The Sun.
London, England, 1842-11-19 00:00:00

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SUN OFFICE Three u.

As the period for the assembling of Parlia-
ment approaches, the cry for " more Church" in-
creases in strength. The agents of the Church-
extension men have received their instructions,
and are maturing plans for extorting money from
the State, that is from the pockets of the people,
whether Catholics, Dissenters, or Churchmen, to
hand over to the richest ecclesiastical establish-
ment in the world. " It is the duty of the State,"
says one of their agents, " to come to the aid of
' the Church,and to assist in meeting the general
demand for Church-extension. It is, and we say it
with profound respect and loyalty; the duty of the
QUEEN to receive such an intimation with delight,
and to prove her attachment to that Church of
which she is the temporal head, by a willing and
cordial co-operation in such a measure." The
impudence of these men is with Gut a parallel.
While tens of thousands of her MAJESTY'S sub•
jetty can barely find the means of subsistence,
while the Paisley and Glasgow weavers out of
employment are living on a penny. a day, and
others, ashamed to beg, are actually dying. of
want, the QUEEN is called upon to prove her
attachment to the Church by increasing the
general distress for the aggrandisement of a
very small portion of the community. These
charitable Christians are still faithless and unbe
lieving, and require something more than de-
vout and constant attention to religious duties
before they will regard her MAJESTy as a sincere
Protestant. They-thrm, however, but a small
section of the people, and their disloyal and rude
language may
.be, treated with contempt; but
the demand for more money to enrich an over-
grown establishment must be met in a different
Way. It must be proved, as the Duke of WEL-
LINGTON said, on a similar application being
made, that the funds of the Church . are
duly applied for their original purpose, and are
found deficient, before one penny is taken from
the public treasury. Both these points can -be
easily disproved. Looking at the revenues
of the Church, including tithes, church lands,
offerings, and fees, in addition to those
for every religious rite and ceremony, the
total income cannot be less than eight
millions sterling a year, or about thirty
times the amount paid to the whole Church
Establishment in the North. Why, the Bishops
alone swallow up a revenue equal to the value of
all the stipends, manses, and glebes of•the Intru-
sionists and Non-Intrusionists together, exceed-
ing twelve hundred men with six-thousand sons
and daughters and wives to support. Could any
Bishop, even with the boldiless that belongs to
his order, rise in the House of Lords and say that
eight million a year is nbt enough for England,
while Scotland can keep up.. a respectable and
useful establishment for three hundred thousand ?
And are seven millions of Catholics iu Ireland,
and seven million Dissenters and Catholics in
England, who maintain their own religious, esta-
blishments, to be taxed for the] mainte-
nance of a gorgeous and inefficient Church
Establishment. Its inefficiency is fully
admitted, even by these money-hunters
themselves. " A few years ago," says
the Church and State Gazette, " the Church was
little more than the edifice, the aisles, the
steeple, and the bell." Has the change which
lately took place been for the better ? Now the
one-half is divided against the other, and.
Popery is more admired than Protestantism.
Sir ROBERT PEEL, under such circumstances,
will be a bold man if he puts his band into the
public purse and gives a million a year to a hete-
rogeneous Church— half Protestant and half
Catholic.

It gives us sincere pleasure to find that the
charges of Lord ADINGER, at the late Special
Commissions, are not likely to be soon forgotten
or forgiven. At the public meetingat the Crown
and Anchor Tavern, on Thursday last, many
severe and pertinent allusions were made to the
subject; and 'a petition to the House of Corn;
mons :was agreed to, in which it was emphati-
cally stated that the charges in question were of
an unfair, unjust, and political tendency, and
calculated to prejudice, mislead, and exasperate
the minds of the Jury to whom they were ad-
dressed. Mr. DUNCOMBE, who is to be entrusted
with the presentation of this petition—and it can
scarcely be placed in better hands—expressed a
fervent hope that there would not be a single
man, who wished to be thought well of by his
fellow-men, who would scruple to attach his
signature to it; and that every constituency
would put it to their representatives, either to
support the petition, or to give up their seats.
We readily join with the Hon. Member fur Fins-
bury in this wish, for the subject is one of great
moment, involving no less a question than that
of the due administration of justice; and a more
momentous question than this, or one involving
more serious consequences, cannot possibly come
under the notice of the Legislature.

The -intelligence from Madrid is to the 10th
instant. The Senate had held preparatory sit-
ting•, Senor BECERRA in the chair, and about
sixty members being present. The commercial
treaty with Belgium, which Senor OLOZAGA had
concluded at Brussels, was to be submitted for
approbation of the Cones.

The Peninsular mentions that an affray bad
taken place between the inhabitants of the small
towns of Zafagarra. and Alhama, which finished
by the disarming of the National. Guards of the
latter, by 200 militia and a detachment of troops
sent from Zafagarra.
The Castellano of the 10th announces that the
Government was preparing the basis of a con-
cordat with the Holy See, to reconcile the exist-
ing differences.

The Three per Cents. were done at 22 at sixty
days; the Five per Cents. at 26i at sixty days;
and the floating debt of the Treasury at 44
fbr cash.