The Express.
London, England, 1850-07-23 00:00:00

bility to core of male, iheDeesaud chapter 03,,g,kn0y
expressed an expectation of being 1010 assesseful fa
their opposition " elsewhere." Bat " elsewhere" has
treated them just as roughly as they ware used in the
lower ea gloss of legislation. The Lards' Ownatittes had
gaits as little sympathy fee Meese eeelesiastic as the
Commas' , and a Braemar, economy ; for,
lagtbe lawyers with their piles of papserth=
lIIARROWST aid the other peers on the mew
mimes seek the matter in hand withestaayembeselly
obstreetioe to business; and, gang three. the
clauses like men of sense reported the meanie to the
house unaltered is essentials and improved mission-
ally in phraseology. A bishop, it is true, *master-
istically attempted in the committee to damage a
measure promoted by the laity; aid Lord BrionrimaM,
actuated as usual al motives, frowned on
and threatened thelsill*Ze: in the house. But our
exposure of the spiritual lord's job effectually stopped
it, and, on second thoughts, the lord temporal kept his
friendship for the canons to himself. The bishops
I have been too much damaged by discussions in the
Commons, to encourage Lord BROUGHAM to extend 'I
his vagaries to ecclesiastical topics in the Lords.
Henceforward, then, Manchester will be free from
ecclesiastical sinecures, and the wealth of the church
be applied to the cure of souls in that city. Hems-
forward the dean sod canons of that cathedral aerie
will, in their character and by virtue of their Awe
as such, be the fore moat of the welding and parochial
clergy of Manchester. liencefocward, we say, be-
cause, though the present dean and canon are not
compelled to become incumbents under the act,
it can hardly be supposed that they will,'
alter what has occurred after the solemn
decision of the two Houses of Parliament,
that their charters do not exempt them from pare-
child duties, continue to take their large stipends
without fulfilling the obligations of their offices. So
we cannot doubt but that Dean Bowan aid three of
the canoes at least (the fourth, Mr. PARKINSON'S, in
a hopeless ease), will immediately assume cure of
souls in proper districts of the city. Thus occupied,
they will be much better engaged than in reading
Mr. OASTLER'S speeches ; and for any loss of cathedral
"dignity" they will be richly compensated in the respect
and affection of their parishioners. Less than this
cannot be expected from clergymen in their respon-
sible and highly-paid positions.
The benefits to be derived by Manchester from the
operation of the Act will, cf emu's, be gradual, and,
it may be, slow; for they depend on the growth of
the cathedral income. At present there is little or se
surplus applicable to the purposes of the statute. Bat
with a property, the green rental of which is
to local rates at 34,0001. a year, on which tbere is a
considerable area that may still be advantageously
let for building, and on which many of the older
losers are running out, the prospect of an increasing
surges is very encouraging ; and it will be the duty of
the new machinery introduced into the Ecclesi-
astical Commission to look very narrowly into the
management of a property now applicable to such
important object.. But it is not merely by the ap-
plication to parochial purposes of the increasing sur-
plus of the cathedral property that this sot will
benefit Manchester; it will give in that city a stimu-
lus to personal and individual muaificenee and liber-
ality in the promotion of religious instruction. Already
a report reaches us that the church laity of Mac-
chester mean to celebrate the enactment of the
statute by the erection and endowment of a new
church and ecclesiastical district. And this appropriate
mode of celebrating that event will, in its turn,
produce correspoeding efforts on the part of the
diameters, to whom, in times past, religion in Man-
Mester owes far more than it does to the established
church ; and thus from the zeal of one religious sect,
the energy and activity of others is promoted and
excited to the common benefit of all classes.
In leaving this subject, it would be very unjust to
Dr. Lee not to record the sense entertained of his
isonduct in promoting the bill by a journal not given
to praise bishops. In one of the early stages
of the measure, Dr. Lee advanced preten-
sions which the promoters deemed inconsistent
with its principle; and on the question between them,
viz., whether all the canons should henceforward have
cure of souls, the Commons committee decided against
the bishop. But ibis adverse decision, so tar from
exciting Dr. LEE'S opposition to the bill, or rendering
him apathetic to its success, really seems to have
increased be interest he took in the matter, for that
question bring resolved against him once, he did not
even threaten to appeal " elsewhere," but, on the
contrary, adopted the measure in all its entirety as
his own, and, to speak strongly, but expressively,
promoted it, where he could have injured it, " heart
and soul."

To the noble conduct of the Bishop of MANCHESTER
the success of the bill is then chiefly attributable.
His reward will be the esteem and reir,,ect of a!I per-
sons in his diocese whose stool opinion is worth any
man's desire. And Dr. Lea, alone of English pre-
lates, will have the satisfaction of presiding over a
cathedral church none of the clergy of which Au a
sinecure, tut all of which are, like himself, hard-

working ecclesiastics. From the example thus set at
Manchester, consequecces far more important to
the church may in time flow than were even
anticipated during the progress of the bill. What
Manchester can do without in its cathedral church,

can't be of much service elsewhere. Having reduced
the incomes of deans and canons at Manchester, and
attached parcchial duties to the it offices, similar reduc-
tions and functions will follow in other cathe-
drals.

Bishop Lea is not, however, without troubles in
his diocese; but they are caused by unruly, intempe-
rate ecclesiastics, not by a dissatisfied laity ; and
in those troubles he has been thwarted, and
his policy is now obstructed by one of the
great church societies—The Society fur Promoting
the .Employment rf Afltlit,Onal Curates in Populous
Placer. Amongst the parishes in the diocese of Man-
chester are Leigh and West Houghton ; and the
Vicar of Leigh is the father-in-law of the perpetual
curate of West Houghton. Both these gentlemen are
tractarians of the most offensive practices, without
any of the good temper, good manners, or good be-
haviour of the bettt r order of tractarians. They first of
all quarrel with their parishioners, and then they
set to work to bully, abuse, and malign their
bishop, because he holds a good understand-
ing between the incumbent of a benefice and his
parishioners to be a primary test of ecclesiastical
*Cadency and a necessary condition to episcopal con-
/Woos. The churchwardens of both parishes have
reeftfed these gentlemen to the Archdeacon's Court
for the discord, confusion, and schism they have in-
troduced into their parishes. One will ir.eist on doing
away with Sunday schools, the other won't marry or
bury any one who has not been baptised in the church
or confirmed by a bishop. But to attempt to
describe the conduct of one of these clergy-
men to his parishioners baffles the limited
space we can allot to such a person. Suffice it to say,
that it became necessary for the Bishop of MAN-
cnesTra, in pure shelf-defence, to limit his correspond-
ence with the Vicar of Leigh, and, by way of protec-
tion to that person's parishioners, to impose terms on
the episcopal recommendation to the society re-
ferred to, for an additional curate.
Now, hitherto, in the regulations of that so-
ciety, it has been necessary to grant, that they
should be made on the recommendation. This
was, to within the last few days, one of
ita fundamental rules. Well, under this rule, the
Bishop of MANCHESTER refused to recommend a
grant to the Vicar of Leigh, unless the vicar as-
signed to the curate s district; so that there might
be peace and tranquillity in at least one portion of
the parish. In doing this, Dr. Las at once acted
within the society's rules and on his own judgment
on the state of the parish of Leigh. But the Vicar of
Leigh is a very hiAli churchman, and the society
is a very high church society; whereas the
Bishop of MaNCHEETaft is a moderate and compre-
hensive churchman. So the committee of the
erciety, on the motion, it is said, of a bishop, has
altered this fundamental rule, has rendered the epis-
copal recommendation unneceseary; and has reduced
the Eshope to a sort of check clerks to report on
numbers only. And thus the whole parish of Leigh
is likely to be continued in a perpetual state of
anarchy, despite the efforts of the Bishop of MAN-
camel La.
The change thus secretly and surreptitiously, per-
haps illegally, made by f
urther, will, however,
become the subject of f seasklention.

THE high church party, like & 'perste gamblers,
have staked their all upon a single cast. They have
given op all minor agitation, and pinned the fortune
of their canoe to the success or failure of a meeting
oa the (Wawa ease, assembled this day at St.