The Express.
London, England, 1856-09-27 00:00:00

clue the beneficed clergy fors oft of the most lade
pendent bodies is the astka ; u s stipeadiery eke

they would beams ass of the most servile. Is Eng
land the beneficed clergymen is =soh more mad
much better than a mere priest. Hs takes his place
sarong the gentry, be becomes the centre sad
re-
pceitory of information and intelligence la hie perish,
he interests himself in its temporal affairs as well as
in its spiritual—in its roads, its cultivation, its
industry, as well se its poverty, its religion, its
morality. No one who looks at the thing with a
spirit of philoeopkie good sense OM doubt that there
is melt good in all this. The amines of incumbents
are, we admit, unequal, but so are income in
all professions; and to mauves: to remove that
inequality in the ease of the beneficed clergy,
by petting them upon equal allowances of Trea-
sury pay, would be a great mistake mid a gnat
misfortune;

Bub woo to Imo bore tits fooling of the Con-

moos Committee on the Booleeleaticar Commissions
he., eve, which Lord Joint Bestow. so usefully and
laboriously resided lest session ; for in their Report,
prepared by Lord Joan, a check is given to the ma-
dam observable in legislation of late years to make
the bishops stipeadiaries of a ChnuMmion of which
they are all members. By the In resolution it is
declared "desirable that landed estates sallicient to
afford the clear statatory income clench bishop should
be secured to each see." This is a priori* to
which we can heartily subscribe la the interests of
freedom and independent*. The spirit et prieethood
is a spirit with which we an contend when it is
a mere manifestation of the clergy t but when the
spirit of priesthood fashions and writer' itself to poll.
tied servility, as is now the saes is France, thss,
indeed, there is danger. At present these is in Bap-
land an useful independence in the clerical profemica•
This independent', arises very much from the manner
in which and the source from which they derive their
taoomana and say approach to State galena would,
we fear, be an approseh to that fatal system of Go-
vernment in which the State is everything and the
people nothing.

Ws beg leave to draw the attentkm at oar nadirs
to a letter on Reformatories, which we publish is
another part dour impreedon. We say an well say
at ease that nothing, exempt the eminently respectable
character tithe journal with which the writer of the
letter in bemoaned. himself as having for several
years been one it its chief astribators, would
have induced um to nodes arguments, which seem to
carry on the fare of them their own refuta-
tion. We us unwilling, however, that any-
thing so aboard should appear in our alumna
under sanction of so respectable a same in journalism
es
the Romanist, without at least a protest on oar
part. Let us state the theory of the writer in his
own woods. It is this: "Society, like the formation
of the globe, geologically speaking, is a great natural
phenomenal, which has bees hoar the beginning of
tines, and still is, in progress of development. 0
this great theory the kaiseeleire, me of Ist" esocen,-
tally applied to anameres, is a part, a esessquesoe,
and an illustratios." " With this theory," he
continua, " penal jurisprodesee is as nosh
in undid as eorn-laws or any other arti-
ficial regulations, all of which are rote*.
time as intimsli7." Roan &mesas l Pena
furisprudenos a restriction on industry I Om one
demeripdou of industry no doubt it is I on that branch
of it, to wit, which is not generally known amongst
uas an industrial ormtpation, but which in France
has given to prelassional pickpockets the hosourable
style of chermiers diadadrie. To Paid Inrisprudenos,
then, as a barbarous and unselightened
meat on the great diet:lse of laisees-faire, the
writer in the Beoacepoist objects, and be a opposed
to Reformataise ter the 'somewhat iaoonsistent

reason " that they are iatemded to midgets soars of
tbe evil oonstimmess" of the rad system he d►

Now, doubtim, them is s somewhat imposing

appearance of philosophy in the theory that the social.
like the physical, world is in a state of growth and
development, the progress of which can no more be
modified by beam effort than "the growth of coral
or the deposits of Nand." It is not indeed a very
elevated or elevating system, its shortest formula
being the epigrammatic; answer of Topsy to the well-
intentioned Twist who wished to probe her theory
of being,—" Well, I 'epees I glowed se." Bat this is a
minor matter—whether sublime or grovelling is not
the point. The real gaieties is, What does the doc-
trine involve I to what does it lead j to what sheer-
&ties in spesalatloa ; :to what; solecisms in prao-
tiro f The same argument that will serve to
show Penal Jarisprudence to be unphilosophiesl,
may be employed with equal success against every
sanction which mankind has ever agreed to regard as
eased. If lotion:fairs be the only true wisdom,
then Law, Morality, and Religion, are so many grand
mistakes. Law le an infringement on the natural
liberty of eelf-will. Morality and Religion alike in-
terfere with the free trade in sin and the spontaneous
development of depravity. In a word, onus attempt
to establish sea Ms of life that Society develops
itself atter a fashion which no human effort can
modify, and you do away at once, not only with penal'
jurisprudence, bat with every other remedial pro-
ems, physical, metal, or spiritual, to which man
hes ever had recourse as a refuge against the ills of
life.

We are well content to let the matter rest on this
footing. An argument against Reformatories, based
on principles which equally tell, if pushed to their
iegteat coasequenossApinst Law, Religion, and Mos.
lit 7, is sufficiently answered when those inevitable ona.
sequences are pointed oat. Reformatories are estab.
Naked an the aissasption that the mind of the human
being does not develop itself like the coral or the sea
sand, in obedient* to certain Axed laws of growth, but
that it may be meal upon by the remedial Mucosa
of moral and religious sanctions. It Is sufficient for
as that aver sinew man has existed on this
planet the whole homework of society has rested
on a similar asesuptios, and if the result has
been that the past history of oar species bas in eons,.
queues been one long infringement of the great doo-
trine of laws/aim we most, we fear, be content
to continue in our barbarism, and, tesigaisg the phi
losophy of geological growth, to Maui firm in oar

oldieshioned. reliance on the preventive Mangey of
law, and the sanative tendencies of Moral and
Reli-
giose training. If Reformatories have no more tormi.
deb`.• adversary to cops with than the writer in the
Economist, the public opinion of their utility is in no
great danger of being shaken.

The electors and inhabitants of Analwoh have just
prooDatod Llod (ho. Piet, their roproestotho in poth
mast, with a congratulatory seldom on hie retsina from SIN
Crises.

Ths Italian cailo, Folios Orsini, with whose meet
remarkable Neaps fie as Amities dupes the public(
must be so familiar, is stoat to make a tear of the pro-
visoes, with Om view of deliveries haute a• the outs of
Italy. His Met Ware will be delivered at Brighton ant
Tuesday week.

The Agricultural Goals says s machine for
dipprise pesetas has bees lataly la nearside.' °wallas la
several parr at Beellead sad Ireland.