APPENDIX. PART FIRST. DOCUMENTS ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE OCCASION OF THE PRECEDING TREATISE. DOCUMENT I. PROTEST PUBLISHED IN THE SCOTSMAN NEWSPAPER, JAN. 2, 1836. THE subscriber, minister of the United Associate Congregation, Broughton Place, having paid the sum of £3:0:6, with which he was charged by the Chamberlain of the city, under the name of Annuity, for payment of the stipends of the Established Clergy,—to prevent misconception and to exonerate himself, thinks it necessary to make the following statement :— Holding that, on the principles of general equity, as well as of Christian law, it is the duty of subjects to pay without grudging the taxes imposed by their governors for general purposes, even although the public revenues may not, in every case, be wisely and righteously administered-he equally holds, that, on the principle, "We ought to obey God rather than man,"-when a tax is imposed for a specific purpose, which in the estimation of him from whom it is demanded, is sinful, it becomes his duty, not indeed to resist the Government, but to take such measures as shall make it evident to all, that if his property be employed in promoting such a purpose, it is so, only in consequence of " the spoiling of his goods." Without reference to the subscriber's objections to that particular Ecclesiastical Establishment which prevails in this country, it is his conscientious belief, that "a compulsory support of religious institutions is inconsistent with the rights of men, the nature of religion, the spirit of the Gospel, and the express law of Jesus Christ." For him voluntarily to do any thing which would virtually deny or compromise this principle, would be a violation of his convictions of duty; and could this have been avoided in no other way, he would have considered it imperative on him to submit to the distraint of his property, or the imprisonment of his person,-should those who unfortunately are interested in the execution of what he accounts an unjust law, have thought fit, in his case as in others, to carry matters to such extremes. Convinced, however, that all the desirable ends of such a passive resistance, may be answered by a public protest, he takes this method of declaring, that he has not voluntarily paid the tax, which he considers as a most unwise and oppressive means of gaining an unauthorized and unrighteous end; and that he regards the exaction of it from himself, as a wresting from him his property, to serve an unjust purpose, a punishment inflicted for the factitious crime of dissenta fine extorted for holding certain religious principles, and, to make the injustice and insult more intolerable, that fine appropriated to the support of a system-that of the compulsory maintenance of religious institutions-which he conscientiously condemns,-in one word, "PER I am the only minister of the United Secession Church in this city, liable to be assessed for the annuity tax. I have not paid it, and while I retain my present convictions, I never will pay it. My non-payment of this tax, and my determination not to pay it, do not originate in any doubt as to the obligation of paying the taxes imposed by the Government of the country where we reside; or as to the immorality of attempting to evade such payment. I consider it my duty, and I have always readily performed it, to pay whatever taxes the legislature impose for the general purposes of Government. I should think it my duty to do so, even though I thought a particular tax unwise and unequal, and though I were much dissatisfied with many of the measures, in the prosecution of which the revenue of the country was expended. In this case, I might think it right to employ such means as the constitution afforded me for getting rid of the unwise and unjust tax, and putting an end to the improper expenditure; but while the tax continued to be legally exigible, I would pay it "not only for wrath, but for conscience sake,”-not only because I wish to avoid punishment from men, but because I am afraid of contracting guilt before God. Nor do my non-payment of the annuity tax, and my determination not to pay it, arise from any hostility to the Established Church of this country, as a religious body. Approving, with comparatively slight exceptions, of her avowed creed, worship, and government, so far as she conforms to these, I cordially wish her success, in her strictly religious objects; and were my aid necessary, I should willingly give her more, than she employs the hard hand of the law to wrest from me, to assist her in purely voluntary exertions to promote religion either at home or abroad. Still less, if possible, do my non-payment of the annuity tax, and my determination not to pay it, spring from any personal unkindly feeling towards the ministers of the Establishment of this city. From my heart I pity them, in having those incomes, so well earned by some of them, raised in a way which must be as painful to their feelings as honourable men, as it is calculated to frustrate the great object of their spiritual labours; and most sincerely do I wish that, in this respect, they were as happily situated as myself,-that their livings were derived from the influence of Christian truth on the minds and hearts of their hearers,-a mode of support, the quality of which, like that of mercy," is not strained, but droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven,-being twice blessed, blessing both him who gives and him who takes." I have had but little opportunity of forming an estimate of the value of the services of these ministers; but of those of them with whom I am best acquainted, I so highly rate both the talents and the worth, that were there any hazard of these being lost to the public, I should account it an honour to take part in endeavouring, by voluntary exertion, to avert the evil. The reason, the sole reason, why I have not paid, and, with my present convictions, never will, never can, pay it, is simply that I cannot do so without offering violence to a conscientious conviction, not rashly nor hastily arrived at. I might hesitate about paying this tax, on a ground, on which many, who do not hold my views with regard to compulsory churches, do hesitate,-the ground of its very questionable legality,-but I readily acknowledge, that were that my only |