The Express.
London, England, 1851-01-20 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, MONDAY EVENING, JANUARY 20, 1851.

Se br as Mr. BENNETT and his churchwariens
are segyeened, this- correspondence of theirs bolts,
very sugh like what sporting men call a creme. The
chdrehwardens wish to convert a moral obligation
into a legal question; at the very anggeetionMr.
BENNETT affects to start with holy horror; he will
resign, nothing shall prevent him, he says in one!
breath; and in the next, he adds, be will delay his
resignation until they can resort to a tribunal welch
he would not enter for all the world. Now, this
is not plain-sailing, straightforward, hcnest contact.
Casuists may be able to explain it; but simple
minded people cannot understand it. If Mr. BENNETT
has contracted an obligation to his Bishop to resign,
he ought to lose no time to fulfil his promise; for,
to retain his benefices in order that his churchwarden*
may enable him to escape from his engagement, is
substantially to attempt to violate it himself. And if
some few weeks are needful for him to wind up the
temporal affairs of his parish, tie is bound both in
honour and morals to lay bis solemn entreaties that
the period so required be not used by those who have
assumed to act for him for other and opposite par-
pores. Instead, Mr. Breiverr invites them to turn
the two months he his taken to contentious and liti-
gious ends.
Little respect can be paid a clergyman who acts
thus; for these are the acts of petty tricky laymen
careless rf how they get rid of an inconvenient en-
gagement, not of churchmen professing the highest
moral principles, especial regard for episcopal toms-
, macy, and &rims, above most things, to see disc.-
, pline enforced in the establishment.
This is not the way to leave St. Bernthal, ore-
eritably. In spite of all protestations to the contrary,
no one will believe that Mr. Beitenrr is not in coils-
sion with Sir JOHN HARRINGTON, if a single step be
taken in the ecclesiastical courts to keep him there.
Sir JOHN'S Set is Mr. BENNETT'S Set Sir JOHN'S Suit
Will be Mr. BENNETT'S suit ; Sir JOHN'S attempt to
get Mr. Brien= out of his promise will be Mr.
BENNETT'S attempt. Mr. BENNETT can only retain
his character by resigning without litigation.
Bat Bishop BLOMITELD is quite as much to blame
as Mr. BENNETT Or Sir JOUN HARRINGTON. So
long ago as the 4th of December, Mr. Beim= re-
quested the Bishop to arrange with Sir JOHN the
" precise time " when be should "cease to have
further charge of the parish." Six weeks have since
elapsed, and the " precise time " has not been ar-
ranged. Nay, fur all that appears from this
correspondence, the Bishop has not mode a single
effort to arrange it; and, failing these efforts, Mr.
BENNETT has now 83 fixed it for himself as to allow
his friends time to appeal to the law to prevent the
" precise time" ever arriving. If, then, litigation have
to weary the public, scandalise the church, and out-
rage morality; if, first of all, the Court of Arches have
to decide on all the difficult questions which Sir Jolts
HARRINGTON threatens, on Mr. BENNETT'S behalf, to
raise; and then that decision have, as in the Goals-CM
persecutior, to be reviewed by the Judicial Committee
of the Privy Council ; if, in short, this St. Banshee
brawl has to be prolonged for other two years, on
the Bishop of LONDON chiefly will fall the responsi-
bility; for, had he with promptitude and decision
the " precise time" which Mr. BENNEIT left to
hie arrangement, that gentleman's resignation would
have been in his hands a month ago. Instead of this
Bishop BLOMPIELD allowed the curates employed
by Mr. BENNETT to go on with their " mumme-
ries ;" he allowed himself to be involved in inter-
views wits deputations, and in correspondence with
churchwardens. When he should have been acting,
he was weeping; when be ought to have been ap-
pointing Mr. BENNETT'S successor, he was playing
over Sir JOIIN HARRINGTON'S remonstrance; and
thus by delay, by hesitation, and by unwillingness to
act, he has encouraged a combination which may
drag him, and the church after him, through Doctors'
Commons and up to Whitehall.
The whole spectacle is pitiable. Here we have a
churchwarden urging his minister to break a thorium
solemnly given ; that minister, whilst putting aside
this advice, giving the churchwarden time to appeal
to:the law courts; and the Bishop standing looking
on, as if he were powerless, when three weeks ago a
stroke of his pen would have got rid of Mr. BENNETT
and bestowed ou St. Barnabas a new incumbent.
Such is episcopal government and ministerial obedi-
ence is the church of England.