My household goods have been pounced upon a third time,
to furnish the Churchmen of the ward, in which I have the
misfortune to dwell, with means to worship their God more
cheaply; with wine to drink in remembrance of their Saviour
at the communion table, at less expense to their niggardly
pockets; to pay for the washing and mangling of their parson's
surplice, and for removing the dust and dirt which will
accumulate in "temples made with unclean hands."
Now, is it not a burning shame that churchmen still resort to
this disreputable means of "raising the dust" to save their own
miserable pelf? Why will they not render unto God the things
that are God's without sending the Constable to lay his hands
upon Dissenters' goods? Cannot they partake of the Sacrament
at their own cost, without bringing down upon the solemn
ceremony the suspicion and reality of unspeakable shabbiness?
Cannot they remove their own dust and dirt without making
use of the cleaner hands of their dissenting neighbours? Why
not quite as reasonably call upon the Dissenter to pay their
Bakers' and Butchers' Bills? Why not tax him with the washing
and mangling of the Vicar's _Shirts_ as well as the Vicar's
Surplices.
I wrote some time ago to the high-spirited D.C.L. of Dudley,
offering to pay the amount of my present and all future
church rates, towards the support of what are called _his_
Schools; which I could conscientiously do; because Education
benefits and blesses Society at large; it does not, like
Church-of-Englandism, take my goods and in return tell me that
I shall "without doubt perish everlastingly": I have received
no answer:--of course, a person doomed like me was not entitled
in this upper world to any politeness from one who without
doubt will lie in Abraham's bosom everlastingly.
What a miserable mockery it is to plead a Law in defiance of
such wretched practices! What is called the Law in Dudley is no
law at all in Ireland:--In the large towns of Birmingham and
Wolverhampton;--in Westbromwich and in every other place, in
which intellect, intelligence and education have the upper hand
of vulgar, ignorant and unscrupulous wealth, the inhabitants
have swept the accursed tax indignantly away.
Besides, is it quite certain, that my goods are gone to the
support of the _Right_ Church, to the "_Right of Private
Judgment_" Church, or to that more ancient church which
forbids the Right? It is notorious that a sort of leaning
lovingly towards the elder Sister with the Scarlet Robe
extensively prevails in the Church of England, and that if the
temporalities of the Church did not stand corruption-like in
the way, great numbers of your Reverend Doctors and divines
would fall, "nothing loth," into the arms of the "nameless one"
of Rome.--Verily, the Shepherds are infected, if the flocks be
free.
Let us hope, that in no long time the Churchman will be
_shamed_ into dropping this wretched tax into oblivion for
ever: for if it continue many years longer to annoy and
distress Dissenters without the slightest semblance of common
sense or common justice; they will, I'm afraid, be led on to
regard the Churchman with suspicion and aversion, and his
church, as our Saviour regarded the temple at Jerusalem, when
he chased from its precincts the Money-mongers who defiled it.
I am, fellow townsmen,
One doomed by the Church of England "without
doubt to perish everlastingly" and through
Church-rates, to pay the expenses of his
own condemnation.
JOSEPH PITCHFORK.
_Dudley, June, 1848._
The subjoined placard will shew that everyone in Dudley was not a
believer in Mr. Samuel Cook's politics and singular religious tenets:--