The Express.
London, England, 1867-11-07 00:00:00

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LONDON, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7.

ON Saturday, the 2nd of November, her
Msnurry was pleased to issue a Commission of
Inquiry into the Temporalities of the Irish Church
Establishment. Nine highly respectable noble-
men and gentlemen have been solemnly authorised
and enjoined to ascertain facts with which all the
world is accurately acquainted already. An
elaborate apparatus of detection is placed in
their hands " for the better discovery of truth"
in certain premises in which there now remains
nothing whatsoever to discover. They may
compel the attendance of persona and administer
oaths, enforce the production of records, and cross-
examine witnesses, just as if they were inquiring into
the secret iniquities of a Trade Union. One
thing they may nut do. They are not authorised,
as Mr. GY EREND and his colleagues at Sheffield
were, to give certificates of indemnity to persons
who may criminate themselves by their discic-
sures. A Rector who may be self-convicted of
sinecuriam—that is, of having no souls to cure
while he receives a large income for curing them—
will ask in vain for Lord STANHOPE'S certificate,
Happily, however, as the frankest candour can
reveal, so th 3 most stubborn ret;cence cc.n conceal,
nothing new oe important. The Census of 1861
and a series of Parliamentary returns have already
done the work of the Communion ; while the
controversies of the friends and antagonists of the
Establishment, debates in the House of Commons,
and articles in reviews and newspapers have popu-
larised the information thus obtained. The Royal
Commission will only systematize the facts and
figures which are now notork,us. It will give the
gold the guinea's stamp, and, without adding to
its intrinsic value, will make it current coin.
For a work of form and state, the members of
the Commission have been very fairly chosen. If
it were their business to investigate and report
upon questions of policy, or even to clear up
doubtful matters of fact, men of greater mark
than some of them, and representing a greater
variety of opinion, would have been essential to
the satisfaction of the public. It might fair'y
have been asked that the nomination of Sir JOHN
GRAY should balance that of Sir Jossra NAPIER,
and that Lord DUFFERIN should be the counter-
poise of Lord MF.ATII. But for the business of
giving shape and order and official recognition to
well-know n facta, the selection made by the Govern-
ment is perfectly free from objection. Earl
&Atmore is the very man for the head of a Royal
Commission of thiskind. Hewill adorn it, as he does
the presidency of the Literary Fund and the chair
of the Antiquarian Society, by a reputation in
which rank and letters are equally associated. The
author and the Earl might separately be over-
looked, but united, like the components of a
double star, they make up a considerable volume
of light. Lord STANHOPE is safe, moderate, im-
partial; something more than respectable in litera-
ture; not too distinguished or extreme in polities.
Out of this wood the heads of sham commissions
the trustees of museums, and the governors of
colleges, are carved—the holders of dignified
offices which are nearly, but not quite, honorary.
Dr. BALL, from his profession and official posi-
tion, knows more of the ecclesiastical affairs
of Ireland than most men ; Mr. Howl's has a tame
for Church affairs ; Mr. Clays; has cuiti,ated a
judicial mind in the ponce-corrt of Southwark, and
has gained administrative knowledge in the Home-
office; and Sir Josern Nsetsa's nomination will
soothe the excited apprehens;ons of the Irish
clergy, whose ready alarms do not evince a per-
fectly secure conscience. If little or nothing is
known of some other members, it must be remem-
bered that the presumption is strong that any
one who is not notorio.nly incapable will be equal
to the duties of a Commission whose instructions
authorise it to ascertain only that which is already
known, and debar it from entertaining the only
matters which make the Irish Establiahment a
subject of Imperial policy.
But though good is not detigned, good may
come of the investigation. It is possible that Mr.
DISK &ELI in " educating his party "on the Irish
Church question, as he boasts to have educated them
on the Reform question. Mr. Duntaam's later reti-
cence, and even his disclaimers, if he have made any,
afford no reason at all for supposing that he has
altered his early opinions. We know now that he
Dever really abandoned his youthful radicalism
on the subject of the franchise ; that
his lips swore, but not his mind, to the creed of
Toryism which he openly professed. He has edu-
cated his party in secular politics, as the decoy
duck or rogue elephant educates the wild flock
or herd into the snare ; and why should he not
repeat the game in ecclesiastical politics ? Lord
DERBY probably has no such deep project. To post-
pone for a year or twos question which might lead
to his being " ousted from office" is most likely the
sum of his diplomacy. But things sometimes have
a force in themselves, quite apart from the inten-
tions of the persons who wield them. The
Irish Church is like one of those decrepit
buildings which may stand for a time if they are
let alone, but which inevitably fall about the
ears of any ono who touches, though it be to
repair . them The Royal Commission is to inquire
into the temporalities of the Irish Church as a