The Sun.
London, England, 1834-03-10 00:00:00

DEPARTURES.

Wm. H. Cooper, Esq., and Mrs. Cooper, from Marshall
Thompson's Hotel, Cavendish.square ; James Brown, Esq.,
from ditto; the Hon. and Rev. L. Barrington, from Patter
son's Hotel, Duke-street ; the Hon. J. Douglass, from ditto.

GREAT MEETING OF THE DISSENTERS

OF MANCHESTER.

(From the illanchester Time.)

The great cause of the Dissenters of England has just
received a mighty increase of strength. The Dissenters
of Manchester have at length boldly asserted their com-
mon rights. On the evening of Wednesday they assem-
bled in crowds, at the Exchange Dining.rown, to take
their grievances into consideration, and held a meeting at
once peaceable, unanimous, and firm. The intense inte-
rest which this meeting created may be inferred when
we state that numbers were unable to obtain admission,
and many induced to attend from several miles distance,
although the rain fell in torrents the whole of the evening.
Here follows a long report of the meeting, for which
we have not room, but which terminated in the adoption
of the following petition :

" To the Honourable the House of Commons in Parlia.
ment assembled,
" The humble petition of the undersigned Dissenters
from the Church by law established, and others, inha-
bitants of Manchester and its vicinity,
" Showeth,

" That in the deliberate opinion of your petitioners, all civil
establishments of religion are an infringement of the rights of
conscience, at variance with the spirit, and opposed to the pro-
gress of Christianity.
"That although such establishments are indebted for their
power to a union with the state, and might therefore be ex.
petted to co-operate uniformly with it, yet your petitioners
have regretted to observe that they ton frequently employ the
influence derived from this union in thwarting the govern-
ment, when its measures are really calculated to promote gene-
ral education, to extend the liberties, and to augment the hap.
piness of the people.
" That the law which authorises bishops to sit in the Upper
House of Parliament, to represent the interests and wishes of
their own denomination on all occasions, both ecclesiastical and
political, compromises the character of the Christian ministry,
is a partial and unjust preference of one class of his Majesty's
subjects over all others, and a special grievance to the dis-
senters, presbyterians, and catholics of England, Scotland, and
Ireland, who compose a large majority of the people of the
United Kingdom.

" Entertaining these sentiments, viewing all compulsory
support of religion as unjust and oppressive, and the distinctions
now subsisting between churchmen and dissenters as invidious,
your petitioners respectfully, but firmly and decidedly, express
their entire disapproval, on principle of all connection between
chureh and state, under the full conviction that the true in.
terests of both would be best promoted by their separation, and
that nothing short of this will effectually redress the grievances
of dissenters.

" That, in common with Dissenters in all parts of the United
Kingdom, who, by their voluntary efforts, erect and keep in
repair their own places of worship,—support their own minis-
ters,—maintain, to a great extent, their own poor,—educate in
Sunday schools, and otherwise, vast numbers of the popula.
tion,—extend their exertions into the British colonies, and
thus contribute largely to the welfare of their fellow-subjects,
your petitioners feel it a heavy grievance to be compelled to
support, by tithes, rates, or any other mode, any civil establish.
ment of religion ; leaving, however, the future appropriation
of tithes, or of any fund into which they may be commuted,
to the deliberate consideration of the Legislature; but dis-
claiming all pecuniary support from the state for ministers of
religion.

" That under the operation of the present ecclesiastical sys-
tem, there is no general register of births ; Dissenters are pre-
vented from legally contracting marriage, and from interring
their dead in parish burial-grounds, unless they conform to
rites of which they conscientiously disapprove ; and by the
imposition of religious tests they are excluded from the Eng-
lish Universities ; therefore your petitioners humbly pray
" That the connexion between church and state may be
dissolved with the least delay practicable, that there may be a
repeal of the act of parliament which authorises the prelates of
the established church to sit in the Upper House.
" That all laws compelling support of any religious denomi-
nation whatever may be repealed.
" That a universal civil registration of births, marriages
and burials may be established.
" That the marriage contract may be legalized, and the
burial service performed in parish burial.places, apart from all
obligatory compliance with the forms of the established church;
and that dissenters may have access to the English Universities
without submitting to any religious test.
" And your petitioners will ever pray, &c."

MATRIMONY.—It would seem that the fa-
vours of Hymen are at this time thinly strewed at Mans-
field; for in that parish which contains a population of
more than ten thousand, not a single banns of marriage
were public) ed in the parish church on Sunday the 2d.
inst., a circumstance of singular and rare occurrence.—
Doncaster Gazette.