The Sun.
London, England, 1860-03-15 00:00:00

see church rate abolitionists are preparing a counter
storm of petitions for the 28th, the day ve en Sir S.
TRELAWNY fights the battle of the seeDnd reading
of his bill. Though petitions should have little to
do with so plain a question of right and wrong, yet
as they are practically of no little importance, we
hope the friends of religious liberty will rebuke
in this way the blind intolerance of their oppo-
nents.

Then there are contests, of less prominence in-
deed, but all in reality parts of the war of the
unprivileged with the privileged. Across the
Tweed there is the Edinburgh Annuity Tax Bill.
The tax is one levied to support in comparative
affluence 18 ministers of the Established Church.
Till the late disruption, this was the Church of
the vast majority of the people. While this was
the case the privileged Churchmen treated with con-
tempt the complaints of the few Dissenters. But, no
that the former Established Church has become,
legally, a Dissenting Church, and has to pay its
own ministers, it finds paying to the sinecurists of
the Old Church a heavy grievance, and the
annuity tax must soon follow ministers' money in
Ireland ; it must be abolished. Mr. DILLWYN has
also a bill before the House to place the Dis-
senters on a level with the favoured class in
regard to Free Grammar Schools. At present the
law does not know of the existence of religion ex-
cept as embodied in the Church catechism, articles,
and prayer-book. Now very numerous founda-
tion schools having been originated by men of minds
in advance of their times, have prescribed in their
deeds no special form of religion, and no parti-
cular creed for these schools. But by the con-
venient interpretation given to the word " religion"
by judges who have always been of the pri-
vileged sect, the children of all other sects, with
their parents, have no rights in regard to these
schools. Nonconformists cannot be trustees, or
teachers and their children cannot attend except as
a matter of favour ! In this age of education one
would have supposed that even the privileged
would have been ashamed to claim such endow-
ments exclusively for the Church of about a third
of the three kingdoms, but no; they fight for
this sectarian privilege with all the zeal of a sect
of infallibles.
But, looking at another phase of the subject, it
is curious and instructive to notice, that even
the privileged are demanding liberty, and so far,
even they sympathise with the spirit of the age.
They fret against the restraints which necessarily
accompany privilege. They find their Liturgy
though "incomparable," though " the nearest per-
fection of anything human," though "second only
to Holy Writ," though a " necessary accompani-
ment to the Bible"—they yet find it too long—too
full of repetitions too dark or superstitious,
and sometimes—too ready a step through its
rubric to Puseyism and Popery. They want to re-
vise, to curtail, to rub off rust, and so forth—yes,
even the privileged cry through worthy Lord
EBURY for Liturgical liberty.
Last night again we had, through Mr. LOCKE
KING, another cry—one far liberty to wor-
ship. Strange, at first sight, it would seem
that such a demand should be heard now in
England. We all thought that everybody
might worship when, how, and where he
liked; and so he may, if he be not a clergyman of
the Church of England. He may belong to the
wildest sects—may revere the late HENRY DRUM-
MOND as an apostle, and the church in Gordon-
square as a third Temple—may be a Quaker, or
a Shaker, a Roman Catholic or a Baptist—and he
may pray and sing and holdforth anywhere as long
as he pleases, so that he does not stop the.QUEEN'S
highway. And this sort of liberty of preaching
has been a fact in the history of almost all the
churches of Christendom. But the Anglican
Churchman has it not. lie can lawfully worship
only in a place duly licensed by a bishop. His
church may be where no one will follow him, or
where (as in the City of London) all his hearers
have run away ; but there he must keep. His
church is his prison. Some brawling Methodist
may be cramming to suffocation a room to which
the people will go—but he cannot, legally,
place himself in a familiar way on a
level with his fellow man. He must be the
man of the desk or pulpit. He must have an altar,
and chancel, and rails, an East-end, and all that, or
he is out of order. Like the old Austrian Generals,
he must lose the battle with ignorance, or, what is
worse, with dissent itself, by rule, while the BONA-
PARTES of Dissent are winning everything by
adaptation of their movements to the demands of
the hour; and yet our Chancellor of the Exchequer
is afraid to grant the Anglican clergyman free-
trade in his own p_ofession.
There is yet one phase more of the relig►iaus
liberty movement of the present day, one kindred
with the last. We have heard of it often, but
our attention was specially called to it, for we never
went ourselves yet, even in our editorial capacity, by
an article in All the Year Round (February 25th)
on worship in theatres. The style at once reveals
the writer. No one can doubt his competency to
observe, and to describe to the life ; neither can
any doubt his judgment as to what is due tc Ath
religion itself and to the classes who are invited to
worship in theatres. He went on Saturday night,
as well as on the Sunday night, that he might note
differences, and, on the whole, pronounces decidedly
in favour of the effort. Many of our readers must
have seen the article; and we recommend it to
the notice of all interested in " the million ;" not
least of all, also, to the worthy men who first took
the outrageous " liberty" of preaching and praying
in theatres. Many just criticisms they will find,'
and some useful and kindly advice. No one can
tell them better than the writer how to touch the
hearts of the many, and as he avows himself desirous
they should do so, they will do wisely to listen to
so wise a guide. He points them to something
better than all the " isms" of the past or the pre-
sent. Lord DUNGANNON and Lord SHAFTESBURY
may each learn useful lessons from the author of
" Oliver Twist."

The monopoly exercised by the Gas Companies
of the Metropolis has long been a source of public
annoyance and discontent. A meeting of some
importance was held on this subject yesterday
afternoon, when the delegates from the carious
metropolitan districts assembled at the Vestry-
room of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, with Dr.
BACEMOITNER in the chair. Mr. BEAL, the Hon.
Secretary, reported correspondence with the soli-
citors of the several parishes, and proceeded to
discuss the state of the gas question at the present
time. It is certainly a matter which requires im-
mediate interference, for the system of monopoly
which is carried on by the Companies amounts to
absolute tyranny. The metropolis is divided into
ten or twelve districts by the associated Com-
panies. They bind themselves, by agreement, not
to interfere with each other's districts, and, conse-
quently, their customers are entirely at their
mercy. If a householder finds his supply of gas
inadequate and unsatisfactory, or should he have
any dispute with the Company which sup-
plies him, he is compelled to submit to
their
dictation, or give up gas altogether.
No other
Company will supply him, as they are