The Sun.
London, England, 1848-12-23 00:00:00

ing to force down the throats_ of the long-suffering
laity. Our readers doubtless remember the perse-
cutions to which the Evangelical clergy of -that
diocese have been long subjected, and the Episcopal
favours showered upon—the almost immunity for the
commission of offences contra bones mores granted to,
Puseyite priests. They cannot but remember that
while that pious and exemplary clergyman, the "Rev
ERSKINE HEAD, was prosecuted with all the
rigour of the law, and suspended from
his ministerial functions for three years for
differing from his diocesan on some theoretical
point of theology, a Puseyite priest of the county of
Cornwall, convicted on his own confession of having
been seen in a state of unmistakeable drunkenness
in the public streets, to the great scandal of the
Church, was let off with an admonition ; they cannot
forget, either, the persecutions to which Mr. &tone
was subjected, the controversy between the
Bishop of EXETER and Lord SEYMOUR ; the
part taken in that controversy by Mr. LA-
TIMER, of the Western Times, the criminal
prosecution instituted by the BISHOP against Mr.
LATIMER for libel, the plea put in by Mr. LArIMaR
that the assertions he had made with regard to the
Bishop were true,' and the verdict of the special jury
acquitting Mr. LATIMER, and finding that his plea of
justification was nude out, that what he had said of
Bishop PHILLPOTTS was to the letter true. These
things have at length produced their effect, and on
Tuesday last a meeting of the lay members of the
Church of England inhabiting Plymouth, Devonport,
and its neighbourhood, was held at the Royal Hotel,
Plymouth, to take into consideration the propriety of
memorializing his Grace the Archbishop of CANTER..
BURY in reference to the present alarming state of
the Church of England, and of that diocese in par-
ticular, and to adopt such other measures as might be
then determined on.
The meeting was called in consequence of 'some
recent Puseyite doings of the Bishop-appointed priest
of one of the newly erected district churches in the
neighbourhood of Plymouth; but allusions were made
in the course of the discussion, and also in the memorial
agreed on to the Archbishop of CANTERBURY, to the
Puseyite doings of the Bishop and his proteges for a
series of years past, so that the meeting may
be considered as a solemn protest on the part
of the laity of Plymouth against the
detestable system of sacerdotal tyranny which it is
the aim and object of the Puseyite priests to establish
in every parish in England. The meeting was at-
tended by at least 1,100 persons, and would have
been more numerously attended had the room been
capable of containing a greater number of persons.
Colonel DUNSTERTILLE was in the chair, and the re-
quisition calling the meeting was signed by persons
of all classes. The signatures of officers in the
navy from admirals to lieutenants, of officers
in the army, of members of the legal and
medical profession, of magistrates, of town-coun-
ci:lors, of merchants, of bankers, of shopkeepers,
are to be found attached to the requisition ; so that
the proceedings of the meeting may be regarded as
the proceedings of all classes of the laity of the
Church of England. The first resolution was to the
following effect :
" That it is the opinion of this meeting that principles
and practices repugnant to the truth and simplicity of
the Protestant faith, as taught by the Church of Eng-
land, have obtained wide prevalence in various parts of
the realm, especially in this diocese, and this meeting
respectfully, but firmly, records its opinion that those
principles and practices receive encouragement from the
Lord Bishop; and that the time has arrived for memo-
rializing the highest authorities in the Church, with a
view to the redress of the alarming evil."
The memorial to the Archbishop of CANTERBURY,
after setting forth the evil of Puseyite doctrines, thus
proceeds—
" It is within the knowledge of many of us that whilst
a large body of the clergy, chiefly young men deeply
committed to the Tractarian system, have freely obtained
appointments, and are now ministering in the diocese, a
considerable number of other clergymen of piety and
learning, but not holding Tractarian views—some of
them advanced in years—beneficed—and serving in this
and the neighbouring county of Cornwall, have been
from time to time rejected by the Bishop as unfit to re-
ceive institution or license, by reason, as his Lordship
has alleged,' of their holding doctrines contrary to the
true Christian faith.
" This practice having been extensively pursued by
the Bishop, has been necessarily attended by the twofold
effect of attracting Tractarians to the diocese, and of de-
t.reing a deem/man of opposite views from accepting
appointments within it, so that patrons and incumbents
of evangelical sentiments can with difficulty procure ministers and curates whose doctrinal principles shall be I
congenial with their own.
" A great and crying evil has thus arisen. The minis-
terial care aid oversight of large bodies of the people,
especially in our populous towns, have been committed
to clergymen, to whose teaching and ceremonial practices
the people at large entertain a well-grounded aversion,
and who consequently withhold or withdraw attend-
ance at their churches. Thns the intentions of the
Legislature in making provision for the spiritual desti-
tution of the people, the liberality of the public in con-
tributing to the erection and purchase of churches and
the special purposes of a Church, as a national establish-
meat, have been in these cases alike defeated.
"We beg also to call the attention of your Grace to
an event which has recently much increased our alarm,
on account of the prevalence of Romish doctrine in the
Church.

"We refer to a sermon preached on the 12th of Au-
gust last before the Bishop and clergy at Totnes, by
the Reverend William Maskell, the Bishop's Domestic
Chaplain. We will not trouble your Grace with any
comments on this work, but we venture to accompany
our memorial with a copy of it (your Grace's perusal of
which we respectfully solicit), together with the corre.
spondence which has since its delivery taken place be-
tween the Bishop and some of the neighbouring clergy
thereon, by which it will appear that the Bishop has
failed to admonish the preacher, and still retains him in
his office, facts, which in eur opinion, imply a strong
sympathy on the part of his Lordship with the general
sentiments of the author of a discourse, believed by us
(notwithstanding its pretended argument with portions
of the Homilies and Liturgy) to be replete with Romish
doctrine.
" Your Grace will observe that the correspondence to
which we have referred contains his Lordship's reply to
the protest of the clergy against the tenets of Air.
Maskell, and as the reply has been published with his
Lordship's sanction, we have not deemed it becomin4 in
us to address his Lordship regarding matter on which lie
has already pronounced his opinion.
" We now submit this statement to your Grace, undo r
a hope that a remedy may be provided for the evils of
which it treats, and particularly that the attention of the
Legislature may be directed to subjects involving matter,
as we believe, so solemn and momentous, and the neg-
lect of which will in our opinion terminate in a wide-
spread defection from the Church of England, and be
perhaps productive of other and ulterior results still morel
calamitous."

We respectfully submit to the memorialists that
they have not here proposed the proper remedy fcr
the state of things of which they complain. If, as we
believe, and as they believe, Tractarian doctrines are
contrary to the doctrines of the Church of England,
and contrary to " the true Christian faith," and if as
they believe, and as we believe, liimar, Lord Bishop
of EXETER, holds those doctrines, then the proper
remedy is to request the Archbishop •f CANTERBURY
to cause Sit. HBERERT JENNER to make anxious in-

quirias after " the soul's health" of the said HENRY, and
to call the particular attention of the said anxious

inquirer to the verdict of the Special Jury in the case
of the QUEEN V. LATIMER. Considering the great
anxiety which Bishop PHILLPOTTS has manifested to
ascertain the state of the "soul's health" of Mr. HEAD

and Mr. SHORE, we think the Archbishop of CANTER-
Buzz need not be over delicate in the matter. Wo

trust that this is only the commencement of an

agitation on the part of the laity of the Church of
England which will never cease until the Church

shall be purged from the presence of those wolves in
sheeps' clothing who preach Oxford but mean
Rome. A conscientious Roman Catholic we admire

and respect, but we have the utmost contempt and
abhorrence for those who, holding the doctrines of
one Church, receive the wages of another. In the
meantime w e warn all those who are opposed to
Puseyite doctrines to abstain for the present from
subscribing one farthing towards the building of
churches, or towards Church extension in any way.
The Bishop of EXETRR is at this moment raising sub-
scriptions to build four churches in Plymouth, to
which, when built, he will present four Puseyite
priests, and which churches will, in consequence, be
without congregations.
IV

e have been informed on unquestionable
i
au-
thority, that six of the most eminent physiciansn
this country have recently examined Mr. Dyke
Sombre, and that they unanimously reported on his
perfect sanity, and that his conduct since his return
to London last month, has been wholly unexception-
able. We believe that this report will be verified on
affidavit, and will form the ground of a new applica
tion to the Lord Chancellor early in Hilary term, for
a supersedeas of the comruhsion of lunacy issued
against him.