The Sun.
London, England, 1838-06-04 00:00:00

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WITH WHICH
" THE TRUE SUN" IS NOW

INCORPORATED.

LONDON :
MONDAY EVENING, JUNE 4, 1838.

The deplorable events near Canterbury are now suffi-
ciently known to require some specific notice from every
independant journalist. " Nothing, says the Chronicle, has
yet transpired to dear up satisfactorily how THOM or
COURTENAY established his influence over his followers."
But the reporter of the Times tells us that COURTENAY
had a great fluency of speech ; that the peasants could not
contend against his learning ; and that his few ful denun-
ciations, in his assumed character of a prophet, joined to an
apprehension that he would shoot those who forsook him,
were the sources of his power. That gentleman agrees
with the reporter of the Post in the following statement :

" I had been gathering faggots, Sir," said an eye-witness, and re-
mained about all the morning making up my bundle while the constable's
brother was killed outside by the farm. house, so I saw the whole affair
in the wood from the beginning. At eight o'clock I saw him muster his
followers in the wood, and drawing near I heard him sing a hymn and
pray, and saw him administer the sacrament to them of bread and water.
After Alexander Foal (he who was shot in the jaw) had received it,
he knelt down before all the crowd and worshippe l him, and asked him
on his knee.; whether he should follow him thenceforth in the body, or
go home and pray to him, and follow him i❑ heart and spirit. Then Sir
William answered and bid him get up, for that he should follow him in
the body. Foad then jumped up in great exultation, exclaiming, 'O,
be joyful ! 0, be joyful ! the Saviour has accepted me! Now, Lord, g'
on, and I will follow you till I drop!' Another man, cf the name of
Blanchard (he that was killed), did the same: worshipped, and promised
to follow him to his life's end! No one thought to gainsay him, or part
company from hi Ile had his pistols, and lam convinced, from the
way he ordered everybody, that if any of his followers had refused to go
with him, he would have shot him on the spot."
"

The influence was that of a cunning fanatic over gross
and deplorable ignorance, and it no more needs further
explanation than the influence of MAIIOMET or any
other imposter. What requires to be accounted for is not
COURTENAY'S influence, but why it v-is not known and not
counteracted. COURTENAY invaded the province of the
Clergyman—was there no resident Curate, Vicar, or Rec-
tor weekly and daily in communication with Lis parishioners
to hear of these things, and undeceive the poor deluded
multitude ? Is the Rev. Dr. POORE, who went at the
head of the military, the Clergyman of any one
of the victims of this wrLtehed delusion ? Since last
October COURTENAY has been in that neighbour-
hood ; his character was previously known ; and his
influence over the people was not obtained in a day,
an hour, or a week. We require to know what
were the Magistrates, and especially the Clergymen
of the Established Church, in the neigbourbood about,
that they were ignorant of those proceedings, or
failed to guard against them ? When these questions
are answered we shall be better able to estimate the uti-
lity of their services to the State, of which they and
their partizans vaunt so continually.
The readiness to be deluded so immediately in the vicinity
of the Cathedral of Canterbury, where there is so much
Church, suggests another question. Is the instruction ad-
ministered weekly to the people by the clergy unconnected
with any other literature, or any science, the best possible
to guard men against such delusions as those which
COURTENAY excited? The woman CULVER, like the men,
seems to have been a worshipper, and we are free to confess
that the weekly repetition of the Litany, theoccasional intro-
duction of the Anthanasian Creed, the sermons of the clergy,
and the general nature of the instruction given 13v them, seem
to us to form an admirable ground-work for belief in all the
promises and professions of such lunatics as COURTENAY.
We are, on reflection, less surprised that such sad scenes
should occur near the Cathedral of Dr. noweev, than in a
neighbourhood less redolent of the Church. We require,
then, to be informed what means the clergymen of the
neighbourhod have taken to instruct and warn their people
against the miracles which COURTENAY announced he was
to perform, and which was the foundation of his power ?
Another thing which requires to be cleared up is, why
were the warrants issued in the first instance, and by
whom ? Till —... COURTENAY brutally slew the constable,
he do s not seem to have committed any legal offence.
MEARS on the first inquest deposed that he went
towards CULVER'S house to " execute three war-
rants, for the apprehension of COURTENAY, WILLS,
and NEWMAN." On what ground, and at whose in-
stance, were those warrants issued ? Wa see no good
reason assigned for such a step. But supposin:f it
to have been proper, why was not a sufficient force
sect to secure its execution? Was it not known that
COURTENAY was at the head of a band of determined men
If it were, could anything be more unjustifiable than to
send three apparently unarmed men to arrest this lunatic,
and two of his followers ? To us the gross ignorance of
the pc rsantry seems well matched by the negligence or the
stupidity of the officers of justice. The public require to
he informed, then, why COURTENAY was ordered to be ar-
rested, and why those who ordered his arrest did not take
proper means to carry their orders into effect.
But. after the murder was committed, and the desperate
character of the lunatic and his deluded followers was
known, were proper measures taken to secure him and se-
parate him from them? The military were summoned,
and Mr. HANDLEY made a feeble attempt to address
COURTENAY'S followers. We cannot think that all
was done which the law or which prudence requires.
Surely the rioters ought to have been made aware of the
presence of the military, and asked to surrender. Probably'
the Riot Act should have been read, of which there is no
evidence. But a gentleman, whose gallantry unfortunAtely
cost him his life, rushed towards COURTENAY, apparently
to seize him, and the bloody contest, which a little temper or
prudence might have avoided, then ensued. We want to know
if it were not possible by stratagem, by surrounding the wood,
by some temporary delay, to have succeeded in apprehen.l-
- the murderer, without shedding so much blood ?
We want to know, too, why it was that a
clergy man should be the acting Magistrate on this
occasion ? Was there no lay genii( man of the
neighbourhood to be found, who would rlieve the Rev.
Dr. PoonE from the odious task, for a Christian Clergy-
man, of ordering an attack by the military on a body of
his own countrymen, if not of his own parishioners ? Such a
lamentable spectacle as a Clergyman taking the lead in
a bloody affray is not to be witnessed in any pert of Chris-
tian Europe, except England and Ireland. The members
of the Church of England alone, here and in Ireland,
have the horrible pre-eminence of being also magis-
trates and executors of the law. The blood of so
many of our country men calls on the authorities of the
land fur a serious and solemn investi4ation into
the whole of this awful business, and the public will not be
satisfied with any investigation by the Magistrates of the
neighbourhood. Something more must be done than to
institute an inquiry by them, which will most probably have
for its object to exculpate them, and inculpate the deluded
peasantry.

The Spectator of yesterday says, in reference to the pre-
sent dif"erence between the Whigs and the Tor:es

" Lord John Russell will carry his point in the Commons—sir Ro-
bert Peel his in the Lords. The Bill wilt come back from the Upper
House a Peel Bill. Some slight alteration will be submitted to by the
Opposition; and after much gruml ling:, and some big talk, Ministers
and their subservient majotity will pass a Tory Corporation Bill for
Ireland."
On Saturday the Times announced that the Ministers
were expected to submit to the Tories in bringing up the
Report. Lord JOHN RUSSELL, said our CoatAnperary, in
substance, will take care when the Report is brought up
to collect only a few of his followers ; he will make a show
of resistance, but will really consent to the amendments
of Sir ROBERT PEEL. we protest against our
pContem-
porary's conclusions, but we quote them to show what is
expected, and what is predicted of the Ministers. Fore-
warned is forearmed, and they now know that to take the
Teiryamendment;either on bringing u the Reportofthe Irish
Municipal Bill, or on the bill being sent down from the
House of Lords, will be reckoned to them as a proof of
gross duplicity or despicable cowardice. In either case
they will break the last link, which connects them with the
victorious Reformers, and acknowledge themselves the
beaten vasseis of the beaten Tories, We are personally
indifferent. to the 'compromises and to the squabbles of
the parties in Parliament, because we pre completely
tis-
suked that the tithe question in Ireland has been suffered to
rem* so
long in the'hauds, and qt the mercy of the pee_
Ow they must apd willsettle it as they like, not as
Tease the friends of the insulting t Church. and 4ontip.m