The Sun.
London, England, 1845-03-24 00:00:00

itening .)It'lt

LONDON, MONDAY, MARCH 24, 1845.

The Established Church of this country appears to
have fallen, in our times, upon evil fortunes. We
are sorry for the fact ; but we still more sincerely
deplore the aggravation of her mischances, which she
must experience in the knowledge that they are
almost exclusively visited upon her by the misconduct
of her own ministers. It is our profound respect for
her doctrine, our grateful recollection of the signal
occasions on which she has nobly identified her own
independent existence and action with those of civil
liberty, that have caused us to view the progress of
Puseyite innovation, bigotry, and contumaciousness
with so much apprehension and disgust. Civil and
religious liberty is too noble a " birthright," God
knows ! to be sacrificed for " a mess" of ceremonial
mummery. Yet there are scandals more disgraceful
to the character of the Church, so far as this is to be
collected from the deportment of her ministers, than
the wildest follies, the most solemn impertinences of
that ecclesiastical coxcombry, which is now vexing
her peace and compromising her welfare. Of these
scandals none are so flagrant, or so offensive to all the
common sympathies of our nature, as the ebullitions
of intolerant bigotry which certain country parsons
appear to be given to, from a self-consciousness, one
might almost infer, of inability to attain dis-
tinction in their calling by any more le-
gitimate means, such as the orthodoxy of their
doctrine, the purity of their lives, the extent of their
learning, or the superior Christian charity and
humility of their bearing. We read in the Wiltshire
Independent a case of " Clerical Bigotry Extraordi-
nary," stated to have recently occurred at War-
minster, which would have seemed scarcely credible
to us had it been told even of some remote village in
the heart of Spain,—the head-quarters of priestly
domination and of lay ignorance. An aged and re-
spectable female, whose parents were Members of the
Established Church, and she had been herself bap-
tized a member of it, married, many years ago, a
member of the Unitarian Church of the same place,
and with him had since attended its service. After
being afflicted with many years of ill health, she was
seized with a sudden affection on the 6th of this
month, which next day terminated her existence.
She had brought up a family of fifteen children.
Four of these lie buried in the parish church-yard of
Warminster, one of them having been interred there
only last year (the victim, we infer, of some distress-
ing casualty.) Of the survivors, many are respect-
ably settled in life. Her widowed husband, mourn-
ing for his aged partner, to whom he had
been united for fifty-seven years, applied to the
parish sexton to re-open the grave which had
so lately closed upon their daughter, with
whose remains it was her wish that her own should
be deposited. The Vicar, Mr. FANS, interposed his
written veto, in a notice addressed to the widowed
husband, in its tone so unmanly, so unchristian, so
inhuman, and withal so insolent, that we should com-
promise our duty as public journalists were we to
abstain from holding up this precious document to the
public indignation it so richly merits. The old man,
bowed down with years and humbled by his recent
affliction, was overwhelmed at finding himself;at such
a time, and under such circumstances, the object of
animosity and accusations which he knew to be so
unfounded. But his present anxiety being to fulfil
the last wishes of his wife, by laying her bones near
those of their daughter, he obtained and exhibited a
certificated copy of the entry of her baptism from
the parish-church register, concluding that—as we
we are fully prepared to contend it legally was—this
document would be sufficient to obviate the difficulty
which had been raised to the burial of the deceased
according to her instructions. But all further nego-
tiations were fruitless; and he was at last compelled
to commit the body to unconsecrated ground, apart
from the mortal relics of the children and family
with whom, in life, she had been so fondly con-
nected. The matter has been since brought under
the notice of the Bishop, who has promised to insti-
gate inquiries into the facts.

We now come to the letter itself of this Reverend
Vicar. It is a production, in point of style, feeling,
and expression, every way worthy of the persecuting
spirit and paltry bigotry which dictated it, and
though as a composition it be absolutely beneath
criticism, it is not the less expedient to analyze it,
paragraph by paragraph. The time has arrived at
which, if the Established Church is to retain its
former influence over the attachment and respect of
its flock, the high-flying pretensions of these " chur-
lish priests," must be distinctly and permanently put
down. If the superior, clergy, the diocesan or the
spiritual courts will not or cannot interfere with effect
for such a purpose, the Legislature must do so by
express declaratory enactments, for nothing short of
these will satisfy the growing impatience of the public
for the repression of these offensive outbreaks of petu-
lant intolerance and spiritual tyranny. Let it not be
objected to us that we are prejudging the
merits of the case before us, pending the
result of investigations which the Bishop of
the diocese has promised to institute. No investiga-
tion can alter the admissions of this amiable Vicar',
own letter to the ancient widower. We assume that
the Wiltshire Independent has not been imposed upon
by a forgery, and we, therefore, without hesitation,
denounce the language we are about to quote as
equally presumptuous and cruel. What says this
minister of peace—this servant of Him, whose Divine
mission it was to proclaim " on earth, peace and good
will towards men "—to the aged and sorrow-stricken
parishioner, desiring to have the remains of his wife
committed to the same grave which had formerly
received those of her daughter ? He commences his
letter in a strain of unornamental address, such as—
out of the Church—we apply rather to dogs than to
men. From the " HAINEs" which " leads" the papers
all margin of pity, recognition, or concern, in respect
of a suffering fellow-creature, is carefully cut off.
His pointer Ponto, instead of his parishioner, might
be the animal addressed by this meek Vicar; but a
touch of the odium theologicum, in its full intensity,
soon shows itself :—" HAINES-I understand your
wife has died as awfully suddenly' as others of your
family." The purport of this inuendo developes itself in
the next sentence—" She has died in an awful and
damnable heresy" Humane, gentle, considerate,
soothing, Christianlike pastor ! Just the topic this,
and ust the time to discuss it, for a wounded spirit.
If the reverend writer conscientiously believed that his
Unitarianism was a " damnable, awful heresy"—and
just the happy selection of the moment for this pal-
pably hinting that the " awfully-suddenly" departings
of the deceased and of her children before her were the

judgments of an offended Godhead on the form
religious faith which they had adopted, or on them
for that adopticn—" which renders it impossible for
her to be buried in the church-•yard ? I refu.se her
burial there." The italics are this humble-minded
parson's ; and so is the law announced in this passage ;
his law is as worthless as his divinity, and his logic
still worse than his law. For what has the abstract
criminality of a profession of " damnable heresy" to
do with the physical " impossibility" of burying in
the churchyard the dust of her who professed it?
It might make it impossible for his exalted consent to
given, and that was probably what this man of double
adverbs and a triple armour of folly, bigotry, and in-
humanity meant to say. "If you choose to have
her buried, without any service, you may do so."
Gentle spirit Permission freely given for what he
had it not in his power to refuse. This, however, is
but a little gratuitous impertinence. Let us now
mark how far a bigot's gratuitous insolence may
carry him. To this old man, for seven and fifty years
the husband of the respectable woman deceased '
(themselves and their children having been reared
and nurtured as parishioners of Warminster), he adds,
" Or lest I should appear to deal harshly with you"
(never suspecting, holy man, that his harshness was
an obdurate, strong, heart-tearing fact), " I will pay
the charge for her burial, in the unconsecrated ground
at Townsend ; but in the church-yard, with the burial
service, she shall not be buried."
He pay the charge of the poor woman's burial !
Had the widow's husband submitted to such contume-
lious charity, he would have been guilty of a
" heresy" to domestic affections, to the cause of those
civil rights, to the vindication of which every man is
bound by the condition of their enjoyment, more
" damnable" than we shall trust ourselves to describe.
Least of all could we trust ourselves to the calmness
necessary for such a purpose, after the miserable hy-
pocrisy of the sentiment which follows :—" I trust
Almighty GOD may open your eyes to repentance"—
(of what crime ? The not having attended this Air.
FANE'S Church, to be edified by his personal ex-
ample of meekness, charity, and love ?). He proceeds,
" if such a thing may be, but I fear you hare
sold your Saviour for thirty pieces of silver." This
metaphor is utterly inexplicable to our dull apprecia-
tion. If it have anything to do with some fancied
analogy in the treason of JUDAS ISCARIOT to the con-
duct of Mr. HAINES, Mr. FARE may be in posses-
sion of the application ; an exclusive secret, we
should say, likely to remain as long undiscovered as
that of the composition of the Whitby Doctor's nos-
trums, but by no means calculated to prove as profit-
able to the discoverer. The humane and lowly parson,
who had so abruptly hailed his widowed parishioner
as plain " HAINES," concludes as drily and abruptly
by writing himself " ARTHUR FANS," without one
",,vale" of any sort, or one addendum of any kind to
his own designation ; but for the Wiltshire Independent
we should never have discovered that the letter had
been written by a clergyman.

But we have a little "vale" for the Reverend Mr.
PANE. He may take our word for it or not, as he
pleases, (we grant him ai unlimited a leave in this
matter as he gave about burial in unconsecrated ground,
and for just the same reason—namely, that we cannot
help it); that he will find, in the event of any legal
proceedings against him, it is every difficult matter to
sustain, on the grounds upon which he rests his denial
of HAINES'S application—the refusal to bury in his
churchyard a once baptized member of the
Church of England. The law of these cases
was most laboriously argued in two or three
great cases before the late Sir JOHN NicuoLL,
and has been still more recently affirmed by Sir HER-
BERT JENNER FUST. We state this, be it observed,
in the absence of all allegation that the deceased was
ever a relapsed or abjuring member of the Church of
England. Her baptism seems clearly proved. The
Rev. Mr. FANE may yet have to learn that he has
done " awfully foolishly," as well as cruelly, in ne-
glecting the injunction of a layman and a poet, whose
divinity really seems to us of a higher strain than his
own—in his prayer—(we quote it from memory) :
•' Let not my weak and erring hand
Presume thy bolts to throw,
Or deal damnation round the land
On each I deem my foe."

We have been favoured with a copy of one of the
ablest pamphlets which has yet appeared on the ex-
tensive subject of "Commercial and Financial Legis-
lation." It has been printed, we believe, for private
circulation only ; but its merits—the importance of
the statistical contents which it embodies and the
cleverness of their arrangement—will not long, we
apprehend, withhold it from an extensive diffusion to
the public. It does not often happen to us to fall
upon authors in any department of economic know-
ledge who sufficiently attend to the cogentnecessity for
a clear statement of the elementary principles which
it is necessary for those, in the first place, to become
thoroughly conversant with whom it is proposed to
initiate into the infinite field of deductions and con-
clusions which lies beyond them. Those deductions
and conclusions are indispensable stepping-stones to
all progress in these branohes of political knowledge.
They are carefully ascertained and repeatedly-tested
facts or quantities, which we must assume in eco-
nomics, as we reason upon axioms in philosophy.
It is, therefore, of the highest moment that as the
mass of facts, quantities, and results, to be digested
and classified, accumulates, the rules or course to be
established for the order in which they should be dis-
cussed and arranged, be of the soundest possible cha-
racter. For, otherwise, either it will be impossible to
embrace the extensive scope of the matters to be cal-
culated and recorded ; or operations, which have been
pushed through many series, will require to be
renewed and recast on account of not having been
properly commenced, or of having been irregularly
and intermittingly pursued. Entertaining these views,
we have been struck by the philosophy of an opening
passage in the introduction in the very clever paper
before us. We cannot do better than commend it thus
at length to the favourable attention of our readers :
"In estimating the elements of just commercial and
financial legislation, we should not only be well ac-
quainted with the physical power and resources of our
own, but also with those of other nations, as regards their
geographical position, configuration, natural produc-
tions, and population. An able legislator should also
understand the political and moral power of nations,
so far as their respective Governments may, in a coin
parative view, be considered as advancing or retarding
national prosperity, or as limiting or extending public
liberty and individual happiness. Then, and not be-
fore, in the present age of the world, can he com-
prehend in legislative usefulness the wise adaptation of
those elements of national power which comprehend
the income and expenditure, the occupations of the
people, and the productions of labour.
" This division of legislation embraces the following
sub-divisions :

"I. Finance, or Revenue and Expenditure.
" 11. Occupations of the People, whether in agricul-
ture, manufactures, or in any other way connected with
the productive operations.
" 111. Commodities, whether they be of the growth of
the soil, of the productions of mines, of fisheries, and of
manufactures, or as regards the arts, of wild and do-
mestic animals, for their skins, ivory, horns, bones, flesh,
oil, tallow, and fur,--and
" IV. Commerce, or the interchange of raw and ma-
nufactured commodities.

" The three last can only be made equitably subser-
vient to the first, so far as the obligations of the State
justifies taxation; no one of the three, viz., the occupa-
tions of the people, commodities, and commerce, should
be taxed at the expense of the other."
The paper then divides itself,.after a sort of natural
order, into various sections, which are thus headed :
—lnterchange of Commodities; Taxes upon Con-
sumption ; Financial Revision ; Stamp Duties ; Post-
office ; Excise Duties ; Revision of the Customs
Duties. These are illustrated by tables of the arti-
cles, and quantities thereof charged with duties of
Excise for 1832, and of the net annual Customs for
the two years before and following the Tariff of 1842.
These are succeeded by an article entitled a pro forma
Scheme of Finance.

Under the section entitled "Interchange of Com-
modities," a clever, though rapid, sketch is given of
the origin of municipal inland and transit duties
levied at frontier stations of independent kingdoms
and territories, and of Customs taken on foreign
goods at the outports. We may conclude our present
notice with the following extracts applicable to the
principles of free-trade, the history of their develop-
ment, and of tariffs in modern Europe; and espe-
cially to the operation of wars upon countries, re-
spectively maintaining them under different circum-
stances, associations, or exigencies :
"The sound principle of unrestricted international trade,
although laid down long since by Adam Smith, in
oppo-
sition to the more specious theory of Colbert, has in
British legislation only been practically attempted by the
Government, during the first four years of ]?,lr.
Administration, and during the time Mr. Iluslusson was

in power, and, afterwards, to a limited extent, by .14`tjj
Sydenham. The most extensive and liberal reforin;
the British Customs duties, since Mr. Pitt's Wig

1787, is the tariff of 1842.
"In France, neither the Government nor the Legi2l4i,.llle:
have admitted even the principle of free-trade. 13e'0,'
the limited commerce of that country with other nat'fbf
which, in regard to imports, is restricted, except
smuggling, nearly altogether to raw materials of the'slii,,
necessity to her manufactures, as cotton, wool, raw ,
dyestuff's, &c. There was one remarkable, but brief,!
ception to the generally unsound commercial legisl°:o
of France. That exception consisted of the nieclei;el
duties on imports into France from England, as erabew,
on Mr. Pitt's celebrated treaty signed at Versailles u"
the 26th of September, 1786.* sly
" A war of material interests, or, more props
speaking, of material injuries—that is, a war of motel;
houses or fiscal forts, with their garrisons of reveled
officers and servants, has long been declared and Carr 4
on between mast European nations. This warfare of
interests, or injuries, has net ceased with the W4',‘
bloodshed, and if we may ever expect secuiity
a recurrence of the calamities attendant on, and cosset,
quent to the latter, it will be in destroying the elerne:de
of the former—in short, by the extension of free-tr
between all nations."
" *The Revolution annulled, at the same time, 6
treaty and its liberal principles of commerce and nark
tion. It is by far the most remarkable commercial trelo
on record. According to its stipulations, ' the subje,o
and inhabitants of the respective dominions of the ill
sovereigns shall have liberty freely and securely W 31158%.
license or passport, general or special, by land or by or
or in any other way, to enter into the kingdoms, "0 0
nions, provinces, counties, islands, cities, villages, Ili,
walled or unwalled, fortified or unfortified, ports or te.,e,
tories whatsoever, situated in Europe, of the two sore,
reigns, and to return from thence, remain there, or
through the same, and therein to buy and purchssehei
things necessary for their subsistence or use, and 0,
shall mutually be treated with all kindness and fsveir
Provided, however, that in all these matters they es°oo
form themselves to the laws and statutes.' The 6Tbe
freedom was extended to ships and merchandise.
yd
duties to be paid on French commodities in 812g.„0n
were rated as follows :—Wines, no higher duties tv-o-
those of Portugal. (In Ireland no more than the less
minal duties then paid on foreign wines.) Vinegartioi
than half the previous duty. Olive oil, the lowest lig.
paid by the most favoured nation. Brandy, seven s'ca
lings per gallon. The following duties were to be levsni
reciprocally in both kingdoms: viz.—Hardwares,
cutlery of all kinds, and of whatever metals, cable
wares, furniture, turnery, &c., not higher than 10
of
cent. ad valorem. Cotton and woollen manufactureo
all kinds (except mixed with silk) 12 per cent. G! of
of all sorts 10 per cent. Linens, same duties as allrf,
from Holland. Saddlery, 15 per cent. lillin
12 per cent. Plate and glasswares, porcelain
earthenware, 12 per cent."

-New
The latest accounts from Switzerland are to the 19_,11j
inst., and not very satisfactory. The Diet cannot aft;
on the course which should be pursued with regally
the three questions at issue. The Diet met on A
18th, and continued the debates for nine haul'
majority declared for the expulsion of the ties° ij
while the minority said their: cantons would 14,
any summons to remove the Jesuits from their °toe
tories. The proposition of the majority, declariegsoi
total expulsion of the Jesuits, was adopted by ipo,
two half-states, namely, Berne, Soleure, ova
Schaffhausen, Argau, Vaud, Thurgovia, 617,ip1e
Glaris, Zurich, Exterior Appenzell, and AO
country. The cantons which declared ag'
entertaining the Jesuit question at all areao,
Schweitz, Unterwald, Zug, Lucerne, Friburg,„n
rior Appenzell, Valais, and Neufchatel (eighto to
a half states). This division, it appears, will le de,
no result, as it requires twelve votes to mak the bet
cision valid. On the 19th the Diet again laet;tbot
nothing decisive was done. It was understood
the question relative to the Jesuits would be c,
journed till the Deputies could receive fresh insof
tions from the different cantons. At the_ineeti7o%
the Diet on the 18th the President made the follow
announcement respecting M. GUIZOT'S note
" When the French Ambassador waited upon
ewtioe
present his dispatch he declared to me at the seill,oo
that France had no intention to meddle in the aP oar
Switzerland—that she would always respect bertmabl
pendence, and that the step he then took was dictscior
friendly motives. I replied, that I accepted his, c.leijosli
tions with pleasure, and that it was on that conclitleof ty
I could consent to receive the copy of the dispaull of the
French Cabinet. In compliance with the wishes d,/
Committee of the Diet, I have thought proper tO et cote
to the Swiss Charge d'Affaires, at Faris, a dispatches 0
Wining a vindication of the rights of Switzerltinci,oo
independent power, and a reply to the note of ISL,'"roch
A copy of it will be given to the Ambassador of s coo'
and the document afterwards communicated to the
federated States."
ISM it. fel
lladrid journals of the 16th have been rec-16e
The Chamber of Deputies was engaged in disc ti
ing the Bill for restoring the unsold Cluitoe,
property. Little opposition is made to the me°
rot
and as it is regarded as a peace-offering to the pace'
it will pass without modification. The CoraT, irted,
to whom the new electoral Bill had been rele pill
were favourable to the principle, and that alsejeo
become a law. Generals ARISTIZABAL andisyla'
AMETTLER have been permitted to return tO I‘
The Three per Cents. closed on the 15th at wit)
at 60 days ; the Four Cents. at 24 at 60 daro'6lol
1 per cent. premium; the Five per Cents. at dO6
60 days ; the Coupons at 281 at 40 days ; and ii
Debt without Interest at 7 11-16 for cash, an
at 60 days. the
-eon
The Journal des Debats contains an article leteeo
Bill for preventing gambling in railway flee th.t,
which embodies just observations, not 014
measure but many others, which from some a
ripe • to
or whim on the part of a few Members give
unnecessary legislation. This is one of the be%ipti• l 4
sins of the House of Commons, for while the e,bie
laws are sufficiently stringent and even aPPl,.ic.ne 0
most cases, meddling persons bring in new Pi and is
their only object were to obtain notoriety or 0,9
crease the severity of the law against the ute
sented portion of the community. According /or the
able French journal the law now provides lies I°
punishment of fraudulent schemes, which WI,
railway companies as well as others. "It" t° ' oppli
bent upon the Legislature," it says, 001
itself to reform, and even to prevent,
raeecis
It is, therefore, right that the COhe cep:
and penal codes should provide aga;nst
sequences of jobbing, and restrain the praetice'oorw'
is what has made the authors of our codes i"3sothep
They have nullified all time bargains, heel' le,'
are a cloak in which gambling loves to clotheii etc
They have inflicted pains and penalties on to 10:
tricks on the Stock-Exchange as tend to creal;o not
titious rise or fall. They have stopped there/ beefeogi
without having well considered the questien'edoef °Ol
they have been afraid to confine the freietioa
money transactions, of restricting the circubey ov;
capital, which is the essence ofcommerce. fiustief
moreover believed that the public ministers °tops °A
would be vigilant, and take care that all vie's' iota;
the law should be punished, and the public panne,
have done their best. They have in like
giegtis
given to these laws a general character,n esc,l
el
ing themselves against legislating 11.1eo f
ye ke
species of jobbing, because they e";
that by attempting to do this they We': not vet
the code an endless volume. These, if we u'"deel
ceive ourselves, are good precedents which shoo opetool
be departed from. Have a holy indignatlfut do
jobbing, and the world will applaud you ; IL5t ink
make laws ab irato, for they would be at
.Ijapeie
plicable, which is always an evil. Now, I,ii in yo.
to us that the Hon. Proposer of the
I.'o Slot
Chamber of Peers, and the Minister of reb lip° OtDo
who rivalled Count DARU in zeal, and the.w.,s of to
mittee which has laid both the propositi.oPopiertoo
Minister and of the Count upon the slipsntepea_,,,
fit them together into one only, have oiro
much to the counsels of their own generous
age+ hie
tion, and, under the influence of this noble Dl,OO
lost sight of the excellent examples giveseeift:',
illustrious authors of the codes, and the Prof jegao
introduced by them into our monuments ,s,te
tion. They have forgotten that there "trivia, Of
vigilant Procureurs du Roi attached t° thest oigbti;tl
who knew how to be strict ; they have I°os, dao/pe
the Council of State and the Ministers, vvilto ofc po
is to scrutinise, article by article, the stature *feteiolr
panies ; they have, in fine, acted as if tiled tbst;or
other jobbing than in railroad shares, all pitf
bing attacked in that point must c nee° io
render at discretion." II"'
la of
red 6
The observations made by Sir Rep-e se' sate.
the House of Commons, relative to tho
Greece, have attracted the notice of tile relavil;
journals, and it is curious, in reading tliod•
onico;
to see how exactly they imitate certain
nals, in throwing the blame of any 119%0. initift
the Greek Government on their oPPane-be
~g thy
the French Minister at Athens is said t° 0319
against English interests, the Condit:o%o,
Djf
only culpable foreign agent is Sir E. p
journal quotes Sir ROBERT PVEL'S reh .091• °
COCHRAN' cl
E and then adds :
Ocas
" We shall
not say that thie -

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