The Express.
London, England, 1853-08-22 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, MONDAY EVENING. AUGUST 22, 1853.

Any decree of the Conference or the Synod impairs none
of the rights of the citizen. Now in consequence of
the union between the Church and the State

in Eugl.tnd, it is not impossible thst de-
crees lamed by the former may trench troy ma-
terially
upon the rights of every one who is anima-I
ber of the latter. It is only necessary to allude to
the Braintree case to prove this assertion. his true
that this case has been decided against the party
which advocated the right of a minority to make
laws for a majority, but it is no less true that this
result has been only obtained after a tautest of
years. And it is not less true that there
are many other cases in which the law
made for churchmen exclusively is made to bear
with full force upon dissenters. The instant that
dissent became a power in the land this anomaly
began to be felt in its fall force. What then was
the course pursued by our legislators ? Did they
determine to crystallise all the old ordinances—did
they decree that, like the laws of the Medes and the
Persians, they should be susceptible of no change?
Had they so little faith in the worth and
power of the dominant church that they
supposed that it could not be supported
except by a legislative machinery of the Churzh's
own ? Not at all. Seeing that whatever hold the
Church, represented by its working clergy, might
have over the minds of the nation, the Church in
Synod assembled seemed very likely to forfeit it, they
very wisely elected to suspend the operation of the
latter and give fall scope to the development of
the former. And who will say that they were
wrong? Who will say that since the working
clergy have taken the cause of the Church of Eng-
land in their own hands, that Church may not
become infinitely more powerful for good than it was
when its representatives were squabbling in the
Lower House in the days of HOADLEY ?
Nevertheless there is a large clue of members,
who, however well disposed, seem determined to
cry out, "Leave the Church to take care of itself;
give as the Convocation." To this class the scene in
the Jerusalem Chamber, on Thursday last, mist
afford matter of serious consideration. Taey
have been moving earth and heaven to
resuscitate the dead corpse of a legislative body
which expired more than a century ago. They
managed, in fact, by desperate efforts to communi-
cate a sort of galvanic life to the said body, and pre-
dicted that it would live on in spite of the solemn
verdict of the most capable of all juries—the Ration
itself—that it was to all purposes dead. They deter-
mined not to believe this. Tho Convocation
was prorogued on the 16th of February last
to the 18th of the present month—last Thurs-
day. Every one knew very well that this
late date was chosen in order to get comfortably
over the business of the Session, and that in fact the
day named was to be a day for prorogation instead
of business. Fortunately for the friends of Convoca-
tion, the Session has been unusually long, and the
18th fell two days before the Session was concluded.
Taking advantage of this, a few of the forlorn hope
of Convocation assembled in the Jerusalem Cham-
ber on Thursday, and pretended that they were there
for despatch of business. They knew very well that
they were taking advantage of an accident, but they
still determined that they would make the most of
:L Their plot was signally defeated.
On arriving in the chamber they met nobody but
themselves at first. After a short delay comes Dr.
WORDSWORTH to the expectant party, who after,

we suppose, bidding them good morning, gave them
to understand that they had come on a fool's errand;
that although he had dropped in to look at
them, they must not think that he had anything tosay
—far from it. Nevertheless, he might mention by the
way that the Prolocutor—in lay language, the
Speaker—was staying with him as a friend, and
had requested him to say that it would not he expe-
dient for him (the Prolocutor) to attend, as there was
no House on account of the absence of the Arch-
bishop. In other words, Dr. PEACOCK, the Prolocu-
tor in question, who is known to be the most
amiable dignitary in the kingdom, hinted in a
roundabout way that the nineteen or twenty
gentlemen who were occupied—like the frogs
in the fable—in. the vain endeavour to inflate
themselves to the size of the great English Church,
had better depart without making an exhibition of
themselves. As the process of self-inflation is not by
any means an unpleasant one, these clerical repre-
sentatives of their fabulous predecessors begged with
great dignity to know why they were to
be squeezed down to their natural dimensions.
Could there be no House without the Arch-
bishop P Dr. WORDSWORTH believed not. The
Prolocutor had come to his house yesterday, and
sent a inane to Mr. Drxx, the Archbishop's Regis-
trar, to know at what time he (the Prolocutor) should
appear at the Jerusalem Chamber, to preside over the
important meeting of the Lower Chamber of the
Clergy of the Church of England. The answer was
a verbal one. Mr. DYKE was not ►t home; he was
not in London. A pretty menage when the exist-
ence of the Church of England was at stake. A gleam
of comfort, however, broke out. Dr. Woanswoara
had seen a letter directed to an offioer of the Church,
the purport of which he had no objection to commu-
nicate to the meeting. The writer had immured his
friend that the Archbishop would be there at three.
Fancy Colonel 811T1101P telling a score of the man.
bees of the House of Commons, assembled at the

commencement of the session, that it was uncertain
whether the SPIL&LER would be down at the
House to-day, but that a Mr. Joins had sent
a door-keeper of the House a prints letter
to my that the Quurt would be at the
House of Lords at three! There is very little doubt
that the members would cry out, like the members
of Convocation, that they had been treated with
very little courtesy, but at the same time there can
be no doub that the ;Hones of Commons being a
real thing, while the Hones of Convocation is a
phantom, the former would take oar* to have its
grievances redressed, while the latter must
put up with whatever measure of ridicule
attaches to its position. The termination of
the affair was worthy of the beginning. When
the Prolocutor met the recalcitrant members, he
good-humouredly smiled at their impatience. When
the Archbihaop met them at the appointed time, at
three o'clock, he prorogued them to the 10th of No-
vember without naming any hour for meeting ; and
in spite of the remonstrances of the members, refused
to appoint any. Does any advocate of Con-
vocation dare to flatter himself after this that
life will be breathed, into the old mummy of his
adoration ? Had Convocation been a real thing—had
its friends constituted a real power in the land—were
they the genuine repreeentants of the whole English
Church, would the Heads of that Church have dared
to treat it with such little respect ? Let them take
these events sea demonstration by fact of what we

have long endeavoured to persuade them by reason-
ing, that Convocation, in its old form at least, is ex-
tinct, and that they would be far better occupied in
breathing life into the actual movements of the
Church than ini endeavouring to impress a question-
able vitality upon it by the introduction of an anti-
quated organisation.

TUE VALUE OF LAND IN LAscssmaz.—The
Duke of Hamilton'. Lancashire estates were put up
to sale a few days ago, and the greater part dis-
posed of to local purchaser,. Upwards of 360,0001.
were realised by the sale, and the average rate of
purchase was quite 32 years.