The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-12-27 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STiND,IRD.

•
SIN,—You will oblige a constant reader if you will inserttirt:
your next journal the following sensible and judicious reply.'
which has been made by the churchwardens of a parish
northern part of the county of Chester to the unauthorised and,
inquisitorial intercogatories of Load Althorp, addressed to the.,
churchwardens of every parish iu the kingdom,
,respecting.
tithes. I decidedly approve of the manly tone of remonstrance
therein assumed, and would recommend it as a model whereby
.

all those who are dispesed to make rettirriS (as:it is quite oii-
tional whether churchwardens answer the interrogatories or not)-
should shape their replies.
- "The churchwardens of the parish .of
given to undersZand that it is not the intention of Government
to meddle with lay ithpropriatious in their meditated scheme-
of church reform, because your lordship and many of your col-
leagues in office are large holders of lay iinproptial ions, beg.tol
inform you that rectory' is 'a *lay impropriatimvp.M4.
consequently, exempt from making any returns to the proposed:
queries. Indeed, were it otherwise, we should feel iliSpeseil to
decline returning. an answer to interrogatories respectingji-ri-:'
vale property, which we cannot but consider unauthorised-and
; nor can we refrain from expressing our surprlso:'
at the .declaration openly avowed by. your lordship iu your cir.-•
calor, that 'it will not be necessary that the return should be
precisely accurate.' Surely, my lord, it is the part of wise-
legislators to .obtain the most accurate and authentic informa--
tion before they attempt to make enactments touching the pro-
perty. and vital interests of Millions. :Slot so with the admini-
stration in which your lordship holds a prominent office. They •
prejudge a case—administer to the passions and vices of the
mob to obtain their concurrence and support—act in ignorance
—and mar every thing they pretend to mend. Nor are we
satisfied that you and your colleagues have any more right to
meddle with, so as to deteriorate, the property belonging. to
any clergyman, or any corporate body of the clergy, than the
highwayman has to take your purse. Beware, my luid, how
you allow yourselves to be led away by the outcry raised by
Papists, Unitarians, and Infidels, although backed, as they now
are, by the rabble-rout of anarchists and revolutionists, against
the grand bulwark of our national greatness and glory—the
Church of England. If you invade her property, which ought
to be as sacred and inviolable as any other, and to which she
can, probably, show an older and a better title than you canto
your estates, you establish a principle which will soon be ex-
tended to your own large possessions, and will give an impetus to
the p. evalling revolutionary mania, which has been cherished
and fomented by the delusive expectations held out by the
humbug osisi.,,atore of the Reform Bill, and which will,
long, involve, in imaiscriminatingruin, the church, the,anowt,-
thy, and p,',erage. Beware, my lord, 'how you attempt any
longer to pilifirs-lip your weak, temporising, and fatally-ruinous
administration, hy-iacriticing principle to expediency. Beware
how you hasten on a revolution, which every sober-minded nian
begins to apprehend, and cannot but contemplate with honor.
You have the character of being a weak but honest man. We
woild willingly give you credit for both these qualities, but are
fearful lest you may now lose your character fur honesty by
' invadine the property' of others. It will be no enviable distinc-
tion to be called 'a robber of churches;' nor will it add much
to your renown should-you force his majesty. to violate his coro—
nation oath. Meddle not with the church or her property, lest
you should soon be despoiled of your own. We, and the farmers
throughout this county, are in general well satisfied with the
present tithe system. We consider the clergyman has as good
a claim to one-tenth of the produce of our farms as the landlord
has to the other nine-tenths; and as every farmer in this dis-
trict, who is likely to be able-to pay his tithes, has the option .of
taking them at a valuation, it is his own fault if he pays too
much for them. Nor can we discover any probable benefit
likely to arise to ourselves by the commutation or the abolition
of tithes, as we should in either case, if we did not pay their
full value to the clergyman or lay impropriator, have to pay an
increased rent to our landlord.—We have the honour to sub-
scribe ourselves, &c., THREE CHURCHWARDENS."