The Press. — London, England, 1854-01-14 00:00:00

26 Puseyite prudes detected at their Sadleirism must have resembled a party of monks of La Trappe convicted of eating beefsteaks in the dark. Nor will any amount of their "Oxford logic" dissever them from Sadleirism. It was the very pivot of their policy last spring. In Sadleirism the Duke of NEWCASTLE sunk all his political stock. By Sadleirism the hand ful of Peelites obtained parliamentary num bers, before whom, in an evil hour fur their fame, degenerate Whig families struck their colours. By Sadleirism the Coalition was floated—the sword of state placed in the hands of an imbecile Premier—the policy of the Czar made predominant--and the rules of political party set at nought. The arts by which the mediators who have produced such important results attempt to enter Parliament cannot be too widely known. Failing to obtain the vote of a Dowtino, Sadleirism menaced him with a gaol ; plotted to seize a bond given as a security ; baffled in doing so, set on a Roman Catholic priest to ex tract the bond from the reluctant fingers of its faltering holder ; then got a spurious certificate from a dying attorney ; marked a writ of imme diate execution for double the amount due ; and, brandishing the surreptitiously -gained bond over the head of the victimised and betrayed Dowtnto, hauled him from the hustings into a gaol, to prevent him from recording his suffrage 'against Sadleirism at the hall! By this act Sadleirism would suspend the Habeas Corpus, and afterwards turn the Court of Ex chequer into a Star Chamber, to suppress the public report of its infamous enormities ! We will not in this place allude to the inci dents of the trial further than to say that the jury found their verdict without hesitation, against the testimony of the disgraced ex- Lord of the Treasury. He swore that he was not cognisant of a conspiracy ! But why did he not know of it? The intriguing priest gave the bond into SADLEIR'S own hand, by his own admission. SADLEIR gave that document, thus disgracefully obtained, into the custody of his partner MURROGH. SADLEIR then told MUR BOOR to proceed without delay against DOWLING, and procure his arrest on the very eve of the elec tion. The whole of the nefarious case is mani pulated in SADLEIR'S office at Dublin, and in SADLEIR'S bank at Carlow; yet SADLEIR swears that he was ignorant of the conspiracy ! The jury, also upon their oaths, found otherwise! What could merely verbal evidence effect against the strong suggestive facts coincidental with the trial—the attempt of SADLEIR'S coun sel to prevent the proceedings being repo 4 1 —his partner MORMON not daring to ar the witness-box — and the rest of subordinates absent? Negative 'Acne_ .oz, this often outweighs the mo' positive ttl , . mony. In the case of the wills-forgers, an attorney was found guilty of complicity, trans ported, Rua afterwards allowed to return to England. Ho applied to be restored to the roll of attorneys, but the Court refused his application, saying, " Though you may not " have positively known the fact of the forge " ries, we think that there was shameful " ladle* on your part. You ought to have ins " covered it.' And what was said then of that ex-attorney will probably now be said of the Duke of NEWCASTLE'S ex-Lord of the Treasury. Nor must it be forgotten that the case of the last election for Sligo, where Mr. ;Tenn SAD LEIR was also the Coalition candidate, is to oome before Parliament in a few weeks. But this contest was only memorable for the assistance he received from a clerical supporter who can vassed for him armed with a double-barrelled gun ! Finally, let it be known that Sadlei►ism would never have been powerful unless it had been converted into a Peelite enterprise for corrupting Ireland, and concocting a Coalition. " The Carlow conspiracy" is a direct conse quence from the monstrous proceedings of last year. To buy the Irish party cheap as Brigadiers. and sell them dear as Coalitionists, was a lucrative pursuit to those who exaggerated the vices of Irish deniagogue. Yet these were the men who, by the unscrupu lous use of a momentary opportunity, ousted the Government of Lord DEASY, and installed the Coalition in its stead, THE PRESS. EAST GLOUCESTERSHIRE ELECTION. THE anticipations we have entertained from the moment when the vacancy in the repre sentation of this important constituency was announced, and which we have repeatedly enunciated in the PRESS, were realised in the most satisfactory and triumphant manner on Thursday, In defiance of the inconveniences arising from the severe weather and the dis tance necessary to be travelled, 3,364 electors of East Gloucestershire presented themselves atthe various polling-places, and effected one of the most decisive political victories which Con servatism has accomplished in this generation. All acquainted with the sentiments of the constituency felt satisfied that Mr. HOLLAND was causing his opponent trouble, anxiety, and expense, with a faint hope of success, and that his Radical supporters only con ceived its possibility by a resort to tricks familiar by practice at the borough contests iu the county. Thanks to the admirable arrange ments made in the Sheriff's department, not only by the appointment of gentlemen of cha racter at the booths, but also by securing the attendance of intelligent detectives to arrest personation, a most extensive system of fraud was exploded, and the opinions of the real electoral body obtained. The victory, great in itself, is rendered additionally satisfactory when it is remembered that within the limits of this same division are five boroughs now repre sented by eight Ministerialists, and that in three of these the Conservative candidate ob tained a majority ; nor is it unworthy of observa tion that the district of Stroud, which in 1834 gave the Whig interest a majority of 658, places Mr. HOLLAND on this occasion in a mi nority of 10. This populous district, now divided into five polling-places—Avening , Bisley, Minehinhampton, Stonehouse, and Stroud—polled for BEACH, 871; HOLLAND, 661. The anxiety felt by the Ministry and their piebald adherents was intense and avowed. Lord ELCHO, M.P., although elected in 1841 free of expense by these Conservative elec tors, thought it consistent with decency and duty to exert his family influence against Sir M. BEACH; and Lord ST. GERMANS considered it consistent with viceregal dignity to direct his steward to read to the tenants on his estates near Fairford a letter, the contents of which required them to vote for HOLLAND ; and my Lord ELLENBOROIIGH was pleased to prove his consistent attachment to Conserva tism by allowing his friends and tenants to promote the election of the same candidate. At Stowe the influence of Lord LEIGH and Lord SAYE AND SELF was vainly exerted upon their tenants; nor were Lord DE MAtTLEy, Lord DuctE, or Lord EITZHARDINGE more successful; while the most complete and pitiable ex posure of futile attempts at coercion were shown by the polling results at Minchin hampton and Gloucester, in which the pro poser and seconder of Mr. HOLLAND reside, Mr. RICARDO and Captain GUISE being only successful in proving to the public the indis putable fact of their individual unpopularity. Every friend to Conservatism throughout the empire is indebted to the hearty, patriotic electors of Gloucestershire, who have elected their candidate in a manner alike honourable and satisfactory to representative and con stituents. CAPITULAR REFORM. WE observe that meetings of the Corn- missioners for investigating the subject of Capitular Property, &c., have lately been of frequent occurrence. As the time for opening Parliament draws nearer, it is to be presumed that the committee feel more and more anxious to mature and embody the results of their deliberations. What those results are we have of course no means of learning; but, in the meanwhile, wo feel the importance of every thing connected with the Capitular institutions of the Church to be so great that we return to a consideration of the subject with anxiety and interest. We can have no hesitation in SATURDAY, speaking of the proceedings of the original Ecclesiastical Commission, issued under Sir R. PEEL'S Government and auspices, as being over-injudicious, hasty, and mischievous. Fear is always a bad, often a ruinous, cowl. seller ; and the Commissioners acted under a sense of fear. Amongst the first fruits of the Reform Bill was a clamour against the unfairness with which Church property was distributed, and the exorbitant emolu-. ments and pluralities of many of the Church dignitaries. The Ecclesiastical Commission acted wisely and virtuously in reducing epis copal incomes to something like equality, and in abolishing pluralities. For these two steps they deserve the gratitude of every true churchman. But, in abolishing so large a proportion of the prebendal stalls, they in. flieted a heavy blow and seriously impaired the usefulness of the Church. By reducing the number of the prebendaries of a chapter to four, they have rendered four men useless for any other purpose but to maintain the ceremonial worship of their cathedral. At the same time they did not attach any new duties to the offices of prebend. The true line of conduct to pursue was, we should have imagined, unmistakably plain. They should not have destroyed a single prebend—which, in fact, was sacrilegiously pulling down a part of the fabric of the Church—but they should have retained the number of the prebends, whilst they reduced their emoluments. Another provision made by the Commissioners is just now brought into painful notice. We say painful, because we are reminded by it of the death of Dr. MILL, who, as an Oriental scholar, was unrivalled in the Church. He was He brew Professor in the University of Cambridge and Canon of Ely—a canonry in that cathe dral having been attached to the professorship. And, in like manner, a canonry in the same cathedral was attached by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners to the Greek professorship of Cambridge. Now, we have no hesitation in saying that a most mischievous and absurd principle is involved in this. Why should it be presumed that the best Greek scholar is also fit to be a dignitary of the Church? The two greatest Greek scholars that England has p ro duced within the last century — Poaso x and ELMBLEY—were laymen. Supposing PORBON were now a candidate for the Greek professor ship, either he could not be elected, or, if he were, the canonry would be alienated, probably for ever, from the professorship. By all means let the Greek and Hebrew professorships be endowed in a liberal manner, befitting a rich University and a Government that patronises literature ; but let not the meanness of the University or the Government be made up for or remedied by the revenues and at the ex pense of the Church. We observe that there are nine candidates for the vacant Hebrew professorship of Cam bridge ; and these nine gentlemen represent, probably, every variety of ecclesiastical opinion, high, broad, and low. Are the electors, in making their choice of a candidate, to con sider simply his qualities as a Hebrew scholar? or are they also to consider his fit ness as a dignitary of the Church ? If they pay regard only to his Hebrew scholarship , we must protest against the most important interests of the Chin-eh being made subordi nate to a Hebrew professorship. If they pay regard to both qualifications—the fitness of a candidate as a Hebrew scholar, and . as clergyman holding an important post in the Church—then we must protest against an arrangement by means of which it is rendered always possible that the best Hebrew scholar of the university will not be appointed to fill the professor's chair. It seems as if some fatality overhung all proceedings relating to our capitular orders and so it has come to p ass that institutions which are in themselves admirably adapted to support, invigorate, and popularise the Church , have been rendered by mismanagement the sources of her weakness rather than of her power, and the objects of popular suspicion rather than of reverence and affeetion. A