The Sun.
London, England, 1840-09-29 00:00:00

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LONDON:
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1840

It seems by the Scotsman, that in Edinburgh,
as in London, a gentleman is to be excluded from
the civic chair on account of his entertaining cer-
tain opinions not agreeable to the Church. Mr.
ADAM BLACK, the part proprietor and publisher
of the Edinburgh Review, of the Encyclopaedia
Britannica, and a number of other works of the
highest character, is one of the best known and
most respected booksellers of the northern metro-
polis. He is a very clever, and, which in our
estimation is of greater importance, he is an honest
man. In latter times he has been distinguished by
taking a lead in many popular questions, and has
been a conspicuous advocate for a repeal of the
bread tax ; yet this gentleman, in all respects so
eligible and so deserving, is not to be Lord Provost
because he is a Dissenter. This is re-enacting
in our manners the Test Act after it has been
abolished by our laws. The Church again. Oh 7.
tl at intolerant, bigoted Church, the mother of
persecution ; she glares on us at every part of our
path, as the hideous parent of strife, and more from
terror than love men obey her bloody decrees.
The grand, the crowning objection, put forth in
the Times yesterday morning to Mr. HARMER is,
that the Dispatch has written against the priest.
hood. It has not coAned its attacks to one class
after another like the Times—for that Journal has
in turn abused equally the political Dissenters, the
Unitarians, the 6. surpliced ruffians," and the negli-
gent clergy of the English Church—but it has in
one comprehensive paragraph attacked priestcraft
embodied in the priesthood, and for this offence
Dissenters and Whigs, we are told, have united to
punish and degrade Mr. HARMER. In all ages
and in all languages the craft of the priests seizing
hold, as Mr. M'NEILE has explained, of spiritual
terror, and using it to found a spiritual dominion,
has been reprobated by philosophers, denounced by
statesmen, and satirized by poets ; but in the editor
of Mr. Alderman HARMER'S paper this is an un-
pardonable offence, unpardonable because he has
been successful, and on that account Mr. HARMER
is to be excluded from the Mayoralty. , Here, also
as in Scotland, morality and honesty, peace, order,
and happiness, are to he sacrificed to what is called
the Church, which is another name for priestcraft.
It is the boast of the Times that already 1,100
of the Livery have signed the declaration to keep
out Mr. HARMER. So many persons in the City
of London, then, have lent themselves to be the in-
struments of persecution. Most of them, we are
afraid, will be found to belong to the sensitive
would-be great men of the middle classes, who are
just now alarmed at the revolution which is going
forward in the mind of the nation, and willing to
embrace almost any means to keep the Church and
Aristocracy in their exalted station. We had been
inclined to hope that in other places such a perse-
cuting spirit would not be found. Sir JAMES
FoRREST, the Lord Provost of Edinburgh, has
undeceived us. Of course, he does not act single-
handed. He has sounded the minds of the Bailies
and Councillors, and knows which way the current
,is running. Like not a few persons in every part
of the island, he is now striving to kick
down the ladder of Liberal principles, by which
he ascended to office, and, under the pretext of
caring for the Church, he is struggling to exclude
a Dissenter from the honour he seems unwilling to
resign. In this project of excluding a gentleman
on account of his religion, he is aided by many of
the inhabitants of Edinburgh ; and thus we have
persecution revived in both ends of the island. The
Times and its 1,100 Liverymen, as well as Sir
JAMES FORREST and his assisting Bailies and
Councillors, only want opportunity and power to
revive the murderous persecutions of the 16th

century.
We beseech the Livery of London and the Bur-
gesses of Edinburgh, if it be not yet too late, to
pause in their career, and reflect on the conse-
quences. There are now two large classes in the
empire bent on effecting great alterations, because
they cannot obtain justice from the British Parlia-
ment. Mr. O'CONNELL and the Irish demand
the. Repeal of the Union—the Chartists demand a
complete change in the Constitution ;and both ground
their demands less on the character of the Parliament
than on the character of the constituencies. The
" Ten-pounders" and the" Shopocracy"are the terms
of reproach used by the Chartists. On every occasion
Mr. O'CONNELL holds up the virulent language
of the Methodists and the High Churchmen at the
meetings against the Catholics, as a decisive proof
that his countrymen have nothing to hope from an
English Parliament, however constituted, because
the electors are rabidly persecuting. To those com-
plaints, and those reproaches, the persecution of
Mr. HARMER and Mr. BLACK will give ten-fold
force. "If they exclude a Protestant Dissenter,"
Mr, O'CONNELL will say, " what bore can a Ca-
tholic have ?" His countrymen will respond, " no
hope," and the cry of Repeal will be strengthened
and justified. " If the middle classes," the
Chartists will exclaim, " persecute Mr. HARMER
because the editor of his paper has written against
the Monarchy and the Church, what can we expect
from tiem who seek thoroughly to refortn, if not
to overturn both ? We can expect nothing but
stripes, dungeons, and the gallows, to which we
have, at their instigation, already been exposed,
and we must vigorously resolve to crush them.
or submit to be crushed." If the. Livery wish,
therefore, to strengthen Chartism—if the citizens of
Edinburgh wish to foment Repeal—if both desire
to promote riot, bloodshed, and res olution, let them
go on persecuting men on account of their religious
and political opinions, and let them re-establish the
Test Act. Strife will be encouraged by their example,
and will rapidly spread, and repeal in one island
avid revolution in the other will, ere long, be the
order of the day.
A Sunday Contemporary wa3 speculating as to
the cause of the failure of the Reform Bill ; but the
a'mve examples explain it in one word. Many of
the nliddle classes are Tories in their hearts, idola-
tors of rank, idolators of wealth, and idolators of the
priesthood. They struggled for power, not for
freedom, and now that they have power they use it
not for good ends. They are afraid of those below
them, they crouch to those
above them, and they
are willing
to make themselves subservient
ito
We
designs of the aristocracy
and thepriestboou. vve
have already had occasion to remark, that if they had
been in earnest, they coul.d have carried the repeal
of the Corn-laws. But they were not in earnest
they were afraid of the lower classes, and they
courted the landowners. A very few of them, i„
the case of the New Zealand Company, could over-