The Express.
London, England, 1847-12-06 00:00:00

ght Orproo.

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to lead to something better than the barren results of
1840 and 1841.
Yet had the result of these debates been entirely
confined to the nomination of a committee, the
country would have a strong and undeniable cause
for discontent. A protracted inquiry of detail
may be the fitting prelude to a future re-settlement of
the question. But the present and immediate exi-
gencies of the commercial community admit of no
such deferred and contingent adjustment. Proceed
with the inquiry by all means, as fast
and fully as' you please, but devise in the
meantime some safe and satisfactory arrangement
Relegate to your committee everything that is contro-
versial and abstruse, but at all events take care daring
the interval of suspense, that the country is not again
afflicted by the operation or the failure of an avowedly
mischievous and insufficient law.
Now, it is precisely because the debates of lest
week have raised this very obvious distinction into
prominent notice, that they have been of so much
public use ; and while it is exceedingly probable that
a pause will take place in the war of disputation
upon theoretical differences, it is quite certain that a
very formidable party will endeavour—in our opinion
with the greatest reason—to prevent the full and
intact revival of the law of 1844.
Leaving, however, that more practical question for
the present, let us scan with some curiosity the apo-
logies and the defence of the distinguished adherents
of the scheme of that year, who spoke on Friday
night.
fhe country do not require to be informed that in
the exposition of any important line of policy by
• Lord J. RUSELL, there will be no want of decision
and no deficiency of candour—nor that it is quite im-
possible for Sir R. PEEL to set himself seriously to
work to defend an opinion, or to make the best of a
debate, without exhibiting very great ability
and adroitness. But the frankness of Lord
JOHN is sometimes inconvenient, and the dexte-
rity of Sir Romer is not always convincing. And
we must be permitted to say that, after perusing the
speeches of Friday night, with every readiness to
admire their beauties and feel their cogency, we cannot
but record the impression that upon this, as upon Dome
other topics, the prime minister of the crown seems the
distinguished expositor of opinions, not so much the''
result of his own natural investigation, as of the
promptings and representations of others ; and that as
regards Sir ROBERT PEEL, although under the influ-
ence of a manifest disposition to smooth down the
more dangerous singularities of his creed, there was a
strong effort to make every use of that peculiar apti-
tude for parliamentary casuistry of which he is so
eminent an example.
A student, thoroughly familiar with the history or
the merits of the question, would hardly venture
with Lord JOHN RUSSELL to quote,- as con-
current authorities, the recent works of Mr.
Tans and Mr. LOYD: nor would an inquirer,
intent only upon an impartial decision, join with Sir
Peen in his censure of the Bank directors, without
also adverting to those authoritative dicta of 1844,
and that implicit acquiescence till 1846, which esta-
blished so entire a complicity between the authors
and the instruments of the measure of 1844.
When Lord J. RUSSELL has extended his familiarity
with the subject, he will see that while Mr. LOYD
places all his hopes upon the circulation, Mr. TOOKE
reasons and judges from the action of the Bank upon
its securities—things as dissimilar, to use one of Lord
JOHN'S recent illustrations, as Tenterden steeple and
the Goodwin Sands ; and, moreover, that the hypothe-
tical case put by Mr. TOOKE, and adduced by Lord
Jowl Rtissenn, as confirmatory of the blame which
the government are attempting to fasten upon the
Bank, refers to an entirely different set of circum-
steno's. Mr. TOOKE says—and nothing can exceed
the force of his argument—that with 16,000,0001.
of bullion the Bank may be nearly passive,
until the drain has carried off 6,000,0001., but
then he supposes the Bank to have the full command
of the whole of their treasure. His doctrine does not
contemplate for a moment the division of departments
and the obligations to competition which distinguish
the present plan, and which constitute the circum-
stances to which Lord Jona' RUSSELL described most

inaccurately Mr. TOOKE'S opinions as being applicable.
For the very convenient forgetfulness which led Sir
R. PEEL to tell the house that the Bank of England
had carried on a career of competition, and not to tell
them that he was the very person to advise and abet
that competition, there was no excuse, and it certainly
involved a grossness of partiality which it is safer to 1
point out than to describe.
Pawing, however, over these prominent lapses of
the two great speakers in the debate, there was a re-
markable unanimity among those who defended the
act of 1844, as to the points in which it has failed,
and these in which they say it has succeeded. Mr.
BARING led the van of the party of confession by
stating with great simplicity, that he had been quite
confounded and disappointed at the utter discrepancy
between the actual and the predicated movements of
the circulation since 1844. He had been most per-
plexed by the discovery, that the circulation
had shown the most constant and utter dis-
regard for ail the injunctions and calaulatiowi
of the Currency theory. Lord JOHN RU SELL was
equally disconcerted to have to confess that, contrary
Ito all expectation, the bill did every now and then
place the Bank under such restraints that the directors
could not afford reasonable accommodation to the

public ; and Sir ROBERT PEEL Was equally constrained
to admit that, very much to his astonishment, the
directors had done more mischief since, than before, the
memelimmt of his regulating statute. But, on the other
hand, thous eminent persons consoled themselves by the
rallsedesa that, upon the two remaining cardinal points
whkit the arrangement was intended to secure, there
had been the most perfect moons. Thus, for example :
first, the reckless over-issue of provincial paper at the
option of the country bankers had been prevented,
and, ssmoidly, the perfect convertibility of the bank
notehad bean fully maintained.
- - •

We arethletuT to say that we entirely concur in
these con Lions dons as to the fact, bat not as to the
caw. • en hay convinced that there has been
no over-issue at country bank notes, and no danger
of a seepsuriew of cash payments ; in neither instance,
however, bemuse the set of 1844 happened to be in
eperation. There is precisely the awe danger of
convertible bank notes being evereisaued u of the
Thames running up Richmond-hill, Ind about as
much danger that grass will grow bum& London-
bridge between the intervals of the ebb Ind Mara et
the Me, es that the solvency of the both neleibealil
be arleagmod with 16,000,0001. of tethers and se
Wend discredit.
Oa the cum point we will simply remind those who
prelate the est of 1844 for delivering us from reckless
country hooking and an insolvent treasury, that in
1845 the circulation of Scotland and Ireland was
under no restraint, and nobody ever discovered that
the mania of that year was worse in those countries
than in England, and that the earliest and hotted
centre of the speculation was at Manchester and
Liverpool, where local notes are as uncommon as dol-
phins in Trafalgsr-square. On the other point, let
them remember, that notwithstanding the immense
scale of our importations from May to October, there
was no drain of gold embeequent to April; and why ?
Lord JOHN RCEISELL gave the reason and the proof
the other night—because the demand for our exports
fully counteracted the extent of our imports. The
dram of bullion was confined to the short, sharp in-
terval, during which the commercial balance was ad-
justing itself.
The whole if these speeches are a curious and in-
teresting illustration of the struggle which is taking
' place between the ingenious theory of currency,
which traces its parentage to the distinguished
authors of the bullion report, and the dearer light
and more comprehensive experience of
_later years.
There can be no possible doubt that this sllllllb and
symmetrical system of opinions will wry shortly dis-
appear into the long list of illealzatiens, lhat thin is
a very remote connexion in acvvery=
scientific questions between prises Avis
and the actual and ultimate truth. Use have
gradually, to believe that the sun is a revolving
not a stationary body—that the earth is
that gold and silver alone are wealth—that
the creatures of acts of parliament— thr.ee
ldlition snores regress and plenty—that peetr
means prosperity—that taxes constitute reventa--
sad that perpetual loneliness is In
the beginning all these was wry
and they are all exploded. A Me alla
ethkum=wlesetion, that the pod end
in social and onmesial conditioPmeleigS
modem dales very far advanced in all the arts et
civilisation and intenosiree, is the gulatitifiZeidr
Men& circulating It will be gnaUlly
—nay we have already made no small program in the

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NIGH WATII AT LONDON 11111/01.
=ln pot I ; Altassea. Ws. prat t.
Tollontwor —Nakao. Kam. put I y Aktairs. =I. par t.

LONDON, MONDA Y, DEC. 6.
Ws most filly concur in the propriety of the tech-
nical decision which has terminated the debates on
the currency in both Ham of Parliament It is
very true that a committee el inquiry upon such a
march may not be a wry elkneliv• or a very ceps-
&bons tribunal,, bat 1 le sok Meisel, nevertheless*
pertiSf. through which the seem, beim 'eta'
with any mi
i
et of 1 mil
of Wpm Arittlis tie OW.
es it trey qmielia so Ili
periods, we are not thout hope that do al
the scrutiny will be conducted, bellsoissid
urgent and decisive cireameleask ii as

Einsaii•ct
WIP!It7 '‘

---~--

THE EXPRESS, MONDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 6, 1847.

diecoyery—that this h only one incident, and a small
one, too, among many, and that the paramount consi-
deration has not reference to the symbols, but to the
realities, of capital and credit.

MERE is nothing which the clergy of the Church
of England ought more sedulously to avoid than agi-
tation. All sects which have any permanent and
substantial strength, correspond to some clans of feel-
ins or opinions which pervade a considerable claw of
the community. The Church of England, sa it prae-
tically exists, for with its origin or theoretical princi-
ples we have nothing to do at present, represents,
among other national tendencies, the extreme distaste
of the more educated classes of Englishmen for
church politics and church government, except in an
easy and dormant condition. Articles may affirm,
and comminations may denounce; bat the laity know,
by comfortable experience, that they may enjoy in
the English church a practical toleration, which is
not to be found among more rigid and enthusiasti-
cally dogmatic communions. It is very easy to prove,
on ecclesiastical grounds, that latitudinarian govern-
ments and casual lay patrons ought to have nothing to
do with the dispensation of church appointments. Never-
theless, the church has always acquiesced in the
anomaly; and the result has been an identification of
feeling between the clergy and the higher classes of
the laity, which is found in no other community or
country. No political measure within memory has
been supported or opposed exclusively by the clergy
and their adherents. Whatever may be the nominal
pretensions of the church, it always tacitly allows
the supremacy of secular considerations in questions
of public policy.
Some exceptions to this rule have lately displayed
Isemselves, which it would be prudent in the clergy
iemselves to discountenance. One of these, of no
memorial

great importance, consists in • . from
a rural deanery in Essex, urging on the crown
the justice of allowing the church to manage
its own affairs by means of the convocation. We have
reeently noticed the claims of this venerable formula
to resume a substantial shape ; and we need not repeat
our own entire difference of opinion from the memo-
rialista. They urge, with some show of reason, that
all other religious bodies regulate the terms of their
own communion, and administer their internal disci-
pline. The protestant dissenters, the Scotch free
church and the Scotch establishment, nay, the church
of Rome itself, have more power of regulating them-
selves than is possessed by the Anglican clergy and
communicants. But, as we have already said, these
bodies derive their infiaence from different principles.
The church of Rome, which in governed from above and
from without, may be leftout of consideration. The Eng-
lish nonconformists represent the love of activity and
self-government in ecclesiastical matters which prevails
among the classes of whom they are principally com-
posed,and which is directly opposed to the propensities
of Anglican churchmen. Moreover, they have, as reli-
I grove bodies, neither representatives in the House of
Lords, nor endowments in every pariah, nor the seine
national character which is attached to the establish-
ment. The dissenting bodies lay claim to be regarded
only as private and voluntary associations. The
church, with the conveniences of establishment,
merely abide by the accompanying disqualifications.
The difficulty of dealing with an independent, and
Eotlitablished church, has bees too strongly felt in
d to make it advisable to introduce a general
assembly, under the name of a convocation, into
England. Even the additional judicial and executive
powers which have of late years been conferred
en the bishops in dealing with clergymen
&soused of ecclesiastical crimes, are, in our opinion,
saspicioas, if not objectionable. We believe a police
magistrate, or a judge of a county court, would decide
on each crimes more fairly than all the bishops, and
we will add all the spiritual tribunals of every deno-
mination, which could be provided by any existing
religious body.
Another movement, more in accordance with pre-
cedent, but equally to be regretted, consists in the
agitation against the removal of Jewish disabilities,
which has, we regret to say, been countenanced by
the University of C'ambridge. There is, perhaps, no
proposition more untenable in itself than the dogma
of the petitioners, that the proposed measure will un-
christianise the legislature. Parliament is at
present united by no bond of religious agree-
ment, and the introduction of the Jews will in no re-
spect change its real character. We would strongly
recommend those persons, who, from sincere religious
feeling, take such views as those which deluded the late
Dr. ARNOLD into a most arbitrary exception of the
Jews from his somewhat fanciful projects of Christian
anion, to consult an article in Fraser's Magazine for
October, by one of the most earnest of English clergy-
rues, the Rev. F. D. MAURICE. They will see the
process by which this profound reasoner has been led
to the opinion that the existing exclusion is unjusti-
fiable, against the bias, apparently, of his own wishes,
and prejudices ; and they may perhaps find that the
principles which they most deeply believe, by no
means lead necessarily to the conclusions which
they have hitherto drawn from them. Inde-
pendently of the merits of the Jewish ques-
tion, we regret to see the clergy interfer-
ing in it. Ecclesiastical bodies are not fair
judges in such matters, because they have always a
temptation to consult the opinion of those who im-
mediately surround them, even when they do not
cordially share it. A clergyman of any denomination
may more safely take a bigoted line than a reason-
able course, as far as he regards sectarian popularity.
Zealots never pardon him for failing short in zeal ;
while great allowance ie made for any exec.'s which
seems to proceed from religious earnestness. We are
not at all satisfied that the University of Cambridge,
which, though not an ecclesiastical body, is go-
verned by a majority of clerical residents, re-
presents the feeling of churchtnen in general on
the Jewish question. It would have been much
wiser to have abstained from opposing the
measure, whether the resistance in the particular
case is to be attributed to prejudice or to cant. We
hope the bishops will not mistake the real course of
public opinion. That respectable but singularly timid
body. is on all important omissions governed by public
opinion, or what it supposes to be such. It has, how-
ever, the weakness of too often mistaking the real
state of opinion. Cant in England is always clamor-
ous, and too often passes itself- off on others, besides
bishops, for the real, silent, and practical belief of the
public.
Still more strongly do we object to the attempt in
some parts of the country to get up clerical memorials
againat the appointment of Dr. HAMPDEN. If the
Dean and Chapter of Hereford like to purchase the
honour of martyrdom by solving the long-agitated
problem of the meaning of a pratnenire, we shall not
at all interfere with then; but it certainly appears to
us that, when the right of the crown to nominate
bishops has been recognised for centuries, the church
may be satisfied by the legitimate and regular share
which baa been given it in completing the appoint-
ment. The dean and chapter must elect (under the
gentle pressure, it is true, of a premunirs), and the
archbishop and his suffragans must consecrate, Dr.
HAMPDEN before he can become a lawful bishop.
Not having the smallest doubt that all these valuable
functionaries will proceed to carry out the nomination
of the crown in the usual course, we cannot think
that the church or religion will be in any way bene-
fited by an ostentatious declaration on the part of
eons of the clergy that one of their existing bishops
ie inworthy of confidence.
Without intending to follow the singular pro-
ceeding of the Times in introducing an abstruse
theological and scholastic controversy into its columns,
I we think that the publicity which has been given to
the Passages in Dr. HAMPDEN'S Hampton lectures,
which were originally complained of, will have
tended much to restore the confidence of reasonable
churchmen in his substantial orthodoxy. He evi-
dently elpadiates Unitarian tenets as strongly as his
oppoolnia, and we believe that few writers who have
touched as Om dangerous ground of Sabellianiam,
acisairdielasiml realm., have emerged without the
as the worst with which
bee Ise the orthodox world.
It is well'for the more instructed clergy to ooniider
whether they are wise in attempting to exclude in-
tellectual activity from any sbarela the formatioa sad
development of Anglican theology. It is easy
enough to repeat old forms in the tame or Maud
words ; but it is perfectly imp** Baas them
or to illustrate them_ hy phllesopMeal
eat rising term whisk were not obviously deducible
from the adabliahed aaszhas. In other wards, it is
not easy to say anything new—without saying somih
thing new. With them who think that nothing new
can or ought to be said in theology, we do not
reason. A completed system, which no longer
requires or admits of intellectual exertion, will

411;$
so way