The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-03-20 00:00:00

that the penalty for defrauding the officiating priest of 1110
allotted portion was, that the offender should be cut oft
from among his people; and by reference to the 31st chap-
ter of Exodus, and the 15th of the Book of Numbers, he
showed that the " being cut off from among his people" was
identified, with the ".being surely put to death," and that
the death thus signified was not any interposition of the
I power of Providence, but a public execution by the hand
of man. Was there no coercion here? And yet Mr. Bun-
cett, a dissenting preacher, had asked, with honest, but, he
must say, ignorant zeal, in a speech which had been pro-
fusely circulated by means of the new post-office arrange-
' ments, " Where is the law that authorises the enforcement
of these offerings?" If he (Mr. M`Neile) had now proved
that there was such a law, it might—he hoped it would—
have some effect with candid disputants. But it might be
said that if this doctrine were to be followed out, all idola-
ters. Sabbath-breakers, heretics, and refusers of church-
rates, must be consigned to the executioner. This argument
sounded plausible, but was it conclusive? Was there no
difference between adopting a principle as a general rule and
guide, and adhering to all the details which might have been
applicable to other times and to circumstances different from
our own ? Might not the principle of coercion by penalty
stand, and yet the nature of the penalty be altered? This
might be illustrated by instances with which we were all fa-
miliar, for every one knew that measures intended for Ire-
land were often agreed to on the second reading, the princi-
ple adopted in corresponding measures for England being
thereby affirmed, but afterwards underwent such modifica-
tions in committee as fitted them for the country to which
they were to apply. A Christian government should adopt
the precedent of a national establishment for national wor-
ship, because of the command, " Baptise all nations ;"
and it should enforce the measures for supporting that
establishment by compulsion, if compulsion should be
necessary. Let the nature of the penalty be open to
wise and judicious modification, so as not to touch the
consciences or persons of men, but only their property.
He•would not compel a uniformity of worship, or a confor-
mity to doctrine, but only a pecuniary contribution for the
outward means. The first and highest duty of a Christian
government was to provide the means of specific Christian
instruction, and, with that view, to locate and support Chris-
tian ministers of the church, for the active population over
which they were providentially placed. If the scruples of
the subject were to interfere with the government, there
could be no government. If we were to give up the support
of the church because some were conscientiously opposed to
it, we must equally resign the army and navy, because some
conscientiously thought war unlawful. If it was wrong, if it
was a coercion of conscience—a shameful tyranny, to compel
1000 or 10,000 dissenters to pay taxes, a part of which was
devoted to the maintenance of the national church, it was
more wrong—it was a greater coercion of conscience—a more
shameful tyranny, because it was directed against a weaker
and more defenceless body, to compel one helpless Quaker
to pay taxes, a portion of which was to be devoted to the
maintenance mid enlargement of the national army. (Loud
applause.) But he said there was no forcing of the conscience,
even when. there was a forcing of payment. Let him even
suppose our Sovereign to occupy the place of a Pagan Ro-
man Emperor, our clergy to be as the priests of Jupiter,
our tax-collectors Caesar's publicans, and our dissenting
countrymen to be clothed with all the simplicity and purity
of inevitable voluntaryism—what then ? Why then he would
remind them of the authorities,—" Tribute to whom tribute
is due." " Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's."
A large portion of the tribute exacted from the Jews was
squandered in idolatrous worship. And yet the apostles,
instead of enjoining them to resist the Pagan church-rate,
or indulging in lamentations forviolated consciences, calmly
and unostentatiously inculcated submission to the powers
that be, and commanded those primitive Christians to pay
the rate. Supposing our church to be as great an
abomination in the sight of the Lord as the temple
of Jupiter, still if the ministers of the dissenting body
emulated the example of the apostles, they would say
" Tribute to whom tribute is due." But they complained
of being compelled to support a religion of which they dis-
approved. lie denied that any such compulsion was placed
upon the dissenters. Those who received taxes might with
them support the outward means and instrumentality of the
church, but that was the act of the civil ruler, and not of
the man who paid the tax. It would be monstrous to say
that every man who paid a tax was responsible for every
act of the Government. (Loud applause.) The subject was
responsible to God for the duty of paying the tribute, and
the Government was responsible to God for the duty
of appropriating it. The pocket of the man who paid
it was assailed but not his conscience. If, indeed, the
dissenters were compelled to join our worship, then,
indeed, his conscience would be assailed, and this was
an important distinction to us all. He felt himself as much
involved in it as any dissenter. He paid taxes, but he was
not implicated in the anti-English, anti-Christian, sui-
cidal guilt of supporting such a place as Maynooth college.
(Loud applause.) Nor were the dissenters implicated in
what they called the oppressive guilt—even if there were
really any guilt in it—of maintaining the church of England.
Even putting it on a par with Maynooth college—and he
could go no lower—he had proved that it was the duty of the
dissenters to pay the tribute. But how much more im-
perative was that duty, when the church possessed such
claims to national respect and gratitude? Although the dis-
senter was bound to pay tribute ; if he believed that the es-
tablishment was unchristian, it was his duty to use all con-
stitutional means to obtain an alteration of the law, but he
hoped that the judgment of the dissenters would, in the
course of that .effort be convinced, and their impressions
altered with respect to the scriptural character of the church,
and their duty to obtain an alteration in the law. In the
mean time, until the law should be altered, he claimed from
them that Christian forbearance which declines to take the
law into its own hands. (Loud applause.) After some fur-
ther remarks upon the merits of the established church, and
its claims for national support, the rev. gentleman concluded
by expressing his conviction that he should not appeal in vain
to an assembly of British gentlemen on behalf of millions of
British subjects)

WOODSTOCK ELECTION.—The election will take place on
Friday next. Mr. Thesiger has nearly finished his canvass,
which has been a most successful one, he scarcely having met
with a single refusal. There is not the slighest show of op-
position.—Oaford Herald.
JUVENILE ROBINSON CRUSOES.—On Monday, the 2d
instant, three little boys (the eldest only 12 years of age),
sons of •respectable parents residing in Louth, who had been
reading the entertaining romance of Robinson Crusoe, left
their homes in company, in search of an uninhabited island,
AIRDRIE DISTRICT OF BURGHS.—We understand that
Major Anderson, of Essex, who has announced himself as a
candidate for these burghs at the next election, has just corn-
pleted -a most encouraging and satisfactory personal canvass
in the district, the result of which leaves no room for doubt-
ing his eventual success. We are sure this information must
be very gratifying to all friends of the Chuich and the con-
stitution in this quarter, where Mr. Gillon's extreme opin-
ions and inconsistent conduct have rendered him quite ob-
noxious.—Glasgow Constitutional.