The Seventh Report of the Committee on Public Petitions is
al- most entirely filled with the petitions presented on the ad instant for ind against Church-rates. The total number of petitions presented this session, to the 6th of March inclusive, for the abolition of Church- rates, was 774; to which 290,099 signatures were attached. The petitions against the abolition to the same date were 679, with 53,928 signatures. It appears, therefore, that the average number of signs. tures to these petitions for the abolition of Church-rates is 373, whilst the average number of signatures to thole in favour of Church.rates is only 77. Among the latter petitions, we find some purporting to come from householders of different parishes, which have only two, three, or Jive signatures ; and one petition presented by Sir Robert Peel, pur- porting to express the sentiments of the householders of the manufac- turing town of Bromsgrove, in Worcestershire, has only four names attached. [As many petitions for the continuance of Church-rates were presented between the 6th and 23d of March, when Parliament adjourned, it is possible that the number exceeded those against the impost; but when it is seen that a petition with four signatures counts for one, while another with 20,000 counts for one also, and no more, It is absurd to estimate the inclination of pullic opinion by counting the number of petitions; the signatures afford the only true data, and these are in a greater proportion than five to one in favour of abolition.]
The Central Committee of Protestant Dissenters have issued an address to the Dissenting body of England and Wales, urging them to persevere in their demands for the abolition of Church-rates, and com- menting sharply on the premature exhibition of Episcopal hostility to the Government measure. The number of persons who visited the British Museum on Easter Monday, amounted to 23,983.
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