The Sun.
London, England, 1833-01-03 00:00:00

OBSERVATIONS.

The General-in-Chief had resolved to halt at Aleppo,
and there await the decision of the Sublime Porte, in
order to put all end to the existing state of things. The
enemy were far from acting in the same manner ; some-
times they advanced to the defile of Gulek—sometimes
they assembled at Antab, or at Oolukishlak, circulating
false reports on all sides. The inhabitants of those coun-
tries, worn out with the vexations to which they were
continually subject, solicited the aid of the General- in-
Chief. Their applications were signed by the members
of the religious body, the magistrates, and principal per-
sons of each city ; Adana especially loudly claimed assist-
ance. The inhabitants of this place, fearing that he could
not come in person, entreated him to send his Highness
Abbas Pacha. Urged by these applications, and aware of
what was going forward around him, the General-in-Chief
found himself obliged to advance to Adana. The enemy,
persevering in his evil designs, caused the defile of Gulek
to be fortified, and assembled his forces at Oolukishlak.
The General•in-Chief sent forward a detachment, which
took possession of the defile, and, in order to afford no
grounds for prolonging the war, he gave the custody of it
to some soldiers of the tribes of Adana.
The enemy, however, ceased not to excite uneasiness.
He had fortified Chiftahakhan, and was inclined also to
fortify Oolukishlak, his intention being to organize a fresh
army. One of the Beys of the province of Ichil, Ahmed,
Bey of Mossud, had been assassinated in his own house by
the enemy's troops ; wherever they appeared despair was
atits height. Repeated applications were made to his
Highness the General-in-Chief by the inhabitants of this
province, who conjured him to deliver them from their
oppressors.

The re-estiblisment of peace and good order in these
unhappy parts, and the destruction of the enemy's projects,
were the motives of the expedition of Oolukishlak.

A SHURST ANTI-TITHE MEETING.

(From the Brighton Guardian.)

On Saturday last a meeting of the occupiers and owners
of land in the parish of Ashurst, in the county of Kent,
took place at the Bald-faced Stag, Ashurst, to petition
Parliament on the subject of tithes. At twelve o'clock,
WILLIAM CAMFIELD, of Burrswood, Esq., having been
voted into the chair, opened the business of the day. He
said, that as agriculturists they were all too well aware of
the evils attendant on the present mode of remunerating the
clergy of the Established Church to render it necessary for
him to detain the meeting by an enumeration of them in a
long speech. His Majesty's Government had not, as far as
they were informed, shown themselves insensible of those
evils; and they had towards the close of the last session of
Parliament detailed the measures they intended to pursue
for their suppression in Ireland. In a pecuniary point
of view, Tithes pressed upon farmers more heavily in this
country than in Ireland, and there was no saying how
much longer the greater patience (because, perhaps, greater
means) of the English landowners would hold out against
the vexatious and grinding nature of this tax. It behoved
them, now that changes were about to be made in the
mode of paying the clergy in Ireland, to see that the land-
owners on this side of the channel had the benefit of what-
ever measures were passed in favour of that country. His
Majesty's Ministers had hitherto onlyspoken of commuting
Irish Tithes, seeming to think that those of England might
he settled at any time. Perhaps they might really intend
to extend the measures of which they spoke last session to
England ; but as they had only alluded to a reform in the
Church with regard to this country, they, as English far-
mers, were bound to remind the Government that a dis-
contented ten millions in England might find themselves as
able to accomplish their object as a discontented seven mil-
lions in Ireland. He believed there was no one present who
wished harm to the Established Church; and indeed he was
satisfied that those who desired measures to be adopted
which would place Church property out of its present
perilous position were the best friends of the Church.—
(Hear.) The property of the Church in Ireland would
now have been in safety if the late Ministry had brought
in some such measures as were now proposed, before dis-
content had reached its present pitch in this country. What
they wanted Ministers to do was to prevent discontent
reaching the same height in England, by at once doing for
it what was intended to be done for Ireland. After some

further general observations, the Chairman concluded by
hoping that their proceedings would be marked by good
humour.

WILLIAM SAIRY, E.g., of Ashurst Manor House, said
rat if he could trust his knowledge of the faces before him,

there was no great chance of anything happening to dis-
turb their good humour. The parish only held two
Tories, and they had thought it expedient, after the elec-
tion defeat they had lately sustained, to stay away, recom-
mending them, he understood, to wait till it was known
what Ministers meant to do.—(A. laugh.) Now his opi-
nion was, that they should petition in the first instance;
for they all knew how difficult it was to get even the best
Ministers essentially to alter any plan to which they had
once committed themselves.—(Hear, hear.) As far as they
could judge from public report, Ministers contemplated
as the grand measure for this country a new distribution of
Church property ; but however just and necessary that
might be, it would he of no service to the farmer.--(Hear,
hear.) Kent had often been the first to move upon great
public questions, and Ashurat bad shown itself " first of
the first" in setting an example, which, he trusted, would
be followed by every agricultural district in the kingdom.--
(Cheers.) Believing that they were all pretty much of
the same mind, some friends had ventured to draw up a
petition, which he now begged to submit for the approba-
tion of the meeting. It ran thus :--
"TO THE RIGHT HON., AND HON. KNIGHTS AND
CITIZENS AND BURGESSES OF THE UNITED
KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND
IN PARLIAMENT ASSEMBLED,

" The petition of the undersigned occupiers and owners of
land in the parish of Ashurst, in the county of Kent, agreed
to at a public meeting, held at the Bald-faced Stag, in the said
parish, on the 29th day of Dec., 15.32. Humbly Ehoweth—
" That your petitioners are, for the most part, members of
the Established Church, and have long regretted the odium
to which its clergy have been subjected by the mode in
which their remuneration has been levied, as well as
the deep injury it has inflicted on agriculture and
the nation at large. Your petitioners have, therefore,
heard (they hope truly) with great satisfaction, that his
Majesty's Government propose to lay before Parliament some
plan having in view the amendment of the present tithe sys-
tem ; but their satisfaction has been tempered by regret from
having been given to understand that his Majesty's Govern
ment intend to make a distinction between the two portions of
the United Kingdom in which tithes are levied—England and
Ireland. Your petitioners beg to submit that no solid ground

exists for such distinction, the injurious effects of the tit
system being precisely the same in both countries. The
differencebetween the two is, that the landowners of England
have been content to await relief from your Honourable
House, whereas those of Ireland have for the most part shown
themselves willing to take advantage of a mistaken zeal of a
portion of their tenantry to get rid of this obnoxious impost
by a daring evasion of the laws of the land.
" Your Petitioners submit that to make a distinction in
favour of Irish Landowners will be most impolitic, inasmuch a,
it will encourage the Dissenters and even the members of the
Established Church in this country to continue to agitate
the question till they obtain an equal amount of relief.
Your Petitioners deem your Hon. House to be too well
acquainted with the operation and consequences of the
present Tithe System, the land it keeps uncultivated, the
labourers unemployed, the heart-burnings it creates between
the clergy and' the parishioners, the hostility it raises among
Dissenters in being forced to make a direct contribu.
tion to a church with which they have no communion, to
render entering into any details upon them necessary ; but the
alarm they are under of having their silence construed into
acquiescence of a less measure of relief being meted out to
them than to their Irish fellow-subjects, an alarm strengthened
by past experience, of the proneness cf the Legislature to treat
Ireland and England as divided, instead of United Kingdoms,
urges them to address
your Hon. House at the present me.
mentous crisis.

" Your Petitioners, therefore, entreat your Hon. House to
agree only to such measures of relief with regard to the Tithe
System, as will place the landowners of England upon the
same footing as those of Ireland, and your Petitioners wig
ever pray, &c."

Mr. Saxby concluded by moving the adoption of the
petition amidst loud cheers.

The motion baying been secon,led by an occupier in the
parish, was unanimously agreed to. It was also agreed
that a similar petition should be presented to the House of
Lords.

Mr. JANiss EvEar.sx moved that Mr. Hodges be re-
quested to present the petition, and that Mr. Rider be re-
quested to support it in the House of Commons, and that
Lord King be reques'ed to do the same in the House of
Lords.

Mr. WOODHASIS, a farmer, in seconding the motion,
observed that although the Engnab had not complained so
much as the Irish, they had not found the tithes by any
means light. In the parish of Hawkhurst, the parson had
this year walked off with 22 tons of hops, worth nearly
3,0001. ; and they all knew how many losses the farmer
must have sustained, how much labour and capital ex-
pended, to have produced a crop to yield such a tithe.—
(Cries of shame.) In Ashurat the tithes were, they all
too well knew, also taken in kind, and the possibility of
any parish being subject to the harassing demands was
sufficient to justify the strongest remonstrances being
made to the Legislature. He was sure no one could
quarrel with a petition so just and moderate as theirs.
The motion having been carried, as also a vote of
thanks to the Chairman, the meeting separated.