The Sun.
London, England, 1834-06-18 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

There was yesterday presented to Lord Grey an
address from a certain class of Dissenters at Bristol
which no doubt would afford considerable satisfac-
tion to his lordship. This petition is, in fact, much
more an expression of gratitude for past benefits
than of hope or expectation for the future. It does
unquestionably hope, and trust, and expect, but its
compliments and thanksgivings are by far more
energetically worded than the grievances or wants
of the authors of it. The substance of the docu-
ment is, that the present Ministers have done a
great deal for the cause of civil and religious liberty,
that they are surrounded with difficulties, and have
to achieve numerous and important objects With
very scanty powers—that "lime and conftdence"
agght to be given them to enable them to carry the
bill through which the universities are to be opened
to Dissenters—that they (the petitioners) disavow
all communion of feeling with those of the dissent-
ing body who aim at the overthrow of the Church
establishment, or at the separation of church and
state,—and, in fact, that they wish long life to the
existing Government, and are satisfied to leave in
its hands, and to be dealt with at its pleasure, all
those questions touching abuses and grievances
which affect the rights or social condition of Dis-
seaters. An address like this, which is really ra-
ther an act of homage than anything else, must be,
as we have hinted, most agreeable to the minister
who receives it. It is, in truth, a carte blanche,
to be completed and acted upon in the way most
convenient to the Government itself. There re-
mains now the consideration from whom the docu-
ment proceeds. They announce themselves to be
a Unitarian congregation of Bristol. Now the
Unitarians may, we think, be described, as on the
whole the most highly-cultivated and intelligent,
perhaps also the most affluent, of the dissenting
body, and so far they are persons indisputably of
some importance. But there are other circum-
stances to be taken into the account. The Uni-
tarians (we do not say affect to be, for that is
langurge less respectful than we are disposed to use,
hut) conceive themselves to be in some sort philo-
sophical Dissenters. There is among them less
fanaticism than among other bodies of non-
conformists less we believe of enthusiasm—
less proneness to bustle—less eagerness of action
—less of those sectarian passions and impulses
which lecd men to party turbulence, or are just
causes of social uneasiness—less, in short, of every
thing ,-,1.:1211 constitutes an element of political dan-

ger in
the
are nct.
vast ni
they

general agitation. Added to the
ti,oces, and probably because of them,
Jnitarians are few, and they
t the contrary. Among the
futers throughout England
e handful. They bear no proportion
Presbyterians. Baptists, or Indepen-
o form thc great bulk of the non-con-
and of whom they stand in much
than toy do of the Church of Eng,-
nf..ffenee, therefore, from any decla-
or contentment on the part of
sanguine as to its carry-

1)(!:-; or CLe

m nun]
dents,

greater

ration of

ulu not

in with it tie sympathy of their more numerous
brethren. In reality, we are unwilling to impute
to the m ,ior portion of the Dissenters that aggres-
sive and alarming desire which has been proclaimed
by some of them for a subversion of the Church
of England. But, on the other hand, we as
little impute to them the passive and submissive
spirit of waiters on Ministerial bounty, which it
seems the purpose of the Bristol address to de-
monstrate. Sure we are that the bulk of the
dissenting interest throughout Great Britain ac-
knowledge no such subservient temper on the sub-
ject of their general grievances. We are persuaded,
that so far from placing unbounded " confidence"
in the Minister, and granting him, as the Bristol
Unitarians appeared disposed to do, whatever time
he may require for carrying the measures of relief,
the mass of the dissenting body will he disposed to
repudiate somewhat angrily the oily address of the
Bristol Unitarians. The great body of the Dissen-
ters look upon the Unitarians-as little better than
Infidels, and will, we suspect, look with great sus-
picion on any recommendation coming from such a
quarter. Nor will Lord Grey attach much im-
portance to the Unitarian manifesto of adhesion,
when he considers that it proceeds more from the
fears which this comparatively insignificant body
entertains of the uncompromising spirit of the Cal-
vinist Dissenter, than from any wish to rescue a
Whig Government from its embarrassments. Much
as the Unitarians hate old Mother Church, they
hate, because they dread, the Presbytery and its
adjuncts ten times more.—Times.
Mr. O'Connell again announced, last 'night, his
determination to give the Coercion Bill every oppo-
sition, though he would do nothing in its nature
merely vexatious. On whatever day the bill should
be brought in, the honourable and learned gentle-
man said he would move that the house be called
over, and he would repeat that motion every day
the measure was brought under discussion. As it
is customary for a number of members to be absent
On Circuit about the time when the Coercion Bill
will be before the house, the threatened call will be
the cause of much perplexity. It would seem, from
what fell from Mr. O'Connell in reference to a state-
meat in the newspapers, that the Irish members had
been informed of the intention of Ministers that the
determination to renew the Coercion Bill had been
lately formed. The hon. and learned gentleman
said " he was desirous of knowing when the present
Government came to the decision of renewing the
Coercion Bill? There had lately been a change in
the Administration, and it was a matter of justice
to the public to state when the Cabinet, as it was
now constituted,'came to the determination." Lord
Althorp having declined to- reply to the question,
Mr. -O'Connell then observed, in reference to the
newspaper statement above alluded to, that so far
from Irish members having been informed of the
intention of ministers to renew the Coercion Bill,
" Cabinet ministers, on the contrary, said the very
reverse." This would serve to countenance the
rumour that Mr. Stanley and Sir Robert Peel have
announced their intention to oppose the renewal of
the Coercion Bill. If this be the case, the deter-
mination must have been formed since the secession
of Mr. Stanley ; and as, according to Lord Althorp,
" all the circumstances had been duly taken into
consideration" before determining, we must suppose
that the circumstances leading to the determination
are of recent occurrence. Irish politics are always
very much entangled ; and at this moment, when
the most powerful interests are in collision, they are
peculiarly complicated. ThuS, while the Aristocracy
and Hierarchy (if they may be separated) are about to
stir heaven and earth against the attempt to throw
light on the condition of the Irish Church, we per-
ceive, from Mr. Mahoney's " Observations on the
Tithe Bill," to which we yesterday alluded (and
we must take the opportunity of correcting an ob-
vious error in a leader of yesterday, respecting his
statement of the amount of the value of tithes, the
words a year baying been by mistake introduced
after 6-7ths of 17 millions) that the Irish land-
lords are about to array themselves against the
Tithe Bill. The Protestant Hierarchists on the
one hand, and the owners of the soil on the other,
may not be unwilling, for their separate ends, to
try their hands at a little agitation. The condition
of the unfortunate peasantry disposes them at all
times but too readily to become the dupes of those
who wish to make tools of them ; and it is
possible that Ministers deem it prudent, under
such circumstances, to have nothing to ha-
zard, and that they will throw themselves
boldly on parliament, and from the mode in which
they have exercised the powers given them by the
Coercion Bill, they may claim credit for a disposi-
tion to make no improper use of them. The lords
are quite furious on the subject of the commission.
They sufficiently revealed themselves during the
night of the debate ; and the language of the jour-
nals in their interest sufficiently inicates that they
have not renounced their intentions. They will not
easily relinquish their sinecure church. In vain
Earl Grey endeavours to extort an admission that