett, Secretary to the Working Men's
Association, London, and the other Secretaries and Chairmen
of the various Associations. The address has not been yet for-
warded to Ireland :
" Brothers in political bondage,
" The deep waters which divide our shores, and the still
deeper intrigues of self-interest and bigotry, which in ten
thousand channels have laboured to divide our hearts, have led
to the formation of prejudices opposed to our mutual interests.
Those mischievous feelings have been carefully fostered by the
interested exclusives of both countries. They have employed
you to silence our demands for freedom, and we have been en-
gaged to keep your country in poverty and subjection. Pre-
judice and ignorance have ever been the great allies of des-
potism, and well do our rulers know it. Union and knowledge
are the twin brothers which shall destroy its dominion ; and it
is for US to let our brethren know it—on that knowledge will
our liberty depend, and on the establishment of that liberty our
happiness.

" In addressing you, fellow-countrymen, our object is
union; for, though the Channel divides, the ocean surrounds us
—though bigotry would dissever, charity should unite us; and

PRICE sd.

as the blood of both countries commingle in our views, and the
people of both blend their occupations in the workshop and the
field ; so, assuredly, under the benign influence of free and
equal institutions, would our liberties and interests be blended
and identified as one united and happy people.
" We can readily imagine that the oppression and injustice
you have received through the Legislature of Britain, have
aroused your feeling and deeply rooted your suspicions against
our country. But we would urge you to remember that we,
too, have shared in the injustice—we have been reciprocally
taxed to oppress, and drilled to enslave each other, and are
still united victims of the same cause which plunders, op-
presses, and blights the happiness of both countries—the curse
of exclusive legislation. This, we feel convinced, is the
great source of all our oppression ; ignorance, immorality, po-
verty, and crime, have their origin, positively or negatively, in
" exclusive legislation ;" for, as long as exclusive interests are
made the basis of law and government, so long will exclusive
measures be supported at the sacrifice of peace, happiness, and
virtue.
" Therefore it is to this one point especially we would direct
your attention; nay, we would urge you to inquire whether
you can trace the numerous evils you complain of to this bane-
ful origin. Who but your own exclusive legislators sold your
country ? and who but the exclusive legislators of England pro-
fited by the blood-cemented bargain ? Your own legislators,
corrupted by the gold, and cankered by the patronage of Bri-
tain, rendered your domestic Legislature a mere puppet of its
will ; there it was where landed supremacy predominated, and
English interests swayed, till eventually perfidy concluded the
bargain your own corrupt Legislature had begun.
" Since the Union, who have been greater instruments in
the Lands of Britain for binding you to the dust than your
own exclusive legislators? With few exceptions the interests
of their own order has been paramount to the welfare of the
nation. Grattan, your greatest orator, who in civil war op-
posed coercive measures, when in the United Parliament sup-
ported the very measures he condemned, and in his specious
example seems not to have been forgotten by legislators of mo-
dern times. The ruling foes of Britain have not been deficient
in that selfish sagacity which ever seeks to strengthen injustice
by corruption; hence they have united in their unholy com-
pact your most talented orators, profound writers, gallant war-
riors, and able statesmen—they have inspired your vanity with
songs and boastings, and have thrown a halo of glory over the
sepulchre of your decay.
" Captivated by power and riches at the expense of justice,
your gentry have been rendered greedy by patronage—your
yeomen corrupted by preferment, and the choicest of your
peasantry moulded into instruments of oppression to exact, by
steel and bludgeon, the scanty necessities of the poor, to sup-
port the extravagances of the rich.
" We will not harrow up your feelings in depicting the hor-
rible results of this system, by dwelling on the extremes of
wretchedness, with which you are familiar; but we would
urge you to trust to your own judgment, apart from the capti-
vaantdintgo toneask yourselves
eloquencenrsoi
ve
s whether which has
ho
ssoo
evils
been
sn
area
ttryiobuur gtabuleide ;
to
your union with England, and whether they are to be reme-
died merely by a separation? We are far from denying your
right to a domestic Parliament, or the justice of self-govern-
ment ; but, depend upon it friends, while an exclusive class
have the election ofthe House of Conunons, the interest of that
class will be supported to your prejudice and ours, whether
Parliament meet in London or Dublin. The separation of
that House would only be a division of evils ; your own aris-
tocracy would be strengthened—one faction would supply the
place of another. British influence and intrigue would again
predominate, and the evil, so far from being remedied, would

be increased in magnitude and power.
" Yet, this is the chief blessing that is threatened to be
conferred upon you, if you will not be content with the less
measure of happiness our most gracious Ministers are dis-
posed to bestow, if they were free
.frorn Tory influence to dis-
pense their liberal favours !!! The question of extending
the suffrage to the millions we never hear of among the bles-
bssuieni.gpedsrnotsootphte,barettoildtlyies,7ruived from a separation. You have been as-
your commerce
if
have
aov o
ueshadoin a w o
Parliamentohooui
cl do iflno u
electingor flourish, hy, uand
o it;yourw n—t
h ewpnee, o pi
nl
be-
lieve-
deed, when you have legislators whose interests shall he iden-
tified with your happiness, will they legislate to effect it, but
be assured not till then.

" The happiness of a country does not depend on her com-
merce so much as on the quantity of comfort she can retain
for her own population. Your commerce has been increas-
ing ever since the Union, and your poverty in a like propor-
tion. To what cause is this anomaly to be attributed ! We
will presume to express our conviction of the course for your
consideration.

" In the first place, exclusive legislators, having their own
interests to secure rather than the general happiness of society,
have, by their corrupt enactments, ruinous wars, extravagant
expenditure, taxation and monopoly, generated great poverty
among the people.

" Secondly, where poverty exists there will ignorance and
violence exist also; and hence those funds which ought to be
employed in production, have been diverted to the supporting
of soldiers, police, prisons, and all those instruments for
punishing, what ought in wisdom to have been prevented.
" Thirdly, when violence and insecurity exist in a country,
coupled with the exactions of fraud, monopoly. and injustice,
capital will not be secure, and will not bo employed there.
The man of wealth will not be safe, and consequently will not
reside there.

" Fourthly, for want of those employments capital and
wealth would create, nearly the whole population are com-
pelled to have recourse to agriculture. The consequent com-
petition for land has forced up nominal rents beyond the
power of payment ; joined to which, the rapacity of tithe-
proctors, collectors, and bailiffs, have farther paralyzed the
hand of industry, and prevented those improvements which the
owner and cultivator might otherwise enjoy.
" Fifthly.—The people thus reduced to live on the lowest
description of food, their standard of comforts being almost
confined to a sufficiency of it, being the worst housed, fed, and
clothed of any people in Europe, there is no demand for those

trades and manufactures which generate and support a respect-
able middle class population, excepting, perhaps, some few
exporting towns.
" Sixthly.—The long series of injustice, insults, and
neglect, to which your peasantry in particular have been ex-
posed, have generated that state of poverty and wretchedness
among them which is gradually undermining the comforts of
the class above them, and bids fair to involve all in the same

common ruin, for as their numbers increase they force them-
selves upon the towns, and by their low standard of comforts
are the main instruments for bringing down all others to their
own miserable standard.

" Seventhlv.—Faction has been arrayed against faction,
creed against creed, and man against his brother man, rot
so much from their own conscientious opinions as from the
pernicious counsel and malignant influences of corrupt legis-
lators, who find their own selfish supremacy strengthened by
the divisions and dissensions of the multitude.
" If you agree with us, brethren, as to the origin of these
evils, we trust you will co-operate with us to effect a remedy,
and the only effectual one, we believe, will be that which Mr.
O'Connell has sworn and pledged himself to support—Uni-
versal Suffrage, as well as all the other essentials to the free
exercise of that right. In all countries where the people are
exercising this right of freemen, are they progressing in
knowledge and happiness ; wherever class legislation prevails,
the interests of the millions are despised and neglected. Truo
liberty cannot exist where man does not exercise the rights of
men, for men whose lives and liberties are dependent on
others, who are taxed at others' wills, must fight at others' bid-
dings, must pay others before they can write, talk, buy, or
sell, must toil or starve at the will of others, though they may
sing of freedom, are still but the slaves of others.
a
" But you have been told that you must first and foremost
England'.—toy
must°tuhat of Ehnveg_
Municipal Reform, an
be placed on an equality
land.' We fear these counter projects are only intended to
thye franchisewith
baffle the Radicals of Ireland, and to create a diversion in
favour of the present patronising Ministry. We can give you
the benefit of our experience as regards these enviable mea-
sures of Reform. We have men in our Municipal corpora-
tions who at one time were the greatest advocates of Reform.
They have now realised all the reform they wished for, and
therefore are the greatest opponents of further progress.
Those, too, whose energies were united with the millions to
obtain the Reform Bill, are now as energetically opposed to
the rights of their former allies. Do you think the same
crass in Ireland will be more grateful in extending, or less
powerful in opposing any further reform or extension of right
than those of England? If so, you may, like us, find another
agitation to be necessary, and need more efficient co-opera-
tion to render it productive of benefit than those who now call upon you for aid.
4, We readily admit the great injustice of compelling the
Catholics of Ireland to support the Protestant Church Esta-
blishment, and cannot but lament the crooked policy which
has prevented the settlement of that question. But lest
you may think this a singular injustice, we would take this
opportunity of informing you, that there are a greater num-
ber of persons in England compelled to support a church,
from whose doctrines they dissent, than in your own country ;
nay, there are thousands of conscientious Protestants them-
selves, who think the sanctity of their church is Welted by its
corrupt alliance with the State.
" But you are called on to get up an exclusive agitation,
founded on the measures we have referred to—measures as
fruitless and as profitless to the bulk of the people as they
are meant to be mere barriers to secure Whiggery and
stumbling-blocks in the way of Radicalism. We shall
doubtless be condemned as Tory Radicals, in cautioning you
against this maudlin delusive scheme ; but be assured,
you have swallowed more bitterness to retain the present
Ministry in power, than the united despotism of Whig and
Tory could administer if the friends of the people were justly
allied. You are cautioned against us because we are neither
combined nor concentrated, nor have skilful or well-trained
leaders,' and ' talk of using physical force and the shedding
of human blood.' Regarding the extent of our combination
we will not boast, but are desirous that you should judge from
the hundreds of thousands who for the first time have given
up the peculiar projects of reform, and are now pledged and