The Churchwardens of this District have been defeated this day at the Vestry, in attempting to impose upon you a Rate of FIVEPENCE IN THE POUND. The Churchwardens have demanded a poll, to obtain the Votes of the District generally upon the matter, to take place in the Vestry of St. Edmund’s Church, on Tuesday next, at Ten o’clock in the morning.
Will you suffer in silence another of these fearful infractions on common sense and common justice to be thrust down your throats? Defeat this mean, shabby means of the Churchwardens to obtain money for them and their Church-going brethren to worship God in what they are pleased to call, most strangely, “the beauty of holiness,” at your expense.
Churchmen,
If you cannot poll against this Rate, stay at home, and show by your silence, that your good sense and common duty of man toward man are sadly wounded by this reflection upon either your want of means or want of principle to worship your God with clean hands and a clean heart, without forcing your unwilling and conscientious neighbours to pay towards what, if you love your God “in spirit and in truth, you would shrink from with fear and trembling.”
A CONSCIENTIOUS DISSENTER.
March 19th, 1852.
GO TO THE POLL AT THE TIME APPOINTED.
CHURCH RATE MEETING.
A Poll Demanded.