The Sun.
London, England, 1828-10-16 00:00:00

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CLERICAL MAGISTRACY OF KENT.

We, the undesigned, being Clergymen of the
Established Church resident in the deanery of
Sutton, in the diocese of Canterbury, and county
of Kent, firmly attached to our old and invalu-
able Constitution, view with extreme anxiety the
efforts that are making to its prejudice, and we
fear ultimate destruction. Considering the pro-
ceedings of the Roman Catholics in Ireland to
be highly dangerous to the Protestant institu-
tions of the United Kingdom, to be manifestly
tending to the subversion of Christian truth, and
consequently of the pure and Apostolic doctrines
of the United Church of England and Ireland,
we deem it right to publish a brief declaration of
our sentiments upon the subject.
We believe Popery to be the same in its prin-
ciples, its doctrines, and its practical influence,
that it ever has been ; and when we see its fear-
ful energy applied towards the attainment of po-
litical power—when we see, with deep regret,
our brethren of the Popish communion exer-
cising over the minds of their people a tyrannous
ascendancy, and perverting religion into an in-
strument of faction and violence, little short of
rebellion—we cannot but step forward to endea-
vour to prevent, as far as possible, what we judge
to be the necessary consequences of these occur-
rences, namely, either gross superstition on the
one hand, or total irreligion on the other.
We cannot fail to notice the encouragement
which infidelity, scepticism, and latitudinarianism
are giving to the encroachments of Popery. The
infidel, hostile to all revealed religion, and
anxious to disgrace Christianity, with a view to,
what he hopes, its approaching downfal, advo-
cates the cause of Popery, as one of its most
absurd modifications ; the latitudinarian, indif-
ferent to all systems of religion, would place Pro-
testants and Papists on a level ; and, fearing to
be called a bigot, with strange inconsistency
supports and promotes the very principle he pro-
fesses to oppose—while the Papist, aware of
this, encourages the idle dread of the name, and
insidiously persuades the latitudinarian to
espouse a cause, which, if successful, must end
in his own discomfiture.

With these dangers before us, we feel bound,
both by our consciences and profession, not to
remain silent spectators of them. We therefore
entreat our fellow-subjects of the laity to be
watchful of their Protestant privileges—to main-
tain, in their full vigour and pre-eminence, the
principles of the Reformation, and thereby to up-
hold the great and holy cause of religious truth.
We implore them to beware ofthe encroachments
of the Roman Catholics, seconded as they are by
those who pretend not to be aware of them : we
mean infidels, sceptics, latitudinarians, and the
professors of a specious but false liberality.
And we pray that the blessing of God may at-
tend the exertions of all who support cm: Pro-
testant Constitution in Church and State— aild
that our country may continue to be, as she
long has been, the bulwark of Protestantism, and
a sz.irie
i,diesp:itory of the
EPfierroetefos
Faith.tant
:gr) atl4 s 1

Sunday afternoon, as Miss ACLAN, I) 311(1 two
of the junior branches of Sir. T. D. A,1:1.A ND S f4llllly, and
their governess,
dist church, in a pony phaeton, driven by the latter, the
ponies took fright at the umbrellas of some persons w}„,
were returning to killerton from Broad_
were passing, and set off at frill gallop. A man who at-
tempted to stop them was dragged fur some distance alon' •
the road, when, from some unknown cause, the two fore_
wheels and splash-board of the phaeton separated from thi
hind part, and the ladies were thrown out, but sustaine
no injury. The. ponies dragged the two fore-wheels of th,
vehicle to a considerable distance from the spot where th.
accident occurred,—Bath Chronicle,