The Sun.
London, England, 1819-11-20 00:00:00

FAVER3II:OI

At. the late General Jcsstuu3 of the Peace for
the Town of Faversham aoil its Liberties, holden
brfore the Recorder, CHAS. JuHN LAwsoat, Esq.
anti the Benet; of Magistrates. •

'!'l►e Grand Jury having been called and sworn,
the Proclamation against Vice and In►morality,
and for the Encouragement of Piety and Virtue
read, the Recorder in his admirable Address to
the Grand Jury, alluding to the Proclamation,
said

" All persons filling the situation I have the
honour to hold inthis Corporation, are command-
ed to give charge at their Quarter Sessions, for
the prosecution and punishment of all persons who
shall be guilty of blasphemy, dissolute, or disor-
derly conduct ; and if there ever were a time,
when the duty here enjoined was inure urgent
than another, it is now, when sedition mid blas-
phemy stalk abroad in the I Ind, when our glorious
Constitution and admirable Code of Laws are at-
tacked, ford alcove all, when religion itself is as.
seih d iu the strongest hold, I mean in that sacred
volume which we are taught to lisp as babes, and
in the language of which all good men wish to
close their last accents. When we look around
and see the principles of infidelity spreading like a
torrent—religion wade a mockery—the Bible pro.
flounced false—the most solemn offlaes of our re-
ligion, our Litanies and Creeds paraphrased and
ridiceled, aed the principlei or Republicanism
and anarchy instilled ieto the minds of our youth,
the Government reviled, and the Judges of the
land insulted, every man, Whether in Hui hot icy or
not, is called on as he fears God, honours the King..
and loves his fellow-creatures, to exert all his
energies to stem the torrent that threatens to over-
whelm this once happy kingdom. You have
many of you children and dependants, whom you
wish to bring up and preserve in thif pc iociple an
have yoerselves been tang lit, hut whet hope is
there of succeeding, it their infaec or uneducated
minds are to be contaminated or led astie,y by
the doctiines, contained in pamphlets, so itolus-
ttiously circulated. When they are told :hat
all Religion is imposture and fraud,' that as re-
ligion decreases, morality increases—that no book
ever derogated so much from the cheracter of the
Almighty, as his own revealed will—the Bible.
Nay, one writer has gone the length_ of recom-
mending that all places of public. worship should
be closed. To these authors one would speak in
the energetic language of Bishop Wet stun so
Paine—' You have misruled the faith of thou-
sands—rooted from the minds of the toiliappy vir-
tuous all their comfortable assnrallees of a future
ecompence—have annihilated in the minds of
the flagitious all fears of tut ore punishment—
you will have given the reins to the dominion
of every passion, and have thereby contri-
buted to the introduction of public insecurity
and private unhappiness usually and almost
necessarily Accompanying a slate of corrupted
morals..—To those r who have: passed the hey-day
of youth, and are advanced in yeats, or ruined in
their bealth—deptived of their fortunes—bereft
of their children, or dearest connexions—blasted
in their character—disappointed of their fondest
hopes, or deserted by an ungrateful woild--What
resources can this life afford them ? All would be
a dreary waste, without a gleam of comfort, but
for the hopes and promises of religion. What !
at a time when every county and almost every
town in the kingdom has its Bible Society, for
communicating to the lower orders the treasures
of that sacred volume, which the wisest aud the
best believe will not only promote the eternal sal-
vation of those who Study it, but will also benefit
society in general. Shell these laudable endea-
vours be counteracted by such men as Cackle,
Sherwin, Hunt and Wooler, and this sacred vo-
lume he represented us false ? It has been truly
said, that it this book is not true, the religion we
profess_ is false ; and therefore these men begin
by attacking the Bible, as the means of root lug
out religion, and thereby loosening the ties of
conscience nod restraints of law, and subvert-
ing the order of society. It is not our religion
alone, that these assassins of the politic peace
attack. Our glorious Constitteion and our
admirable Code of Liws, the collective w isdom
of ages and the eulogy of every foreign laud are
assailed—' They avow themselves to be conspira-
tors against the House of Commons, with inten-
tion to subvert it'--' They declare assassination
ought to be encoeraged ; and that any one who
should assassinate Lord Castlereagh, wool:i be de-
serving of a lewartl.l-' That the Regent has far-
kited his title to the Crown.' We ate told that
these seditious doctrines, like the blasphemous
ones I beore alluded to, must be stiff red to be
published, or you invade that boasted palladiem of
British freedom, the Liberty of the Press. I
admit that the best security against the mis-rule
or oppression of those in power, is the liberty we
enjoy in this country (exclusively) of reviewing
and observing upon their- public conduct ; but,
Gentlemen, the abuse of this liberty, when caviled
to its present excessemest lead to the subversion
of the order of society, and to a tyranny worse
than that of Kings, the tyranny of the People.—
If the minds of the lower orders are detached from
the present state of things, and their passious
iu-
aemed against their rulers, by attributing those
privations which come from the hand or Prosi-
, dence, and are the natural result of the fluctuations
• of society, to the oppression, exection, and lois-
rule of their Governors, by violent and itiflamms-
tor y publications, revolution must be the conse-
quence, and the same melancholy scenes take place
here that we witnessed ina neighbonrieg nation.
I would ask any moderate and unprejudiced man,
what is the principal cause of the present Aim-
he's; state of things ) Is it not the licentiousness
of the press ? Is it not owing to the seditious and
blaspUmous publications sent forth in-the Politi-
cal Register, the Black DA arf, the Sundey Nee
papers, anti and cheap publications so industriausly
aed maliciously circulated among the lower or-
ders ? If it be necessary to the preservation of
the liberty of the press, diet such public:46olls
-should go forth into the world, better would it
have been, that the lower ?orders should have been
kept in ignorance of reading and writing, than that
they should he enabled to peruse such things as must
unsettle their faith and shake their loyal.y. An-
other great palladium.ot English liberty, of which
we have lately heard so much of, petitioning the
Throne for the redress of grievances—an UlidOUbt•

I'd right it is, and as i val ixt3te 89 undoubted,
hut this, like the liberty of the press, may b.e
abused, and made like that, an instrument to
overturning the GovernMent. The Bill of woo
asserts the right to petition, and that any pro'.
secutions for the exercise of that. right are'
illegal ; but the statute of Charles the Second ale'
says, that all tumultuous assembling to peiition
illegal, and there can be no doubt, that if til/Y
number of persons meeting, even for a lawful putt'
pose, with such circumstances of tenor, as cannot
but endanger the public peace and create darns
in the King's subjects, as meeting armed in trier"
tial array, or with banners inscribed Death or
Reform,' or Vengeance,' or with insignia tend"
ing to !plug contempt on the King or Goya°.
ment, this is not a due exercise of the right of Pe'
titioning, the Meeting becomes an unlawful as'
sembly, and may he dispersed. Gentlemen, Ido
not think it would be becoming in me, in this sl"
tuation, to allude to the proceedings at Manches-
ter. IVltether the conduct of the people asserna
bled there on that unfortunate day, or of the Mae
gistrates who dispersed them, is to blame, non
of its are competent to form a cotreet lodgment)
and it is most unjust, in my opinion, to prejudge
the ytestion. Satisfied I am, from a long We,
tierce of the integrity of our Judges, and the iz!
dependence of our Juries, that no wrong have
been done, nor any right invaded, which will not
be amply and satisfactorily redressed by the legal
tribunals of the land.

" But w:thout alluding to these transactions!
I have thought it right to stare shortly the ;awl-
tot the subject of public Meetings, as it may bc.
useful to the • Magistrates and to you, although'
thank God, no meetings have been called hi this
neighbourhood, tinder the specious 'pretence of
petitioning for Reform. Before I dismiss thig
subject, 1 will add, that no man can be 1101.6
anxious than 1 ant to preserve this invaluable
right of petition, according to its original into"
tion, yet I would keeo the exercise of it within,
reasonable bounds, It cannot be oecessaryto ar
exercise of this right, that the peaceable othall!"
taws of a town should be driven front their
thins by alarm, or the industrious tradesmau
obliged to close Isis shop at tuid-day, where tl►c.l6
Meetings are held. It cannot be necessary to ir".
exercise, that men should be drilled, or march
array, mooch less that they should assemble armed'
or with banners and insignia of a revolutioo'l
chat deter. li:pr is it necessary that they shoO'a
in their harangues at rack all that is sacred to
venerable in Church and State. Such Meet-
ings are iujittions to the laws of liberty--41116
is not the place, Gentlemen, for the discus-
sion of politics, but I may be allowed to s/
(to the subject of Reform (the frivolo ite -topic °,
the day) that few will be bigoted enouga
to pronounce that there is no room for reform 111
the political as much as in the moral world. V"
are imperfect beings, and every thing that eaten'
nates from us must partake of that imperfeeti°°'
But is this a reason for attacking the Conatiuvi
thin and those Laws which have stood the test
ages, and of introducing the wild theories °
Universal Suffrage and Animal Pailiernents,".
There are scarcely any melt of talent or integfil
among those Modern Reformers—then what °it
of Reform are we to expect from such met) at
Wooler, Carlile, or Hunt. Revolution anti oa,
Reform are their object. If such be the alartlo'
state of things in this cotottry at present, it be;
conies highly important for us to consider o'll°o
course we ought to pursue. In the first risc
let all persons in authotity express their tahh°,l:
reuce of the blasphemous anti seditious
trines which are every where disserninatelVa
Let them publicly avow their loyalty
attachment to the Chown and to the Ca
li
stittition in Church and State, and their unalCc°l
able determination to support that Throne, act
that Constitution as by Law established, 81/3 ,‘
discountenance and punish all those who shall e
t;
deavour to ()yenta!) the one or the other. 11,
• us endeavour to alleviate those distresses Of t,
lower mile's, and convince them that the Privoesa
Lions which they suffer in common with rag}
of Europe, will only be increased by tumuli
disorder, while patience, moderation, sobriet,C,
acid economy, obedience to the laws, and ks
pendeuce on him who kno,vs what is best
will have a considelable effect in remetlyini; toy
evils. Let us endeavour to find means 01 stry
playingthemand encourage habits of in", 500
and economy, and with that view to inclose I'l4,
to become members of thole excellent
It
tut ions Saving Banks ; alld let us distill:Zitlei(
by mat ks of our favour those who sulfa 14.00
privations with patience and resignation '1.0,a
those who take unlawful means to
them, or who attend tumultuous assemidieS
„if
seditious harangues. Above all lei us eittleavna
to preserve the minds of the lower orders, "die
pattictilaily of the rising generations, fru°
41 •
-.contagion of those pestilential publicat loos bI
phemy and sedition, with which the Pressiriei
teems—and with that view let us keep a .-seji•
watch on ail public- house 4, and see that 'o°
~ere,
Lions or blasphemous publications are read luxo„.
an:) take care that no such publications are edis•
liked in the windows of booksellers' shops,
periled by itinerant agents of ilo-se incendio:tate
Gentietssen, I have thortglo it nay duty I°. e at
thus touch to you on a NAV':
heart. As a Christian, as a Pdti lot ,as F4cking
Mas a au, I feel the %it.' importance of Chcoliell
at the outset, the propagation doctrine by,
its a neighbouring coootry proonced toil', 1
bloodshed, and revolut nod wtjch "'„„ate
verily believe, IlrOthiee ie3nits 019
,:tocig
ity it we sleep on our posts, wid do not
es to
this malty he.oted monster before be becomes
le solo; for us to,;:roppl” +%ith."

~..411•111111.••
V', RI ED.-
St. Stir
On the I Stli inst., by the Hi v. Mr. TownlrYi at mariAr
W;ilbruolt, A.C.Cluollet,of lion.l•stregt, hiddc
t ins ilaughtis of the late ItuoLit. Shirley,L'`l'
miniter.

WEI). „
On the 18th instant, 'Mr. 14alr, of flolhorn-liiii• nail"'
On the 1711 t instant, at her house, in 1,3,111";•iti ca
street. in the 47th sear of Inc age, Cath •M
erine•'"ist,ilfuru.
elict of John May, Esti., late of