The Express.
London, England, 1851-05-13 00:00:00

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LONDON, TUESDAY, MAY 13.

THE House of Commons, as at present constituted,
bears to the House of Lords somewhat the same re-
lation that a plaster-of-Paris (list does to a marble
bust or statue. The materials differ; the lineaments
and expression arc essentially the same.
As the nucleus of the House of Commons may be
regarded a knot of gentlemen—from 250 to 260
who arc either sous or grandsons of lords, or have
married daughters or granddaughters of lords, or are
Irish peers. Of these a considerable number are or
have been officers in the army or navy, a few have
been diplomatic employ s or held offices in some of
the civil departments of government, and fewer still
have been called to the bar. Professional affinities
lead them to make common cause with the other mem-
bers of the house who belon,,, to the army and navy, the
civil service or tho law, and these in return take their
tone, in a great measure, from their noble colleagues.
The ;60-called mercantile interest does not escape the
aristocratic assimilation : wealthy commercialists are
considered tolerable matches for the daughters of noble
houses, and their daughters catches for the younger
brothers. The country gentlemen of old families
look upon their class as the raw material out of
which peers are from time to time made, and con-
sider themselves distinct from ordinary commoners.
hence it comes that the sympathies and opinions of
an overwhelming majority of the House of Commons
arc identical with those of the peers, and have
none of the distinctive peculiarities of the unprivi-
leged classes of society.
When we look to the electoral machinery by which
the House of Commons is brought together, the cause
of this ?reponderance of the aristocratic clement in
it is sufficiently obvious. The county constituencies,
except on some rare occasions when the. tenant

farmers run restive, as they recently did in " the
Dukery," arc implicitly obedient to the landowners,
titled and untitled; and of course, bating the manu-
facturing counties of the north, none but the candi-
dates of the aristocracy have any chance with them.
Again, the small borough's are practically the pro-
perty either of peers, or lauded proprietors of old
family, or of wealthy parvenus, whose sole ambition
is to be adopted into the aristocratic circles. The qua-
lification for members of parliament limits the range
of choice even of the mere independent constituencies,
and hence it comes that we find so many of them re-
presented by individuals whose sympathies are with
the class that preponderates in the House of Com-
mons.

When, on the other hand, we look to the conse-
quences of this peculiar composition of the House of
Commons, they also are apparent enough. Many
jokes have been circulated of late years—some of
I them indifferent enough—about the intimate links of
blood and affinity which connect the present minis-
try. It has been called a family party. But, in fact,
the more numerous assemblage in the House of Com-
mons is scarcely less a family party than the minis-
try. All the scions of noble family, and their con-
nections by marriage, who have been adverted to as
constituting the nucleus of the House of Com-
mune, resolve themselves into some half-
dozen family groups, more or less distantly
allied by birth or affinity to as many of the
most powerful and wealthy noble houses. Now, in a
government like ours, in which the House of Com-
mons by holding the strings of the national purse,
decides who are to be the holders of administrative
cHive, this circumstance limits the prospect of ad-

vancement in an official career to therelaiions or de-
pendents of these noble groups. Hence it comes that
our navy and army, our diplomacy, and the whole of
our civil service are full,of men promoted not in
virtue of their efficiency, but of thew birth and con-
nexions. They are animated by the spirit of a
coterie, and moreover are characterised by the ctfemi-

nacy of men who have obtained promOtion without
those preliminary hard struggles which develop and
invigorate the faculties. It is to this we owe the
anti-popular tendencies of officials of all parties, and
that feebleness which even more than lack of political
integrity has arrested the erogreed of improvement,
and brought public affairs into their present lament-
able state of confusion.

The present condition of the country is perilous in
the extreme. Political parties are disorganised, and
there are no leaders of commanding character and
energy to re-construct them, There is no hope but
in such an extension of the popular basis of our insti-
-1 tutions as will identify the governing class in semi-
, ment with the great body of the nation to a much
greater extent than at present, and, by increasing
the competition for office, impart a more manly cha-
meter to those who attain to it. In other words,
a measure of electoral reform sufficiently compre-
hensive to break up the family compacts which pre-
dominate in the House of 'Commons is urgently
needed.
--

This is said in no spirit of hostility to the aristo-
cracy. The experience of the last hundred years
has predisposed all to esteem a limited hereditary
monarchy as immeasurably preferable to a constitu-
tion in which the chief ma,gistratc is periodi-
cally elected. And it is impossible that a
hereditary monarch can keep his ground
without the intervention of a privileged aristocracy
betwecnt him and the democracy. In all countries
there exists an aristocracy of wealth, talent, and
education; and in all countries this aristocracy has
more or less of a hereditary character. The peculiar
views and feelings impressed by their historical de-
velopment upon the English people has rendered thorn
peculiarly apt to fall into habits of adopting leaders
from this class. The only thing that can endanger
the permanence of the aristocracy's influence in this
country is its becoming limited to too narrow a
circle, keeping itself too much isolated from the con-
tact of the commons, and contracting exclusive habits
of thought and feeling alien to those of the gene-
rality. Such an extension of democratic influence in
the election of the House of Commons as we recom-
mend is needed to confirm, by counteracting these ten-
dencies, the stability of the aristocracy as an element
of our constitution.

The motion of which Mr. Hula has given notice
for this evening embraces the cardinal principles of
such a reform. A wide extension of the right of
Bulling° is required, in order to bring within the pale
of the constitution a mass of manly, shrewd intel-
lect that has now no voice in its deliberations. A
redistribution of the electoral districts is required, is
order that the influence of the non-privileged classes
in elections may be real. And secret voting is also
required, in order that suffrages may be given with-
out a view to earn favours from the aristocracy on
the one band, or court mob popularity on the other.
The results we anticipate from the change are, in
the first place, the opening of a parliamentary
and official career to an increased number of those
who spring from the people, and share its views and
predilections ; and, in the second place, the impart-
ing of a more robust intellectual and moral cha-
racter to those members of the aristocracy who aspire
to political distinction, by exposing them to more
arduous competition. The reform would call into
existence a HMO of Commons not antagonistic to
the aristocracy, but better calculated to torm a con-
necting link between it and the great body of the
=tics-

A BTNOD hes lately been summoned in Australia,
which has met and done its work in a very praise-
worthy manner; there will shortly be a ay nod hold
in the diocese of Exeter, which will, in all probabi-
-114, do but little, end the little that is done will

have a strong flavour of disloyalty and schism. But
the high church party arguing upon the principle
adopted by the Shaksperinn logician, " there is a
river in Monmouth and there is a river in Macedon,
&c.," would ix:rsuade us that these synods are essen-
tially of the same kind. They might argue that
Australia is Exeter with just as much show of
reason.

In the first place, the six bishops who met at Syd-
ney display a profound reverence 14 the law. They
are determined to make no assumption of authority
for which they have no precedent. And there can
be no question of their loyally. They commence
their report with the following words:
. .

We, the undersigned metropolitan and bishops of the
province of Aiedrala.ia, in consequence of doubts exciting
how far we are inhibited by the QM.? e s supremacy front
exercising the powers of an ecclesiastical synod, resolve not
to exercise such power.
- -

In the second article they are anxious still further
to remove any suspicion that might attach to them
of claiming any divine right of legislation, and state
that the

Constitutions and canons agreed upon with the King's
Majesty's license in the synod begun at London A.D. Mtn,
and published for the due observation of them by his Ma-
jesty's authority, under the Great Neal of England, form
part of the established constitution of our church, and are
generally binding upon ouroelves, &e.

They are anxious that the laity should resume
their proper position as members of the church :

We are ot opinion that the laity, acting by their repro-
se/gnat-es duly elected, should meet in diocesan aril pro-
vincial conventions; that the clergy and laity may severally
consult and decide, Ac.

They disclaim the insolent pretensions to absolute
power nssumed by the bishops in England with res-
pect to their clergy :
In consequence of statements which have beta made in vari-
ous places of the arbitrary power possessed by bishops to sus-
pend or revoke at their own discretion the licenses of
clergymen, we disclaim all wish to exercise any math
power, &c.
And again :
We desire to express our opinion that no clergyman who
shall have been duly appointed and licensed to any church
or permanent cure of souls, should be removeablo therefrom
except by sentence pronounced after judicial inquiry before
the diocesan synod.

Finally, they recognise the great principles of
toleration and religious equality, when they declare
that " it is a general principle of colonial legislation
that the equality of all religious denominations is
recognised.
Now, we ask those who are madly hallooing on
the Bishop of Exrrnt in his absurd and schismatic
attempt to make his own weathercock point to a dif-
ferent quarter in the theological compass from that
towards which the vanes m every other diocese are
directed, what similarity can be established between
six hard-working earnest bishops who have met to-
gether to provide for the better regulation of the im-
portant trusts committed to them, in the thoughtful
and moderate spirit indicated in the above extracts.
and a truculent bishop who separates himself from
his brother prelates, and sets up a private synod of
his own, purposely for the ofilect of defining a doctrine
in a different sense from that in which it is interpreted
by the highest authority in the realm ? Which
of the bishops who signed the Australian document
would have exeummunicated his metropolitan ?
Which of them denies the royal supremacy : Which
of them rudely separates his church from the state
and its constituted authorities by claiming for its
hierarchy and organisation a divine origin ? Should
the QUEEN send over to the metropolitan Bishop of
AUSTRALIA a specimen of the Bishop of Est: tuts
dialogistic capabilities extracted from his hitter
pamphlets or still bitterer addresses with a request
to know whether his colonial brethren would own
their relationship, as Ittefiattfi I. is said to have
transmitted the bloody harness of a warlike bishop to
the pope with the question, " We know not whether
this be thy son's coat or no?" it is difficult to ima-
gine the six dignitaries unanimous in their wish to
fraternise.

There is, however, something still more remark-
able in the document put forth by the Australian
bishops; something which will show that they are
determined to place their newly formed church upon
as broad a basis as their belief in Scripture will per-
mit. The eighth article in the report is headed
" Holy Baptism." Now, to the first part of this
artich; the signatures of five only of the bishops are
attached; and the second part, which has the same
title 104 the first, commences with the remark, "Upon
this subject the Bishop of Ms.t.norimr. preferred to
state his own views as follows." This statement,
amongst other positions, lays down that—
. .

The church in her office for the baptbint of infants, and
in that for the baptism of adults, uses the language of faith
and hope, and it is not to be understood as declaring posi-
tively a fret which it cannot certainly know, viz., that
every baptised infant, or every baptked adult, is regenerate.
• • • Repentance and faith are required of those who
come to he baptised, but the church is silent as to the fitness
or unfitness of an infant, who is incapable of repentance
and faith for receiving regeneration in baptism.

Now here is everything allowed which was
claimed by the liberal party in the GORHAM contro-
versy. The Bishop of MELBOURNE writes on the
subject of baptism precisely as Mr. GORHAM would
have done. And yet his co-prelates quietly allow
this statement to he printed with their own. There
is no warning on the part of the five bishops to
avoid the heresy of their offending brother. They
seem to be quite unconscious that the Bishop of
MELBOURNE should be consigned to the same place us
that to which a bishop of the mother church has
consigned the Archbishop of CANTERBURY. In its
first mymxlical document the Australian church
boldly proclaims that its existence is not dependent
1 upon the arbitrary construction of a particular
dogma.
This, we have no objection in avowing, is cheering
news for us who have always maintained that the
church of England depends ',for its preservation and
extension on the recognition of the right of its
divines to interpret its articles in a sense which can
be shown to be not inconsistent with that adopted
by a portion of the church from the time of its first
establishment. This is cheering to us who have all
along opposed the efforts of the bigots, with the
Bishop of EXETER at their head : but is it a cheering
sign to those who are looking forward to the pro-
posed synod of Exeter as to a meeting which is to
pave the way for a regeneration of the church upon
tractarian principles? We think not: and although
we have no hesitation, after perusing the Australian
report, to assert with the organ of the high church
party, that " the Colonial church is stirring with or-
ganic life," we must be allowed to differ with our
contemporary in our opinion as to the future develop-
ment of that life.

TIIE CHANNEL ISLANDS.--Thu Lords of the Ad-
miralty huvejust sanctioned an arrangement with reference
to the Clusonel Islands mails which will materially facilitate
' the communications between Guernsey and Jersey and the
metropolis. Hitherto the contract mail packets have been
despatched front Jersey at 8 cm. every Monday, Wednes-
day, and Friday mornings, and reaching Southampton
about 7 p.m., the passengers have been too late for the
last train to London, and have been subjected to an expen-
sive and troublesome detention. It has now been ordered
by the Admiralty that on and after the let of June the
packets shall be despatched from Jersey at 7 a.m. ; the 'ma-
ssagers will, therefore, reach Southampton Docks about G
p. 111., just in time to get their baggage through the Cu‘toms
house and proceed by the 7 p.m. train, arriving in London
at 9.'10 p.m. Passengers will thus reach London the same
evening of their departure from Guernsey and Jersey. The
days of departure, bath front Southampton and from the
Channel Islands, are unchanged, and there is no alteration
in the time of departure of the packets from Southampton,
which is always at midnight, on arrival of the night mails
from London.

STEAM BETWEEN SOUTLIAMPTON AND MORLATI.—
The London and South-Western Railway Company's
steamer Grand Turk sailed from Southampton on Sunday
on her first trip to the port of Morlois, a part of the coast
of France hitherto unprovided with steam communication
with England. It is intended to keep up a weekly service
between Southampton and Mewlois, and the resod' are to
touch at the island of Guernsey both going and returning
Besides passengers, the steamers employed on this line will
afford a medium for the conveyance of fruit, cattle, poultry
(alive and dead), eggs, and many other products of the
agriculture of France, to the Southampton and London
markets. At the solicitation of the chamber of commerce
of Morlaix, we are informed, the French government has
suppressed the export duty on horses from that portion of
the coast, and it is anticipated that a large number of these
animals, with cattle of various kinds, will be sent over by
the steamers for sale in England.
COMMUNIcIAnoN WITH NATAL—The lieutenant
governor of Vidal, being desirous that that settlement
" should participate as fully as possible in the advantages
to be derived from the speedy communication which, under
the auspices of her Majesty's government, has been esta-
blished between Great Britain and the Cape of Good Rope,
by means of steam-vessels," laaa instructed the secretary to
his government to call for tenders for the monthly convey-
ance of the mail, by means of efficient ailing-vessels or
steamers, between Caps Town and Natal, immediately upon
the arrival of every steamer from England. Thu tenders
will be received until the Ist day of September quit.—Cope
Paper.