various denominations, was held in the year 1841, for the purpose of
discussing the _corn laws_, with a view to their abolition. The
professed object was the relief of the poor by procuring cheap
bread; the real object was the depression of the landed aristocracy,
and, through them, of the Clergy of the National Church, whose
tithes are regulated by the average value of corn. Had those
gentlemen been sincere in their lamentations for the manufacturing
poor, they would have long ago agitated the country for the
abolition of the Factory System, and the rescue of its miserable
victims from oppression and famine. That system must be strengthened
by the abolition of the corn laws, which would only aggrandize the
_great manufacturers_, and plunge the working people into deeper
misery, by throwing the agricultural poor out of employment, and
driving them to the towns and cities for occupation, thus glutting
the market with superfluous labour. Looking at some of those
individuals who took a leading part in the Synod, men of reputed
truth and probity in their customary habits, their disingenuousness
on this occasion supplies a striking proof of the power of faction
to impair the moral sense, especially when originating in hatred of
the Church. The great body of this Synod were ministers of
Calvinistic Churches. The "dissenting interest" has degraded itself
by assuming the character of a political faction.