(_From the Times._)
A second edition of a "Remonstrance addressed to the Lord Bishop of
London, on the Sanction given, in his late Charge to the Clergy of that
Diocese, to the Calumnies against the Dissenters contained in certain
Letters signed L. S. E.," has recently appeared, with the respectable
name of Mr. Charles Lushington. The letters referred to, which are
addressed to a Dissenting minister of the Congregational denomination,
and written, it appears, by a clergyman of the church of England, might
well be mistaken for a subtle and refined ruse of a bitter enemy of that
church. At a moment when the feelings of the Dissenters are wrought up
to intense excitement by a sense of wrong from grievances unredressed,
an individual of that class who teach from the pulpit that a man who
lacketh charity lacketh every thing, has had the daring effrontery to
vomit forth a mass of rancorous scurrility against the whole Dissenting
body, especially its teachers, applying to them epithets proscribed in
almost every species of polemical warfare, except that carried on by
Carlile and his party, detailing disgusting anecdotes thinly veiled in
the decency of a Latin translation, excluding them from the pale of
Christianity, and proclaiming that "the curse of God rests heavily upon
them!" It is to be regretted that there are a few individuals of the
letter-writer's class, men who have exchanged the sword for the gown, or
who desire to transform the pen into the sword; but these intolerant
zealots, so long as their acts are not countenanced by their superiors,
do but little mischief. The letters in question, however, have been
specifically recommended in a note appended to the late charge of the
Bishop of London, as "containing a great deal of useful information and
sound reasoning, set forth with a little too much warmth of invective
against the Dissenters." Mr. Lushington, who avows himself a member of
the church of England, has had the candour and manliness to step forward
and publicly vindicate the Dissenters from the effects of such a
recommendation of such a work, suggesting, at the same time, "some
political and Christian considerations, which should operate to secure
for those calumniated persons a little more conciliatoriness from their
opponents, and a far greater measure of justice from their judges." He
shows what the Dissenters have done, and are doing, to supply the
deficiencies of the established church; he disproves the accusation
that the Dissenters, as a body, seek to destroy that church, which
would be repugnant to the system to which they owe their distinction
as a religious body; and he suggests that, if the religious wants of
the community are to be adequately supplied, it must be by one of three
plans--either by the establishment and other sects, as at present; or by
the establishment alone, all other sects being merged, comprehended, or
put down; or by the episcopal church and other denominations, without an
establishment. He assumes that the second is impracticable, inasmuch as
the establishment could not be extended, on the basis of taxation, so as
to meet the wants of the population, and the sects could not be merged
or put down. The choice is, therefore, between the first, which
renders the Dissenters necessary as auxiliaries, and therefore to be
conciliated; and the third, which would reduce the church of England
to the dimensions of an episcopal, but non-established, church. Such
frenzied partisans as "L. S. E." would be more likely to bring about
the third alternative than the second.
EXTRACT FROM A CORRESPONDENT'S LETTER, ADDRESSED TO THE RIGHT REV. THE
LORD BISHOP OF LONDON.
My Lord,
In the notes appended to your Lordship's Charge, delivered at the
last visitation, reference is made to a work, entitled, "Letters to a
Dissenting Minister, &c., by L. S. E." It is most prudently admitted,
that the work contains "too much sharpness of invective against the
dissenters;" your Lordship has, however, added, "I recommend the
publication as containing a great deal of useful information and
sound reasoning."
It was prudent in L. S. E. not to attach his name to a work that would
give him a notoriety for impudence and slander which no future penitence
could by any possibility remove. How far it was wise to sanction with
the authority of your Lordship's name, the work of an author who had not
the rashness to reveal his own, remains for the effects it will produce
upon society to determine.
L. S. E. has stated in page 360, that "the late Mr. Abraham Booth,[B] an
eminent dissenting teacher in London, would never pray for the King
(George the Third) at all." Allow me, therefore, to inform your Lordship
and the nameless individual who enjoys your patronage, that the
assertion is entirely false. During the thirty-seven years in which he
administered the ordinances and truth of Jesus Christ in Prescot-street,
he not only never refused, but made it his uniform practice, to pray for
"our rightful Sovereign the King, his Royal Consort the Queen, and every
branch of the Royal Family;" of this many living witnesses may be
brought, who still remain the fruits of his exertions. Much sympathy is
due to your Lordship on account of the present intensity of professional
excitement; but the injunction laid by inspiration upon a Bishop must
not be forgotten, "Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be thou
partaker in other men's sins: keep thyself pure."
With sincere respect, I am, my Lord, your Lordship's humble servant,
_Hackney, Dec. 4, 1834._ ISAAC BOOTH.
[B] My revered parent entered into his rest in 1806.