The Sun.
London, England, 1860-06-07 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING,' JUNE 7, 1860:

1851 obtained religious returns without personal
inquiry, and that census on the question of religion
produced important results. But as a Dissenter he
refrained from .going to the Goverrinent and asking
them to obtain information as to ecclesiastical and
religious bodies by any of the machinery they em-
ployed. It was not the omission of that provision
from the present bill that he complained of, but the
insertion of a provision for house to house inquiry,
which, whether the return were optional or under
a penalty, was an infi ing Anent of religious liberty.
But if optional returns could he depended upon he
should not so much object. They had been taunted
with desiring to conceal the truth ; but what they
did object to was, the publication under authority
as truth that which must necessarily be fallacious.
The object with which the clause was introduced
was an ecclesiastical one, and had been suggested
to the Home Secretary by parties who had taken
offence at the revelations which the census of 1851
disclosed, and their purpose was now to enumerate
as belonging to the Church all persons who were of
no religion at all—in other words, taking the last
census as the test in this respect, about one-third of
the entire population. (hear.) He presumed that
there was a political object at bottom—either to
show a larger claim upon the public for material
assistance, or that they might be enabled the more
successfully to meet the demands of the Dissenters
for justice. Remembering that but for the support
of the dissenting community, the present Govern-
ment would be " nowhere," for them to lend them-
selves to an attempt so obviously designed to knock
down the prestige of the dissenting body, was an
affront that ought to be resented, and he would
suggest to the members of Parliament in the room
that it was quite possible to make a Government
very uneasy in their places, without endanger-
ing the main principles they were pledged to sup-
port. That was the course he would advise the
friends of the Dissenters in the House of Commons
to pursue. There were many minor measures and
minor movements, important to the Government,
which private members might facilitate or ob-
struct, according to the degree of confidence they
felt in the Ministry. He would not advise anyone
to obstruct the advance of his own principles for the
sake of avenging himself on those of whose conduct
he had reason to complain, but he thought those
who represented the Nonconformist body should
combine together to show the Government that
they were not to be permitted to do this act of in
justice, recommended by no considerations of pub-
lic policy, but simply to gratify the pique of the
Home Secretary. He assured the meeting that all
his influence should be exercised to mark his sense
of resentment at this attempt of the Government to
injure, insult, and annoy the Dissenting body.
Mr. STANSFELD, M.P., spoke in support of the
resolution, and denounced the provision of the Cen-
sus Bill in question as inconsistent with the prin-
ciples of religious liberty. As he had stated to Sir
G. C. Lewis, who, he must say, had treated the de-
putation with a degree of coldness they could
hardly have expected, he looked upon it, not so
much as a fraudulent attempt to obtain apparently
authoritative statistics to serve the purposes of the
Church hereafter, as an infringement upon the
rights and consciences of individuals. If he were
to waive his objection in his own case by stating
his religious profession in the census return he was
called upon to fill up be should decidedly object to
play the spy for any Government by inquiring into
the religious views of every person who might hap-
pen on that particular day to be residing in his
house, as the clause under a penalty required of him.
The resolution was put and carried unanimously.
Mr. A. PELLATT moved the second resolution,
" That looking upon this uncalled-for departure
from the plan adopted in 1851 as a deliberate at-
tempt to inflictpolitical injury on Dissenters by means
of deceptive official statistics, the meeting urges
the necessity for such an expression of opinion
throughout the country as will induce Ministers to
abandon so indefensible a scheme, and for a distinct
intimation that, if it be persisted in, neither they
nor the members of the House of Commons who
may support it can retain the confidence of the
Dissenting body." Ho reminded the meeting that
when the Dissenters found it necessary to unite
they had done so, as in the removal of the Test
Acts, and he had no doubt that they would do so in
resisting this uncalled-for aggression upon their
rights. There was no reason for this part of the re-
turn, which would be most fallacious. It would, if
necessary, give Lord Palmerston a precedent. In
the case of prisons, nearly all the persons incarce-
rated in our gaols were required on entrance to
state their religion, and what was the consequence?
They returned themselves as members of the Church
of England, though they might be Roman Catholics
or Dissenters. Asimilarrequirement in workhouses
had been found so undependable, that it had been
abandoned.
Mr. PEASE, M.P., seconded the motion, holding
that the proposed return would afford no statistics
that could give reliable information.
Mr. BENTLEY suggested that it should be left to
the National Society, and the people themselves
should be left to furnish the information as to the
Church of England, of which he said he was a
member.
The Rev. F. TItESTRAIL referred to the proceed-
ings of the Court of Aldermen at Guildhall on the
previous day, and expressed his surprise and grief
that Alderman Challis, of all men in the world,
should have said there would be no difficulty in ob-
taining the returns, and that 9-10ths of the Dissen-
ters would willingly give the required information.
The motion was agreed to.
The Rev. Mr. HINTON moved the adoption of the
following petition to the House of Commons, to be
signed by the chairman on behalf of the meeting,
and confided for presentation to E. Baines, Esq.,
M.P.:—
" To the Honourable the Commons of Great Britain and
Ireland in Parliament assembled. The petition of the un-
dersigned members of various religious bodies assembled
at a meeting held at Fendall's Hotel, Westminster, June
6, 1860, showeth,
" That your petitioners entertain strong objections to the
provisions in the Census Bill requiring a stateme t of the
religious profession of every inhabitant of the country.
"That, in their judgment, such a requirement would be
an unwarrantable exercise of authority, and that while it
would fail to secure statistics on which any reliance could
be placed, it would occasion groat irritation of feeling, tend
to infringement of cidil rights, and be otherwise productive
of mischievous results.
" That in many cases—whether the inquiry be enforced
by a penalty or not—there will be a refusal to afford the
desired information.
" That, in others, the replies will, necessarily, be toe in-
definite and ambiguous to be of any practical value.
" That to a very serious extent the statements, contained
in the schedules will be inaccurate and misleading—partly
from the ignorance, carelessness, or partisanship of house-
holders making a return of the religious professions of
others. and also from the mistakes of enumerators, who are
to be authorised to complete such of the schedules' as shall
'appear to be defective, and cerrect such as they shall find
to be erroneous.'

" That, more especially, the returns must prove delusive,
because it is not the practice with Dissenters generally to
rep; rd as members of their respective bodies those who do
not attend their places of worship, while, on the other
hand, numerous persons who never frequent episcopal, or
any other places of worship, will be returned as belonging
to the Chi rch of England.

" That as no good end would be served by collecting sta-
tistics of such a character, your petitioners deprecate the
employment of official machinery for such a purposo.
" They therefore pray your honourable house to amend
the 4th clause of the bill by omitting therefrom the words
`religious profession.'
" And y ur petitioners will every pray."
He denied that it could be received as a fact that
every one who did not belong to any religious com-
munion was to be taken as a member of the Church
of England, which was the impression it was in-
tended to convey; and he held that, apart from such
a return not conveying information as to the fact,
the Government had no right to put any machinery
in motion for obtaining, by information furnished
under compulsion or voluntarily, a knowledge of
that fact.

Mr. BAxrt:n, M.P., seconded the resolution;
which was supported by
Mr. F. CLOSSLEY, M.P., who said he believed
the Government would be prepared to give way on
the question of the fines and penalties, but that did
not meet the views of the dissenters. The census of
1851 showed that the members of the Church of
England were almost in a minority, and it was the
object now to show the Church in a better position.
The mode adopted at the last census—viz., of taking
the numbers according to the attendances at the
several places of religious worship on the Census
Sunday, was less objectionable, though that was
fallacious as afferdinoo. means of a true statistical
return; but the object of the Government and tha
Church party clearly was to make it appear that
many persons who were members of no religious
persuasion belonged to the Church of England, re-
lying upon the objection which persons naturally
entertained against acknowledging themselves to be
without religion.
Mr. TucKEr., as a member of the Church of Eng-
land, but agreeing in the objects of the meeting,
suggested that the F tition should go up as from
" friends of religious liberty" generally, without
reference to dissenters.

I\lr. lirmut EY, M.P., also desired, as a member
of the Church of England, to state his concurrence
with the views which had been expressed by the
various gentlemen who had preceded him.
The motion was carried.

The Rev. Mr. HENDERsoN moved the fourth re-
solution—" That conies of the foregoing resolutions
he forwarded to the Prime Minister und the Home
Secretary, and to the members of the House of
Commons, and that the gentlemen wbo have con-
vened this meeting, together with the members of
Parliament present, be required to act as a com-
mittee, with power to add to their number, for
adopting measures to secure the required amend-
ment of the bill."
Mr. NORRIS, M.P., seconded this resolution, and
stated that if the question was kept open he was