The Sun.
London, England, 1841-06-17 00:00:00

7, 1841

THE WESLEYANS AND THE

BREAD-TAXERS.

TO WESLEY AN ELECTORS.

CHRISTIAN BRETHWEN,--011r venerable founder John
Wesley was a powerful advocate for purity Of election,
genuine friend to liberty, and emphatically the poor
man's friend ;" and I have the pleasure of knowing that
many of our ministers are nobly following in his steps.
But alas, it is a matter of notoriety that the major part
of them are found warmly upholding ths, pcoad preten-
sions of the aristocracy, and of the State priests who de-
spise and trample on them, while 'they are but too indif-
ferent to the wrongs and woes of the working,-elesses,
by whom they are chiefly supported. This is
accounted for by the well. known fact, that
they are governed generally by the few preachers who
constitute the London .Committees, which (!ommitteits
are but as the puppets of a 'certain celebrated noel' r
whose Church and Tory feelings are inspired by the
hope of a mitre, and whose or au, the ll'atchnia::,
is incessantly trying to coax or frighten those of its
readers who detest its politics yet rejoice in the religious
information it affords. While all this is lamentably true,
it furnishes us, my fellow Wesleyans, with the stroAgest
reasons for strenuous and simultaneous exertions en be-
half.of the starving multitudes aroand us. For how-
ever well it may suit the mushroom Doctors of the
gorgeously furnished "Centenary Hall" to • draw us,
for their own aggrandisement, nearer and nearer
to the Semi-Popish Church of England ; and how-
ever well it may :mit our mushroom squirearchy
to strut and swell as the self-important supporter
of the haughty aristocracy, whom they attempt
to imitate, it does not suit us who live and labour among
the people, and who believe that Providence has scattered
its stores profusely over the earth, with a design that all
men shall be fed and sustained by mutual succour ; it
does not suit us, either- as men or as Christians, to
stand coldly by and see thousands of our countrymen. and
among them numbers of the truly pious, sinktng. under
the iron hands •of oppression and poverty, while they
are almost tempted to " curse God and die," while a
mere handful of tyrants are lavishly squandering in foreign
lands or on foreign luxuries, those millions which have
been wrung from the poor by a monstrous system
of monopoly, and which might have supplied them
plenteously ' with foreign corn. Mereiful • God !
can any of those who cail themselves thy servants,
and who teach the children of the..poorest 14 their Sett -
day schools to say to thee " Give .us this day our d ilv
bread"—can any of them dare to ask thy blessing; on the
present state of things ? The very idea is dreadful.
Then let us, my fellow Wesleyans, resolve and act as
those who must give an account to God and not to on:
preachers many of whom, though sound divines, are
sorry politicians. Let us, at the approaching general
election, honestly and fearlessly support those men, and
those only, who will pledge themselves to put down
all monopolies, especially the horrible corn mono-
poly. We came forward nobly in behalf of
the negro slaves, although Doctor Bunting then
disgracefully deserted us for the sweet smiles of a Tory
lordling. Let us, with equal earnestness and vigour,
exert ourselves on behalf of our oppressed and start ino•
countrymen ; and if • Our learned and our unlearnedr
Doetors will shut their eyes against the signs of the
times, and remain sticking in the venerable mid of
Toryism, there let us leave them to meditate on Pro-
verbs xi. 26, " He that withholdeth corn the people
shall curse him," while we labour diligently to obtain
the blessedness of " him that considereth the poor," and
thus testify that in this respect, at _least, we are wiser
than our teachers.

In conclusion, allow me to recommend that the nerve
of every Wesleyan minister who exerts himself directly
Or indirectly in favour of the corn monhpolv candidn;es,
he forwarded. immediately for insertion in The San, Pa-
triot, and Leeds Merearll, in order that the peoplo may
be able to recognise their dear (bread) friends an .1 pas-
tors. Your's, with every sentiment of fraternal regard,
June, 1841. A TRITE WESLEYAN.

LORD BROUGHAM.
(FROM A CORRESPONDENT.).

The appearance of Lord Brougham at thii critical mo-
ment appears to have scared the Tory press, and :0 have
reied his brother Peers. The " Protestant ascendancy"
Standard led the way by regaling its pions readers
with the shocking impropriety of his passing through
the ranks of the good people of Boulogne :IS thoy were
going to church on Sunday. The Times followed up
by a spiteful attack on him, containing amongst others
the following passage :—" It was Lord Brougham who
was the Staunchest maintainer of those unjust and unna-
tural elatkes (in the New Poor-laws) which exempted
the seducer of innocence from the obligations of main-
taining his children, and threw exclu,ively upon the
weaker and more helpless of two joint sinners the whole
temporal consequences of the sin."
_ .

The memory-of the Times is at fault here. For Lord
Brougham, substitute Charles James Lora Bishop of
London, between whom and the Bishop of Exeter some
very warm language passed on these very clauses. It
is a singular instance of Tory effrontery that, identified
as many of their most eminent men in both Houses of
Parliament are with the most obnoxious clauses of tnc
New Poor-laws, they yet persist in attempting to throw
the odium of the measure on their political opponents.

THE CENSUS.
(From flu., ifanekester Grutrdiar.)

AP. TMV ECK rrrtcT.—WVe—We have re,-!,cived the f,Olnwing
account of the populat!on of the Ardwiek district of the
Chorlton Union, in the proent month, with the excep-
tion of the township of Levenshulme, which, we sup-
pose, had not been received. We place it in comparison
with the returns of the population of the same townships
in 1821 and 1831 :