The Sun.
London, England, 1833-08-31 00:00:00

close corporations are entombed, with a smatch
of Church Reform, we defy the " property" of
the Conservatives. The Standard has dis-
played its ability to advocate the popular cause
when it chooses and sees occasion.—Morn-
ing Chronicle.
The conduct of the clergy of the Church of
England at this time, is a riddle to many per-
Sons. A succession of causes has, for several
years, kept the people in a constant state of irri-
tation against the Church. First came the addi-
tional churches, which in many places added
most wantonly and unnecessarily to the church
rates, and led the people to devise means of get-
ting rid both of the new and the old rates. The
conduct of the clergy throughout the country
in the struggles for the Reform Bill, and at the
election for the first Parliament chosen under the
Reform Bill—and more particularly the trea-
cherous conduct of the Bishops at a critical con-
juncture—would not allow the irritation to sub-
side. And now, as if some strange infatuation
possessed the clergy, they are kindling strife and
animosity throughout the whole country, by the
urging of obsolete claims in the most vexatious
manner, and thus inspiring rich and poor with a
desire to resist and evade the laws. We noticed
the other day, the very strange return to the
House of Commons of the proceedings against
Jeremiah Dodsworth, an agricultural labourer
in Yorkshire, for tithe of wages. Claims for
personal tithes have been at the same time made
in many other parts of the country, especially in
the maritime districts. The Leeds Mercury
of Saturday last, contains the following statement
of proceedings taken against a number of poor
people in the town and neighbourhood of
Ripon, and the parish of Guiseley :
" A blind infatuation must possess the Clergy in many
parts of the courvry. The vexatious exactions they are
enforcing in the town and neighbourhood of Ripon are
probably unparalleled. Within the last few weeks we
believe, 200 or 300 individuilS have been served with
processes from the Court of Exchequer, for demands alto.
gether unheard of, at the suit of the Dean and Chapter.
They have attacked individuals in detail; many poor fami-
lies, just able to maintain themselves, and keeping a cow,
have had a demand made of ss. for the tithe of the milk.
From some persons they have claimed for arrears of two
or three years, to which has been added the expense of an
Exchequer writ. Other persons, tenants of land from time
immemorial free from tithe, having originally belonged to
dissolved monasteries, have had the same litigious measures
adopted against them. Remonstrance has been in vain ;
the Dean and Chapter would not condescend to show
their title to the claim; but, with the arrogance of a
wealthy hierarchy, demand of the parties the proof of ex-
emption. It behoves these ecclesiastical corporations to
set their houses in order ; the besom they are so busy
making will, most assuredly, sweep away their nests, and
the rooks and the bats with them.
" How odious is this grasping, fleecing conduct on the
part of the Dean and Chapter, who have already not merely
a handsome but an excessive provision—who ought to be
the tender guardians of the flock, to be alive to the promo-
tion of the interests of religion in every way, but who
seem to despise every such consideration in their eagerness
to heap up for themselves additional pelf ! What conduct
can be imagined more flagrantly opposed to apostolical
precept and example or more certain to alienate the respect
of the people? Three hundred suits have also been corn.
menced in the parish of Guiseley.'"
We have heard of a rettti/Church :Meeting in
the north of England, where in consequence of
the pressure and jobbing of Ae rate, the assem-
bly literally voted the church a public nuisance,
and advertised for a contractor who would re-
move it for the value of the old materials We
forbear to give the particulars of the transaction
because of the scandal of such extreme resolu-
tions; but the clergy and the close vestries are
performing the destructive operation of swim-
ming pigs. In the matter of tithe processes, there
are actually upwards of 9,000 persecuted defend-
ants agitated by courts of law, at the present
moment ; and though the Lord Chancellor (per-
adventure a plaintiff himself in the county of
Westmorland) trusted to the halt of the proce-
dure of the law in the " long vacation," yet we
are credibly assured that the answers to these

iniquitous proceedings before Parliament meets,
will cost the persecuted and unhappy defendants
upwards of 40,0001. Verily, these are strange
doings ! And what will become of those un-
lucky laymen, of the humbler classes, who in
the meanwhile—from the suspension of Mr.
Blamire's Bill—may be necessitated by their
poverty to let " judgment go by default?"
The capital of some Welch farmers is a cot-

tage, a cow, a jackass, a goat, and a pig ! How
are the poor cottagers of Ripon and Guiseley,
whose whole disposable property is a cow, to
maintain suits in the Exchequer against a power-
ful Corporation. These things will assuredly
kindle a flame in the country, which may not
be soon extinguished. What is the meaning of
all this ? Must we attribute the conduct of
the Clergy to contrivance or to stupidity ?
There
in
persons who see design and contri-
vance n everything ; and we have heard it said
that the Clergy are in a combination to rouse
the people into a state of hostility to the law,
that they may embarrass Ministers by calling on
them to put the law in force. There is such a
thing as considering things too curiously. We
do not believe the Clergy have any such views
as those to which we have alluded. As far as
we have been able to discover, if there are two
courses open to them, they are sure to take the
one which is most offensive to the people. This
war which they are now waging with agricultural
labourers, fishermen, cottagers who possess a cow
or a pig, can neither directly nor indirectly be of
any benefit to them as a body, or to individuals
of that body. So long as absurd and vexatious
laws are not enforced, the people may not think
it worth their while to demand their repeal.
Thus, for instance, though it might be
the law that all persons living by their
industry are liable to pay a certain por-
tion of their gains to the clergy as personal
tithes, yet, as this law has a long period been a
dead letter, few people gave themselves any con-
cern about it. In the same manner the Easter

offerings, being so small in amount, only 4d. a
head, the people might overlook the atrocious
law passed in the reign of the late King, making
the non-possession of chattels a ground of im-
prisonment for three months. But now that
they see the clergymen of the parish institute
proceedings against a whole batch of miserable
farm servants for tithe of their wages, and pro-

cure the imprisonment of these poor creatures in
a House of Correction (for we believe Jeremiah
Dudsworth was not the only individual com-
mitted to Beverley House of Correction), they
will no longer choose to enjoy their liberty at
the discretion of a wrong-headed parson, but
t u
with. a loud voice demand the repeal of the
i!
Ti ande oppressive law. In an article in
he (' u
ki tdniunsbu ,
enumeration leview
of the claim
a year
or
rinos of the
re
back,
theze was an
thei
sh otsr
writerrwe th ti c
suspect,
n }
i thee.
s 0 that
m much
c.oi
ini
cr., n
Spanish clergy to personalf tithe, as something
exists
.r,the age. Little did
leafmnn:le thed. very7,,ve
twill
answer for it, however, that
Spain to the other, there is not an instance of a
one end of
farm labourer having been thrown
a tithe of his wages. It is reserved furpFn.snognlatfodr
to exhibit these revolting freaks of clerical ill_
solen ce.—Morning Chronicle.

The Whig and Tory Press are almost at
daggers drawn upon the subject of the Earl of
Warwick's interference in the last election for
the town from which the Noble Earl derives his
title. It is amusing to see through what a
jaundiced medium the spirit of party views
every thing which presents itself to its vision.
The case against the Earl of Warwick, as pre-
sented through an authentic channel—the re-
port of a Committee of the House of Com-
mons, grounded on evidence taken upon oath,
is unfortunately but too convincing of the fact
that the Noble Earl has employed both his
money and his station to bring about an object
in which he was especially bound in no manner
to interfere. But how does the Tory Press at-
tempt to repel or justify this ? Why, forsooth,
by the notable discovery that certain Whig
Peers (Lord Anglesey among the rest) stand con-
victed of similar peccadilloes. Vixerunt.fortes,
Bfc. And not contented with this, as a sort
of argumentunz ad hominem, the expenses of
the last Berkshire election are alluded to, as a
proof, probably, that, even after the passing of
the Reform Act, people cannot get into Parlia-
ment for nothing. But what the expense of the
Berkshire election has to do with the case of
the Earl of 'Warwick, except upon the principle
of a propos des bottes, parlons des raves, we
cannot imagine. The truth, we fear, is, that as
long as electors are corrupt, so long will there
be found candidates to corrupt them. The case
of the Earl of Warwick is odious in the ex-
treme, nor is it one jot the less so because cer-
tain Whig Peers may have done the same thing.
But let us not forget that if the people had the
virtue which their advocates in this case lay
claim to, no such consequences as are now corn
plained of could have ensued ; that, in short, the
tempted and the tempter are alike deserving of
our disdain.—Morning Herald.
The termination of the first session of the
Reformed Parliament has naturally given rise to
much discussion as to the merits of its various
proceedings, and the practical advantages which
they have yielded to the community. We may
have been thought somewhat tardy in the ex-
pression of our sentiments upon this occasion,
but having, during the progress of the session,
stated:our opinions with all sincerity and frank-
ness upon the various measures which have suc-
cessively engaged the attention of the Legislature,
there was the less necessity for us to be hasty in
our general estimate of its labours, more espe-
cially as we anticipated what has been strictly
verified by the event, that our contemporaries,
who have most differed from us in the details,
would be found to harmonize with us in the same
general conclusion. Our anticipations have not
been disappointed. The Reform Journals have
said for us all, and more than all, that we should
have felt disposed to say. One thinks that upon
the whole the Reformed Parliament has not
done amiss, considering that it was unripe ; ano-
ther thinks that much allowance ought to
be made for the garrulous vanity of persons
whose highest ambition has been to see their
names in print; nobody dreams of any thing so
foolish as ascribing any merit to the Reformed
House of Commons ; and the civilest thing
which is said of that assembly in any quarter is,
that it may be hoped it will be wiser and better
in the next session than it has shown itself du-
ring that which is just concluded. The rubbish
that has been spoken, the follies that have been
committed, in the Reformed Parliament, are
the themes ofa ridicule or reprobation which may
be strictly said to be universal. We can scarcely
go so far in contumelious treatment of the Re-
formed House of Commons as our reforming
Contemporaries. The House has been simply
what we said it would be, the tool of the present
administration. It has been what the Reform
Bill was intended to make it—an assembly not
entitled to respect for the talents or virtues of
the majority of its Members, but a very powerful
instrument in the hands of the Ministers of the
day. In reviewing the proceedings of Parliament
we feel, therefore, that we are, in fact, reviewing
nothing but the conduct of his Majesty's Mi-
nisters. The latter have been absolute in

Parliament during the past Session in a de-
gree which reduces in the comparison the
absolutism of the most despotic of the Conti-
nental Cabinets to the condition of timid and

trembling responsibility. With the House of
Commons for their slaves—with the character
which they had acquired for utter recklessness as
to the final consequences of their conduct--
every thing was possible to the Administration.
Every institution and every interest of the coun-
try dreaded and avoided a collision with such
Ministers so supported. Practically there has
not been any Parliament of Great Britain.
Downing-street has predominated over St. Ste-
phens. Earl Grey and his colleagues have been
the legislators of the land. And how has this
system wrought ? How has the new Consti-
tution of England shown itself in its effects ?
Let us trace the consequences of the new Con-
stitution in a few of the principal measures which
have occupied the attention and afforded scope
for the eloquence or garrulity of the House of
Commons :—lreland, Slavery in the Colonies,
the Bank Charter, the East India Charter. In
Ireland the powers of Government and the
authority of the law were suspended in conse-
quence of a long course of feeble, and vacil-
lating, and unprincipled policy. The exigency
of the case required that the hands of Govern-
ment should be strengthened ; and to a measure
having this purpose in view the House of Lords
readily consented. What use did Ministers

make of the powers thus granted them
by the only branch of the Legislature which
they could not literally and expressly corn-
mand ? They made a traffic of those
powers. They yielded some of the most im-

portant of their number as a sacrifice upon the
altar of popularity. NNith respect to the rest
of those powers, they basely stipulated that
they should not be employed in Ireland for the
protection of that description of property against
which the efforts of turbulence and insubordina-
tion had been chiefly or rather exclusively le-
velled. They retained those powers for their
own selfish purposes, and resigned them so far
as they could apply to the only objects which
called for or justified their concession. The
Government was, by this arrangement, made
despotic in Ireland, upon the self imposed con-
dition that for the protection of the rights and
property of the Church it should be more
feeble than ever. The consequences were such
as might have been foreseen, and were no
doubt premeditated. The Protestant clergy of
Ireland were left in a state of destitution, until
at length just enough was done for their relief
expense of a_rnillion of money to the
at the
over taxed people of England to prevent that
formidable reaction of the public mind of which
Ministers were justly dread. But the
Bank question has been settled during the
last session of' Parliament ! And how ? In a

manner which has the singular merit of giving
satisfaction to no patty—in a manner which has