The Express.
London, England, 1850-01-16 00:00:00

the worse; though for neither are the
rescsible.
Bishop of Msxcniterza. hos, by arossatiung tbst
cries of soots shall be attaehed to Zhu Damery and two
of the Canuries of Manchester, admitted the principle
of the Chsidgfed ratil.iti 1.5 neaforin
return for parochial income. With what consistency
duty in
can Dr. Las then impose such duty on three
of these dignitaries," and relieve other tae
from all duty f This palpable inconsistency is,
however, only another proof of how hopeless
it is to expect any plan of thorough eccle-
siastics' reform from episeoyil bands. Here was
• measure prepared by tch he urch laity of Man-
chester foe the conversion of an indecent aide-
siestical abuse into a scheme of church improvement
and assfuloess ; and, as the price of their Bishop'' &t-
-sent to any part of their plan. they are compelled,
much against their inclination, to leave a job in the
measure. The church laity of Manchester desire,
above all things, the abolition of ecclesiastical sine-
cures in that city ; the Bishop of MAN-
CHESTER insists on the retention of two ecclesiastical
obscures : both to be in his gift. The
contrast is not a pleasant one. It pro-
' yokes the thought that Manchester would, after
all, have been much better without a bishop than with
one: for while the churchwardens are propping up
the church therein with what Sir J. GRAHAM exile
buttresses," Dr. Lea appears bent only on " orna-
menting" the tottering fabric. There is little real
wisdom, and rot much worldly discretion in this.
It remains, however, to be si en whether parliament
will tolerate the sinecures the Bishop of MANCHESTER
is resolved to perpetuate.
Church "dignitaries are, as such, the most useless
of all human beings. They are almost invariably plu-
ralists, generally slothful, always overpaid ecclesiastics.
Let us, par exam Ale, take ear old friends the dean
and chapter of and see what they do for
their money; for that is the2toohester, only true test of the value
of such personages and such offices. As "digni-
taries," they hare not, of course, any cure of souls :
that is beneath their dignity : all they have to do is '
to reside two months in the year in their cathedral
houses, and preach occasionally in their cathedral
cruses,. The return they give to the church for the
fine incomes the church gives them is, therefore, ser-
mons—be those discourses good or bad, edifying or
somnolent. To find out their worth, their incomes
must then be divided by the number of sermon. they
annually preach. Taking the year 1849 as an ave-
rage specimen of cathedral duty, the fallowing is the
result of such a division in the case of the dean and
five canons of Rochester Cathedral:
Mr. Dean preached 21 genuine, at £66 13 4 a sermon.
Canon lniaa , 15 „ 62 0 0 „
Canon nankin; 16 „ 42 10 0 „
Canon Griffith+ 13 ~ 52 6 0 „
Canon Ling „ 10 ~ 68 0 0 „
Canon 'Lochs= 0 „ 6130 0 0 ,
This is what cathedral " dignitaryisin" is worth at
Rochester. And it is something similar to this, that
the Bishop of MaxcuasTEn sate to lerpetuate on a
smaller scale in his city. For, the churchwardens
scheme fully provides for all parochial duty in the
cathedral church ; yet the bishop insists that two of the
canons shall not, u such, have aught to do elsewhere.
Go to what episcopal city you will, tbereyou will find
the bishops surrounded, and paused by, cLuith
sinecorists; and Dr. LEE appears determined that he
snail be no exception to the general rule. More's the

pity.
Alas when will the Church of England ever be
blessed by a real bishop ? Never, we are persuaded,
until their huge incomes be reduced, and their seats ier
parliament be taken from them.
The original scheme of the churchwardens proposal
to yea the large property of the church in Manchester
in local trustees, whcse duty it would have been to
have improved Its value. But this important part of
their plan must, it is found, be abandoned. And why ?
&cause, in parliamentary parlance, the bill as said to
bee " private bill ;" and the legislature requires cer-
tain lengthened notices to be given to all persons whose
property may, by any remote possibility, be affected
by " private " legislaticn ; and, in this case, the re-
quved notices have not been given to the rectory
lessees. Now, to call a measure fur the reform of the
cnnrch in Manchester, and consequently for
the promotion of religion and piety therein
" a private bill " is simply an abuse of language; for
it is a measure touching public interests and public
concerns altogether. let, under the present parlia-
=ovary system, it will have to be promoted with
much the eame legal machinery and staff as that with
which a Chancery suit is carried ern Solicitors and
counsel ; lawyers bills and barristers fees ; a private
committee, long speeches, days of evidence, opposing
counsel, and heavy parliamentary fees, are the means
by which it is to be got through parlia-
ment; as if it were a railway extension
bill, or an act to enable Lord GLENGALL to
raise money on settled property. So that the
churchwardens of Manchester, to enable them
to promote a bill to reform the church in their city,
have been obliged to ask for an " optional church-
rats" of twopence in tae pound. Now, surely there
is something so manifestly irrational in treating this
'measure as a piece of private legitlation, that the
glaring absurdity will at lost induce the House of
Commons to lay down some more reasonable and less
expensive rules of distinction between what really are
I public though local, and what are manifestly private
bilis.
So much for the principal statements made at the
meeting. Now for a few words on a point which was
not referred to there.
The dissenters of Manchester (to whom religion
may he said to owe almost everything in that city,
and who yet provide more than double the church
accommodation that the establishment does) with
great good taste and feeling have abstained from taking
any part in the discussion of this matter. They have
not offered, and, as we hear, do not intend to offer,
any opposition to the Cburchwardens BilL Now their
abstinence from any hostility, so creditable to them,
renders it imperative on the promoters of the mea-
sure to take care that none of its details shall infringe
on the rights which dissenters have, by their own
spirit and determination, acquired in Manches-
ter, and that it gives them every security for the
future maintenance of those rights. In Manchester,
the dissenters have practically Fettled the church
rate question by rendering a voluntary rate impossi-
ble, aed by defying the church to lay on a minority
rate. Church rates in Manchester are now merely
" optional ;" they are assessed by the churchwardens for
the repairs of the parish church, and are paid by such
only as please. Under tie system of compulsory
church rates nearly 6,0001. a year was raised; but
stone the "optional " system was introduced in 1835
the following have been the receipts:
1836 .. £1,157 2 10 1842 .. £l,llB 18 11
1836 .. 1,170 8 0 1843 .. 1,031 2 1
1837 .. 1,327 11 4 1844 .. 1,043 2 6
1838 .. 1,646 0 8 1845 .. 1,086 13 9
1839 .. 1,538 '2 6 1846 .. 1,098 1 6
1840 .. 1,421 5 0 1847 .. 1,051 13 11
1841 .. 1,3'29 1 3 1848 .. 828 210
From these figures it will be sees that the amount
der iv d from "optional church-rates" is falling off in
Manchester, paitly, no doubt, from the present
churchwardens having thrown the support of the
district churches on the district congregations, and
consequently not requiring such large muds as their
predecessors ; but partly also from the increasing
dislike of church-rates in acy shape. This falling
off has, very naturally, made some of the lead-
ing dissenters anxious on the subject; and they
apprehend that the division of the parish may
in some way or other lead to the ruvital of com-
pulsory church rates. Now, though we think that
rip best security against any such consequence of the
division is the superior power of the dissenters ia-
Mancherer ; and that the Churchwardens Bill has ne
such tendency,--indeed, it contemplates, and provides
tor, at no distant period, the legal extension el
church rates in Manchester—stilt we feel that It
further security on this poiut can be given to the dis-
senters of Manchester, they are richly entitled to it :
not only because of their services to religion. but
from the handsome manner in which they have
received the Churchwardens' Bill.

LITERAST Goestr.—Dickens will start i weekly
joarasl in Much, and tie Is: of thy, sass swath Magi's
Jerroid will prodoos the first number of a new maintain*.
A new sa knit publication is Min( organised, Kenn)
Meadows in to liI4W br it, and the lit. tary eA.tributor- are
m. a. f moms •tsudina. The tile ileac!, upon is Paquin.
The firs. number will spa' sr on the 18:h it st. Mr. Dangler
i.m.,dy s mew nearly reedy fir tha aterti it .41
be oridursti a• t''e lisymstk e,u,s- of 'testis's
.-I,orsoos Currapondeta of the Manchester Examiner,

A.FILLEUOLD LAND SOCIETY, after the Liverpool
sr dtl, t n“w is wane a organicolos to Cokhister. A
regUtet as beak •••ted. and o rt,he mooing wAI b. Ma