The Press. — London, England, 1857-05-30 00:00:00

522 of the public money, and that there is strong reason to believe that practically the Whig system of " Law and Justice " has had a fatal tendency to tho sowing of criminality broad cast throughout the land. That this "frightful expenditure" is of a most extraordinary character can be perceived by other means than an appeal to figures. Have any of our readers observed the shrug and tone of disparagement with which the Liberals in society receive the name of the late Mr. HuNtE ? The mention of that finan cial reformer is more unpalatable to them than Mr. PITT or Lord CASTLEREAGH. His rvutation seems to trouble them with spectral • Inionitions. His name is never mentioned in the Liberal circles but there is sure to be some critical disparagement of that eminent man, recalling to the memory the sarcasm that once fell from the lips of GRATTAN. When Lord JEFFREY penned his smooth and superficial piece of detraction from the fame of Swirr, the Whiglings enjoyed the abuse of the renowned Tory writer; but GRATTAN, who had noble sympathy with traduced genius, silenced them one morning at Brookes's : " I do not like this Scotchman scraping toge " ther his handful of pebbles and flinging " them against the bones of a huge giant. " SwiFr was a great man, and Mr. JEFFREY is " a small one ; but his article proves one " thing satisfactorily, that if Mr. JEFFREY be " alive, Swirr is dead, and Mr. Jeffrey knows it.' And so say we. The increase of the Civil ex penditure since 1846. when it reached 3,482,4261., up to 1856, when it stands at 6,724,2501., shows that while the Whigs arc alive and jobbing " Liberally " in office, Mr. Hum E is dead, and the IVhigs know it. But we shall not discuss this question of spendthrift expenditure by reference to Mr. HUME, whose memory is obnoxious to the Liberals, and to whose political views we were often adverse. We shall appeal to the good sense and common feelings of Englishmen of all orders on the subject, and we trust that our exposures of the extravagant jobbery asso ciated with Whig administration, will open the eyes of the people at large to the way in which they have been so outrageously overtaxed, and so scandalously imposed upon, by the pro fessing friends who would in the name of " patriotism " plunge their hands deep into the pockets of the public. THE CHURCH AND THE CONSERVATIVES. THE Church of England has for many genera tions been identified with the Tory party. From the days of Queen ANNE to the days of Queen VICTORIA she has been the steady sup porter of monarchical principles, and the best friend of the English Constitution. Enthu siasts have appeared belonging to either extremes who have brought scandal on their own order. But on the whole it cannot be denied that the Church has ever taken broad views of her political obligations, and acted he p,u•t of a truly National Institution. In return for this congenial support the Conser vative feeling of the country has unswervingly protected her interests and endeavoured to extend her influence. Hand in hand the great alliance of Church and State has fought the battles of the Constitution, and hand in hand they have reared that marvellous fabric which excites at once the hate and the admiration of continental races and religions. To this ancient friendship something is surely due. If circumstances have unhappily occurred to impair its former closeness, the utmost forbearance and generosity is demanded from both parties to save the breach from being widened, and, if possible, to accomplish its repair. We cannot too strongly impress upon all classes of our readers that the difference be betwetn High Church and Low Church doctrines is practically subordinate to that between the maintenance and abolition of an Established ,Church. Not because THE PRESS: the spiritual question is intrinsically of minor importance, but because a separa tion of Church and State, while destroying the influence of the Church, would leave her divisions where it found them. Parties must exist within her pale whether she is established or not. With this difference, that at present their violence is controlled by other considerations, while then they would break forth with unbridled fury, and end, perhaps, in the total dissolution of her temporal power. Let us admit, for the sake of argument, that her present position is a necessary evil ; and very generally a necessary evil turns out to be a practical good. The way to avoid a separation is to avoid extremes. LAUD gave power to the Puritans, and SIMEON made way for the Puseyites. The former overthrew the Church ; the latter advocate theories which tend to the same result. Many of them scarcely affect to hide their scorn for an Establishment. Though in justice to the gentleman from whom their appellation is derived, we must express our belief that he does not share in these senti ments. Some have adopted a still more offensive line of policy ; and in order to promote ecclesiastical intolerance have affected political liberalism. This stroke of priestcraft has been successfully adopted elsewhere ; but to those u ho see through the mask it is as con temptible as immoral. It is the device of little minds and loose principles. Between ultra-sacerdotal theories and genuine demo cratic theories there can be no real sympathy. Those who pretend to feel it must be traitors to the one cause or the other. We care very little which. But the course of events in continental countries, no less than the nature of the case itself, may guide us to a reasonable conjecture. On the other hand, nothing can be more delusory than the expectation of the extreme Evangelical party, that the recent appoint. ments of Lord PALMERSTON will strengthen their own principles. They are as certain to create a reaction as the tide is certain to ebb. And if the system is persevered in, it must inevitably produce the very same results which their -most uncompromising opponents would rejoice to see accomplished. By means of the present connection between Church and State all religious parties are afforded a wide field for the development of their special views. But this concord is owing to the limits imposed by the civil power upon all sectional encroachments. Should the State prove untrue to her trust, and, in place of holding the balance fairly, throw all her weight into one of the scales, temporary triumph would be purchased by the ultimate demolition of the whole fabric of the Church, and the reduction of the Evan gelical party to the position of a petty sect. Their conduct in the present crisis is just as shortsighted and irrational as that of a man who to widen a favourite apartment should undermine the foundations of his house. These are some of the reasons which render so invaluable that ma media school of divines to which Mr. DISRAELI al:uded in his late ad dress to his constituents. They it is who represent the essential characteristics of the English Church—the union of dogmatic teaching with the •free exercise of private judgment, and who, in Mr. DISRAELI'S own words, uphold " a full and complete ecclesi " astical establishment on the basis of a true " Protestant feeling, and wish to see our " ecclesiastical polity maintained in its spirit " and its truth." This class of men, by their high character, their learning, and their scholarship, have earned for the clergy of the Established Church the rank they now occupy in the estimation of the country; and by the weight attached to their opinions, the natural reward of sense and moderation, have con tributed much to maintain the relations of Church and State upon a wholesome footing, and to make the British Hierarchy respected through the whole of Christendom. It is to this class that we now confidently appeal for the support of Conservative prin ciples. That it supports them theoretically is an admitted fact ; but that is not sufficient It is now high time that the Conservative feel ing of the country should draw to a head, and that lovers of the Church of England SATURDAY, should begin to choose their political side. Minor differences must and will exist. But the Tory party is that on which the Church must rely in the hour of need. And whatever be the conduct of the clergy, that great party, true to its traditions, will faithfully respond to her voice. But both will be in a much better position to meet the assaults of their adver saries, if the old cordial union, which once pre vailed between them, uould be restored in its integrity. That it will be so, sooner or later, can be doubted by no one who reflects on the identity of their interests, and the common armoury from which each must draw weapons of de fence. " Church and Queen" will at no dis tant day become the rallying cry of a great party. In the meantime, we must deplore that sAcerdotal ambition on the one hand, and evangelical prejudice on the other, have done so much to loosen the bonds of that alliance which it was the pride of our forefathers to maintain. We trust that the two parties wa have been addressing will now do their utmost to repair this mischief. Their principles are similar, and their sympathies the same. They have historic traditions and ineffaceable associations in common. Both aim at a common result, and are both threatened with common dangers. Disap pointed men have sought to sow dissensions between them ; but if the Church act with that moderation and common sense which has hitherto distinguished her— looking to general principles rather than particular occurrences— judging by a long train of antecedents rather than by transient phenomena, and preferring the alliance of old and tried friends to the treacherous professions of jesuitical Liberals, or the interested efforts of Calvinist cabals— all such attempts must only recoil upon their authors, and England again witness a nume rous and united party devoted to the main tenance of the Constitution in Church and. State. JUDICIAL REFORM IN INDIA. THERE are some statesmen who have an unhappy tendency to raise endless complica tions out of the simplest affair. If anything goes wrong at an election in a particular borough, nothing will satisfy them but con vulsing the country from end to end with a new Reform Bill. If a difficulty occurs in some locality on the subject of rates, the whole system of rates must be revolutionised to meet this exceptional case. If there be a trifling defect to be remedied in the adminis tration of the revenues of the Church, they must forthwith introduce a measure that brings into jeopardy the very existence of a Church Establishment. The idea conveyed in the sentence that "sufficient for the day is " the evil thereof," is one which they cannot realise. They must be perpetually fishing in troubled waters; and the result of all is th it they can never manage to abate a nuisance without creating a dozen new ones, each more intolerable a great deal than the one they have attempted to put down. Now, it is precisely after this fashion that the Government 15 acting in its mode of dealing with Judicial Reform in India. The whole question in itself is as simple and easy of solution as any ques tion can be. There are, as all the habitual readers of this journal must know, two kinds of judicial courts in India. The first the Queen's courts, which are formed on the model of the courts at Westminster, the Bench being filled by judges selected by the Crown from among the barristers practising at the English and Irish Bar. The second the Company's courts, of which the Bench is filled by members of the Civil Service of the Company unacquainted with the law, and whose whole lives up to the date of their being transferred to the Bench have often been spent in the duties of collector or post master, or other offices of a similar kind. In the Queen's courts the English law is ft,l ministered ; in the Company's the law luid down in the regulations made by the Govern ment from titno to time. In the Queen's courts, the, form of I procedure t is similar