The Sun.
London, England, 1840-12-23 00:00:00

PRINCESS' THEATRE, OXFORD-STREET.

This splendisi Theatre is OPEN EVERY EVENING with
PROMENADE CONCERTS,
Under the Direction of Mr. WILLY.

In addition to tlse Solo Performers who have already ap-
peared at these Concerts, Mr. Willy has great pleasure in an-
nouncing that he has made arrangements with M. Delabarre,
(Oboe), of the Academie Royale, Paris; M. do Folly, (Pic-
colo); and 11. Baumann, ( Bas Soon).
THIS EVENING, DEC. 23.—PROGRAMME.
PART FIRST.

Overture—Zaubertiote—Mozarte.
Quadrille—Falstaff.
Waltz—Themis Strablen.
Overture—La Dame Blanche—Boildieu.
Solo on the Horn by Air. Hardy.
Grand Selection from Les Huguenots—Mayerbeer.

TART SECOND.

Overture— Zampa.
Quadrille—Les Danois.
Duet from Andronico, Cornet a Pistons, by Messrs. Macfar-
lane awl Keightley.
Waltz—Hymen Fier Kiang.
Les 13onquet des Dames, or Musical Wreath—Strauss.
Promenade, Is.—Dress Circle, 2s.—Upper Boxes, Is. 61.
Private coxes, P. Is. and 10s. Gd. each, may be had at the
Box-office, and of Mr. Alitshell, Old Bond-street.

SIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE TOMORROW.
Morning 22 minutes after '2 i Evening ......49 minutes after 2.

The 1 üblication •f t e Evening Edition of Tins Sins ions
silenced 10 minutes after Three.

LONDON:
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1840.

We can regard the determination of the Church,
in its opposition and resistance to the settlement of
the Church-rate question, as nothing short of that
madness which precedes destruction. We have
seen a letter to-day from Mr. Crimps of Bungay,
to a friend in London, dated on Saturday last, in
Leicester Gaol, whither, to use his own words, he
" had come a distance of two hundred miles, at
this inclement season, to sympathise with and con-
sole the prisoner, Mr. BArbrEs." We cordially
agree with Mr. Crimps in the sentiment he has
expressed, that " inclement as the season is, it is
genial mildness compared with the conduct of man,
when trained in, and determined to carry out, the
principles involved in a State Church."
After glancing at the treatment he himself re-
ceived from the Churchmen of Bungay, in 1835,
by being cited to the Ecclesiastical Courts, and
lodged in prison forty miles from home, without
being summoned before the Magistrates, or having
an opportunity given of objecting, if he thought fit

coming ?
We give an expression on this subject as we find
it in Mr. CHILD'S letter :
Mothers of England, what say you to that Church
which, at the hour of all others most affecting and inte-
resting to your feelings and affections, when you most
need the tenderness of your husbands, the social prayer
to " the preserver of men," and mutual thanksgiving
for the mercy rendered, which can, after protracted per-
secution for years, and in the name of Him who came
not to condemn but to save the world, select that hour
as the fittest to inflict a wound which all who would
claim the heart of a man have agreed to hold sacred ?
The gentleman to wiiom this letter was written
has, we suppose, access to Lord ALBEMARLE,
and we infer, from Mr. CHILD'S locality, that he
is acquainted with the kind and benevolent charac-
ter of his Lordship, for which, we believe, that
Lord is universally esteemed.
I wish you would make a point of calling on my
Lord Albemarle, who is one of the kindest hearted
men that lives in the world, and tell the affecting tale,
which relates to the
_immediate capture of our noble
friend who is here, imprisoned for life for aught that
the law will do. Lord Albemarle is much about the
person of the Queen now, and, I think, if she were told
in the affecting terms which his• Lordship is so well able
to use, that in the very same week in which her Ma-
jesty was blessed by a daughter, and the day after Mr.
Baines was committed to this prison, his wife, dear to
him as his own soul, and dear as the Queen to the
Prince, also brought forth a daughter, and I will defy
the power of man to describe the feelings of these ex•
cellent and pious young people under the trying cir-
cumstances in which they are, and have been placed.
Will the Queen refuse her sympathy, and thence her
admonition to the Bishops, when she shall come to
know what is being done in their name, what is being
inflicted oa peaceful, piour, retiring Christian people,
who believe the Word of God to be the rule which
they- are bound to take for,their conduct in religious
things as well as in all others, and who dare not violate
the dictates of their conscience to please any class of
, men ?

We heartily wish that his Lordship would tell
the QUEEN what pranks her Bishops are playing
with some of the most conscientious of her MA-
JESTY'S subjects, and we are sure this case would
be one which could not fail to convince her
MAJESTY, as it does all right-minded people
throughout the country, in the Church and out of
it, that cruelties such as have been practised in
this case will bring down just, speedy, and sure
destruction on that establishment which adopts
them.

We advise the Church to use its power to abolish
railroads and upset the penny postage, if it is
determined to carry out its principles after the
fashion of Ipswich, Chelmsford, and Leicester;
unless the Church can do this, she must give up
persecution, or become extinct.

A glance at the current political literature of
the day is enough to convince any impartial ob-
server that a deep-rooted and rapidly-increasing
hostility to the abuses of the State Church per-
vades every class of society. From the guinea
volume down to the six-penny tract are attacks
daily made upon abuses as dear as the Gospel itself
to the State priesthood. A few of these are now
before us, and from them we select for especial
notice a pamphlet entitled " 'The Church and the
.Voluntary Question," chiefly because it is written
by a person evidently under the influence of the
sincerest Christian convictions, and as little
wanting in charity as in the hope of a glorious re-
surrection. Some of the foolish defenders of the
Church have recently tried to get up a cry of infi-
delity against the exposers of ecclesiastical abuses,
and the consequence has been that many of the
most pious among the Dissenters have taken the
field, determined no longer to give any quarter to
errors which they believe to be dangerous to the
souls of men. The shout for more churches and
more priests, with more money to pay them, raised
by the Bishops and the Tory Journals, has turned
the thoughts of the community to the amount of
good which the Church hal rendered and renders
the nation in return for her vast wealth and State
connection. What the result has been is thus
stated by the author of the tract now under consi-
deration :

But that the Established Church of England, so digni-
fied, so endowed, so privileged, has failed in accomplishing
its professed object, namely, the evangelization of the
people committed to its charge by the Parliament of this
realm, is too clear to admit of any doubt ; for even its own
bishops, in and out of Parliament, and its own ministers
and supporters, have by their public addressee and numer-
ous petitions declared, that a very large part of the people
are perishing for lack of knowledge—that, in fact, accord-
ing to their solemn averment, multitudes are not only des-
titute of the saving truth of the Gospel, but are plunged
into the very depths of vice and infidelity ; and to rectify
these astounding evils, the cry put forth to Parliament and
the peot le from one end of the realm to the other is,
" Build us more churches and endow us more ministers."
The edifices of the establishment, of one sort and another,
may be truly said to cover the face of the land ; and its
bishops, other dignitaries, incumbents, and curates, arc
said to be net less than 15,000. The present population
of the united kingdom may be stated in round numbers at
about twenty-four millions, of which it is said about seven
millions are Catholics, three millions Presbyterians, not
less, perhaps, than four or five millions of Protestant Dis-
senters, comprising Wesleyans, Independents, Baptists,
and others, thus leaving about nine or ten millions of all
descriptions of persons as appertaining to the Established
Church, including, of course, the very many
whom the
supporters of the establishment declare arc even now
perishing for lack of knowledge. The number stated
as comprehended in the establishment, namely, about
nine millions of souls, would give about 600 souls for
the cure, as it is called, of each of the 15,000 ministers ;
and were the total number left to the Church carried to
the amount of twelve millions, the number for each minis-
ter would be about 800 souls. Now, considering the num.
ber of infants and children too young to go to church, the
mothers of such infants compelled to stay at home, the
lame, the sick, and the very aged-7-taking all these as only
then appear that
equal to one-third of the whole, it will

We believe it capable of being proved that not
one clergyman out of a hundred belonging to the
Established Church, in London aid its vicinityp
ever attempted to form an acquaintance with the
countenances of one-tenth of the adults of his con-
gregation. He calls them his flock, and addresses
them once a week as his brethren ; but if con-
fronted with them before the judgment-seat of
GOD, he would look upon the bulk of them for the
first time. Now, though we like not Itiesecular
intcrmeddling of priests, we like still less this neg-
lect of their sacred functions. But ho* is this
great reform to be effected ? We know ljUt one
effectual remedy. Bleak up the union between
Church and State, and leave the people to choose
their own priests. Carry out the voluntary prin-
ciple, and there will be no longer a temptation for
gentlemen's sons making the service of the altar x
mere profession, more congenial to sloth and
the enjoyment of the pleasures of the table
than the Army, the Navy, or the Bar. Only
men disposed to labour with zeal in the sunshine
and the shade will then enter the LORD'S vine-
yard. In this way only can the spread of
infidelity and the wildest fanaticism among the poor
be prevented. For them there now virtually exists
no Church—no Christianity. The precepts of the
Gospel are belied in the conduct pursued towards
them by the priests and the aristocracy. They are
told of Christian equality, and are not suffered to
tenant a pew in the parish church ; of Christian
charity, and are allowed to perish with hunger; of
priestly prayers and visitations, and yet witness the
eyes of their companions in misery closed in death
without a clerical hand to assist in performing the
pious office. What wonder, then, if in their wretched-
ness and their despair they confound the Gospel
with the priesthood, and seek relief in the insane
materialism which attaches no hereafter penalty to
the gratification of the evil passions vl hich extreme
misery rarely fails to engender and develope ?

Perhaps our readers may remember that the
Journal des Debats, some time ago, suggested the
propriety of the French Government improving the
fortifications of Dunkirk, and of converting that
into a great naval port, with a view to the quarrel
with England ; just as some of our own Journals,
with a view to the quarrel with France, called out
to fortify Brighton, to re-construct Martell° towers,
to arm more steam-lips, and to put the whole on.
pire at once into a warlike attitude. Our readers,
however, are not likely to be acquainted with tile
fact, that one Captain HUDE has published A
small book, called " Droits de Marins," in which
he says that " one of the advantages of steam-
boats is, that in case of a war they may be armed,
and employed in interrupting the commerce of
England." But now that they are acquainted with
this extraordinary fact, and now that we have re-
called to their memory the observation of the De-
bats, they will of course be filled indigoa-
tion against our Ministers, for allowing such re'
marks to be made in France. At least, if they are
not, they will not sympathise with a writer in die
limes, who shakes his head most.oractzlously, and

writes :
What, I ask, are our Government and Admiralty
doing ? Have explanaiions been demanded as to the
meaning of the semi-official article in the.Dcbcda, Is
s
England again to be threatened in the Channel sh
IS
is-
was in 1781, and are we to breathe no whisper of;,
satisfaction ? is it not better promptly ta once to de-
mand explanations than to be obliged to recur to_thos°
extreme measures which ended in the gloriousvictory
of the 12th of April, 1782 ? Let Lord .Minto
have a
care of what he is about. In April, 1779., there w
motion made for the removal of Lord Ss:eds.:ink from_
the Admiralty, Etnd those great seamen Axipiratteppel

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