The Sun.
London, England, 1840-06-06 00:00:00

JOHN T

1:107
a c Sun of Thursday.)
lPaid
troge, e, Monday, May 4, 1840.
Id to answer your letter to

.OGOOD

Continued fro+
137, Chr
Sir—l now
28th ult.
Luestions ar
, did not Is fr.
he rate, an
silo horogood content himself with
dispute t
be viz w seizure of his goods?
en surianl( flied lity of the rate ?
that is, cited) why did he not

;a cillesti°ll Poor
I not lin° r
}our con
clusior
the fir at rno•

aliarly for him, and the more so
at the time.

Jrtainly

ne ought

known b

might

hiss
hey tr
►e• MT

13 ;--

ne rs
Ist&

ye must come from himself."
I did wrong, and commenced the

to offer to pay the rate and cots,
is intention of doing so.'
be passive himself and say he is in
fiends."

Sight, perhaps, do for him what he
y do fougoself."
ist pay forffil blunder and acting under

tust say, or we for him, there is the um-
, and alloi me to quit my cruel imprison_:. so directly opposed to what I believed
ws, that I felt your reasons ought to be
his serious consideration.
if a friend could so view the cue, it might
opponents could not be wrong.
-at a sent your
y.
efore tc him enclosed, in one of which I send

requested me to answer it, mid instructed me
answer.

" If my persecutors be relally and sincerely
o exonerate me from teaking the oath, they
they mean to act with crrni.istency, to discharge
* the payment of the rate and the costs, as they
ry objection is equally ae strong to the one as
r."

is the duty of the per.se.cutinc, party to confess
-.-vrotig and do what right. They ought to be
glad to make an
they can. Defeat -enure end of the business,
• and mortification can never be
men who act frost
( exty honestly, ane , conscientious motives, and do
I therefore the first move will
,be made by me..
mive not done r wrong, and did not commence the
,e, I acted up( in principle, and will endeavour to
(1,,,%1:„t the
, c°nser tuences of my imprisonment be what
—7—'et my persecutors look to that.
I will never., pay the rate or costs.
The Chum
,h is corgpletely in the wrong already,
tne spirit 1 ately maffssted, in the demands made
my Wife f nor another rate, is sufficient proof of what
y expect from its Christian and amiable disposition.
Nny del' cage the Church may have received, and
19t trill jag in this affair, is to be attributed to its
;:voted misconduct and injustice. It never
has,
ever 7 ill be, any satisfaction to me, or any other ientio usly religious man, to see a Church
calling
Christian, acting in a manner which a heathen
blu4 hto be suspected capable of imitating."
usi y that he certainly did wrong anei commenced
it tie and ought to offer to pay the rate and costs.
t re 4 ; examine this :
mt. ' wrong has he inflicted ? BerAuse he did not
)be( lience to a proceeding he d,oamed to be oppres-
hen ,fore, you say he commen red the battle.
of 1 his to say to the bruised worm, you commenced
attl e because you did not, turn respectfully when
ii 1 ipon ?
le ; of the tortured martyrs upbraided those who
them ; did they 114eerefore deserve that a second
13 ould be driven 1
4 ie one of thr „if, poor sufferers wasting away in
could it be r easonably said that he had begun
la „because 1,4. did not conform, and should linger
IL :.. there, 14' Amuse, being lawfully tortured, he
U )rne rev er entially the crushing of his limbs ?
11 t enter u' pon the question whether it would
o..politic in the sufferers to have suffered meekly,
av e left t 1 he " Unit Boot " to their children.
n 313 Y opi eion, a Protestant, especially a Dis.
rho arg
,ues that Thorogood's opponents are
s him' elf in the wrong, and ought to conform.
he f Catholics right in purifying the martyrs
30, the Church of England is right in
iy in prison, not else.
, t suppose the Court had (as I alleged) a
.at course open, they had a right to commit
tit 3mpt if they chose.
d lifer from you.
ii i this you confound things essentially dis-

had ;the power, not the right.
clues Lion, in this case, is not what is, but what
G

-yinsr, your implied assumption that the Church is
:r2ady conapietely.,6 the wrong, but for the sake
a argue 'Went admit your conclusion, that the pay-
of th .e rate and the costs would put the Church so
letely• in the wrong that is reasonable to suppose
;voul d not resist the feeling which would be dis-
.d ; t here is a previous question, as I submit, and
is, wr &ether Mr. Thorogood would not thereby put
cIF Co ,Lopictely in the wrong ? Ought he ?
ycu have seen, his objection goes to paying the
as well as taking the oath .
e Was, you say, unwittingly put the Church in a
of nee c sstty to do what th cy have done, and that
ther Gsursc remained open to them but to commit
or contempt, and that this impression, right or
prevails since Dr. Lusl iing-ton's speech.
i so, it will not be the firat time that the world
elieved in error, or that Vile speech of a clever
ist in Parliament has for, • a time mystified a plain
ion.

Whether it be right for M,j r. Thorogood to submit for
that reur2on, is a question whir h he has answered himself,
With every proper respect fox your opinion, he does
z.ot himself think that the w orld doe:, believe it is ne-
nssary to the Established C 'herch that he should lie 1.
months in prison for not p aying ss. fid., or for not ap-
pearing to the process of xe Ecclesiastical Court, when,
for a debt to any other per son or body, if he had not ap-
peared to a process from the Superior Courts, those
Courts would simply h are passed judgment upon him
to pay the amount pr ove d to be due from him, and the
proof of the case again Ist him, would have been, notwith-
standing he did not, appear, carefully watched by the
Deputy Sheriff.
Upon your obs ervation that you do not imagine that
when he refiners to pay the 53. 6d. rate, he meant to
go to prison, for it but he must have anticipated an-
noyance, seizure of his goods, but not to spend the re-
mainder of his life in gaol ; that he thomght he should
be robbed, not murdered, for his contumacy he writes,
" I love ti:tith better than expediency.
" I never meant to pay the. rate.
" I had made up my rnind:to suffer the penalty of my
refusal, to he robbed, er slow4.ly murdered at the option
of my Christian persecutors.
" I did not expect that the British House of Com-
mons would have stultified itself after having declared
the law to be unjust, and that it ought to be abolished."
You se he thinks there may be others besides the
Church who would be glad to. make an entire end of the

)r ibstance, the patrons of the livings, the right to ap-
; the receivers of a tenth of the fruits of a great
try like this, is no slight ;stake.
le clergy have only a life interest ; the aristocracy
.he fee simple.
.:re is also the -Refocused House of Commons,
few, I believe would say it is much improved,
, ,leet to realise tkeir ovsn resolution on this sub-
'-:
;he last Session.
conviction, I fear, is fast spreading that their
,sons are frequently oaere modes of postponing
-,ns it is net convenient to deal with, and Corn-
but the means of smothering such questions.
.:turn to your opinion, that you cannot help
that every party concerned would be heartily
`) make an entire and of the business, if they
wit'mout any feeling of defeat or mortifica-
and to yr.ur question, Cannot this be done ?"
' will, I am sure, pardon me for saying that this
tic a pointless question.
a.
to settle would noit, f
when disputing a question,
be de-
it, he could do so without 'any feel-
defeat or mortification ?
ut if either of these consequences are involved,
question implies that neither party
should, or at
, would desire to make an end of the question, by
lg defeat and mortificajion to themselves,
submit to you that Mr. Thorogood is right in
zing it is the duty of the persecuting party to con_
what's wrong and do what's right.

A the author of " Hudibras before Wick-
Luther, or Knox, it is not probable either of
would have recommended to his followers the
et you suggest to Mr. Thorogood.
[ Air., Dear Sir, your's respectfully,
(Signed) W. H. ASHURST.