The Express.
London, England, 1849-11-03 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, SATURDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 3, 1849.

have been suggested by spite and despair. -in fact, it
is a nounterblast to the Montreal petition, equally de-
fiant and reckless--eqsally devoid of *Weise
sense, or principle—equally bsirayikg tbs best r
rests, pesos, and dignity of. Zngieni sod '

7 '

Tore iledestrions chronicler of royal dinners and
drives, eteallost councils and visits to ministers of
state, the Omit Newsman, has informed the public
tastes the 31st of last month " The Eadesiasticel
01011111111flefiers for England bad a general meeting at
their. ellem in Whitehall-place."
How saw of the bishops
Iy came to town to cube,
sesedni. which of the official commissioners wee
present, wt what wee the business transactedAirises
mot of course state. For these are sll partisan's]
studiously concealed: though there la everyireason cm
earth why they. 'tumid be made as patent to the'
asontry ea is similar information on every other
breech of its affairs, from the deliberations of pads- I
met down to the squabbles of parish nitrite. I
Bat, as the Home Secretary came to Low
y.
doe a few days previousl and as Sir Gleoaos
GIST is both by office and by personal ajpointinent a
member of the commission, it is very much to be
hoped that he attended this " general meeting."
Why, is obvioes enough.
A very swims dotalcation in the funds of the
Ecclesiastical Commission has, it has been asserted
without oontradiction, been discovered. The indivi-
dual who miewropriated these funds has, it is further
stated, confessed to the board the tread of which he
has bees guilty ; and so far from any criminal steps
having hese taken against him, he has, it is added,
been presented by an Episcopal Commissioner, in the
=of his colleagues, with a coigne for a °mai-
seta of money. Such is the statement that
boo foe sees weeks born allowed to circulate unoon-
tradicted in the best circles of London scciety ; until
at last it has become generally creoited.
Now, if the statement be correct, a crime of no
ordinary magnitude has been perpetrated. A person
high in the confidence of the Ecclesiastical Commis-
sion mast (assuming its accuracy) have committed a
meet scandalous breach of trust, and have defrauded
the church of money confided by parliament to the
safe keeping of its prelates, to be by them applied in
the mitigation of that " spiritual destitution " which
has for years been the scandal of the church of Zee-
land. What criminal proceedings have been takes
by the Ecclesiastical Commission against the °Seeder P
As Sir GEOROB GREY is by office at the head of the
criminal pollee of the country on the one hand, sad
as he ir, both in his public character and in his private,
capacity, a guardian of the funds of this commissiseel
we press this question on his attention.
If no fraud have been committed it is due to Its
character of the officers of the commission that $
formal and authentic contradiction should be gives to
the report in question. While if a fraud hive ban
committed, it is indispensable to justice that the
offsnd.r should ba prosecuted. If the Ecclesiastical
Commiasioneis can pass ovi r unnoticed an offence of
this sort, the funds of the church can no longer be
safely entrusted to them. For, while hitherto Job-
bery has been the sum of the charges made against
their management of those funds, immunity to
this fraud on their parts will render them personally
and individually responsible in morals for peculation.
It is bad enough to have the fonds squandered
in palace building, in laying oat and adorn-
ing episcopal gardens, in exchanging episcopal
estates, and in paying episcopal stipends corrupting
in amount; but, in addition, to have the funds de-
frauded with impunity is intolerable. If the bishops
and the Home Secretary can endure such a state of
things, the House of Commons will not ; and a few
months' cloaking and concealing the matter will only'.
aggravate a are that must come under the considera-
tion of
_parliament as soon as it ass mbles.
Sir 0 GORGE GREY is, we submit, bound either to
give • contradiction to the statement that the funds
of the Ecclesiastical Commission have been defrauded,
or to take some Moots to vindicate the law, if no such
contradiction can be given to the statement.
And the state of doubt which has been allowed to
exist on this question exhibits a radical detect in the
management of the Ecclesiastical Commission. Its
whole proceedings, all its deliberations, the subjects
under its consideration, the personages who sway its
councils the reasons that influence its decisions, are
all enveloped in secrecy. All that those meet inter-
ested in the multi of its measures know of them is
when they are published in the London Gazette as
the law of the land. Yet their poeerr, and the exec-
eise of those powers, are, in the strictest sense of the
word, legislation—subordinate legislation, legislation
in detail, if the commissioners choose, but still legis
Wien. Now, legislation in secrecy is opposed alike
to the constitution of the coat try, and to the spirit
of the age in which we live. It municipal as- I
positions are obliged to conduct all their
affairs in open courts; if county magistrttes
cannot spend a penny of the county rates in private,
surely the FA el.sostical Commisioners ought to be
equally amenable to publicity. The best administra-
tion LI church funds is surely as fit a subject for
public opinion to be brought to bear upon as poor
rates. Nay fitter ; for while the poor-rate is in its
amount fluctuating, the legislation of the Ecclesiastical
Commission is in its name permor.ent.
Nor has the legislation of drt commission escaped
the vice inherent in secrecy. It is one muss of Job-
bery ; it includes, doubtless, some good measures,
some substantial improvements ; but not a m-asure
that would not have been stilt better, not an improve-
ment that would not have been still more substantial,
bad publicity attended its proceedings. Under the
influence of pub:iciry, the division of its funds would
have been unknown, palace building would have been
checked in is (oleic, such scandalowi abase of church
revenues as that perpetrated at Bialpip Wearmouth
would never have been attempted, and in all human
probability defalcations in the funds would never have
occurred.
To the other reforms indispensable in this commis-
sion publicity of its proceedings must then be added.

COXWUNICATION BETWEEN RAILWAY CARRIAGES
wins tx Mortote.—The Railway Clearing Rouse Com-
mittee, at which all the leading railway companies are
represented by their chairman or other delegate, have, it
appears, at the suggestion of Capt. Haigh, urged upon the
railway companies the importance of giving facilities for the
guards walking safely along railway trains when in motion,
by which slaw, it is said, accidents may often be averted.
flit, it will be remembered, WM the plan carried out by Mr
Wyndham Harding, on the Bristol and Gloucester Railway,
some years age, where it was the means of preventing several
secants. It was also, after oomminicating with Mr. Hard.
ing and receiving a great number of suggestions as to the
best means of communicating between guards and drivers of
railway train*, selected by the railway commini mere in
1847, as the system of communication butt promising success.
It is to be hoped that it will now be generally carried oat.
In the event of a carriage or truck catching fir., of as axle
heating, a door d %lug open, or even suspicion that anything
is way, the gaud 'mild be able to get to say part of a
train at once.

FOWL STRALERS CAPTOR= DT AID Or A BLOOD-
MOUND —Oa Sunday morning last, Mr. Robinson. of the
Shaw House, Melbourne, discovered the lois of some choke
fowls, and appearano s warranted the suspicion that they
had been stolen. The bloodhound (the property of the
Melbourne Association, and kept on Mr. 11.'s premises)
was taken, with his chain snitcher', to the spot, sad it was
evident he mould soon give some amount of the thieves. An.
cordingly the police was summoned, and bet little time
elapsed before the dog was again laid on the seent, and at
great used, sad with mach music, he went away in the
dandies of Tioknall, midway between which place and
Melbourne they discovered the skins. heads, leer, An,
strewed is the centre of the highway. Here the hound was
somewhat at fault, bat again he took the sc-nt, and in a
short time sea ed:d is forcing two of the depredators
late an apple tree on the outskirts of Ticknall ; so terror
MffillitAS were they, that they were speedily secured and
summed to Melbourne, where the younger of them made
a dean breast of it, by confessing. They had taken the
fink (four in number) about 11 o'clock on the previous
usaing, teem in the roost, end ski.ined them where
the Alas, Ao.„ wer• found ; they then proceeded to a brick-
yard in Ticklish, and broiled them on the top of the kiln,
this on flee; the gormandizers (whose names are James,
Hull, sad Lent), then ate the greater part of them, having
previously pariah, a of a hewing each while the fowls wen
molting. Oa Junes being wilted how they relished their
sleazily tepid, he replied the fowls were very " smok a;
Fr the evidence of a boy bird-tenting in a fled KJo
the Breadeteete Game, it appears the thieves were with him
whoa the cry of the bound was first hued, and that they
immediately ran with all speed in the direction where they
were secured. An old mum was gathoting apples foe her
dinner under the tree they so uneetentotioutly mounted, sad
eta the could elicit ea explanation of their conduct their pur-
sues were upon them. One of the three offenders is still at
large, sad the others stead committed to the sessions for trial.
It is worthy of remark, that ever since the hound became
the property of the Association, not a single cam of sheep
stealtog has oecutred in the parish. although this was a
Winos agate patviessly.—D:rbitshirs Chronicle.