The Sun.
London, England, 1835-06-29 00:00:00

BUNGAY.

DINNER TO MR. CHILDS.
(Abridged from the Suffolk Chronicle.)
On Friday last a public dinner took place at Bungay to ce-
lebrate the liberatien of Mr. John Childs, and the stand which
he had made against Church-rates and the Ecclesiastical Court.
The dinner was tastefully served up by the landlord of the
Tuns Inn, the Theatre being obtained for tho occasion. Sir
T. B.' Beevor was in the chair, John Garden, Esq., was Vice-
President, and about 170 persons sat down to dinner. The
lower boxes were occupied by the gentlemen of the committee,
and the upper- boxes and gallery were adorned by a great
number of ladies as spectators : and around were hung a va-
riety of flags and banners bearing the following mottos :
" No Church Rates," " Reduction of Taxation," " No Bri-
bery," " Relief to Dissenters," " Corporation Reform," " Abo-
lition of iniquitous Laws," " The king, his rights and no
more ; the People, their rights and no less" (in the centre) ;
" Freedom of Election," " Abolition of Pluralities," &c. &e.
The cloth having been removed, Non Noble Domine was
sung, the company all standing. The Chairman then gave
" The King, and may he never forget that he holds the throne
in trust for the benefit of his people."—( Applause.) " The
People, and may they never forget their duty to themselves
and posterity.
The CHAIRMAN then said he now came to the toasts more
immediately connected with the events that had led to that
mcetirg. It had been said that Mr. Childs had been imprisoned
and persecuted for conscience sake. lie had not the least
doubt but this act of Mr. Childs was a conscientious act, but
he did not consider it a mere matter of conscience. There
was a great deal of mystery about the vvo, d conscience, and
much uncharitableness, hypocrisy, and superstition exercised
under its sanction, but he considered Mr. Childs had higher
views in what he had done. When he looked at the case of Mr.
Childs, and the able defender he bad in his son Charles, he
had no doubt that Mr. Childs was a victim to priestly tyranny.
He saw that others were bound in the same thraldom, and he
offered himself up in their cause ; and from; a beginning so
small he had produced such a feeling in the country as they
never saw nor experienced before. Mr. Childs had struck the
death-blow to the Ecclesiastical Court—( Great cheering)—and
in a few short months they would find that its authority would
be gone for ever.—( Cheers.) Or, if they still wished to hold
any spiritual authority, he trusted it would be only over spi-
ritual persons, " and to that," said Sir Thomas, " we carnal
men can have no objection."—(Cheers and laughter.) These
were his opinions, and from the manner in which they were re-
ceived by the company, he perceived they were theirs also.
He would no longer detain them, but propose the health of
their excellent friend Mr. John Childs, with three times
three.—( Immense cheering.)
Mr. J. CHILDS now rose and said he fully agreed with the
worthy Chairman that this should not be looked upon as a
matter of conscience merely ; he looked upon the present as-
sembly as one met to do homage to the great public principle
which had been asserted, namely, that no class of Christians
had a right to call other classes to their places of worship to
do homage to Church authorities which they disapproved, or
to receive censures from them for not complying ‘ith the rites
or usages of their Church. For thirty years he had done vio-
lence to his conscience by paying Church-rates. He was aware
that he should be asked why, having paid them so long, he had
selected the present time to make a stand against them. He
trusted that, after the passing of the Reform Bill, the disabi-
lities under which the Dissenters had been for so long time

labouring would have been removed ; but as 'soon as it was
proposed that the sons of Dissenters should be educated at
the same colleges as the sons of the Aristocracy, it was re-
sisted, on the ground that if these persons were admitted they
would upset the institutions of the country, and Mr. Goulburn
talked about the danger of his son being educated with the
sons of Dissenters.L--(Hear, hear.) He objected to Dis-
senters paying Church-rates, whether they were collected as a
land-tax or in any other form. The Dissenters in Bungay—
Baptists, Methodists, Independents, and Catholics—paid their
own ministers, had built places of worship, founded schools
and charities, and in doing this had expended not less than
50001., and was it just that these persons should be taxed
because a large sum of money had been expended in new
pewing the church ? This was the case in other places as
well as Bungay no doubt, and it did strike him that the time
was come to make a stand against it.—(Hear, and cheers.)
He had felt it his duty to make a stand for the voluntary prin-
ciple, and he was happy to find that his conduct Was approved
by his friends, as that meeting amply testified.—(Cheers.)
He was, it was well known, cited to appear before the Eccle-
siastical Court in Norwich ; but to go to another place of wor-
ship to be visited with their censures, was what he, as a Dis-
senter, determined never to consent to. He then spoke of the
kindness of the Dissenters of Ipswich, without whose comfort
and advice in the prison he should probably not have been sup-
ported through the trial. Mr. Ashurst, the attorney, also had
been a friend indeed to him, and without a fee.—( Cheers.)
No man in the world, he thought, had found in adversity so
many intelligent friends as had fallen to his lot. He
demanded of the officer who arrested him to take him to
the Ecclesiastical Court of the Holy and undivided Tri-
nity in Norwich, the place to which be was cited, con-
sidering it a folly to take him .to Ipswich when it seemed
they wanted him at that Court.—( Latighter.) Bail was
offered to the amount of 20,0001., but he was told he must
go to gaol. and to no other place. No Sooner had be ar-
rived in Ipswich than some of the best friends in the
world came round him. A meeting was called, and it
was only at his own request that they desisted from
other exertions for his liberation then ; but no sooner
was he placed within the walls of the gaol than he had
such counsels, such prayers, such consultations as would
make a man happy under any trial ; and he was happy to
say that, take the, the Ipswich Dissenters as a body, they pos-
sessed within themselves elements that would save a country in a
far worse state than this: In the prison be had the best com-
forts and accommodation it would permit : the situation of a
prison was after all not enviable. But if he had any misgiv-
ings, they were all banished when his kind friends came around
him as they quickly did. Steps were taken to procure his libe-
ration, and in such a way as not to compromise the principle.
It would be recollected that he was imprisoned, not for non-
payment of church-rates, but for contempt of the Ecclesiastical
Court. In such cases it was usual, he believed, for a man to
be imprisoned all his life unless he made his peace by taking
an oath that he would never so offend again, when he was
discharged on paying the fees, and went home, if home lie had
any left after paying them. The Dissenters at Ipswich paid a
, visit to the Ecclesiastical Court at Norwich, and ultimately
1 they were given to understand that the Court would dispense