CHURCH RATES—The Brighton Guardian publishes the following letter from Colonel Wyndham, late M.P. for West Sussex. It is addressed to Mr. Coningham, who took a prominent part in the recent church rate meetings reported in the Daily News:
"Rogate Lodge, Petersfield, Sept. 23, 1849.—Sir,—I have this day perused with most sincere and heartfelt satisfaction your very able speech at a vestry meeting at Brighton on Thursday last, for the purpose of making a church rate. Most entirely do I concur in every word you said on that subject; and if the people of England would rise as a man and protest against or resist that disgraceful imposition of church rates (they are doomed to fall shortly), then, their fall would inevitably be more speedy. We boast in this country of civil and religious freedom, of the impossibility even of the legislature imposing a tax or levying money without the sanction of parliament. We boast of freedom of conscience. But the church is an exception. Our consciences as well as our pockets are coerced by means of church-rates. Church-rates are in the 19th century the unjust instrument of tyranny in the hands of the priesthood; and as such, most devoutly do I hope and trust they will be resisted by the enlightened and the free. Sir, I feel most keenly on the subject, not as regards myself personally, but for the disgrace inflicted on thousands of our fellow Christians, whether churchmen or dissenters, who by law are required to bow to the mandates of a minority. Sir, of the vicar of Brigton I know little except by report; but the general system of begging to which you alluded, and which is now so generally and in my opinion, so scandalously, resorted to by the clergy for various and almost innumerable objects, is disgusting in the extreme. Scarce a Sunday or a religious day is observed by the church but the begging plate is handed round! Sir, I may here remark that this practice is very greatly increased since what was termed "the movement in the church" took place; in plain words, since the introduction of Puseyism and all its accompaniments. That was a flimsy fabric, a thin gauze veil, through which we perceived that the ultimate object of that movement, as it was termed, was, that the clergymen were to exercise an authority over the laity and were to be able to say to us, laity, "We minister to your spiritual wants and comforts, we also minister your temporalities;" in short, we were (and this in the 19th century) to be obedient to the priest in all matters, as well touching our worldly goods as our religious duties. That is the view I among many took of Puseyism when it was first introduced to the public, and that is the object which subsequent events have proved it to be; and that over-gorged establishment, the Church of England, with its enormous riches and possessions, has still its appetite unappeased. The wolf is still ravening; and so it will continue until such a reform be forced upon it as will make it see its evil ways, repent, and be content. Sir, I am unacquainted with you, and therefore have to ask your pardon for this intrusion; but it is a time when people are required to speak out. You are at perfect liberty to make what use you please of this letter. If you like to publish it, pray do. I have written it to you with a view to publicity. I doubt not but that untiring advocate of liberty of conscience and civil and religious freedom, the Brighton Guardian newspaper, will give it a place in its columns. In giving you my card of address, I beg to subscribe myself, &c., C. WYNDHAM.