The Sun.
London, England, 1818-01-15 00:00:00

THE COUNTRY.

We tearer that the strjoined pious 30 excel-
hie Letter did u:,t'appear earlier, considering
date, in the resterctAble and loyal Journal from
which we have extracted it, but we conclude that

t Vie pressure of temporary matter OCC,ISIOIIC(
the delay :

(Flom. The Keatish Gazette of the 13th Inst)
BIASPIIENIOUS PARODIES.
"TO THE PEOPLE OF EVGL.IND.

" My Conatrymen,-60 a subject so sacred A
that wtitch involves the soleiginity and the very
existence of Religion, it would be improper at
this time to attempt a discussion, without pre-
viously resolving to cast from our minds every
feeling tha is connected" with party, and generally,
whatever 1114,' operate to abstract us from that
awful veneration which exclusively belongs to the
worship of our God. - •

" For in whate‘er way we may wish to consider
this most important subject, Religion, whether as
an obliga!ion imposed on us by onr iwayenly Fa-
ther, or as the reveretr hotnat:e that- is spon-
-taneotisly paid to, him by the beit:s whom he
hath created or, whether we consider it only
with relation to its beneficial and blessed rest& s
to our nature, as the balm of consolation, the
cntb Of strength, and the shield of weakness— the
mighty cement, and the mighty bond, that uniteth
and hindeth society together—whichever way we
proceed to con,ider it, on every view, and on
every side, the subject is of so vast, and of such
trauscendant importance, that all others sink and
‘'issolee away before. it ; and man, universal man,
amidst all Its diversities, all his Sects, and all his
Nations, acknowledges one great, eternal Con-
formity—one glorious subject of universal compe-
tition,—how best, the overflowings of the heart,
may be pouted forth before the throne of (he
Creatot—now most 11°14, and most sublimely,
shall be constructed that language which is to be
devor:d to his intercourse with the Majesty of
Heaven.

" And is it this holy language, my friends—is
it this sacred language, devoted to the worship of
our Saviour and our God, that the -impious have
dared to blaspheme ? And is it here—here, in a
land of chtistianity—is it here, in our own Eng-
land, and in the beginning of the Nineteenth
Century. at a period of great and miraculous de-
lverance, that this noly language has been blas-
pi,crnmisly profaned, and that it has become be-
Tessary to enact new laws to protect from pro-
fanation the public worship of our God ? How
fearfully—how awfully ominous, does such a to ate
of society appeal—what a reproach, among na-
. tines, does our country exist ? Lives there a hu-
man being, I would ask, on the face of the earth,
believing in the Deity, who refuses to inculcate
on the dis,olute around him, Sacred he the
language devoted to our God ?' Lives there a
Pagan, or a worshipper of Mahomet, who, in the
midst of his errors, -refuses to exclaim, Sacred
he the language devoted to our God ?' Liv.s
there a Christian of any sect or denomination,
, pee, -'actr
God ?' L'vesJtltere ate Englishman, Ito matter
what may he his creed, or what climate his resi-
dence, who, remembering with tenderness those
beautiful compositions which the piety of his fa-
thers had incorporated with religion, now hears
without bOrror and manly indignatlon, that all
have been profaned—all have been burlesqued—all
impiously blasphemed ? That from the face of
the very Creed trout the prayers of supplication,
and from the very prayer which was taught and
commanded by the blessed Saviour himself, the
name of the holy, Of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
of the Almighty God himself, have been ex-
punged, that names might be substituted—lncre-
dible blasphemy ! names that wretches like these
leonld exhibit to the world, as polluted with pro-
fligacy and blackened with crimes ! ! !
" My Countrymeo, if there should indeed be
found any among you, so lost to Heaven, and so
hardener) in e. ickedness, as to bz.- capable of answer-
ing all these interrogatories in a manner hostile
to the injesty of the Creator (and that there may
be, some recent:extthations would almost tempt
us to believe) won't! you not wish that such men
should he separated by some visible mark front the
rest of society ? Would you not be ready with
me to exclaim, let them be collected, and kept
apart from the people, lest the vengeance of the
Almighty descend upon all—let their paths be cir-
cumscribed, their residence defined, and a hoop of
infancy be drawn round their dwelling, that the
good may litiow whom to approach, and whom to
shut, and that the rulers of the land may at all
times, and in all seasons, be enabled to distin-
visit between the worshippers of Heaven, and the
dcgr:lders of its throne.

" My Countrymen, it has been said (but every
raccting 'man %void(' fain disbelieve it), that there
tire at thisHtime men of a distinguished condition
in life, and wen, %silo on all occasions affect to
enlighten the people, who are strenuously endea-
vouring to associate the ' Liberty of the Press'
ith the cause of Blasphemy ! Almighty God,
can this be tine % .-tan t bete indeed be men who
would thus wickedly repay the bounty of Provi-
dence ! And thus pervert the very blessing which
dist,eminat es and knowledge among us, into
an. engine of assault, against the dignity of Hea-
ven If it in deed he so, let ns then in time he.
gin to mourn, .and to deprecate the wrath that
must consume us : and let the good men of every
ration and of every faith, he henceforth slow to
*solicit their Creator for blessings,. lest the uick-
edness and audacity of man, trampling ian all that
is sacred, should glory iu converting the very
bounty of Omnipotence to a source ,of
pions rebellion, a magazine of blasphemy and

" Let 111 now, my Countrymen, leaving then
and tbcir dhornin tiOnS to the rising indignation

of ina„, and the protracted vengeance of Heaven,
proceed dispassionarely, if we can, to investigate
nrinniry consequences, and the dreadful pro-
gress of such impious publications as are DOW
nhotit to cover the, land, and in -doing this, it will
neiessary to make our language intelligible,
Cay !C, sensible and pious net but to those

wretches, and to the very lowest of those wretchez,
who are known to assemble for the purpose of
-inging or chaunting these detestable Parodies.
It wools' obviously be too much to expect front
many of these bla•rthemers, that they should have
any distinct conception of that association of
.leas, or'that .'power of the mind, by which the
image of one thing is so connected with that of
another, that neither can be seen without' both
recurring with certain impression on thememory ;
hut every man who has been long accustomed to
ittend places of public worship, must be sensible
that he never now can approach either the sounds
of prayer, or of those sacred tunes that are usu-
ally associated with them, withoto having both
the prayers and the tunes instantly brought to his
recollection ; and, if his mind be not otherwise
strongly occupied, without feeling within himself
a certain share of those Divine and peculiar emo-
tions, which are the pious attendants on prayer
and public worship.
" Now, need he be told, that a great part of
these holy emotions proceeds from the early as-
sociation be had been accustomed to ? The as-
sociation of these sounds, anti these prayers, with
the publid worship of his God ? Does he not
feel, that had he been equally accustomed to hear
those prayers and tunes applied to profane amid
ridiculous purposes, that the effects of these se-
rious impressions would be proportionably weak-
ensd, and that the very same sounds, instead of
uniformly pi odocing religious emotions, as they
now do, might just as it chanced, produce an
image to the mind either favourable or hos-
tile to the solemnity and interests of religion ?
" Thus, my friends, .it beyond contradiction
appears, that by permitting our psalms, or our
sacred language, to be prostituted to ludicrousS,
or profane uses, we not only wilfully suffer to be
insulted the Majesty of (leaven, but that the least
pernicious consequence of it, is, that the mind is
distracted at the time of religions -worship with an
association of mental images, or recollections
hostile in the highest, and in every degree to the
revetenee and gratitude we owe to our God. And
is this, 1 would ask you, it itself no crime ? Is it
no crime to steal our thoughts from the worship.
of the Most High ? Would it be no crime to ex-
hibit before the eyes of a congregation collected in
prayer, obscene, lewd, or ludicrous images ? And
is not this as effectually done, by associating them
in she memory with the most sacred of names ?
And can it be really believed, that any man who
has frequently attended those impious orgies,
which are knoitsn to have had existence, and for
which so many of the blasphemous parodies were
originally constructed, will at any time hereafter
be able to • bring his mind to the same devout
frame it possessed prior to his guilty initiation ?_
Is there not danger now, even among the good,
who have read these wicked productions, that cer-
tain recollections will involuntarily rise in the time
of devotion, and rush between them and that so-
lemn impression Of holiness, which undivided re-
ligious associations had till now rendered inse-
parable from the exercises of prayer ? Is it not at
least to disturb our weditatious, and steal away
the fervency that belongs to oiir worship, or is
it only not robbery, ,to steal our devotion from
God?

. „ ilitU `ttr, hi v'aistreCi rolit
are infinitely greater than many of you can con•
ceive, and far more awful than, the wicked will
dare to confess. For so powerful are they, in
minds however depraved, which have once-been
deeply imbued with religion, and habituated to its
worship, that amidst all the hareiihood—all the
profligacy, and all the impiety of these wretches—
in the very height of their nocturnal orgies, where
the name of the Saviour is never heard, or only
heard to be scoffed ar—at the instant that the im-
pious is rising to applaud the blasphemous pro-
duction of his club—at that vety moment, his ad-
141°Hishing sold bids him to beware !—recalsto his
memory the 11(4 associations he bad witnessed in
his youth, and at the very instant when he glories
in reviling the majesty of. Heaven, he most re-
members—there is a God ! Solemn, sacred asso-

ciations, that none but the impious would destroy.
" Bat let us now, my friends, proceed to con-
sider the effect of these wicked productions, in
another and still more awful light ; and let us re-
member that many of its are already farhers, many
of us have sisters and brothers, and many may yet
have infants to rear. Now, do we not plaint), see
and confess the inestimable value of, these undi-
vided solemn associations in our earliest minds ?
Is it no crime, then, to anticipate the religions
impressions out youth ? Is it nothing to impnint on
their earliest minds obscene, ludicrous, or blas-
['heinous associations with the most awful of

: names, and the most holy of worship ? Is' it no
crime to lessen their reverence for religion and for
God ? And are the morals and piety inculcated
by religion, nornow worth preset viug for the
rising generation ? If the faith of the father be
built on an inaccessible rock, us a nithercan be
answer for the faith of his offspring, as a man can
be answer for the rising generation ?
‘.l I will not, my countrymen, detain you any
longer on this awful consideration, forl believe
that with all the -follies of your parties., and all
their passions, it is a Christian people II airs ad-
dressing, • Christians in their hearts—and that
many millions of you are still sound religious
men ; as such it can require little beyond reflec-
tion, to put you out of love with the blopherner,
and the blasphemy, however they may be vindi-
cated, or however they may he cherished. But 1
shall now proceed to impress on your minds what
. may be the dreadful consequences of having it be-
lieved that impicry hAs a party in England, that
the law has no punishment for blasphemy. For
if such specimens as those the late trials have
spread over the land, may now be fearlessly pub-
lished, for the perusal of all who can read, it is
evident that they may soon be made to accompany ,
our Bibles, arid be laid side by side with our
Prayer Buo%s in the Church ; and if this may be
done; who shall expect that the engraver will spare
his representations, or that the profligate ballad
singer will be mute in the streets ? But this is not
all, for if that which all men have called impiety.
till now, is impiety no longer, and that which good
men have ca Iled blasphemy, 4 no longer blasphemy,
veho shall say that impious representations of the
Savinar of mankind otav not accost us in opr
streets, or that person ft tions of the ever Living

God la:mself miry not be exhibited at one fairs !
Does this strike vou as horrible, my friends ?
Then let us rise up in time to oppose the dreadful
torrent approaching. Let us get together in our
towns, and collect in our counties; let every vil-
lage bear witness to our 'just indignation. You
are, my -countrymen, a humane people, at the
bottom of your hearts you are religious-, -end you
will not suffer the souls of the whole rising gene-
ration to be lost, without an effoi t. You Will
not endure to hear from the Lake of Torments,'
the groans and Idle agonies of your children, cry-
ing Out to you with just but horrible reproaches—
' Father ! father ! why did you abaudon our
God !'

" My countrymen, I repeat to you, let us get
together in our villages, and our constitutional
meetings with all religious, all sects, and all par-
ties, that assent to the doctrines—' Sacred be the
language devoted to our God,' for this is the sa-
cred cause of all. We have often before met to
Resolve for worldly purposes—let us now meet to
Resolve for the preservation of religion and so-
ciety, and for the glory of our God.' For what
is it do we wait i Do we wait till the horrible
inundation shall have overwhelmed us ? Or do we
wait for that awful day, ' That deep and
dreadful organ pipe, the thunder, shall pronounce
through the opening Heavens,' Tremble, thou
wretch ; Thou, worm of dreadful responsibility—
Thou, who wouldst not preserve one language
sacred to thy God I
•
" Kentish Castle, Christmas Day, 1817."

Thursday, before the Tribunal of Correctional
The King's Advocate concluded a long
by demanding that the defendant SI) o sad
be condemned to three months imprisonment, and
a fine. of 50 frauct.—The further hearing was
postponed for eight days.

FIvE PER CENTS.

l" Friday 65 f. 70 c.
" Saturday 65 f. 70c.

" CONSTANTINOPLE, DEC. Baron de
Strogonoff, the Russian Minister, in consequence
of the delays interposed by the Turkish Govern•
!Tient in all its transactions, was desirous of giving
another form to his negociations, particularly
re-
specting the liquidations still pending in conse•
quence of the Treaty of Bucharest. His propo..
sitions have not been agreed to, and there seems
no possibility of accelerating the progress of this
affair.

" A question has arisen respecting the ill-
treatment of a Turkish vessel by the Commandant
of the Russian port of Balablana, in the Black
Sea. The Divan has demanded an explanation of
the Russian Minister, who, on his part, having
no instructions, has requested time to give an an-
1. KENT. I saver.

" There has been great tumults at Smyrna be-
tween the Greeks and the Turks. The whole of
the Militia were two days and two nights under
arms. These contests arose out of disputes re•
specting commercial objects; and even the foreign
ConSuls were in danger.
MADRID, Dac. 30.—The King has con-
ferrer! the Grand Cordon of the 0, der of Charles
111. on the Prince de Metteroich, the Austriaa
Minister for Foreign Arfairb.
" ROME, Dec 22 o;:ject of the State
Prisoners woo have been brought here was to
excite a general revolt, and the more easily to suc-
ceed, they wished to excite the populace to pil-
lage, incendiary crimes, and assassination. A
quantity of arms, particularly poniards, recently
manufactured, have been discovered. The pretext
of the conspiracy was the establishment of the In-
dependence of Italy; but the principal motivesof
the Chiefs were ambition and avarice.

" Amongst the persons accused are some of
superior rank, It is reported that the Chiefs of
the Conspiracy were Members of the Association
of Carbonari, which had been introduced into
the Marches from the kingdom of Naples.
• " FRANKFORT, JAN. 2.—The Baron d'Attstet..
tin, the Russian Minister here, has been seem..
dited by his Court to the Germanic Diet.
it ..ttm known that the mission of the
Prussian Councillor of State,• Jortiao, chiefly re•
fates to the arrangement of the military affairs of
the• Germanic Confederation. It is believed that
he will himself make known the arrangements
which have been adopted at Vienna, and he is ins-.
patiently expected.
" The Ministers of the Diet, who h►ave ad-
dressed to their respective Cotlrts,t•he proposition
of the Baron de Plessen, the Mecklenburg Mi-
nister, respecting the establislithent of bases lot
provincial representations, have solicited instruc-
tions without delay, it being generally desired
that the Diet should take this question into cots-

sideratiou as soon as possible.
" Several chateaux and other habitations, in

Franconia, have been destroyed in consevemace
of being set ou fire I,oy Incendiaries. These crismea
arc attributed to the Sectaristi of ['ceche.
NURENIBpiG, JAN. 2.—The Austrian Impe—
rial Family are expected at Prague in the springy,
and to reside there during part of the summer."

The treatment which the English receive in
every part of France is in the highest degree insult--
lag and offensive, nor are our fair Countrywomen
exempt from the brutal attacks of degenerat*
Frenchmen. They even spit at female English
travellers on the roads, and in the French Metro-
polis make no scruple of outraging the feelings of
English Visitors, who, apprehensive of exposing
themselves to some difficulty anal danger if they
were to manifest an open resentment, quietly
submit, except upon very particular occasions,
one of which we lately mentioned. in a letter
from Paris, as having occasioned a duel, that
by this time has probably ended fatally to
the French assailant. This temper of the• pn-
' plasm. in France, for we wish to divide them
from the People at large, silents the savage io-
fhtence of the Revolution, which destroyed all
good principles in Frenchmen, and debased their
manners. But a People, like the French, light,
giddy, variable, and fantastic, may soon be
converted in general into a barbarous mob, as was
too dreadfully manifested in their execrable Re-
volution, and if the Demagogues Were once more

to gain the ascendancy, the same.arrocions scenes
vould, most probably, again spread ruin over
France, and consternation over Europe. Yet
shallow Politicians, who cannot estimate the fu-
ture from the past, would have the Army of Oc-