made by the Rev. J. C. Way, Rector of Middleton, for Easter Offerings (so called.) It appears that Pearson had neglected to pay the Rector's claim, and that costs to the amount of 18s. had been incurred to recover the original sum of 5d. Three bailiffs entered the house, and proceeded into his bed-room, expecting to find a sufficient amount of property to satisfy their demand; but there was neither bed nor bedding.

Nor is it from the toil of manhood only that our Vampire Church extracts its bloody sustenance. Childhood, infant poverty, is also sucked, to yield its little drop. So far has the matter been pushed, says the Morning Chronicle, at one place, that a penny a-head is exacted from each of the little bare-legged girls who seek for cockles, on every occasion of their being out. The picture is complete! Let any of our readers imagine he sees the agent of the preacher of Christianity watching for, and way-laying the bare-footed innocent, as she returns, weary and wet, from her toilsome labours on the wild sea beach; and there, with an inhumanity which highwaymen might blush for, robbing her of her little coin! Faugh, faugh! well may we say with The Times, surely the Clergy of England have gone mad in thus revolting and disgusting the world!

But then exclaims a reverend clergyman, like Shylock, "I stand here for law."

My deeds upon my head! I crave the law,
The penalty and forfeit of my bond!

a claim which has been recognised by those who
should have known better. Cobbett has forcibly
shown that this eternal answer, "It is the law,"
is the very thing which is chiefly endangering the
safety, or rather ensuring the destruction of the
Establishment! "We know it is the law, and
therefore we want other laws to do this law away."
So conscious are the real friends of the clergy
of the madness of their proceeding, that they
had recourse to the plenary power of Parliament
to arrest their insane course. A bill for the stay
of tithe prosecutions was introduced into the
House of Commons by Mr. Blamire, member
for the eastern division of Cumberland, and pass-
ed without serious opposition from any party.
In the House of Peers, however, it met a dif-
ferent fate. To the Right Honourable and
Right Reverend inmates of that respected place,
the measure appeared absolutely hateful.
no wonder! Was not its object to protect the
sheep against the wolf, the weak against the
strong? Lord Brougham, who, before he sunk
into the woolsack, was ambitious of being thought
the people's friend, objected to it on a curious
ground: He thought the clergy would not have
it in their power to do much more evil, before
Parliament should again assemble. Much more
evil! Is this the man, who, in his better days,
denounced with such tremendous energy, the
evils of the Court of Chancery, and drew so
feelingly the picture of its beggared suitors?
Does he think the addition of a few thousand
suits no evil? Is the ruin, which these prosecu-
tions must bring on hundreds of the smaller
farmers of England no evil? Is the dissemina-

VOL. I-NO. 1.

And

tion of bitter and irradicable hatred towards the whole clergy of the Establishment no evil? But we wrong Lord Brougham. His Lordship is doubtless a Voluntary Churchman, and has quashed this measure, solely that the enormous mischief of the Establishment may be made more fully manifest. If this was indeed his intention, he could not have more effectually promoted it, than by allowing the clergy to proceed unfettered in their present mad career.

The clerical conspiracy, of which we have just sketched a few of the atrocities, has naturally augmented the number of Dissenters, and excited in the people of England the most vehement indignation. In one quarter this has been carried so far, that, at a recent vestry meeting, the assembly literally voted the Church a nuisance, and advertised for a contractor who would remove it for the value of the old materials! Even among moderate men, a determined opposition to church-rates has sprung up, and is rapidly spreading throughout England. The demand for a rate has been everywhere met with a motion for adjournment; and the general feeling of the people on the subject is now so well known, that in many places the church-wardens do not venture to propose a rate at all; while, in others, tricks and false notices are had recourse to, for the purpose of keeping the rate-payers away, and obtaining a rate from a previously-packed assemblage. Our limits prevent us from doing more than noticing a very few instances of what we have just stated. To narrate even the half of what has come under our own notice would more than fill the magazine. The campaign, we believe, commenced at Birmingham, where it was successfully argued, that it was beneath the dignity of the Establishment to call on the Dissenters for the support of their churches, and quite as unreasonable as if the Dissenters were to call on the Churchmen for the maintenance of their chapels. This good example was followed at Tavistock, where, at a meeting, held on the 6th Angust last, several strong resolutions were passed, "protesting against the levy of Church-rates upon Dissenters, thereby compelling the whole of the community to pay for the repairs of the religious edifices and the maintenance of the forms of worship belonging to but a part; and recommending Churchmen to follow the example of the Dissenters, by raising, through voluntary subscriptions, the sums necessary to support the interests of their Church. The Vestry farther passed a resolution, that "this meeting cannot entertain any question connected with the estimates now brought forward by the Church-wardens for the ensuing year; and do, therefore, adjourn till February 6, 1834."

Only two days afterwards, (August 8,) a Vestry meeting of the parish of St. Andrews, Newcastle, was held for a similar purpose. From the report of the proceedings that took place, (for which we are indebted to that spirited and thriving paper, the Newcastle Press,) it appears, that in that parish the expenses for which a

D

Rector explained that the emoluments of the living were not more than L.200 per annum, that he was constantly resident, and that he did the whole duty. Mr. William Sharp spoke in favour of the rate, and censured the present desire for change, which was but too prevalent. This line of argument not seeming to suit the taste of his auditors, Mr. Sharp concluded by moving that the amendment be rejected. The question being put, almost every hand was held up for the amendment, at least 150; and but very few in favour of the original motion, twelve or fifteen being the very extreme. The Chairman then declared the meeting adjourned to that day twelve months.

The friends of the establishment, however, managed to discover that the proceedings at this vestry meeting were null, in respect no notice of it had been stuck up on the church door! A second meeting was held; but the same spirit was still predominant, and a similar amendment was carried by a large majority. Still the scruples of the churchmen were not exhausted. It was found out that the name of the individual who moved the obnoxious amendment was not inserted in the rate-book! A third meeting was therefore held, with precisely the same result. Mr. Samuel Fox, grocer, and one of the Society of Friends, in a speech of some length, moved as an amendment, "That the vestry do adjourn to the 22d of August, 1834, (the day to which both former vestries were adjourned,) in the hopes that the legislature would in the meantime take measures to abolish the impost." The amendment having been seconded, the Reverend Rector tried to intimidate the voters, by threatening them with the once formidable wrath of the Spiritual Court. This turned out a mere brutum fulmen however. The adjournment was again carried by a vast majority; and a poll having been demanded, at the close, there were, for the rate, 50; for adjournment 123; majority against the rate, 73!

These examples have been followed in every part of England; and opposition to Church-rate is spreading with a rapidity which the writers for the public press find it difficult to characterize. By one editor it is said to travel faster than the cholera; another designates it the Church-rate influenza; while all seem to agree that it will soon become general, and acquiesce in Lord Wharncliffe's prophecy, that "Church-rates cannot be much longer collected in England." We cannot pretend to enumerate one-half of the places in which this vexatious burden has been flung from the shoulders of the people, but we may mention Canterbury, Durham, Manchester, Wakefield, Middleton, Chorley, Gateside, Mor ley, Chard, and a great variety of parishes in and about the metropolis. In fact the determined nature of the opposition to Church-rates is now so well known, that, in many places, the churchwardens have been instructed not to propose a rate at all. Thus, at the Vestry meeting lately held at Leeds, although it had been advertised that a rate was to be imposed, the church-wardens wisely refrained from proposing one. Even this

did not satisfy the meeting. They insisted on examining into the different items of expenditure proposed to be allowed by the church-wardens; and after a most merciless scrutiny, reduced the amount from L.289 to L.146, 14s., or about one-half. The rate-payers terminated their proceedings by unanimously adopting the following resolution :-" That it is unjust in principle, and injurious in practice, to tax individuals for the support and extension of any particular denomination of Christians, whose tenets and form of church government they do not approve; and therefore this meeting trusts that Parliament will speedily pass a law, under which each denomination will be left to uphold and maintain their own places and forms of worship." Well might The Leeds Times assert, as it did in adverting to these proceedings, that they "afford too decisive indication of the state of public mind to be mistaken. It is evident that some change must be effected in the mode by which the church is supported. The time is at hand when the members of the Establishment must sustain both their own ministry and their own institutions!"

The powerful character of the opposition wo have been describing, may also be estimated by the unworthy practices which its enemies are obliged to resort to, in order to evade it. At Stoke-upon-Trent the vestry meetings have, for the last twenty years, been held at twelve o'clock, though the nominal hour of business is eleven. On the 3d of October last, a meeting was held for the purpose of laying on a church-rate. The friends of the tax, instead of waiting till the usual hour, attended precisely at eleven o'clock, and instantly proceeded to business. A chairman was installed, the different demands were moved in one resolution, promptly seconded, and immediately voted. So great was the haste, that the whole affair, though it included the voting a rate calculated to produce L.3000, was transacted in from ten to fifteen minutes! The opponents of the rate, who had foolishly trusted to the honesty of their antagonists, now began to pour in. But it was too late: the trick had been completed, and the outwitted parishioners were left to console themselves with passing the following protest :

We, the undersigned, present at the parish office, on Thursday the 3d instant, previous to twelve o'clock, the usual hour at which parish meetings have heretofore been held, and finding the business done, and the meeting dissolved, do protest against the manner in which the whole has been transacted: a manner, we regret to say, that we deem not more uncourteous than improper, and therefore deserving the consideration of the parishioners.

When a cause can only be supported by manœuvres of this description, it is lost, even in the estimation of those who resort to them. Such measures can only accelerate the downfal of the Church establishment. They display its weakness as well as its tyranny.

We are glad to observe that Voluntary Church Associations are rapidly spreading in England. What can be more cheering than the following account of their labours in the principality of Wales, which we extract from a recent English print ?—

dulently obtained. Can it be wondered at, that the inhabitants of Edinburgh should abhor a tax of such a nature and authority; or that abhor

III. In Scotland, with the exception of the capital, the pressure of the Establishment on the purses of the laity has been comparatively light. The rude rapacity of the Scottish nobles, at the Reformation, rent from the Church the fairest portion of her inheritance; and the mad determination of Charles I. to reconstruct the then hated fabric of Episcopacy, made him consent to measures which ensured a wholesome poverty to the clergy in time to come. Still, the evil does exist in no inconsiderable degree, and, as is usual in such cases, presses hardest on those individuals who are least able to endure it. It is more from love of principle than pence, however, that the opposition to the Establishment has taken its rise in Scotland. The Voluntary Church Associations, which are now springing up in every town-we might almost say in every hamlet-are not influenced in their doings by any hope of plunder. Many of the members contribute nothing directly to the support of the establishment, and would not be a penny richer, though its domination were ended tomorrow. It is the noble principle of equality in matters of conscience which they contend for. It is the unscriptural and irreligious nature of the structure, which has raised against it their destroying hands. Now, here precisely lies the peculiar danger of the Scottish establishment, as compared with the others. Were it only for a share of its wealth that the combatants contended, the surrender of a portion might purchase delay, and bribe the invaders, at least for a season, from the gates of the citadel. The nuisance might be abated, and still exist. But the Kirk has nothing to give; and, if it had, its opponents could not possibly receive it. The Establishment is hunted, not for its wealth, but for its life.

The numbers of Voluntary Churchmen have been greatly augmented by the disgraceful proceedings which have lately taken place in Edinburgh. The annuity tax, by which the established clergy of that city are chiefly supported, unites in itself all that is odious, unjust, impolitic, and irreligious. And it is notoriously known, that until 1809 this abominable tax was illegally exacted; and that the Act of Parliament which then legalized it was surreptitiously and frau

Friends in refusing payment? They did refuse; and, so universal was the feeling on the subject, that no one could be found to purchase the goods distrained for payment. Determined not to be baffled in their object, the clergy now tried a bolder, and, as they imagined, a more certain game. The pain of imprisonment, it was thought, would soften the obduracy of resistance, and the squalor carceris would thus become a sweet smelling savour in the nostrils of the clergy. Their right to imprison was disputed but this was decided in favour of their reverences by Mr. Justice Boyle, and his brethren of the second division; and as the opinions of their Lordships on matters of law are generally held good once out of twice in the Supreme Tribunal, we presume we must not quarrel with the decision. But admitting that the Clergy of Edinburgh had the law on their side, did they act as Christian Ministers when they imprisoned the bodies of men for a conscientious refusal, on their part, to pay for the service of an altar at which they did not worship? Beaton had the law with him when he sent the pure soul of Patrick Hamilton to Heaven from amid the flames kindled by his order in the streets of St. Andrews! Sharp had the law with him when he hounded out Dundee, to shoot and hang the noble-minded men who worshipped God on heath and glen, with a sword in one hand and a Bible in the other! Are they execrated the less on that account?

But what has been the result of the coercive system? Have the citizens been subdued? Have the clergy triumphed? Far from it. The opposition to the annuity tax has been increased tenfold; for not only have its enemies been augmented in numbers but in determination. A majority of the new Town Council of Edinburgh have been pledged by their constituents against its continuance. It has been openly reprobated by members of the Government, and is in short looked upon even by its friends, as in articulo mortis. Pereat in sempiternam.

We have now taken a rapid survey of the several districts in which the battle against clerical intolerance is being fought. The odds are evidently in our favour. In the words of an old Scottish preacher, "The wark gaes bonnily on !" In every quarter men are shaking off that superstitious reverence for the Establishment, under the debasing influence of which they feared to lift their eyes to its gross deformities. They are now applying to its deficiences the same microscopic gaze which they had previously confined to those of the twin establishment-the State. They have discovered, that though it may be necessary for our political welfare that we should all live under one king, it by no means follows that we should have one chief priest. Convinced that there is no parliamentary path to Heaven, they demur to the toll existing longer than the road. Admitting that the labourer is worthy