The Sun.
London, England, 1845-01-03 00:00:00

141 tit/11in Ant

LONDON, FRIDAY, JANUARY 3, 1845

The late desperate efforts of the Bishops of LONDON
and EXETER to force on the Protestant Church some
of the most obnoxious symbols and customs of Catho-
licism, and the haughty, imperious, and insulting lan-
guage in which they replied to the respectful remon-
strances of different ;parishes, cannot fail to give the
people of England a faithful anticipation of what they
may expect, if, for the curse of the country and the
Church, Puseyism should ever become triumphant.
At first these encroaching Prelates would listen nei-
ther to remonstrance, nor argument, nor humble pe-
tition—they were supreme judges of what was right;
the ignorant multitude (for as such they treated even
the most respectable inhabitants of their dioceses)
knew nothing of the rubric, and even if they
did, it was not their duty to explain its meaning.
Their duty only was to obey, to render
homage to the heads of the Church, in imitation of
Catholic flocks, and leave the settlement of disputes
about the surplice and offertory, and the burning of
tapers on the altar, with other rites and ceremonies,
to the successors of the Apostles. So bigoted were
they in these slavish doctrines, and so conscious were
they of their own power and sacred character, that
they vowed not to yield to the clamours of the laity,
but adhere to their injunction, whatever might be the
consequence. They reckoned however without their
host. No party joined with them ; not even one
journal could justify their conduct ;I, the people were
unanimous, and the haughty Prelates were forced to suc-
cumb. Let not the people of England however imagine
that the battle is m,-)n, or that the Popi: doctrines
openly taught by the Puseyites can be rradicated
from the Church, without yet a great and a con-
tinued struggle. A deep plot has been laid at Ox-
ford; it has ramifications in every part of the coun-
try. Its object is to obtain power. to put down free
inquiry, to enslave the human mind, and make the
authority of the clergy supreme, even at the risk of
restoring all the ignorance, immorality, and super-
stition of the middle ages. Happily there is not a
dissentient voice among the laity; but let us imagine
that these Puseyite Bishops had conducted their inno-
vations with more skill, that in addition to their hypo-
crisy, which is abundant, they had also assumed the
garb of humility--had, like POSEY and NEwm.c.s, and
the other founders of the sect, devoted their

lives to ;prayer and meditation, and deep inquiries
into the state of the Church, for the purpose of im-
posing upon the unwary, and then come forth with
all the fervour of Reformers. To a certainty they
would have had many followers—they would, like a
neighbouring C hurch, have led i astray silly women,
and excited divisions in every parish and hamlet, and
family. For the safety of the Reformed Religion the
cloven foot has appeared in time, their designs are
laid open, and even one of their own body, an en -
lightened Bishop, has not scrupled to declare to the
world, that "their sole object is to exalt the clergy
and destroy the principles of free inquiry so nobly
asserted at the period of the Reformation." On
this ground, chiefly, we have opposed the
new tenets, because, with a Church all-
powerful, with a Church that domineers over
the people, that interferes in all the relations of life,
whether domestic, social, or public, there can b. 3 no
useful education, no reform of abuses, no independence
of character, and no real liberty. Will the people of
England, then, who have gained so much by the
Reformation, who have made such noble struggles in
defence of liberty, who have by their own innate
energy established a Constitution which, whether as
regards freedom of thought, freedom of action, and
the development of the national resources, stands

unrivalled—will the people of England again submit
their neck to the yoke, and by yielding to the
despotism of the Church, renounce those inestimable
blessings for which their forefathers suffered exile,
imprisonment, and death? The spirit now displayed
throughout the country happily leads to a different
conclusion, and verifies the words of the poet—
" Fortes creantur fortibus, et bonis."

Much, however, remains to be done. The canker

has taken deep root in the ecclesiastical body, a ad,
though concealed for a time, will sooner or later again
break forth. Let the people, therefore, be watchilil.

They have Jesuits to deal with. If one scheme fails
another will he tried, in the hope that, by accustom-
ing the eyes and thi. earz to certain harmieba innova-
tions, the real übject may in time be attalLed. Toe
only security is in resisting every change.

By letters from New York, dated the 14th ult.,
we learn that " a very pretty quarrel" is on the eve
of explosion between two of the most important
States of the Union—namely, South Carolina and
Massachusetts. Although the first and noblest right
of our common nature and the dee.rest interests of
humanity are deeply involved in the ground of the
approaching rupture (for to a rupture the affair is
manifestly tending), there are some circumstances of
such absurd inconsistency, moral and political, in
the affair, that we shall endeavour to regard it, as
much as we can, in the less grave of its aspects. It
seems that South Carolina, a few years ago, pa: sed a
law prohibiting free negroes, under certain ;severe
pains and penalties, from " coming into that S tate."
Not having the original American statute heft); .e us,
we cannot say what was the cause of its enact client
assigned in its preamble. . Whether the pat arnal
Legislature of Carolina was alarmed lest the evil
example of its slave-trading institutions should ex-
tend beyond its own boundary—or the contagion of
slave emancipation should pass over and within them,
from other members of the Union, our readers may
conclude for themselves. But it must still rent 'ain a
marvel how a body of men, so proverbially acu to as
the Carolinian planters, could have overlooked tie in-
evitable occurrence, in the ordinary course of busi-
ness transactions, of daily cases (as it were) in va hich
their statute must be violated, or their external trade
be annihilated. When the 'Carolina legislators, in
the plenitude of their superiority us white-c.astes
promulgated their penal and ilisabling statute agafnst
free blacks, they forgot that Nature, when she tinged
the skins of negroes with an indelible colour, had
omitted to affix any badge of nautical disqualification
upon that unhappy race, 111,7 an equally unpardon-
able obliviousness, many hundreds of blacks, settled
in various portions of the Vestern Hemisphere, are
habitually given (it seems) to imagine—first, that
they have a rigbi, to purchase their freedom, when
they can find raoney enough for that purpose, and
masters who will accept it; and, secondly, that, being
free, they 'nave a right to turn sailors when they can
find cal.ite.ins to engage them at stipulated wages. The
result, 'f this discrepancy between the abilities of
freedo'll, and the disabilities of slavery—this collision
betvieen the laws of South Carolina and the laws of
ature has been, that, on different occasions, " free
blacks ecr.ployed as seamen knave been brought into
the latter State." The humane custom has been,
that " they were lintnediately imprisoned, and kept
in prison umtil the sailing ,of the vessel to which they
belong." W e write this in the year 184-7 ;--and it
is true! Ft) rtunateiv for the honour of portion
of the hums n race—(about as essential an integer, in
its relations to the whole, by the way, as "kat in-
telligent (in d important
part of the earth, called
Europe"
—3 o condescendingly noticed in President
TYLEE'es laa t Message)—that pol Lion -which is not
inc"P'arated. into the Carolina Legislaturo, that some