The Express.
London, England, 1849-06-28 00:00:00

the removal, as was undentood, of those objections ;
that the amendments when printed, instead of re-
moving, greatly strengthened and increased their ob-
jeci:ons ; and that Low, when the PtiOlo Minister
Inds a measure so objectionable cannot be cirried
without a serious and determined opposition, to has
tartar d iouud and th: enteced t hat, un less the opposition
bs withrbawn, be will place the bill in that long list
of =ISOM which ministers will Lot make any effort

to VW.
Such, in brief, has been the course pursut d this
session by Lord Joust Russet'. of Church Reform.
It is one which has eirtainly the merit of having
peralys d the exertions of the church refo.mers in the
Look ; not, hower.r, by good measures—not by
skilful tactics, nut even by political management—bat
simply by bed faith. Toe goveromeut allured their
seetldecate first by a b.ll which, thouoh sadly
bin& eat, had nevertheless the principle or seeds of
preston in it; then procured their acquiescence in
arlay, by promising a thorough discussion of it, until
time ono public business were at issue, by listening
favoemble to their auggestions fur its improvement;
afterward- gave notice of amendments which they
were tutigl.t to believe trotted be their own; next pro-
duied &Aerations, which mode a measure originally'
bad a great deal worse ; and now attempt to throw
cm those they have thus deceived the re-ponsibility of
*neither Ninon cles'ng with ut the smaArat modicum
of reform. Saco cunduc: is not, we repeat, skilful ;
it does nut deserve the description of tactics; it is
nothing more ucr 'coo than a chscieditable piece of
faithlissress, which wit sooner or later recoil on its
practisers.
But the case spinet the present government does
not re to here. Ito their teem sion to power they
found eublte opinion—tiiat iv, the opinion ef all who
hail stud ed, nick stood, or were interested in the
subject—made up on the necemity of attiring the
composition of the Ecclesiaatie_l Commeniom
Whilst in oppositi in, no one had denounced that body
ISMS! loudly than Sir Geonoe GREY, himself a COW
minim.' r ; and to some alteration hot he and Lord,
June stied decks c )(undue.' to the it politied friends.'
In order, however, to ensure (as was said) suc-
cess to any masons for its improvement, it was
arranged that the subject should be referred to a
select committee; sad in 1817 a committee war, on
Pile. EVELYN DENIPION's motion, spooieted. With
its spit it tment mtnimerial boksliding commenced ;
for no ammo was placed on the committee withent the
approval of the late Primate, and on it wore five
Ecclesiastic.' Conim'esimeis. It took, however (and
from the members and officers of the comeniseior, too),
a mass of most conclusive evidence ; in short, 0 c evi-
dence in favour of a great charge was complete. It.
1514 ministers 'kcal*, still more afraid of the subject;
and, in spite of the remonstrances of the 'cattalo
church rt f owes, they insisted on the re-appointment
of the cominitt e. It was rc-appointel; sod this
session, toe committee mods a rtipurt on the evidence,
it had takes. Tee report was indeed a compromise—
the cheich reformers not premiog their e xtren e opi-
nions—but leo strong was the testimony that the nomi-
nees of the chinch were obl:gad to give way; sad
the repot, if not a siatos'actory, was, at all events, are
moan m us one. Though it did cut, as it ought, te-
come- end a cowl tete remodelling of the eonimiosiue,
it condi nailed it I FateiNhaildin4 enormities, the se-
parati mof the tp.scopil Ltd common funds, and
other miller aim Ai; mad, f r the:r future c erection,
it segoestad the oppeintmetit of three pail lay tom-
minion. re to neeiage the property entrusted to the
adminiorai ion of the minmia•i :n.
The i' te•itioe Anil ohject of the committee were to
ploy, that pr le r'y substantially in lay Lands; to
coast tu e a paid c office reloosible to parliament for
it. sdm' istrut im ; and ti comic the responsibility of
this edits: by m eking all its officers removable. Woilst
iatrodecing tbio great improvement the committee
were willing to I. ate the purely ecclesiastical bu.i-
mem to be de, ....id of by the Owed as at pe.sent com-
posed; and there the bishops are supreme. This
espedoest, though not the best which could have been
devised, heed at least oat advantage: in the lay ;rid
eommissii.nera the public tad security for bate r
toanagement of the i reperty ; in the siorimacy o'
the bishops in matters welt siestical, the clergy woold
have cootliente. A return to the original oompoition
of the eocleoisitical commission, where the bishi pe
were as five to eight Inynoen, would, with the addition
of the lay paid outumimioners, have been much pre-
ferable to the proposal of the committee. Still their
recommendatioas had the merit of simplicity, and
would have been an obvious improvement : for as two
of the paid commissioners had to be appoheed 17
the crown, sr ono by the primate; so the pubhe
would have had a merrity of two to one.
This recommendation Lord JOHN Ittlise:Lt.'s bill, as
originally introdui ed, seriously damaged, hut, as altered
in c manatee, effectually nullified. Its principle 010
viotoly was that of three paid COIUMiSUOU.TS to
manage the propeety, Now, the original bill ap-
pointed only two rid commissioners—one a crown,
the otl.er a ciiurch c onmissioner ; hut the altered bill
only nominates one paid commis inner. Thus the
pinciple of the committee's recommendation is frit- '
tered away ; in Lord Jons's hands it becomes "small
by degrees and beautifully less." In ono paid com-
matinee r neither the public nor the clergy will have
any erouri y fi.r the better management of the, pro-
perty. this coninissiont r will he just as much in the
hands of the irremoveable officers of the commie-
sioners as all the lay members of the board now are. I
And, as if this were not sufficient, the paid commie-1
Mauer has to beat the mercy of an estates committee,
where the episcopal iefluence must orevail. I
Let it not b i thought that this is a light mitts?
There is at stake an am nut of property involved which I
under the worst management, will produce not
less than 320,000/. a year, and which, on air detect,
NUM ;meat, would certainly produce 400,0001. a ye sr
For the improvement sod management of this pro-
perty, responsibility is above ail things required. But
responsibility without remuneration is a delusion;
and each is the complexity and var:ety of the pro-
perty hi question, that its administration by one paid
commissioner is a physical impossibility. Such an
appointment is a mere avoidance of good manage-
ment and re.ponsib.lity ; it will amount practically
to a confirmation of episcopal mismanagement.
The present embarrassment arises primarily from
the false step taken in 1810. In that year the whig
government, to conciliate the political support of the
I episcopal bench, gave the bishops supremacy in the
Ecclesiastical Commission ; that supremacy hits be-
gotten all the jobbery, the palace building, the s me-
ntion of funds, and the other enormities we have
so repeatedly exposed ; and the difficulty now is
how to abate it. Up to 1840, the composition
of the Ecclesiastical Commission was in the
main satisfactory ; as we have said, it
was made up of flee bishops and eight
laymen, and all ISM removable. But into
a statute passed in 1840 (3 &4 Vic., e. 113),tocarry out
the fourth report of the commission, was slipped a
clause (not recommended in that report), under
which the present commission is composed of thirl7l
clerical against twenty. lay members, and all (their ,
officers included) are irremovable. Aed since that '
year, palace building has been going oe. Now the
bill, original and amended, of Lord JOHN Russell.,
shows how hopeless is the improvement of the com-
mission lust i l the episcopal supremacy therein be abated.
Had the commission at present stood as originally
composed, there would have been no difficulty in in-
troducing into it three paid commissioners, as recant-
mended by the committee; but, altered as it has been
by the act of 1510, Lord Jon Russcu, quails before
its priesteraft.
Church reform in 1849 is, then, hopeless; hopeless,
of the cowardice and faithlessness of the go-
vernment. Whether the eau.° will be more enmes-
h' in IB.A, when the church reformers have learnt to
rely on their own strength more, and on ministerial
promises Is time will eteow.

THE STATE Pusosnas.—Smith O'Brien and the
other three state prisoners will be eent to Van Dimes's
Led in her Majesty's ship Swift, ordered to the Pas&
'tabor.— Standard.
OBSEIVANCE Or THE SABBA'fa.-011 Tuesday, the
competitors for the Waking Men's Prize Essays on the Ob.
servant, of the Sabbath, resident in the Leeds district, held
a public meeting in the Mamie Mall of that town, to promote
the proper observance of the sabbath. There was a very
numerous attendance of the friends of the cause. J. H.
Shaw, Esq., the mayor of Leeds, presided, mud several =Mis-
ters sad influential townsmen were present. The chains 's,
in opening the proceedings, expressed the pleasure it afforded
him in being able to attend, and having the honour to
preside at the meeting. Hie worship then proceeded
to take into consideration the various privileges which
the Sabbath held out to men, physically and manly,
setting Meth some of the ligaments which have used by the
writers of the various essays, proving that the Sabbath was
truly the Pearl of Days."—Several addresses were after-
wards delivered, sad resolutions adopted in furtherance of
the object of the meeting.