The Sun.
London, England, 1840-09-07 00:00:00

CHARACTER OF THE STANDARD
FROM ITS OWN COLUMNS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE " STANDARD."

Ste,— Your Corn Exchange Correspondents are a
couple of —, and whilst in your able and admirable
leading articles you are advocating the best interests of
the farmer, you are permitting these corn-jAbing
to make use of your columns from day to day,
and from week to week, to circulate the most villain,
ously false accounts of the harvest and of the state of
the markets. There was a fall of 2s. on the price of
wheat in the market yesterday. So we were told by all
the papers except the Standard, which not only blinks
that matter altogether, but its correspondents have
the unblushing impudence to proclaim that only
a small portion of the harvest has been se-
cured. The report of yesterday is, however, in the
same fraudulent spirit as all their preceding reports: for
weeks past, every fall in the market has either been
grossly misrepresented or passed over altogether. For the
truth of what I say I entreat you to turn over your co-
lumns for the last four or five weeks, and I am persuaded
you will at once be convinced of the fact, that your pa-
per has been the chief instrument by which the corn- '
jobbers have succeeded in bringing down the duty.
You may probably say that the report of your journal
could not produce that effect, as the other papers give
a different and true account ; but on reflection you
will see that the fact of the Standard being a farmer's
paper gives great strength to your reports, because
people say, " 0 ! if this were not. correct it would not
appear in this paper, which is so eloquent in defending
the interests of the farmer."
The course pursued by your Journal in thus lending
itself to the conspirators against the English agricultu-
rist has, I assure you, surprised and astonished all dis-
interested persons, and very injurious imputations are
thrown nut, one of which is, that the proprietors of
the Standard arc themselves corn jobbers, and that
they have an interest in supporting opinions which are
at variance with those entertained by the editor of the
paper. No doubt that is a false and unjust imputation ;
but how can the thing be accounted for ?
I once more entreat. that you will turn to the reports
for the last three or four weeks, and compare them with
those of the other papers. Even the Morning Chro-
nicle ha not dared to misrepresent the state of things
as your Journal has done. A slight examination will
convince you that the Standard has been all along made
a tool of by the dealers in grain at the very time when
you were proclaiming those dealers to be swindlers.

A FARMER'S SON.

JOHN THOROGOOD.

(From the Cambridge Independent Press of Aug. 29.)
Some parties in this town having made a subscription
for Mr. Thorogood, the amount collected was transmit-
ted to him ; and last week the following letter was re-
ceived in reply, by the gentleman who was deputed to
express the sympathy of the subscribers :
" Chelmsford Gaol, Aug, 18, 1840.
" DEAR SIR—By the hands of Mr. Johns I have re-
ceived your kind letter, with its ioclosure, for both of
which I beg to thank you, as well as the numerous
friends who have taken this mode of expressing their
sympathy. •
The sympathy of good men, of which I hate re-
ceived so much, since I have been the object of the ten-
der metei :f an Established Church, next to the clear
convictioes of my own conscience, has been my greatest
support ; and the daily manifestations which I receive,
since Lord John Russell's legislation, as amended by
his Grace of Wellington, became law, is very remark-
able. You will necessarily observe, in all that passed
on the subject, how extremely ignorant are those
esteemed great, to whom the making of laws is in-
trusted, on subjects affecting the conscience. Lord John
Russell brought in a Bill, by which sentence of twelve
months' imprisonment was inflicted on any conscientious
man who should refuse payment of a Church-rate, though
it were only 6d., (under 51.),—and the Attorney-Gene-
ral said my imprisonment had been too long, for if
the debts had been 201. a twelvemonth's imprison-
mens would have satisfied the debt,—while Mr. Baines.
who is by some considered as a kind of representative
of Dissenters, said be thought the punishment had
been equal to the delinquency. When Dissenters can
be found, who will call resistance to idolatry and irreli-
gion by such a term as • delinquency,' there will be no
wonder at the conduct which followed, when the Bill
got into the House of Lords. For myself, Sir, you can
easily believe me, when I say that I am convinced
the aristocracy are at the hottom of all this persecu-
tion, and that the parsons are willing tools in their hands
to carry it on ; for, as it was well stated lately, by my
kind friend Mr. Asburst, in a letter to Mr. Greg, the
Member for Manchester, the fee-simple of the Church
is in the aristocracy, the clergy have only • a life in-
terest,' and the former are using these tools on all occa-
sions, to sustain their right to a tenth of the growth of
the kingdom, in addition to the patronage of the army,
the navy, and all the other plundur of which Downing-
street is the centre. Hems. I was net surprised to see ,
such man as Lord klyieigh, or Lord Dsvon, take
the course they did on the late occasion ; but
that the Duke of Wellington, the old soldier,
should have descended from his elevated position,
that of the wan of the age,' to venture small
wit, by calling me, in derision, TUE GENTLEMAY,'
for the purpose of raising a poor laugh at my expense,
and taking upon himself the character, at once, of a
jester and oppressor, did, I confess, surprise me beyond
measure.
" I was a soldier myself once, and even then, when I
had no sense of my state as a sinner, I can now say
that I should have felt repugnance to lend myself to
unprincipled men, for the purpose of crushing those
who were oppressed ; and can tell the Duke of Welling-
ton that, although by the aid of foreign powers he con-
quered at Waterloo, and thus got the title of The
Great Captain,' yet, I trust, the Captain I serve will be
found stronger than he, for He is the King of kings,
and Lord of lords, and they that are with Him are
called, and chosen, and faithful:
" I hope, S;r, the true friends of religious liberty will
look at this last piece of legislation on the subject of
Church-rates. Lord John Russell would imprison a
man, of tender conscience, twelve months, for a six-
penny rate. They hive al! shown that they regard the
oath as nothing ;# the Duke, like the parsons, and their
inquisition—the Ecclesiastical Courts—would imprison
for ever ; for the Bill, ai he made it, and Lord John
accepted it, imprisons, for six months, a man who refuses
to pay, and then confines him still until he pays .f The
higher classes are constantly demanding tbat respect
should be paid them ; and this Church which keeps me
here instructs the poor to behave themselves lowly and
reverently to all their betters ;1 and these self-styled
• betters' insultingly tell the man who refuses to aid by
his money the instruction of the people in such idolatry as
the otiose, that if he does not pay he shall be subject
to perpetual imprisonment. I tell you, Sir, that I
would rather die in this damp prison than that any
friend of mine should pay one penny towards the rate or
expenses for which I have suffered so long ; and I hope
you will use all your influence to caussi this principle to
be acted upon in your own district. If the Dissenters
are faithful to their principles, they have nothing to fear ;
let them not fear those who can kill the body, and after
that have no more that they can do ; but let them
fear Him who bath power to cast into bell, and who
ssid, without equivocation,' My kingdom is not of this
world.'

" The petition, and the names of sixty-one persons
who signed it, for my perpetual imprisonment, is about
to ba, published, when it will he seen what tools the
Church uses to do her dirty work, when she is an ex-
tremity. t
" With many thanks for the kind manner in which
you have conveyed the sympathy of the gentlemen who
joined you in the subscription,
" I am, dear Sir, faithfully yours,
"JOHN THOROGOOD."

* Mr. Gepp said at the late publ►c meeting, that no one
would be more happy than himself to see me released ;
yet when a Bill passed the Commons which would hove
released me, he used all his energy to prevent it
from passing in the House of Lords. Surely neither
he nor the friends of the Church will now sry I am is
prison fur contempt, and not fo' the Rate. The 80,
as amended by the skill of the Great Captain,
makes it entirely a money transaction; it removes the
contempt of the Court, on which so much stress has been
laid by Dr. Lthhington, the Judge of the Court, and
Churchmen gvnerally : yet now, al-hough the writ "de
contumace capiendo," words which I am told mean " take
him for contempt," and by virtue of which I was arre•rtad,
contains no mention whatever of money. I am still held in
prison under the alleged plea that it was for non-payment.
It cannot be for contempt of the authority of the Christian
Court, now that the oath is abolished ; so for the present
I leave the subject to the consideration of the friends of
religious liberty. They may see the value which ought
to be attached to the professions and pretensions of such
persons as the Churchwardens of Chelmsford.
t Ono thing is certain, it will by no fi iend of mine who
will ever pay one farthing; and as to the sixty-one friends
of Mr. Gepp, who were got to petition the House of Lords
for my confinement until death, it may be sufficient to say
tha' the town of Chelmsford contains 6,000 inhabitants, and
1,100 rate-payers And it may be imagUied that the sixty-
one persons, who had a stomach for perpetual imprison-
ment, were not the most reputable or religious people in
the parish. As, however, my friends have got a copy of
the petition and names attached from the office in the House
of Lord-, and they will be separately published with proper
descriptions, I need not refer to them here.—J. T.

DEPARTURE OF THE ROYAL MAIL BRI-
TANNIA. —LIVERPOOL, SATURDAY —The Royal mail
steam-ship Britannia, Captain Woodhouse, departed yes-
terdarat 3 p.m., on her second trip to the western world.
She mint clown the Mersey in beautiful style, and was
soon lost to 6, ? view of those assembled on the pier to
witness her departure, bile carries on this voyage 90
passengers, among whom are the new` governor of Nova
.!etix, Lord Falkland, Lady. and spite. Her list run
across the Atlantic does, indeed, pron ise well, and great
hopes ore Ntnin success of this noble
s: ciale