The Sun.
London, England, 1840-12-22 00:00:00

EVENING E DITI ON.
lie property, equal to at least a quarter of a million per
annum. i3y these unwise proceedinge, the ueion of Li-
berals was put in hazard, and Dissenters were pieced na
the painful predicament, either of appearing to sans:this.
such schemes for Church aggrandizement, or, by with-
holding their votes, of contributing to the triumph of
the Conservative party. And though the peo ties
referred to were outwitted and defeated, there are
some grounds for doubting, whether they have beet: so
taught by experience as to abstain in future from a
caurse so little creditable to themselves, and so hazard-
ous to the Liberal cause. In the text place, tho bee-
tior of professed Liberals, called " High Church Nen-
Intrusion Whigs," have avowed their determination to
make the support of " Non-Intrusion" and "the inde-
pendence of the Church," the test of a person's fitness
for being a Parliamentary representative, declaring their
resolution to give their rotes to no Liberal who wi!l
not pledge himself to support these sectarian objketr,
and to refuse them to no Tory who will—nicking this
pledge, in the one caee,,the indispensable condition of,
and ie the other, the sufficient re--aeon for, their ec!'-
trages—es if the triumph of the derninant party in
the General Assembly were au ohj2et paramount to
every other. And, finally, This section of professed
lebereis manifested the same principle of intoleraree,
to making common cause, in the tnetropelis of tins
country, with those to whom they are both politically
anti cei siasticelly oppoeed, in order to exclude from
the els ie chair, ilerely let:Ruse he was a co,...sistead Dis•
sorrier, an iselividual admitted on all hands to he emi-
nently q'taified to fill it with honour to himself and
advantage to the community, and who, by laborious and
valuable services, had establishes! fOr himself strong
claims "t n the gratitude of his feflow.citizens, and to
place in it, by this meet discreditable coalition, one,
whose chief, if not sole, recommendation, even to them,
was, that he was a zsalous supporter of " the indepecid,
once of the Church," having publicly declared, that,
" if the law would oppose the rights of the Church,
then he was prepared to say, that lie would oppose the
law of the land, and support the ecclesiastical judica-
tories."
To the machinations of the saute high Church party
which Las ;Liven these exhibitions of a selfish, ambitious,
and intolerent spirit, Dissenters have to ascribe the
great effort to crash them, by means of additional
endowments, which they had so much difficulty in de-
feating To the same party, also, there is reason to
believe, are to be traced the late aggressions of Govern-
ment upon the civil rights of Dissenters. Yet the most
unscrupulous misrepresentations arc made to blind the
country to its real character and designs, to represent it
as the party of the people and of liberty, and is entitled,
by its principles and aim, to the support of Dissenters-
themslves, whose conduct in refusing to aid its schemes,
is branded as inconsistent and unprincipled, and is even
hell up by some persons as a sufficient justification of
their recta el:friendliness.

The Board having already, on former occasions, givto
whet appeared to them good reasons why Dissenters
could not participate in the schernts of the High Church
party, nEght content themselves with referring to these
but as their schemes are constantly assuming new forms,
and as the non-concurrence of Dissenters is falsely attri-
buted to unworthy motives, they take this opportunity
shortly re-stating their view.; regarding the proposed
chances in the censeitution of the Established Church.
Dissenters need no arguments to convince them that
patronage, the intrusion of ministers, and ecclesiastical
dependence on civil power, arc great evils in a Christina
Church. They are already convinced, that no one who
values at its true worth, either the freedom which is
every man's birthright, or the" liberty wherewith Christ
has ru tcle his people free," would, for any secular advan-
tage, submit, even for en hour, to so degrading a yoke of
bondage. But it by no means follows, that they are
therefore hound to concur either in the objects or the
details of the particular plans in agitation.
One of the professed objects is to strengthen, per-
petuate. and extend the Church Establishment, which
a growing conviction in the public mind, hostile to
Church Establishments, has put in obvious hazard. A
contrary effect, indeed, is predicted by many sagacious
and clear-sighted adherents of the Church, and feared
by a still ,rreater number ; but supposing these persona
to he wrong, and !het the real circa would be what is
aimed at, no Dissenter can, without inconsistency, pro-
mote it, the very fundamental principle of his system
being, that " the union between Church and State is
impolitic, unjust, and unscriptural." Another favourite
object, is the weakening and extinction of Dissenting
Churches, which have grown up under the pledged pro-
tection of civil power. Any such attempt Dissenters
cannot but reprobate, as en attack -upon the most effec-
tive means ev cr devised for promoting that true reli-
gion, arid pure morality, which form the main stay of the
peace and prosperity of States. Not, indeed, that they
can have any apprehension of its success ; on the con-
trary, they are firmly persuaded that the voluntary
system is too clearly sanctioned by Scripture, reason,
and expediency, to be arrested in its progress by such
means ; chile they foresee, in the agitatiou which filer
are causing, nothing to retard, and much that must
hasten its triumph.

As little, on looking into the det.-.ils of the plans pro-
posed, do Dissenters find any thing to secure their ap-
probation.
To that claim, indeed, which is the found-
ation of all, namely, a certain undefined independence
of the Established- Church of the State, not only Dis—
senters, but rational men of all parties, must declare-
the most unqualified opposition. Of the absurdity awl
danger of such a pretension, no stronger example is
needed, than is afforded by the recent proceedings of the
Church of SeotlAnd, when, acting upon the principle of
independence, her courts have set abide Acts of Par—
liament, refused obedienee to decrees of the Courts of
Justice, and dealt with the legal tights of patrons, pre •
sentees, and pariAlioners, as if she were their absolute
a'
master. To aim at such author aboveit}'
the vice of al! church estab:ishments ;and,
e law, is
it is the interest of every citizen to counteract this tend-•
envy, by keeping,; them in strict subordination to the:
chit power. Aore especially is this the interest of D
seaters, between whom and the aggressions of the es-
tablished sect there stands no barrier or safeguard but
the supremacy of the law.

With regard, again, to the intrusion of ministetc
while the object is indubitably good, none of the plans.
for effecting it deserve the least support. One of these:
plans, the libcrunt arbilriuut, as it is termed, if successK
would only transfer the power of intrusion from the pa-
tron to the clergy—a transference which, both on gene-
ral principles, and from the testimony of history, must
regarded as a serious evil. Another is to alter the law,
of patronage, and vest the election in the male comatua
nicants, or some other portion of the members of the Es-.
talished Church. Such an arrangement, in an esta-
blished and endoe ed Church, implies in it the political:
absurdity of placing beyond the control of the nation go-
nerally, and its goverement, a body of men specially ap-
pointed to do what is held to be national work, tested.
with national authority, and supported by national funds;.
It is inconsistent with the fundamental principles on.
which the Church was established in 1690 ; for-
at that period, when a large proportion of the!
heritors were Episcopalians, and consequently Dis-
senters from the Presbyterian Church, the Par-
liament of Scotland gave the sanction of its
authority (so far as it could censistently with the.
maintenance of the political disfranchisement of Romani
Catholics, then supposed to be called for reasons of
state), to the just and sound rule of public civil control,
by bestowing equal powers in the election of mirsisters,
on the whole body of the heritors, " being Protestants ;"
thus distinctly refusing to vest this right in. any single
sect. Again, than this Act was repealed by that of
Queen Anne, which established patronage in its pre-
sent form, the British Parliament sanctioned the same
principle, by conferring equal powers on all patrons,
without regard to their being Churchmen or Dis-
senters. But in all the recent movements made by
the High Church Non-Intrusion party, they have at-
tempted to violate these fundamental principles on
which the Church was established, by confieing the
suffrage to Chu:chme.n. To such attempts, the real
object of which was to increase the power of the
ecclesiastieel incorpotation, and diminish their Own
power, Dissenters can give no support ; for ale
though strongly opposed to patronage, yet they are well
convinced that an Established Church, being a pnii.
tited institution, must be held under some restraints
and chcele. ; and that if the cheek of patronage
is removed, some other must be put iu its room.
But the airangetnent proposed would not serve this
cud. On the contrary, by transferring, the appointment
of the clergy from its present chill holderseto a body of
Church members, It would transfer the control of the
Church Low held by the State, through the patrons,
into the hands of the Established sect, and so would
instantly convert the Church into that independent body
in reality, which it now claims to be by right, making
it an iiniieriunt in imperio, a politico-eceletiasjeal re-
public, planted within the bosom of the State, under the
sole dotninion of an ambitious and irresponsibl ! clergy.
For it is to be carefully noted, that no change in the
patronage or appointment of the ministers of an endowed
Church, tvill ever secure what is the only intelligible
aim of honest Non-Intrusionists, namely, the respore
sibility of the clergy to the people. Nothing will do
this which leaves the clergy pecuniarily independent.
of
(Si
01
otitsl a
ncdo,a
whichdju tor s,
aft:
their
thisfirs first
reason,plan o f .tlhoch nChurch
e vv
framed with a peculiar view to keep down a clergy-
power, gave to congregations not only the first election
of ministers, but also the yearly adjustment of their
stipends. And, indeed, it is plaiii
forthat only effectl
of the popular election of ministers.life with fix
endowments, must be to render them quite absolute
1 irresponsible; to free them, indeed, from the con-
trol of patrons, and to make them more aspiring and
presuming, by reason of their apparently Popular title,
but not one whit more truly amenable to the people.
Still further, the injustice of the proposal, in a pecu-
niary point of view, is equally manifest ; for, even sup-
posing the members of the Established sect were them-
selves to purchase all private patronages, it coetemplates
the alienation of the whole Government patroaagee,
which are public property, and certainly equal in value
to not less than 150,000/. On all these grounds, the
plans proposed appear to be objectionable, but the Board
do not mean to assert that no plan for effecting a change