The Sun.
London, England, 1835-05-28 00:00:00

CHURCH OF SCOTLAND.

Earl MANSFIELD presented a petition from a parish
in Scotland, praying for a grant of money for the purpose
c,f procuring additional Church accommodation for the people
of Scotland.

The Earl of ABERDEEN presented petitions from the
Presbytery of Aberdeen, and several other places in Scotland,
to the same effect, and praying generally for protection to the
Church of Scotland.
MR. CHILD'S CASE—CHURCH-RATES.

Lord BROUGHAM said he had a petition to present,
which, on account of there being so thin an attendance of their
Lordships, and none of his Majesty's Minsters, he should have
felt inclined to delay presenting, had it not related to a personal
griovance. The petition came from a highly respectable body
of men, 88 representatives of 88 congregations of Independent
Presbyterians within the district of twelve miles round Lon-
don, and was against the Church-rates, by means of which
a most respectable individual of the name of Childs, residing
at Bungay, in Suffolk, had suffered considerable imprisonment.
He ( Lord Brougham) was as anxious as any man to abolish
Church-rates, but although that was his opinion, it would not
prevent him, though he disapproved of a law, from conforming
to it as long as it was the law. Nor did he consider, though he
objected to a law, that he ought to make himself a
martyr, by resisting the payment of rates.—( Hear, hear.)
He (Lord Brougham) could give his testimony of the purity
of the motives which actuated Mr. Childs in the course
he had pursued—no tradesman in the country enjoyed more
the confidence of his friends than Mr. Childs, who carried
on a most extensive printing concern, without any regard
to difference of political opinions. He (Lord Brougham)
knew Mr. Childs well, and was convinced that the
course he had taken originated in the best of motives.
There were two modes of collecting Church Rates ; one by
distraint, as for rent, which was the most usual, and the other,
which the churchwardens and overseers of Bungay had thought
proper to prefer, by instituting a prosecution it, the Ecclesiastical
Court, the Judge of which thereupon issued his warrant, and
Mr. Childs was accordingly carried off and lodged in gaol.
Of this the petitioners complained, and prayed a prayer in
which he heartily concurred, for a speedy and entire abolition
of Church-rates.—( Hear.)
The petition was then laid on the table.
SLAVE TRADE.

Lord BROUGHAM wished to draw the attention of the
House to a statement which had given him very great
concern, and which was conveyed in a letter from abroad
to a most respectable and affluent merchant of the city
of London, a man upon whom he could place the most implicit
reliance. The letter stated that on or before the 6th of
March last, six prize vessels were taken by the British cruizers
on the African coast, and carried into Sierra Leone. He did not
know to what country the vessels belonged, but they had sailed
under the Spanish flag at the time they were taken ; and the
writer made this calculation, that about 159 blacks with which
these vessels were crammed, had fallen a sacrifice to their
situation, before they reached Sierra Leone. Thus there
was a mortality in those six ships of no less than 900 human
beings who were torn from their country by a cruel, criminal,
and mistaken traffic, carried on by a set of detestable wretches.
He made no charge against
_ those Captains who commanded
these traders, but the men who committed these atrocities
ought to be hanged, and they were liable to be hanged by
the law of nations as it now stood.—( Hear, hear.) He
wished to ask the Noble Lord at the head of the Admiralty
whether any information had been received touching this
matter, and whether the captains of the British cruizers had
done anything to diminish the distresses of those unfortu-
nate creatures who were found in the prizes.
Lord AUCKLAND replied that the Admiralty were not
in possession of any particular information upon this subject : he
was not aware there was any report of it at the Admiralty ;
but if the Noble Lord would put him in possession of the names
of the ships, he should, perhaps, be better able to answer the
question.
Lord BROUGHAM said the letter did not mention the
names of the ships, but merely said two British cruisers.
The letter was then handed to Lord Auckland, and the
conversation dropped.
The Earl of SHAFTE SBURY presented a petition from
the parish of Aboyne in favour of the Established Church.