The Sun.
London, England, 1822-12-27 00:00:00

FOR THE SUN.

Ma. EDITOII—It is painful to observe the per-
severing and systematic malignity with which the
Established Church of England is assailed by a
desperate Party. Disappointed ambition seems
to have made some of them blind as well as mad,
and happily their rancorous hostility is in a great
measure rendered impotent by their intemper-
ance. We do not mean that this bad spirit is
entirely of recent conception, but certainly it has
assumed, more than at any former period, a fierce,
and determined virulence.
Look at the conduct of the Morning Chronicle,
—the acknowledged, authorized, official, organ
of the Whigs. Read especially what has appear-
ed in it during the last Session of Parliament.—
Has any opportunity been omitted which it could
in any way make available for jeering and vilify-
ing the Clergy, and for rendering the Establish-
ment of the Church odious to the people ? Has a
week, nay even a day, passed without some
invective against tithes, some intimation of the
uselessness of Bishoprics, some recommendation
of the propriety of applying their exorbitant re-
venues to a better purpose ?
It is proper that the friends of the Established

Church should fix their attention on this conduct
of the modern Whigs, and be careful how they
place power in the hands of men who entertain
and avow such designs. As to power indeed, so
long baffled, they seem to have abandoned all
hope of gaining it, except by passing over the
ruins of our most sacred institutions. It shall
he our earnest endeavour, as it is the solemn
duty of every friend to the Church of England,
to assist in depriving them of this last hope. How
different is this conduct from that of the truly
great men whose name they have assumed and
disgraced ! They, the wise framers of our Con-
, stitution, thought it expedient that the Church
should rear its mitred front in the halls of our
Nobles, and in the Palaces of our Kings. They
were true friends of their Country, and as reli-
gious as any of their descendants; but it does
not appear that they ever exerted their ingenuity
in contriving the cheapest mode in which a
Church can be established, and the lowest terms
on which Ministers might be engaged to serve it.
Yet these modern Whigs are mighty friends to
Religion ;—we must not presume to question their
zeal for Religion. Oh no ! it is only the rich en-
dowments of the Established Church which they
dislike. They think, with Mr. Hume, that the
Presbyterian form of worship is certainly cheaper,
and in all other respects quite as good. Nay, if
people please to have a place of public worship
and a minister, let them pay for it themselves :
why should the country be burdened with the
expence of any establishment ? A religion that
cannot stand by itself does not deserve to stand at
all. However, in their guarded moments, these
modern Whigs assume a more temperate tone, and
profess that it is the abuse of the Establishment,
not the Establishment itself, against which their
virulence is directed ; it is a good church, but
badly administered ; Bishoprics are good, but the
Bishops bad ; as to the inferior Clergy, the
Curates perhaps, who have an income just suffi-
cient to sustain life, are diligent and praiseworthy,
but the rest, the Incumbents, Prebendaries, and
Deans, are lazy, luxurious, worldly-minded ; no
contemptuous epithet is too bad for them.
Such is the more guarded and measured lan-
guage to which the organ of the Whig party
sometimes restrains itself. To revile the Esta-
blished Church would be impolitic; any expres-
sions which may have escaped it, that might be
so construed, must be ascribed to inadvertence :
they revere the Church, and are only anxious that
it should be pure and free from abuse !
Let the Morning Chronicle declare itself openly.
We should be sorry to think ill of the Party of
which it is the organ, without reason and from
misapprehension ; and, therefore, beg that it will
speak without ambiguity. What does it mean by
the Establishment, as distinguished from the abuse
of it? Are the several gradations of Bishops,
Deans, Prebendaries, Incumbents, Curates, es-
sential according to its notion of the Establish.
ment ? Are the revenues attached to these seve-
ral orders essential ? If they are, what does it
mean by insisting, as it has often done lately,
that these revenues may legally and ought pro-
perly to be diverted from their present applica-
tion, to meet the urgent exigencies of the State ?
What does it mean by the invidious comparisons
which it is perpetually drawing between the
Church of England with its rich dignities, and the
Presbyterian Church with its economy and equa-
lity ? No, no! this flimsy disguise cannot avail :
the cloven foot is sufficiently visible. It is bet-
ter to be candid : we may have respect for an
open enemy, but when a known foe approaches
us with an hypocritical smile of friendship, all
respect must give way to mixed feelings of indig-
nation and scorn.

The Morning Chronicle loves the Establish-
ment, but hates the abuse of it. Yes, we under-
stand this modern Whig. Strip the Church of
its revenues, annihilate Bishoprics, Deaneries,
rich Livings, and his love for the Establishment
becomes passionate. His kindness is unques-
tionable, but he must pardon us for declining the
embrace of such an admirer.—A query was pro-
posed in Locke's time, whether a silk stocking
might not be darned with worsted till not a par-
ticle of silk should be left, and yet remain the
same identical stocking ? If this sapient friend
of the Established Church had lived in the day's
of Locke, he could have solved this knotty
question.

Again, to make the sentiments of this party
still more manifest, let us consider a little the

case presented to us in the trial at Durham.
Perhaps this great body may disclaim so head-
strong and intemperate a representative as the
Morning Chronicle; but there one of their
great chiefs, offers himself to our notice. Let '
us bear in mind, that the point to be ascer-
tained is,whether the hostility of the Whigs is to
the Established Church, or merely to some sup-
posed abuses of it. In the trial of John Am-
brose Williams, charged with libelling the Dur-
ham Clergy, what a fine opportunity was pre-
sented to the Counsel of settling this disputed
point. Let us suppose that Lord Grey, Lamb-
ton, and their scribe Williams, are deeply
attached to the Church of England. Then
the argument of Williams and of his Learn-
ed Friend would naturally be, " we have
no objection to the Bishopric of Durham, with
its splendid endowment and patronage; quite
the contrary ; we are proud of it as an essential
part of the Established Church, to which we are
sincerely attached ; but we complain of an abuse;
the individuals who enjoy this patronage, the
Clergy of Durham, have shamefully neglected
their duty ; when the injured Caroline expired,
they omitted to ring the Cathedral Bells."
Well, for this gross neglect of duty, this abuse,
what is the remonstrance made by this vigilant
watchman Williams, and his Learned Cham-
pion ? He, poor -Williams, in his honest frenzy,
without looking to the right or left, strikes
straight forward at the individuals immediately
before him ; it is not till he has given vent to his
contempt and wrath against his clerical neigh-
bours, and relieved himself by applying to them
the happy epithet of black beetles, that he finds
time to prognosticate the fall of the church gene-
rally, as a punishment for harbouring these crawl-
ing monsters. But his learned Advocate takes
post on a more extensive and a very different
ground. He saw no doubt that this story about
the Bells was ridiculous, and far from sufficient
to justify the foul language into which Williams
had been betrayed by his blind spite. He knew
moreover, that if we are to have Bishops at all,
it is impossible to have any more venerable, more
pious, more eminent for every quality that can
adorn this high and sacred station than the pre-
sent Bishop of Durham ;—if we are to have a
Clergy, that we can never expect to be blessed
with a body of men more distinguished for learn-
ing and ability, or more zealous in the discharge
of their ministerial duties, than the very objects
of his client's hatred, the Smilers, the Fabers,
the Philpotts, on whom the Bishop of Durham
has conferred his patronage. In short, he saw
clearly, that this pretext about complaining
merely of the abuse of the Establishment, could
not in the present instance be laid hold of. It
was plain that no abuse existed : Williams did
not pretend to say, much less to prove, that the
Durham Clergy, were drunkards, or in any
respect immoral ; the sole charge against them
for which this virtuous Patriot poured out the
vials of his wrath, was, that they did not ring
the Cathedral bells, when the said Patriot thinks
they ought to have rung them.
It is most important that the People of Eng-
land, and especially the friends of the Establish-
ed Church, should read the Counsel's speech,
and ponder upon the principles which it discloses.
It contains a complete exposition of his own feel-
ings and of the Party to which he belongs. lie
does not attempt to charge the particular indivi-
duals, the plaintiffs, with any fault, unless, in..
deed, with hypocrisy,—a sort of charge that can
neither be proved nor disproved; but he discharges
a copious torrent of sneers and jibes against
Episcopacy. In his usual sarcastic style; he con-
trasts its blessings with the poverty of the Pres-
byterian System, under which he himself was edu-
cated. " The Scotch, poor wretched creatures,
must know nothing of the blessings of Episco-
pacy, nothing of rich Benefices, nothing of
the bounty of Providence or the blessings
of Tithes." A palatine Prince of Tithe, is
the contemptuous expression by which he de-
signates the Bishop of Durham, " with an Es-
tablishment which he would call a most enor-
mous and overwhelming blessing." So he goes
on, greeted with the noise and laughter and
plaudits of the vulgar mob stationed at his
back. What did he, or they, or Williams, care
about the silence of the Cathedral bells ? But
to scoff at Episcopacy, Benefices, and Titices,was
an exquisite treat both to the mob and to the
scorner himself.

It is important for the people of England to
mark these and similar disclosures of the temper
and designs of the modern Whigs. But, confiding
in the integrity and discernment of the enlight-
ened people of England, we prognosticate that
they will never allow their most valued institu-
tions to be placed at the mercy of such men-
For their own security, and for the maintea
nance of the Institutions which they cherish
and revere, they are resolved that this party
must be kept down in the station which
they at present hold ;—convinced that the very
existence of these Institutions is incompatible
with the rule of such men. X. X.

BIRTHS.
On the 24th inst. at Dulwich-hill, Camberwell, the Lady of
Ralph Ricardo, Esq., of a son.
On the 24th inst., the Lady of R. Stubbings, Esg., Goswel/-
road, of a son and heir.
At Stanground, Hunts, on the 21st inst. the Lady of tho
Rev. H. Y. Smythies, of a daughter.