The Sun.
London, England, 1833-12-02 00:00:00

CHURCH REFORM.

It is known that Ministers are preparing some plan of
Church Reform, and it is confidently behaved that they
are intending to relieve Dissenters from the unjust burden
of Church Rates, and to establish a general Registration.
We think it due to Ministers themselves, and also greatly
calculated to answer the ends which Dissenters have in
view, that the Dissenters should memorialize Earl Grey
and his colleagues, and lay before them all their claims.
If this is done at the present time, before the Governmeat
plans ate completed, Ministers will be enabled to shape
their measures accordingly, and to determine s-,tiat part
of the claims of Dissentets they will grant, and what they
will decline granting. To let the measures be prepared
for being submitted to Parliament, and then to come for•
ward with the claims, would be like taking Ministers by
3urPrise, and would put into their mouths the ready an-
swer—. You knew that we were engaged on this subject,
and you should have applied sooner. Our plans are corn!
pleted ; we cannot alter them ; you have ciime too late, at
least for the present Session." We are well known to be
friendly to Ministers, but we are confident that on this
subject they will require to be pressed ; and it is not won-
derful that they should, seeing how powerful and bigotted
• a hierarchy they will have to oppose.
We therefore recommend that the Dissenters in every
place should memorialize the Ministers as soon as possible,
candidly•and temperately stating their claims, and not in
any case forgetting to pro'est, on the grounds of reason
and Christianity, against the continued union of Church
and State. It will afterwards be necessary to petition the
two Hou'es of Parliament, and to use every constitutional
means, if the measures of Ministers should not prove sa-
tisfactory. We believe the practical grievances which the
Dissenters feel themselves justified in petitioning upon are
these :

An abolition of all exactions from Dissenters for the
support of the Church.
An admission to all the National Seminaries of I!: lu-
cation.

The right of marriage, without the Church service, or
the payment of fees to a clergyman.
The right of burial in parochial burying-grounds, their
own mirasteis officiating.
A general Registration of Births.

A Memorial has already been sent from Manchester ;
and a M-eting is to be held in Que:n street Chapel, Leeds,
next Tuesday evening, consisting of the Independent and
Baptist congregations,
to agree upon a memorial to the
Ministers, praying for the removal of ail the abovernen-
tamed grievances. These examples, we are persuaded,
will be followed by other Dissenting Congreg.ttions in this
and the neighbouring towns, and by the Dissenters
throughout the Country. We hope Earl Grey and his
Majesty's Ministers feel how much they owe, and must
continue to Owe, to the Dissenter,, who in every crisis have
proved their most active and efficient friends, and the best
friends of all kinds of Reform. The High Church party
hate Ministers, as they .hate every Statesman who. pos.
sesse+ a particle of liberality, and would kick them out
without the smallest ceremony, if they had the power of
dating so. Let Lord Grey not be so infatuated as to lean
upon a reed that would pierce through his hand. Let him
rather trust those who are the hereditary
supporters of
civil and religious freedom who have shown that they
onto know how to act and how to suffer in that sacred
great numbers of enlightened and liberal Churchmen, who
feel that their interests anti the interests of religion are
cause.injured
by n
exclusivedo i n lie will secure the approbation of
privileges and a State alliance.—Leeds
Mercury.