The Sun.
London, England, 1834-04-10 00:00:00

from her conduct, as publicly reported, since
the death of Ferdinand. Our Madrid cor-
respondent says : " The Queen is young, and
still in the freshness of her beauty, and many
allowances are to be made for one educated in
the Court of Naples, and so many years bound
to a brute like the late King ; but it is not so
much the breach of morality which the people
here complain of as the want of decorum, and
the public manifestations of preference given to
her favourite. The unkind feeling is also in-
creased against her by its being generally un-
derstood that she is opposed to the progress of
liberality, and all the delays attending the con-
vocation of the Cortes, and the full establish-
ment of the Urban Militia, are attributed to
her. I know not how she has been received at
Aranjuez, but it was found necessary to send
for additional troops, which left Madrid on her
requisition." We think that as the first female
in whose favour the salique law has been put
aside, and as a foreigner, she should have been
extremely circumspect in her conduct. The im-
morality of the Duchess of Berri gave strength
to the previous report of the illegitimacy of the
Due de Bordeaux. So does the immorality of
the Queen Regent of Spain prejudicially affect
her daughter's title.—Morning Herald.
From the following announcement in the
Patriot of laSt night, it will appear that a
meeting of representatives of the dissenting body
from different parts of the kingdom will take
place in the metropolis in the early part of the
month of May next. There will thus be some-
thing like a general assembly in both parts of
the island on the subject of ecclesiastical griev-
ances :

" From the information conveyed to us from all
quarters, we are prepared advisedly to state, that a
mere public meeting of the dissenters of the metro-
polis is not likely to supersede, and could not answer
the purpose of a general assembly, we do not say of
commissioners, for no legislation is contemplated, but
of representatives of the dissenting body from different
parts of the kingdom. We are well aware that our
friends in the country have long been ready to answer
to the signal ; and we are assured that they will ap-
preciate the motives which have induced us to defer
giving it, till the general feeling appeared to be
ripe for the movement. Such a meeting appears
to us, to be now indispensable, in order to ascer-
tain and to demonstrate to the public that unity
of sentiment which, we are persuaded, pervades the
great mass of the dissenters, and to defeat the base
attempts that are made to divide them, or, if that cam-
not be done, to make them seem divided. We feel
assured that our friends in the metropolis would feel
greatly relieved and strengthened by the opportunity of
concert with their country brethren ; and the early part
of the month of May has been looked forward to as a
convenient season for inviting them to such a confe-
rence. Before that period it will probably be found
impracticable to make the necessary arrangements, but
the present position of affairs, so deeply affecting the
dissenters, renders it imperative that not a day should
be lost. Should the call be made, we earnestly hope
that the response will be unanimous."
_ _ _

The same paper furnishes, under the head
of "Dissenting Statistics," the relative number
of churchmen and dissenters at Hull, of which
the population, in 1831, was 54,110. In
this great sea-port, the dissenters are only
twice the number of churchmen, not thrice,
as in Nottingham and some other places.
The parish churches contain 4,300 sittings,
and have an average attendance on Sundays
of 2,400, little more than half the sittings.
There are four chapels of ease maintained by
voluntary contributions, having 5,500 sittings,
with an average attendance of 4,000. The
total of episcopalian churches and chapels,
9,800 sittings and 6,400 attendance. The
non-conformists have 18,630 sittings, and
12,450 attendance. The children at Sunday
schools of the church, 1,200 ; of the dissenters,
2,760. The regular communicants of the
church, 768 ; of the dissenters, 4,663. An
evening contemporary (The Sun) observes,
with reference to the statement from Chichester—
" We never doubted that in large towns the various
sects of dissenters (including the Methodists) are more
numerous than those who are in the regular habit -of
attending the established churches. But we should
like to know what provision is made in the dissenting
chapels for those who cannot afford, or are not inclined,
to take sittings in the chapels ? To them the churches
are open ; and will it be maintained that the religious
instruction the churches afford is of no advantage ?
The truth is, that the mass of the people are not suffi-
ciently alive to the importance of public worship to
incur heavy expenses for its support."

These observations are plausible ; and we believe
most people take nearly the same view of the
subject, on first bestowing attention on it. We
are not aware whether any provision is made
in dissenting chapels for those who cannot af-
ford, or are not inclined, to take sittings in the
chapels, though we suspect that the poor are
never turned away merely because they are un-
able to pay. But the truth is, the mass " who
are not sufficiently alive to the importance of
public worship to pay for its support," have
little taste for the established churches, which
they hardly ever enter. The gay and the fa-
shionable frequent the churches ; the poor, who
are not indifferent to religion, prefer paying for
its support in Dissenting chapels, to having it
for nothing in churches. It is everywhere
nearly as in Hull, where, though the churches
of the Establishment are only half filled, the
Episcopalians, who are not indifferent to reli-
gion, support clergymen of their own on the
voluntary principle. In Edinburgh, where the
subject of attendance has been carefully in-
quired into, it was found that the poor
do not avail themselves of gratuitous seats ;
and the absurdity of building churches for
the poor was proved by this, that the ex-
isting churches, in which there was plenty 'of
room, were abandoned by them. In fact, it
will be found that the great merit of the Dis-
senters and the Wesleyans is, that they have
throughout the country, even to the most re-
mote villages of Cornwall, Devonshire, and
Wales, drawn into chapels the poor and the
abandoned. The poor man is ruined in his
own estimation, and gradually becomes a re-
spectable member of society. A dissenting
chapel soon reforms the neighbourhood where
it is reared, and a school uniformly follows in
its train. We know of no church so ill-adapted
for the purposes of a community as the church
of England. In the church of Rome there are
means for keeping the parish clergy to their
duty, and preventing their neglecting their
flocks. Should the parish priest become lazy,
a friar of some order instantly appears, and the
people flock to him, and the priest's income is
reduced by the loss of fees for confessions, &c.
The dread of a competitor keeps the priest
to his duty. In several parts of England,
where there are no dissenting chapels, the
constable. is made to aid the church, and
drags the reluctant labourers from their houses.
We have witnessed this within thirty miles of
London, and within these ten years. The
truth is, the heart must be reached ; and he who
would find his way to the hearts of the poor
must not address them in the cold and fashion-
ably elegant style of the preachers of the esta-
blishment. Before the preacher has made a
couple of pages of his discourse, which is ill-
adapted for the labouring man, the latter is