The Express.
London, England, 1850-05-06 00:00:00

TO TILE EDITOII OF TEE D/LILT NEWS

Sin,—There is ore s tntente in the leading article
contained in your paper of yesterday, which te‘ms
to entitle me to make emu,• obseivations. Jo alluding
to the fact, that the Archbishop of Canterbury had
filed up a vacancy in the registrarship of the Prero-
gative Court, by appointicg his son to the second
reversion in the office, you nave termed it an act " of
' which the Bishop of Winchester is ashamed."
I presume veu infer this from the eircum-tance that
the Bishop of Winchester contradicted the report that
his son had Mtn appointed to the offi!e .n question.
Allow me to suggest that such an inference is not
deducible from that fact; and that although
the bishop was influenced by a natural wish to re-
move from the mind of the public an erroneous im-
pression respecting the future pecuniary position of
his son, the shame which you impute to him certainly
formed to part of his motives. Indeed, although Sir
Benjamin 1611, by giving an incomplete quotation
from my conversation with him, may have cAused an
impression that I myself disapproved of the appoint-
ment, I sincerely think that no one acquainted with
the real facts of the case can seriously attach any
blame to the tran,aotion.

A ;;cind deal has been made of the fact that the
vacancy was not filled up by the late l'rimate, but
the difference of his position from that occupied by the
present archbishop has not been stated. 1)r. Howley
had recommended the abolition of the of :e or reduc-
tion of the emoluments, and therefore might
probably feel that he could not with propriety nomi-
nate anyone to it at a time when his nominee would
have been entitled to compensation in the event of
the interference of parliament, as the act of 6 & 7
Will. IV., c. 77, which provided that appointments to
ecclesiastical offices after that date should not give a
I vested interest, expressly excepted the Pierogative
Court of Canterbury. The act of 10 & 11 Viet., e. 08, how.
ever (passed subsequently to his omission to appoint),
put things upon a different footing. That statute
pros ided that all subsequent appointments of eccle-
siastical officers, without any exception, should be
made subject to parliamentary revision, and should
not give the holder any claim to compensation.
After this act, of which the archbishop was well
aware, surely he was justified in filling up an office
legally vacant, neither is it fair to say of him that
because the office can be made a sinecure now, he
had any wish to throw the smallest obstacle in the
way of its reform, or "to attempt to screw out of the
church an ecclesiastical sinecure."
One word more, and I have dcne. Some dozen
years back the registrarship of Chester, the duties of
which up to that time had been performed by deputy,
became vacant. It was then in the power of the pre-
sent Primate to appoint one or both of his sons (who
were then, but have long ceased to be, minors) to
this office. His not having done so, however, seems
entirely inconsistent with that anxiety which you
impute to him, to secure for hie family the posses-
sion of lucrative offices, irrespective of age and fitness.
I trust to your well-known impartiality to give a
place in your columns to these remarks.—l am, &c.,
CHARLES SUMNER.
Temple, May 4, 1850.

MORNINGS AT THE MILLS.—No. HI.

Through the centre of a district which twenty
years ago formed the southern suburbs of Manchester,
runs a small but well-known stream, the Medlock.
As black as Styx, though not so famed in song, this
river is remarkable for two things—as being a
greater nuisance to the region which it traverses, and
as supplying the raw material of steam-power to a
greater number of works than any river of equal
magnitude in the world. In London we talk about
the filth of the Thames, and at the least discolourment
of the water, cry out mightily—as we have a right
and an interest in doing ; but the defenders of good
old and bad new abuses should see the Medlock, and
inhale a few of the rich aromas from its surface!
.

On the banks of this inky stream stand the Chorl-
ton
Mills, the which I am about to invite your readers
to visit with me this morning. These mills are not
very large, but, ff I mistake not, they present several
points of interest to a stranger, and to the men of
Manchester are not devoid of merit as an example of
what may bo dace by a couple of earnest-minded
men setting about their work in the true spirit, and
with aims beyond the mere a-cumulation of money.
In the history of these mills there is nothing very pe-
culiar : they were erected some forty years ago, when
the cotton trade was almost in its infancy, by a gen-
tleman of the name of David Holt, who made a large
[atone in a few years, which, unlike the generality
of his rivals, he soon found means to get rid of again.
The son of this gentleman has since migrated to Lon-
don, devoted himself to a different kind of culture,
and is just now ct.ming into public notice u • pro-
mising young poet. After a tew changes of fortune
the Churiton Mills came a few years back into the
hands of the present proprietors, William and David
i Morris.

But I have lingered long enough at the tbreshhold.
Let the reader now suppose himself at the gates of
the Chorlton Mills, in company with the writer and
Mr. David Morris, the managing partner. Passing ,
the gates, we enter a clean, narrow yard, between
two outbuildings detached from the main pile of fac- !
tory ; one of these, that on the left hand, is composed '
of the time-keeper's lodge, the counting-house, and the
private rooms of the two proprietors ; to the nature
and uses of the building on the opposite side I shall
have by-and-bye to direct your very particular atten-
tion. At the further end of the yard is the engine-
house. "You see," observed our guide, "how we
contrive by a simple arrangement to consume our own
smoke. This is an invention of my own ; it costs
very little minty at the first outlay, and in a
few days saves itself in coal. You see the