The Express.
London, England, 1851-08-14 00:00:00

THE HORFIELD ESTATE.

(Fres the Daily Berl.)

Bisnor Nom( hasiprinted a selection of " Poo/-
meets respecting the Estate of Thayiehl Manor ;" in-
troducing them by a preface sometimes exculpatory,
and at others laudatory, of his defeated intentions as
to his actual dealing with that property.
Had his publication merely left the case where
perliamentary and public discussion had placed it,
the episcopal defence would not have received any-
notice in this journal. But so important an addi-
tion to facts already known and appreciated is
therein made, as to compel us to return,
•ory unwillingly, to a most disagreeable
subject. For it is quito clear the public
has not heard the last of Ilortield Manor; and all per-
NODS proposing to acquire an interest therein under
the lease granted by thr Bishop to his nominee, had
better take care what thee are doing ; that lease
being, the Ecclesiastical Nminissioners of England
contend, void in law us against their reversionary
estate in the manor.

The ease is plain end simple enough. The sees of
Glosteester and Bristol were united by an Order in
Connell of the MI of October, Dr. Most:.
then Bishop of Gloucester, became, on the
translation of 1)r. ALLEN from Bristol to Ely,
incumbent of the united sees, and, as such,
sobbed of all the property belonging to that of
Bristol. Part of that property was Ilintield Manor,
then under a lease for three lives granted in 1,417 to
a Lord Farmer; under wham, in his turn, there
were a series of copyholders. Of those lives only
ooe survived in ltt:iti; and he was twenty stars
older than tho Bishop. It was, therefore, a reasonable
probability that Or. `lasi would come into the actual
possession of the manor; and every one concerned in
the united sees seems to have acted on the scrump
firm that such would he the ease. Dr. Moss: at that
time very properly refused, as his two predecessors
had done, to renew the lives which had dropped;
Mr. Myatt tY, as Secretary• of the Exelesiastical
Commissioner:, very properly kept his eyes on and
Lis ears open to all matters and reports about the
estate: and on the first opportunity the Ecclesiastical
rontmissioncrs dealt very properly with the reversion
of the manor, contingent on the avoidance of the
acv,.

--- -
The opportunity arose out of the second septen-
nial return of income made by Bishop Toxic in
1,413. That return showed hint to be in the average
receipt of n. 701/. a year since 114:17 ; and the Ecekid-
astical Commissioner.. in fixing the prospective
charge on the see at so low an amount us Tat/. a
year, Ind so. bemuse they resolved that llortield
should be transferred to tht4n at the next vacancy in
the see. 'this transfsr was actually elfietcd by an
Order of the Queen in Council, gazetted June lm,
1K Ii ; in that Order the manor is described at being
subject to a hose dated 4th February, 1 Ml 7, and
being so subject, is &eland to be severed from the
ace after the present ineumlancy. The Ecclesiastical
Commissioners became thentore entitled to the re
version of the manor, subject only to the continuance
of that single lease.

This view of the clfeet of the Order in Council did
not, however, at first strike either Bishop NloNie or
his brother bishops on the Commission; they thought
that the Bishop of GeoucesTms. and Buts Tot. re-
tained the right to make a new lease of the manor,
when the lease of 1417 fell in : and, to prevent the'
re-alienation of the properly from the church on the
ortumnee of that contingency. they agtved as we all
know, to purchase liibhop NioNk's supposed power
to abuse the property tor 11..145i1. When. however,
the lawyers were consulted as to this purchase, they
at one., advised the Commissioners that Bishop Nb ON K
did not possess the power to sell the contingent right
of renewal. and that it was more than doubtful
whether the Bishop had the power to grant anv
renewal at all. Consequently the Ecclesiastical
Commis...ha:yrs dill not pay Bishop Must:
11,500 i. for what he had no right to sell ;
this opinion of the law officer, of the crown was
dated the IRth of August, INN; a copy of it was
forwarded to the Bishop; and hum the termination
of this negotiation for a sale at that time, down to
the commencement of the present year, the Etvlesias-
thol Commissioners. the reversioners of the manor.

were kept in nual ignoranto of everything con-
nected w ith llorkeld. though intennediaielv the last
lire had dropped, and Bishop Stowe had conic into
possession of the estate.
Early in the present year, however,the Ecclesiasti-
cal Commissioners, us such reversioners. received from
the Copyliold Col 1111 l issioners a notice that the latter,
on the requirement of the Bishop and his new lessee
were about to take the nevi ssary proetcdingis to en-
franchise the topyliolds. This notits- amwarti to
have conic upon the Ecclesiastical Commissienwrs like
a thunder chip. A new lessee—unother Lord
Farmer' 'flan a new lease had been granted; their
interest in the reversion bud been tampered with!
Their Solicitor inquired ; it was true to his amaze-
ment and astonishment: he found that ilortield
?donor had been leased, lur the lives of her M %as-
'Te's three healthiest children, to "'host is
of the cite of Gloucester, gentleman:" the said
Timm is of Gloucester., Icing the Bishop's Secretary.
'Me etc ps the Solicitor took alter making this ells-
covery. were those of an honest and highly honour-
able man, disgusted with such stealthy trickery and
aseau audacity. On the 81st of January, Mil, he
Kaye notice to the Copyhold Commissioners that
the Eeeleslastielli protes;,d rnluirrxl
bring morposed bp 1.. I.,11111.41• the rolidityof (toy rorh
!rose, or thr poteur c!l* llit.hop to /runt it." lie
warned them against its being supposed that tiny
subordimite titles acquired under the lease would be
recognised; he reserved the right of the Exelesias-
Heal Conunissioners, after the avoidance of the see,
to come into possession free front all incumbrumcs.
And on the next day he also gave notice to Mr.
Hour that the Ecclesiastical Commissioners did not
acquiesse in the right er power to grunt the lease,
of which you are the grantee."
To these most proper notices the Bishop. it seems,
himself indited n long and floundering answer. Ile
tried to account for the secrecy of this new aliena-
tion of Itortield, by saying that after what had
passed he could not " without impropriety have
made any comtnunieation to them [the Commis-
sioners] respecting Hortield: " and lie coolly dis-
missed the language in the Order in ('outwit of
which the lawyers doubt his power to lease that
property, by adding that they are words of sur-
plusage." And. so fur from. in this communication.
dated only January Issl, even hinting at any
applicatiun of the proceeds of Ilortield to the church
in consequence of the new lease, he therein sets
the Commissioners at &hams-, snaps his fingers at
them, ;red. n ith something like movkery, tells them
that "si hen the reversion conies into the hands of
the Commissioners they will timid that the pan itnony
of the church has been carefully fostered and con-
siderable improved." When the reversion ”eoeleP
Into their hands," indeed! Why, it will be with
this lease it be valid) and its three lives between
them and the usufruct of the property'
This addition to the Hortield controversy greatly
aggravates the scandal of the ease. It proves that
Bishop %est: secretly made this lease, though in-
structed by the opithim of the law officers of the
crown that he had not the k-gal power to make any
lease; and it follows that, if this lease be invalid, he
is deluding all persseis who may accept subordinate
interests under it. to make hazardous investments, to
risk litigation. and perhaps to involve themselves iu
serious loos, if not positive ruin.

TIIE MURDER UV .t Snot:MAKER AT \IANCIIEsTEII.
—Jane s Macnanura vr.o brought up yesterday morning at
the Mane!tester Borough Court for further examination-, on
the charge of murdering a nun named Ellis, by striking
him on the head with a hummer. The evidence was sub-
stantially the same as that given before the coroner. except
that Ann Oldthld, the keeper of the public house where the
quarrel took place, masers that -deceased struck the prisoner
lint. This agrees with pan of the prisoner': own P -
latent to the eater who apprehended him. The prisoner
was committed for trial at the unites.
THE. PORT OF BitinEot.—At a meeting of the
Town Council, held yesterday, a report was presented from
the )Lock Committee, which showed that the income of the
awls had greatly incremed, exceeding the expendixtre for
the J. by about 3,000 f. The committer recommended
that the dues on sugar should be reduced from di. to Is. 6d.
per ton ; an.l that those on tea, coffee, and cocoa should be
wholly remitted, a proposition to which the council unani-
mously assented. The foreign tonnage of the port was
Maud to have exceeded that of last year (and even that of
the exceptional year 1849) by near 20,000 tons.
THE TEETOTAL DEmoN9uitElloN.—A large meet-
ing was held in llawkstone Mull, Waterloo-road, on Tues-
day night, to he q. Mr. Lieesey, proprietor of the l'reslon
Gratd.uti, deliver his lecture on malt liquors. After the
lecture, the meeting gave a vote of thanks to Mr. Lisracy
and the chairman, Dr. Elliot, which was canicd with great
animas.