The Sun.
London, England, 1860-03-26 00:00:00

cage, 1
will leave it, to any rfsonabie man to con-
ceive the effect of a perfectly free import.
It is thought by some that this discrepancy in
the price or material will right itself iu time, by
equalising the price here with that on the Conti-
neut. I believe under r.O circumstances, short of a
free export, could this be sensibly effeeted, on ac-
count
of the immexise area from which the Conti-
nental supplie° fire drawn ; but that, with an .Ame-
rican demand eenstantly operating in our market,
with a pmer to pAy a much higher price than we
can, this is rendered impossible.
It How remains only to inquire on what grounds
so many well-meaning men seem prepared to pre-
cipitate us into that unnatural contest, without
power to help ourselves.
I find no one prepared to deny the extreme hard-
ship of our case ; no one who would not, if they
could, remove the obstacles to a free access to the
foreign material; but, strange enough, those who
thus profess to sympathise with us, who condemn
the injustice of the proceeding—either from party
tactics, or from its being, as they think, an infrac-
tion of a gi-eat; peieeiple—are intending to commit
us to this unequal and ruinous contest. IVith as
much justice might you throw two men into the
river to swim for their lives, the one with every
hmb unfettered and the other with an arm and a
leg tied up, and call this a fair contest, as commit
us to a race of competition with the foreign maker,
hampered with an export duty on the material we
require, under the pretence that this is free trade.
What we ask from the public is that which the
public seldom refuses—fair play; we ask to be
placed on the same footing of free trade as the
cotton, the woollen, the silk, and the linen manu-
facturers ; and, placed in this position, we will fight
our way as best we can ; and only until we can be
placed in this position, and only as a means of break-rng down
these itelfrah -restrictions, we ask That a
compensating import duty of Id. per lb. be al!owed
to remain ; and we say, further, that to act other-
Wise is to destroy a deserving trading interest, and
to perpetuate the state of things on the Continent
which is universally condemned.--I am, sir, yours,
Cox's Hotel, lermyn-street, March WRIGLEY.
23.

[Advertise ment]
TUE CH UR Cii-RA TB ABOLITION BILL.
The following petition of the Executive Com-
mittee of the liberation Society was presented to
the House of Commons by Mr. Bright, on Wed-
nesday la 4 :
" To the Honourble the Commons of Great Britain
and Ireland in Parliament assembled.
"The humble Petition of the Executive Committee
of the Society for the Liberation of Religion from
State Patronage and Control,
"Showetl,—
" 1. That in the opinion of your petitioners, the
association of the Christian religion with compul-
sory exactions for the purpose of repairing its
edifices, or defraying ttie expenses incident to divine
worship therein, is contrary to the spirit of the
Holy Gospel ; tends to beget misconceptions of its
beneficent design; cheeks to a considerable extent
the exercise of cheerful self-sacrifice to which it
prompts, and renders necessary a resort to ma-
chinery the working of which inevitably awakens
feelings at variance with the genial, kindly, and
sacred influences which Christianity brings to bear
upon the human heart.
"2. That your petitioners have go-olrgibitnaS'fOr
believing that church rates originated in the volun-
tary oblations of parishioners. That otherwise, as
your petitioners conceive there must be; or have
beeu,.soine proems at common-ft* to' enforce the
making or pay event- of the.. rate. Thitniittraee of
any such process or. writ can be discovered as having
at any time existed ; and that in the case of 'Veley
v: Burder,' commonly called the Braintree Case; the
judges; although of opinion that the repair of the
parish church by the parishioners is an obligation at
common law, generally admitted that there is no
compulsory process at common law, to enforce such
obligation. That, accordingly, the Superior Courts at
Westminster have uniformly declined to enforce
the making or payment of any church rate, except
in cases arising under some local or other special
act of Parliament.

" 3. That, in seeking the abolition of church rates,
your petitioners submit that they are aiming to re-
store the voluntary character (so far as the parish
ioners were concerned) of the system whereby
originally churches were kept in repair, and the
expenses of divine worship therein were defrayed.
" 4. That the custom which eventually took the
present form of church rate, by which the majority
of parishioners in vestry assembled could bind all
the ratepayers of the parish to pay their quota
towards the objects for which such rate was made,
originated at a period when the whole population
were of one faith, and could avail themselves of the
accommodation thereby provided for their spiritual
benefit; but that since the prevalence and legal
tolerance of diverse views of both Christian doctrine
and discipline, the exaction has become oppressive
to the consciences and repugnant to the feelings of
a large and increasing number of subjects of the
realm, who at their own cost have erected thousands
of places of worship, all the religious agencies con-
nected with which they maintain by means of
voluntary contributions.
" 5. That while church rates are leviable on the
whole rateable population of the country, the ac-
commodation provided by the churches to the main-
tenance of which they are applied is utterly inade-
quate to satisfy the correlative rights of the
parishioners.

" G. That very many churches have been built
and are kept in repair by members of the church of
England, without any recourse to a parochial rate;
and that such persons, in common with Dissenters,
feel the injustice of being compelled to pay an ec-
clesiastical tax from which they derive no corre-
sponding advantage.
" 7, That although such injustice might be re-
dressed by enabling district parishes to make their
own rates, and relieving them from payment
to-
wards the mother church, this extension of the tax
to purposes hitherto provided for by voluntary
means would not only be in violation of the pledge
given to the Legislature at the passing of the act
of 1830 and subsequent acts, in virtue of which
many district churches hay e been erected, but
would necessarily displace a large amount of
healthy exertion and contributions now cheerfully
devoted to the maintenance of such churches, and
would impose a heavier burden on the community
at large.

" B:That your petitioners, judging from re-
peated declarations made at vestry meetings, and
from the still more decisive evidence of ♦otes,
where polls have been taken, have good reason to
believe that a considerable number of members of
the Church establishment would deprecate an ex-
tension of the existing compulsory system, even
although any grievances of their own might be
thereby redressed.

9. That a general opposition to church rates
originated shortly after the extinction by act of
Parliament of church cess in Ireland in the year
1832; and that, many years before the formation
of the society of which your petitioners constitute
the executive committee, such opposition was so de-
cided as to compel the Ministers of the Crown to
admit the urgent necessity for an alteration of the
law, and, in accordance with such admission, to
make a proposal to Parliament, the object of which
was that church rates should cease and determine.'

" 10. That such opposition has never since
abated, but has very greatly increased since the
judicial decision of the House of Lords in the
Braintree case.

" 11. That, so far from it being the fact that
only 500 parishes have refused to make rates, it
appears, from a return presented to your honour-
able house in 1856 (No. 319) that, out of the 1,672
places making returns, 1,130 had ceased to make
rates. That such return, while altogether omit-
ting, as your petitioners know, many populous
plates where rates have also ceased to-be levied,
showed that the parishes where they had ceased
contained a population of 6,126,151, against a popu-
lation of 7,084,249 in the other parishes—the
average population of the parishes still making
rates being below 1,000, while that of the parishes
refusing was more than 5,000.
" 11. That a later return, with a supplement
thereto, presented in 1859 (No. 4 and No. 4 I.), and
embracing 10,165 parishes, respecting which infor-
mation is given, shows that for seven years no
church rates had been levied in 1,60'i parishes ;
that in 2,673 parishes the rate was supplemented
by voluntary rates of subscriptions, and to a small
extent by endowments, and that the whole number
of parishes in which the maintenance of the fabrics
and of the services is dependent on the church rate
exclusively is but 5,4451.
" 13. That the general and progressive character
of the opposition to this impost is further illus-
trated by the Parliamentary returns presented
from 1827 to 1859 ; inasmuch as it is thereby
shown that the sum annually derived from church
rates has continuously declined—it having within
that period fallen from £519,000 to £260,000.
" 14. That, nevertheless, such returns fail to give
an adequate idea of the extent of hostile feeling
with which this ecclesiastical impost is regarded,
inasmue!-, as, besides omitting many parishes in
which rates are no longer levied, they take but
little cognisance of the strong but unavailing oppo-
sition of minorities, and give little or no informa-
tion as to the numerous cases in which the collec-
tion of a church rate has been found impracticable,
either on account of its invalidity, or of the antici-
pated number of recusants to the demand.
" 13. That, notwithstanding the great diminu-
tion of the amount annually raised by means of
church rates, churches have not, in consequence
thereof, fallen into decay, nor has divine worship
ceased to be performed therein ; on the contrary,
as your petitioners are informed, more care has
been bestowed, and more money expended, on
the repair and decoration of the ancient churches
than during any corresponding term in the entire
period when church rates formed almost the only
available fund for such purposes.
" 16. That, from the concurrent testimony of
the returns laid before Parliament in 1856 and
1859, it appears that of the money raised by
means of church rates a very small partiont
ally, is required for the purpose of . the
churches, there being in fact raised, chiefly from
voluntary subscriptions, which those returns show
increasing, an amount
to be both permanent and
which, if applied solely for that purpose, would
be nearly an adequate provision.
" 17. That, in particular, it appears from the re-
turns of 1859, that the average sum annually ex_
pended in the
repair of the fabricto(l,ui
and
*ing the seven
that during
• years then preceding was .E 310,)
the same period there was received,
of church rates, an average sum of i 2 independently.
69,000, leaving
a balance of only £40,000 a year to be otherwise
provided for. That it appears by the census of re-
ligious worship that there are upwards of 5,000,000
sittings belonging to the Church of England ; and

2
(7)
1
- 7 ' Y
1-- (4'
,
~ t petitioners Submit to the tipe -photyr
111--4111 W
?./ t's'i ' • •
fi re house that, if it be thou". fig S
D___+k-
tend the existing system (4' e' ; ---' . r
.
i + ....0s
- - - -....--
6d. per quarter on each of " t„ 3,1
osta.-Ai
raise .E 300,000, and would j/4:-.0,11.**10 laVgii"l number of sitting,4; free. t -tlefitiqlsitPitimiOgi
any tea en to MI ppaLie they igiLi7ler-:....."
" 18. That your petition 4kilfW' isiiiisktile46
imagine that the abolition or`ukute i irt4444--the
parishes where they• arc still leld. w Ad. ail any
degree injure tne poorer pitei.shioners ; that it would
give direct relief to many restepeyersill able to pay
....
the rate ; and that, assuming, As your petitioners
do, as much readiness on the part of the utembers
of the Church of England as that displayed by
members of other communions to provide the means
of divine worship according to their ability, they
do not perceive any respect in which the services of
~the Church would be less available for the poor
than they now are.
" 19. That for many years past a general anxiety
has prevailed to effect a final settlement of this
much controverted question. That your petitioners,
sharing this anxiety-, were willing in 186 to
acquiesce in arrangements t hen be! ieved to be
likely to pass into law, although such arrangements
were not in perfect accordance with their own views.
yutlio:(ol:indar
modification
ifcooatni
the
.ieothhnoeuhosates ter hand, the supporters of the rating
system have never agreed among themselves as to
the principles which should govern any modifica-
nitahwa.t
regarded
h' le' hbati i
lwe(s)i-te.t
with
iyi
c,
lo.proposaldisfavournle
nboiyf_
existingib)ueet
....oble.tyrt,soufuoifirrellioTelan;:iih3sytcouoesnke:iilinlocrtiii Jig.heiee)rsoet;e simpleesi
vaemil,airmlinaimedeinattse
abolition of church-rates, has received the approval
as your, petitioners
submit, that it is a measure in harmony with the
views and wishes of the public.
" 20. That the persevering, earnest, and costly
efforts which have been made of late years for the
abolition of church rates haie been made with s
view to put an end to a system which is sincerely
believed—wheresoever;. and upon whomsoever it
may operate—to be injurious to religion, and not
with any intention of claiming exemption for such
only as may object to compulsory exactions' for
ecclesiastical objects.
" 21. That, in the opinion of your petitioners, the
association of_ the public authority of law with a
permission to large classes of her Ailajesty's
_sub-
jects to obey it or not, as they may individually
prefer, would be an impolitic and even dangerous
novelty in the jurisprudence of the country, and
would involve the injustice ofcompelling a large °lass
of citizens to make personal claims for exemption
from a tax to which they ought not to be subject.
22. That, in rural parishes especially, the pro-
posed exemption would fail to give the relief in-
tended, inasmuch as the undue but irresistible in-
fluences which now prevent opposition to the mak-
ing a rate in vestry would operate quite as power-
fully to deter individual objectors from claiming
exemption ; and that, even it' such exemption were
largely claimed, it would necessarily increase the
mount payable by those who absent themselves
front all places of worship, and would probably in-
crease their indifference or antipathy to religion.
" 23. That, for these and other reissons, your peti-
tioners believe that no laW for the exemption of
themselves only would be accepted by the opponents
of church rates in the parishes as a final settlement
of the question ; and that, therefore, the ill will oc-
casioned by the exaction wouldstili continue.
" 24. That your petitioners cannot discover any
reason which is not equally good for all other
Christian communions why Protestant Episcopa-
lians should be enabled to use the machinery of
public law for the purpose of defraying the cost of
their religious worship; and that the extension of
suchipower to churches of every other denomina-
tion would be perilous as a precedent, and might in
the end prove disastrous to the general as well as
the religious interests of the country.
" 25. That your petitioners, in seeking the aboli-
tion of church rates, are influenced by no feeling of
hostility to Protestant Episcopalians, nor are they
desirous of effecting any change in their doctrines,
their formularies, or their discipline ; on the contrary
they firmly believe that the extinction of this com-
pulsory ecclesiastical exaction, besides tending to
promote the general good of the people and the
interests of religion, would stimulate, rather titan
check, the prosperity of the Episcopalian body.
" 26. That, while your petitioners do not conceal,
but, on the contrary, have alWays avowed, their
desire to bring about, in a constitutional manner,
other changes in the laws affecting the relationship
of the State to religious bodies, they declare their
unaffected belief' that the abolition of church rates
would restore peace to the parishes in which they
are now the occasion of lamentable dissensions, and
would thus leave the discussion of other and larger
measures to be carried on under circumstances far
less likely to excite personal animosities and local
strifes.
" Your petitioners therefore humbly pray your
honourable house to satisfy the just expectations
of the country by once more passing the bill for the
entire abolition of the church rates. And your
petitioners will ever pray.
" Signed on behalf of the petitioners,
" WILLIAM EDWARDS, Chairman."

GRANITE DUSTY .ROADS.

In some former numbers of the Lancet we no-
ticed the fact, not generally known, that emana-
tions from animal and vegetable deposits in our
streets, mixed with granite dust—impeding the
drainage of our sewers and contaminating the
waters of the Thames—are sources of disease, and
highly prejudicial to the health of the inhabitants
of this metropolis. The injury to the lungs and
air-passages by inhaling granite dust, we also ob-
served, is an additional evil to which the public of
London are exposed. We now find, by the evi-
dence adduced before a committee of the House of
of Commons as to the causes of the noxious exhala-
tions from the Serpentine, that the macadamised
roads all round the metropolis, as well as the
granite in the streets of London, have contributed,
for a series of years past, to the augmentation of
these evils. The accumulation of mud in that
. i
ornamental piece of water have reached certain
parts a depth of eight feet; and when this sedi-
ment becomes exposed to the solar heat in sultry
seasons, decomposition and noisome emanations fol-
low as matters of course.

Another important fact, which appears to have
been also overlooked, is, that a great obstacle to
utilising for agricultural purposes the sewage of
the metropolis and other large towns is th© quan-
tity of mud washed into the common sewers from
macadamised roads. This evil can only be effectu-
tually provided against by the universal adoption of
the improved system of road-making, termed the
" Composite System," by whick the broken granite
is permanently embedded in a bituminous cement,
so as to prevent this constant grinding into dust.
The blocks are of a larn.e size, and are brought into
the streets ready made ; and, being, impervious,
they are free from noxious exhalations. The economy
of this mode of paving is undeniable.
Mr. Gibson, President of the Board of Trade,
Mr. M•Kinnon, M.P., and other inhabitants of
vde-park-place, have, we understand, in conjunc-
tioh with Sir James Duke, the Rev. Mr. Beard,
and other inhabitants of Portland-place, made
various representations to the Vestry of Marylebone
to substitute this system for the Afacadam ; but it
is us difficult to get some vestrymen to travel out
of the antiquated rut of routine as it was in days of
yore to induce them to admit that gas was superior to
oil for street illumination, or to get stage-coach and
post-horse proprietors to acknowledge the superio-
rity of steam power on railways over animal power
on common roads.

We are glad to find that Lmd Fermoy is taking
an active part in removing the evils of the Serpentine,
and we should like to see him take the lead in the
formation of an association for providing a remedy
for these evils, by the adoption of this improved
system of covering roads. All the metropolitan
members might take a part in such a movement, as
the health and comfort of their constituents must
always be matters of importance to them ; and
nothing could contribute more to such results than
the removal of mud, dust, and deafening noises
from our streets. It may be very true, as it always
has been, that there are certain vested interests in.
the maintenance of abuses, and that contractors and
scavengers,wit h dust-carts, m ud-carts,&c.,would
something of their enormous profits by the adop-
tion of a system of cleanliness which would not re-
quire their aid; but the public is not likely to
submit to nuisances, the subject of such gf.'neral
complaint ; nor can the ratepayers be expected to
subunit much longer to the far
than. faigreater outin'y for
it)leiere ingauiiirietednfaonr iheeoefirsurecihn evilsoval. will Facts
are b
henst euhfbr
oor t hn
thins,
and truth must prevail sooner or h tter.—
La nee&

) ----- ---
A itt.M.UtKAIILE Pftol'EßTY OF IRON.-1 r t the
year 1856, says a contemporary, Mr. March, an ab.lf t che-
mist connected with the Royal Arsenal, discovered that it
was an invariable rule with iron which has remained a con-
siderable time under water, when reduced to small grains
or an impalpable powder, to become red hot, and ignite any
substances with which it comes in contact. This h found
by scraping some corroded metal from a gun, which ignited
the paper containing it, and burnt a hole in his pock et. The
knowledge of this fact is of immense importance, as it may
account for many spontaneous flies and explosions i . The
tendency of moistened particles of iron to ignite •r, dig•
covered by the great French chemist, Lonely, as f agj • back
as the year 1670.
We learn from the Bert fio'd .Tournal that the
Right Hon. Lord Llanover will figure at tho
-ont :Louth
assizes as defendant in an extraordinary trial for libel , pr*.
ferred against him by Mr. Stone, of Llangattock, a g tntls-
man well known in the fashionable and sporting ell c , es in
this part of thu country. The damages reach high w.•