The Sun.
London, England, 1807-01-09 00:00:00

the final e.ortrleti9n, of their deSioms—if any person
be honest or bold enough to give infortnatiot against
them, the business which beEan in lawless combi-
mtion, is consummated by morder. •
Geoncttwo of th, Jury, this is the natural pro-
gress olasioeiations of this kind. When men en-
roll thentseh es for the purpose of resisting the law,
whutevor the pretext limy be upon which they oil-
r;inAlly a 4ociated, the, foulest climes are generated
in its Orogresisi'tha which begins in anarchy ends iti
murder—a: « eyeir murder itse!f, in the progress of
otttrlge, may be only a preparation for the blacker
horrors which are. to ensue.

•
• Geotlemen, there remains one circumstance of
peculi:x oacity with which this matter is connect-
ed. ln the various fermi and associations under
which their deshois have been conducted, it has
bee :1 thu policy of those people to administer oaths
to tlve. perion4 culled upon by them, binding them
. a,-ocitnions and to secrecy. This °fleece is by
law punished well death. The person who com-
s anistpay the futfeit of his life. The person
tali Mg such an oath is banished for 'ever from his
country. The merecircomstance of going to a Ma-
gistrate, and tellitig bun of the oath being taken, will
not absolve the, party ; the oath must.. be taken
.egaMst his will—for it it he to •"n voluntarily, he
is, notwithstanding ste:h information, liable ,to be
transported for life, Gentlemen, this is no new
devised.pkinislment ; it is the established law of the
land ; it has beep 50 for many rears ; it has been pro-
vided, and wisely, by the Legislatures to meet the
outrages which from time to time have infested this
country. There is nu disproportion between this
punishment and the crime; it strikes at the roots
of tnorality and religion, and tends dine&ly to de-
stroy those principles which are essential to civilized
society. Gentlemen, an oath is the sandier) by
-which, undo the law of the country, we call upon
the Creator to attest the truth and purity of our
words ;and' this solemn sanction, which our civil
institutions has borrowed from our religious code,
is prostituted to bind together an association of
traitors, robbers, and murderers. The name of the
living God is appealed to far the purpose of witness-
ing and ratifying the infernal compaa by which
these wretches league themselves against law and
religion. Gentlemen, it produces a revolution of
every moral feeling to hear of such' conclud ; not
that-it is a violation of the laws and usages of so-
ciety ; but, because it is an outrageous blasphemy
against our Creator to call upon him to attest and
vitally the crimes of his creatures.
" Gentlemen, it is not necessary now to dwell
upoW the illegality of those associations; but while
they profess to attack the property of the Church,
cannot pass them by without a few observations.
The tithes of the Clergy of this country are their
property ; they are secured to thero by the same
laws which secure to every man amongst you his
estateb,er his property, whatever the description of
it may be : the saute laws and the same right by
which any Gentleman that hears me holds his es-
tate, transmitted to hint from his ancestors ; the
laws which secure the fruits of each man's indivi-
dual industry, are the tithe by which the property
of the Clergy is secured to them s and I trust
Gentlemen, that there is no matt so selfish as to look
to any system by which the property of one pat c of
the community shall be protected, and that of anu-
titer spoliated. lf.there bei any man so selfish as to
wish it, let no man think it tan he -done. Let a
tatuttitude be assembled under t empire of Thresh-
ers old Shakers, armed and arrayed in order to
make head against the rank and property of the
country—and what shall stop their career wish
try voice to extend to every $lOl within these was,
to eery roan of tense and retlexidn ; I w wild tell
bini, that there is no proteEtion for Rank,- for Pro-
perly, for the State, bin. by resisting those disturb-
ers, mid making them fed the irresistible weight of
the law. They say , they rise to redress grievancesi
bttt, Geetlemeu, there is a mode known to' the Con.
climax) of redressing grievances, and there is' no
law to prevent nun hum stating them ;
,there is a
legal mode of obtaining relief. This, I will say, the
Constitutioo of the Church is intimately cennetted
with the Constitution of thy Stine it is , a part of
Viso: same fabric, which has been handed down to us
NO ow ancestors, and if there he any thing imper-
fect in, it, no reflecting roan will approach it, for the
purpose of alteration, without extreme caution ;, he
wilt by careful in tile attempt to remedy its imper-
feCtions, not to affett the substance, or..even the
prOportiou or beauty ofilie orndinmtit. lint this task
of reformation is undertaken—by whom ? by the
dregs of the cotimmuity-anony mous ruffians, who
fear the facO.of,day, whose title is fokeided in near-
chY, find wb se pretensions are enforced by robbery
and murder. •

#' I eannot pasi by another part of these asso-
ciations: r mean the attack upon the Priests,
, ttleild!k not with religious rites; I mean the attack
which is made upiu the support derived from the
voluntary bounty which Oat; members of the ROM3II
C3lhae pel.itiLLoolt have beet) in the habit of giving.
to the Ministeis of their reli&on fig celebrating the
riles of that religion. It is not that they say, we
tvill not pay, for there is no law to compel them to
pay; but they proclaiot this, that no man whO
chooses to do so Shall dare to pay his Priests their
t`e( ; For what purpose are thebe lees given ? they
sire given to obtain the rites of their religion ; they
floW
,from a 6ellie of religiotti' they flow from vo-
jemmy bOunty ; they are enfureed by no Compul-
sion ; the untertunate .men who receive them. are
Armed with tiolew for their support ; and yet these,
assoLiations are formed, to do whatto rob the
Priest of his benediCtien and prayers ! Do these Men,
besmeared with blood and covered with 'crimes,
imagine that the ceremonies of religion, which are
plundered ffaill their clergy, can gain them a passport
to a better. world I .1 cannot, help feeling and de-
ploring That this view of the subject suggests an ap•
prehension, that the devisers of this plaUeould have
nothing less in their contemplation thin eradi7
trom the minds of those upon whom they
could operate sense of religion. Npthing
but their hellish machinations could have devised
such a scheme. It they expel the people will be
ripe to perpetrate crimes worse than these—if
they Wish them to be ready instrutnents of
very deiiert , which is diabolical, there is no
plan so. etleCtual as the extinaion of every htil-
wiient of religion in the 'minds of the common
What may be the form of the religion of