DOMESTIC.

RELIGIOUS.

Protestant Society.

THE Annual Meeting of this Society was held at the Albion Tavern, Aldersgatestreet, on Saturday the 15th of May, Sir James Mackintosh, M P., in the Chair We can insert only the eloquent speeches of Mr. Wilks and the Chairman,

Mr. Wilks rose amidst the loudest testimonies of respect. He thanked the meeting for this and other demonstrations of that kindness which they had often manifested towards him. He assured them, that the duty which he had to perform be performed with great reluctance. It would have afforded him far greater plea sure if he could congratulate them and himself, that the Society was to meet no more; if they had met to chaunt its dirge, or to sing its requiem, rather than to sound its praise. (Applause.) He especially thus felt when he remembered the more interesting, the more important, the more sublime occupations to which many of them had been devoted during the past week. Called as they then were, however, from those engagements, he trusted the call would not be in vain, and that the great work which they were then assembled to promote, would finally prevail. (Cheers.) They must not lay down their armour till the battle was won. More cheerful as might be other exertions, still they must trudge on in that weary road until they had arrived at the security, where alone they might repose. (Applause.)

With these feelings he would proceed to suggest some observations on the transactions of the Committee during the last year.

Among those subjects was the demand of Tolls at the Turnpike Gates from Protestant Dissenters going to their several places of worship. They considered themselves exempt from the payment of these Tolls, as well as the members of the Established Church. A case on this point, at the last meeting, was depending in the Court of King's Bench. Liability depended upon the peculiar and local Acts of Parliament, under which each Turnpike Trust is conducted. There is no general regulation on this subject. Information is only obtainable by the perusal of the exemption clauses, which are invariably inserted in all Turnpike Acts. In the case to which he alluded in the county of Wilts, the local act provided, that no person was liable to the payment of rates "going to or returning from his proper parochial church, chapel, or other

Mr.

place of religions worship on Sundays. In a case in the county of Suffolk, in which the same words were inserted in the Turnpike Act, Mr. Justice Grose decided, that it was absurd to contend, that under the words "going to his parochial church, chapel, or place of religious worship, Dissenters must be restricted to a particular parish, inasmuch, as the parish in which they resided, might not contain any place of worship to which they could resort; and that the word parochial must refer only to the parish church Justice Holroyd on the trial, bad concurred in the judgment of Mr. Justice Grose, and ordered a verdict to be entered for them, although at the same time, be reserved liberty to the other side to apply to the Court of King's Bench. That application had been made, and notwithstanding the opinion of two judges, as well as that of other men of the greatest eminence in the legal profession, the Court of King's Bench arrived at a different conclusion; that, under those particular words in that act, Dissenters who passed along those roads could not claim the benefit of exemption, in proceeding to the places of worship which they frequented, if they were not within the parish in which they resided. (Exclamations of surprise.) He differed from the reasons assigned for the decision, yet more than from the decision. They reminded him of the advice given by Dr. Johnson, to a person who was about to occupy a magisterial situation in one of our Colonies: “ Sir,” said be, give your judgment, but abstain from giving your reasous; for the judg ment may be right, and the reasons wrong." (Laughter.) The reason given by the Lord Chief Justice for his judg ment was, "that in construing these acts, the Court should see, that the occupiers of Tolls were exposed to the smallest possible loss; and that such exemptions might occasion much dispute and wrangling on a day that ought to be specially devoted to charity and peace. (Laughter.) As if the establishment of a right, would produce more discord than the withdraw. ment; as if the agitation of liberty and life was not to be preferred to the oppres sive silence of the prison, or the tomb. Since that decision, demands of tolls bad been made in various parts of the country, arising from a misconception of that decision.

66

From Frome, from Wigston, from Mr. John, a Unitarian Dissenter at Swansea, from Mr. Davis, the late High Sheriff of Merionethshire, communications on that subject had been received. Several excel

lent letters also from many warm-hearted Welsh Methodists, who feel an animating zeal for their poor neighbours, for whose benefit they traverse the roughest roads, ascend the steepest mountains, and descend into the glen-like valleys, only to promulgate the gospel, and whom it is important to protect from pecuniary loss in their apostolic labour.

Mr. Meek, of South Moulton, in Devonshire, and the Rev. Dr. Cracknell, of Weymouth, for his own and a Wesleian Methodist congregation, had also complained. This subject was of vital importance to Dissenting congregations. Their meeting-houses are generally in towns, and the congregations are collected from neighbouring hamlets. The charge on some congregations, if tolls should be permanently enforced, would annually amount to from forty to fifty pounds The personal hardship and pecuniary exaction present, however, subordinate objections: the subordination there by assumed of Dissenters to Episcopalians of the equally pious and enlightened and useful frequenters of the meeting-house, to the attendants at the parish church, suggests more important reasons for disapproval and regret.

Since the decision, the Committee had done all that they could do on this subject: they had watched the local acts that have been introduced during the present sessions, and provisions were introduced which would prevent any recurrence of those exactions in the particular roads to which those acts might refer. But he did not like that tardy and uncertain mode of relief. He did not like waiting in a Lord's anti-room, nor solciting this just and ancient right as a boon from the Chairman of the Committees of the House of Lords, He thought some distinct legislative enactment should be obtained; some bill supplementary to the general Turnpike Act, which should be distinct in its declaration, and satisfactory, universal and permanent in its effect. (Applause.)

To several cases relating to the Assessed Taxes he would next refer. At Richmond, the windows of the place of worship of the Rev. Mr. Thomas had been assessed; advice was given by the Committee, and the demand has not been renewed. A letter from a most excellent friend, the Rev. Mr. Cockin, of Holmsfirth, Yorkshire, and from the Rev. John Humphreys, in North Wales, bad obtained all the attention which the Committee could supply. But to one case connected with the Assetsed Taxes he with great satisfaction must advert, as an unjust demand had been resisted with complete success. Upon a former occasion he had paid a tribute of respect to those Institutions among the Dissenters which may truly be called “the

schools of the prophets," and from which had proceeded some of the ablest, most learned and most useful men, who now bless and adorn the world.

Among those was the Dissenting Academy, under the superintendance of the Rev. Mr Vint, of Idle, in the West Riding of York. Notwithstanding a former decision of the Judges, as to Hoxton Academy, that no house tax or window-rates were payable for the apartments occupied by students, the Commissioners and Surveyors thought proper to impose a charge of £20. 4s. over and above their former charge, on account of the part of the Academy occupied by the students. On the recommendation of the Committee, Mr. Vint applied to the Commissioners for relief, but without success. Applications were then made to the tax-office, without avail. Another case for the opinion of the Judges was then demanded; and six learned Judges had confirmed the right to exemption in these words: "We are of opinion that the determination of the Commissioners to rate these premises was wrong." (Loud cheers.) And he could also state, with additional delight, that Mr. Vint obtained back from the Receiver-General of Taxes the sum of £20. 4s, which was the amount of a distress which, with most uncourteous eagerness, the Commissioners had levied on the library, pending the appeal. (Applause.) And he thought that if the Society had done nothing more, during the past year, than thus having vindicated the rights of Dissenting Ministers and Dissenting Academies, that they would have deserved general approbation and support. (Shouts of applause.)

Among the other subjects to which he would allude, was the subject of Poors' Rates charged on places of religious worship, and he never should address them with perfect pleasure, until that source of vexation no more could flow. (Cheers.)

At Wimbourne, in Dorsetshire, an attempt had been made to impose this rate, originating with a clergyman; but which the greater liberality of other inhabitants would not allow to be enforced.

At Worcester a charge had been made upon the chapel. As the chapel is in two parishes, and sixteen heavy rates are anunally made, the establishment of the liability to assessment would have imposed a burden adequate to a gross sum of £1000. upon the trustees. There the officers had actually begun to pull down the organ, and to remove the patent lamps. The Committee sanctioned an appeal, and by their intervention, and the prudent conduct of an individual member, the parish officers, after repeated explanations, determined that the rate should be reduced to 16s. a-year, to be charged upon a little

ances, by which congregations in places of worship had been interrupted, during the year, he would next advert. These disgraceful occurrences pervaded not distant parts of the country only, but even in London, and in the vicinity of the metropolis, congregations had not been exempt from this species of persecution. A congregation in Newton Street, Holborn, had been assailed by a mob. At Camberwell, the Rev. Mr. Innes complained of interruption At Ilford some interesting and amiable ladies had suffered by a removal of their shutters and the fracture of their windows, and some opulent inhabitants by an instigated rabble.

At Ludgershall, in the county of Wilts, field-preaching was prevented. At Oxondon, in Northamptonshire, a similar prohibition occurred to a Baptist minister. There Mr. Bolton, the rector of the parish, was the prohibitor. Painful was the thought that such bigotry should exist in this land of liberty-and England was yet that land of liberty-whilst they had heard during the week that in distant and barbar ous regions such evils did not exist: that, without interruption, the Missionary might in India, beneath the shade of a tree, freely tell his heart-affecting tale; an Itinerant, unmolested under an ancient cross or gothic ruin, might in Ireland address the interesting villagers; and be greeted with rapturous welcome, as he unfolded the message of life and peace among the groves that adorn the islands of the Southern Sea. (Loud cheers.)

At Haslemere interruptions had been occasioned by birds sent into the chapel, and extinguishing the lights. At Cannock, near Walsall, in Staffordshire, disturbances arose from howling, groaning and whistling, by external violence and internal noise (Shame.) At Hammersmith, so near to London, disgraceful scenes of a like nature were exhibited. There a Society of Baptists were interrupted in the performance of one of their sacramental ceremonies. The windows at Kirton, near Ipswich, had been covered with soil.

twelve months.

At Wolston, near Coventry, acts equally improper have been performed. There Mr. Sawbridge, the clergyman, has threatened that no place shall be registered for The impotence of that threat the Committee will expose. They will try the question with Mr. Sawbridge, and evince that no bishop or archdeacon can be beyond the controul of the law; and if they do not instantaneously record the notice of the registry, when left by the poorest villager, notwithstanding their frowns, on them the law shall frown. (Applause.) These poorest and most illiterate peasants may not be borne down by

those who conceive that power constitutes right, and that the possession of wealth entitles them to oppress. (Cheers.)

From Horsley, near Ashtead, in Surrey, he had read with peculiar interest the letters of two good men, who were there itinerating and preaching the gospel, in villages where it had not reached, and who feeling heavenly compassion in their hearts, and viewing, with weeping, large multitudes perishing for lack of knowledge, wrote to state, that if it cost them their lives, the poor people must not go untaught (Applause.) Other similar cases had occurred, and it was hardly needful to say, that the Committee had not received these complaints with folded hands or unaffected hearts

It would be well if he could say that these were the only means adopted to prevent the progress of truth. Protestant Dissenters had no hostility to National Schools, although they thought they should be denominated Episcopalian, and not assume a nationality, which their exclusive principle disclaims; but they did not treat Dissenting schools with equal tolera. tion. At Dronfield, near Sheffield, in the county of York, some excellent Sundayschools had been interrupted by the churchwardens, instigated by the clergyman. They had sought to intimidate by threatening prosecutions, and by proceedings in the ecclesiastical courts. But the supporters of such institutions were not to be appalled by threats so impotent. On liberal principles let the education of the poor proceed, and then knowledge and love and piety will finally fertilize the land.

These principles had been recognized as to the Macclesfield school, by the Court of Exchequer. Those judges had conferred honour on their characters by sanctioning the Lancasterian or British system of education. In a matter which came before their court, in which the trustees of the Macclesfield School were concerned, and in which the question of different sects was involved, all the judges, and especially Baron Garrow, approved of the British system. Baron Garrow, in particular, said, "I think well that the children of the poor, of different sects, should mingle in one school and place of worship; I think it is a great improvement in our mode of education, as it tends to smooth down some of those roughnesses that are at present but too predominant, which, for the happiness of mankind, are sincerely to be deplored." (Cheers.)

A measure will probably be introduced into parliament during the present session, if the health of the individual, by whom it is projected (Mr. Brougham), will allow, which demands all the considerations that can he bestowed. That bill contemplates

the establishment of parish schools, in every parish throughout the empire; an excellent design, but requiring great caution, and to be watched by Dissenters with a vigilant eye, lest it should become against them a most powerful and injurious instrument.

Some miscellaneous cases of considerable interest be could not omit.

The clerk of the peace for the county of Rutland had refused to register a notice of a place of worship in that county, left by the Rev. Mr. Corbishley. The magistrates had conceived that they possessed some discretionary power; and did not know that they had only a ministerial duty to perform. The right of registration had been maintained and asserted with success, and the result is important, principally as it demonstrates the necessity of firmness and decision, and teaches not to suspend on the brittle thread of favour and indulgence, those rights which should be upheld by an adamantine chain.

Letters from Elland, near Halifax, complain that the minister of the parish had attempted to prevent a mason from cutting grave stones in the church-yard, because he was a Dissenter. Thus substituting power for persuasion, and persecution for argument. (Applause.)

The case of Mrs. Gould was affecting. Her husband had long been deacon of a Baptist congregation near Brayford, in Devonshire Nothing was more natural or more innocent than for this poor woman, in the language of uncourtly truth and pious sensibility, after she had wept over the remains of her beloved companion, to state on the grave-stone "how the good man had lived, and how he died." This, however, offended the parochial clergyman, who determined that the tombstone should be removed. He admitted that the Dissenter had a right to be buried in the church-yard, and that the sexton had received the usual fee: but he denied that any person might erect a tombstone without his more express consent. The minister of the Church of England thus sought to obtain a wretched triumph over an aged and unhappy widow! True, he might thus increase her pangs and add to her cup of sorrow, already overflowing. He might prematurely demolish a monument which the hand of time would obliterate or destroy; but he could not touch the inscription written by the finger of the archangel in the book of life, nor cloud the glory that in another state shall radiate around the memory of the just. (Applause.)

From Corfe Castle Mr. Smith complained, that the Rev. Mr. Clavell, a clergyman and magistrate, had refused to bury the child of a Dissenter. The parent was

a labourer-the rector opulent and pow erful. The Committee interfered: nor did they interfere in vain. The poor Dis senters blend astonishment with joy, when they learn that the same justice is obtained for them in the lowly cottage, as for the turretted castle which frowns over the vale. They take courage as they bless the Society, and are grateful to their God.

But why, he must again inquire, did a body so respectable and so enlightened as the Dissenters of England, submit to these insults from clergymen? Why, by seeking interment exclusively in a church-yard, connect themselves with an establishment, which they professed to disapprove! What was a church-yard to merit particular respect? (Applause) Papal superstition had bestowed on it an interested sanctity, unsanctioned by reason, but which imagination and poetry had combined to adorn. (Applause.) In former times people collected themselves round the Church, because they hoped to be relieved from purgatory by the prayers of the faithful attending at the Church. (Laughter.) Be no longer fettered by such absurdities. (Applause.) Let gardens surround our meeting-houses, and there let our ashes slumber till the resurrection of the just. (Applause.) If the poor posthumous renown be sought, which brass and marble can bestow, what can be more delightful to the father, than to know, that the inscription shall be fixed on the walls of the meeting-house where he and his family throughout their lives have worshiped God (Applause.) What more grateful to the children, as they bend their knees in the house of prayer, than to have the memorial of their father in their devontest moments present to their eye! Thus death would lose somewhat of its terror-fami lies yet would be united-kindred would survive, still living in the hearts aud thoughts of those by whom they were best beloved. (Cheers.)

But even to the meeting-house extortion will pursue us. The Rev. Mr. Brewer, of Birmingham, had been there interred. The opulent rector of that vast town would not lose his profit, and demanded ten shillings as a mortuary fee. Explanations were required, and the demand was for gotten. But no! such forgetfulness is not allowed: for, after near two years, the Rev. Mr. Curtis has actually renewed his demand. During the present week, he (Mr. W.) had received a letter, stating that this clergyman, opulent and elevated, has personally called on a friend of the widow of Mr. Brewer, and insisted on the amount. (Hisses and cries of shame.)

He did not wonder at this expression of indiguation and contempt; but he