The Press.
London, England, 1857-12-05 00:00:00

THE PRESS, DECEMBER 5, 1857.

deprecates agitation, and trusts for the re-
moval of the nuisance by means less repug-
nant to the usual attitude of the Church.
Fastening with his well-known sagacity upon
the one obnoxious feature of the bill, the
Right Rev. Prelate expresses his conviction
that the insertion of this clause was mainly
owing to the precipitance with which the bill
was finally hurried through the Legislature,
and that no deliberate assault was intended
upon the liberties of the clergy. At the same
time he manfully says that he will issue no
licence in his own diocese for the celebration
of such marriages as those contemplated by
the act. And he trusts that not only the
known sentiments of the clergy, but also the
public disgrace of the proceeding, will have a
tendency to confine such marriages almost
wholly to the Registrar's Court. We trust
sincerely that the Bishop's view of the case
may be correct. It is clear that the brunt of
the fight must he waged, where we have
always recommended that it should, upon
the clause sanctioning the infringement of our•
ancient parochial system. Whether the intro-
duction of this was or was not due to that
precipitance so loudly complained of by Mr.
HENLEY and Mr. GLADSTONE remains to be seen.
his perhapscharitahle to suppose that Govern-
ment was actuated rather by selfishness than
malignity ; by a reckless resolve to give effect
to their vulgar vaunts than to inflict a perma-
nent injury on the Established Church. Such
a supposition is certainly more in accordance
with the smiling indifference of Lord GRANVILLE
and the versatile vacuity of Lord PALAIERsTON
—of whom, the cne would not understand if
he could, and the other could not if he would,
the outrage thus offered to the clergy. But
the mischief is almost equally great, whatever
the motive which prompted it ; and the Church
must not rest till vigorous measures are
adopted for its excision.
Again, we observe that our own suggestion
of a fortnight ago respecting the discon-
tinuance of the Exeter-hall services has re-
ceived the semi-sanction of the leading journal
by the appearance of a letter in its columns ad-
vocating a similar course to that recommended
by ourselves. Services for the working
classes in Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's
Cathedral would open to the Church of
England a wide sphere of usefulness and in-
fluence. Perhaps no better opportunity could
be devised for regaining some of her lost
ascendancy o‘er the popular mind; and we
sincerely trust that none of the Church
authorities will so far play into the hands of
their opponents as to interfere with the pro•
posal. That objections will readily be raised
to it we carnot far a moment doubt ; but we
trust sincerely it will triumph, and we would
feign hope that all honest and impartial non-
conformists would share in the aspiration. It
cannot be expected that they should attach
the same importance to differences of creed
as members of the Church of England do ;
but they will at least admit that it is only by
minds of the highest order that such distinc-
tions can be overlooked with impunity, and
that with the uneducated classes of which the
mass of all communions must consist, observ-
ance of essentials is seldom dissevered from
observance of non-essentials, and that indif-
ference to religious distinctions means indif-
ference to religion itself.

LORD PALMERSTON AS A
LEGISLATOR.
THOUGH politicians will dispute about the
principles applicable to the present crisis,
there is no difference amongst them as to the
vast amount of legislative work before Parlia•
ment. The reconstruction of machinery for
ruling India is an intricate problem, and there
are innumerable difficulties about " amend-
ments "on Reform. The law of real property
is also to be subjected to Parliamentary con-
sideration, and the commercial interests of the
country must be reviewed. That tile Cabinet
should possess special legislative ability to
meet the coming crisis is demanded by the
progress of events and by the character of the
time. Nobody would single out any of Lord