The Express.
London, England, 1850-12-30 00:00:00

entreols.

TO CORRESPONDS:KM
Too ° bdrertbrateatotalandad br "TM Laprab" Yorke Zambia pope',
mot to at die 011ie. la, llosearibatnar. by Work oa dap
day of paaarrabb
HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
T.. Da..MIONIM Lia.........A1bra00k la. Os.
to-soosow.-diambali 1106.—.Abaraaast. 440.

LONDON MONDAY. DECBMBER 30.

IT is really quite time that the public should know,
ea some competent authority, whether Mr. BENNETT
is to continue Incumbent of S;. Paul's, Knightsbridge,
aid of St. Bernabae, Pimlico, or not.
Sams weeks ago that gentleman tendered to the
Bishop of LoNDoN his resignation, and that tender
was accered by his diocesan. Since then Mr. Res-
sgrr's friends have been holding meeting after meet-
ing to palisade themselves that this offer is not
_
binding on so " catholic" • clergyman es lic is; and
hare had at least one interview with the bishop to
induce him to withdraw his acceptance of the
proffered resignation. But, though Dr. BLOMFIELD
" wept " with the deputation who thus advocated the
doctrine acd pracithot equivocation, and so exhibited
weak and silly sympathy :Weed of just arid manly
isd.gostiol at this attempt to neaps from the ;per-
formance of • 'solemn premise, Bishop BLOMFIELD
toe sebservitot a follower of what he deems public
opinion to veld, even in his tears, to such entreaties;
and so, it in stated, replied that be was under " the
painful necessity" of doing what he said he would do.
Nevertheleta Mr. BENNETT, it is announced, has
act resigned and will not resign. A benefice as
only be legally resigned in the Church of England
by the iccumboot executing a deed of demiesioa
addressed to the bishop of the diocese. Such a deed
Mr. BENNITT, it is stated, has not vet executed, and
will not execute. /tad BiehoLOMTIEL D, it is
lidded. will now proceed against Mr. Batestrr in the
Ecclesiastioal Courts; laving, however, divine ser-
vice to be performed in St. Paul's and St. Barnabas
by those curates who have hitherto been Mr. BEN-
NETT'S militants there.
Seth is the position of affairs as stated in the news-
papers; and assenting its accuracy, there is some diffi-
culty in deciding whether it is more discreditable to
Mr. BENNETT 01 Dr. BLOMFIELD.
Mr. BENNETT has undertaken to do an act which
he now, nothing having subsequently occurred to re-
lease him from his undertaking, declines to perform.
This is an offence 'against common honesty which no
refinement or subtlety can justify or excuse : one, too,
that was certainly not to be expected from a man of
Mr. Betinetr's apparent and outward frankness,
sincerity, and conscientiousness: an cffenoe calculated
to Asks all confidence in the promises and fair dealing
of clergymen of Mr. BENNETT's way of thinking;
one certain to confirm the public in the belief so pre-
valent of their jesuitry and disregard of the ordinary
obligations of morality when at variance with their
pronely tiniest zeal. No doubt it is hard—very hard—
that Mr. Ilessevr should, in December, 1850. be
coerced into such a promise by • bishop who, in June,
1850, sac mraged and shared in his proceedings at B'.
Barnabas; but it was with a knowledge of that hard-
ship Mr. BENNETT promised to resign, and as an
honest man he ought, by the fulfilment of his promise,
to have risen superior to his diocesan ; as it is, he lass
reduced hinted( to Dr. HuniviaLD's level, if not
fallen beneath it.
Bishop IILoIiFIELD Cannot, of course, compel of his
own mete motion Mr. Buiserr to execute a deed of
demiesion. But did he, by the long-continui d con-
eistecey of his episcopal life, by the example of un-
erring Wit] to the church displayed in his career,
by the uniformity of his own personal vies s and
practice., and by the influence which piety, modera-
tion, firmness, and kindness always confer, occupy in
is diocese that position which a Bishop of London
ought to occupy, cut even an unscrupulous tractarian
would dare thus to trifle with him. It is because Dr.
Ilt.onvlebn's career has been weak and vacillating,
it.consistent and tyrannical, because he has reduced
himself to a place which none can admire, and only
sycophants con profess to respect; because he has de-
prived himself of all moral weight, that Mr. Hero:Err
has the bud cJuragu thus to treat him; and hems.
this squabble between him and one of his clergy Is
discreditable to both. The bishop who would
not admit a single Irish clergyman into his diocese
can't get a disorderly tractatian out of it. The retri-
bution is fit, though severe.
And no wonder Mr. Ilatencrr resists, when be
finds other bishops encouraging their clergy in the
very practices for which Dr. Ilbosarrecn insists on
his resignation. He turns to Oxford, and what does
be see there? Nothing less than Bishop WILBER-
FOUCZ (who told the protestant/ of Chipping Wy-
combe that he knew of no Itomisb tendencies in his
clergy), sanctioning the appointment, as preacher in
the university church of St. Mary's, of Dr. PI'SEY,
ender whose tuition, and by whose teaching, Rome
has for ten years been receiving increasing supplies
of Eoglish clergymen. lie looks to Sherborne Min-
ater,and there he finds Bishop Habor "losing no time"
in assuring the clergy of that church that be " con-
siders 'candlesticks upon the communion table in the
church as one of the most legitimate ornaments in
a church ;" that " they were legitimately placed there
by the churchwardens, who are officers acting under
the ordinary, and he as ordinary has no objection to
their being placed there;" and that he "cannot there-
fore conceive under what supposed right or authority
any indifferent person interferes in the matter." No
wonder with such high encouragement Mr. BENNETT
resists the authority, and treats as naught the moral
influence of hie inconsistent diocesan.
But what encourages him ought to sink deep into
the heart of the laity of the Church of England; for
it indicates where the weakness of their church really
lies; in the bench of bishops. Even now episcopal
lines are laid to divert the consideration of parliament
from that which alarmed Lord Jons Russell tar
more than papal aggression. "There is a danger
which alarms me much more than any aggression of
&foreign sovereign." If, then, we are to have legis-
lation (and most properly) for the minor danger, how
much more imperative must be legislation teethe
major danger? If parliament has to consider that
which only provoked Lord JOUN RusslLL'e that-
nationr how much more incumbent is it for parlisp
meet to deliberate on what roused his" alarm ?"
Yet endless are the episcopal intrigues now in pre-
gross to avert the consideration of the greater subject,
and to confine attention to the smaller matter.
Amongst other devices is a characteristic one. We
are, it seems, to have the old scheme of "more
bishops " revived. This is Dr. BLOMFIRLD'S remedy
for all our ecclesiastical ills. To checkmate Cardinal
WISEMAN he proposes at once to create Anglican sees
of Westminster sad of Southwark; and so to bring
the cardinal's territorial titles within the repressive
provisions of the Roman Catholic Emancipation Act;
the new sees to be maintained whilst he live*, out of
the funds of the ecclesiastical commission ; after his
demise, ont of the revenues of the bishopric of Lou-
don. And to some such scheme as this, Mr. SIDNEY
HERBERT and Lord Mutat will, it is said, lead their
suPPort-
Of such plans the laity must hewers. Sir JANII3
GRAHAM long ago told them that the went of the
church of England was clergy—protestant clergy—not
bishops; and to create additional sees until some security
is taken to preserve the protestant character of the
church is to increase, not to lessen its danger : for it
has been by the active agency of some bishops, and by
the supineness of the rest, that there is now a danger
in the church which alarms Lord lone RosseLL
" much more than any egg-reason of a foreign sove-
reign."
Before, then, the question of more bishops can be
profitably entertained by the legislature, two other
questions mast be settled :—L What is the church of
England? 2. Where is the church to be found?
We have throughout England parish churches num-
berless, and clergy in every parish ; but in them we
have no uniformity of doctrine, of views, or of press-
thus. There we are taught to believe in ecclesiastical
infallibility, here in the all-sufficiency of holy Scrip-
ture; in this parish we have a sacrificial mediatorial
priest, in that an unpretentious minister; in one
church we have an altar, in another a communion
table; in Pimlico we have auricular confession insisted
on ; in Liverpool we have the punishment of death
recommended as a penalty for such a practise: in

short, dimities it sa we may, we have two different, I
nay, two antagonistic schemes of redemption taught
in the church of England. Wba•, this, le the church
of England ? Where is it to be found ? These are
not questions to be shirked by mking for more

Tut public, we trust, have 'mot been snikely re-
tardier of the circumstances which occurred during
the past week at two borough elections in the vic'sity
of London. Thom elections occurred in two towns
infamously notorious—the one for election deb inche-
ries, the other for the most flagrant electioneering
corruptions. Alter many exposures to which theme
phases have been subject, it might have been hoped
ihat lise elector. would have learned a lesson. Expe-
dites% indeed, shows that where corruption has once
lobe root nothing is more difficult sten to supplant
k. Bet though Sudbury illustrattd this, yet u Sudbury
her paid the penalty of its misdeeds, Aylesbury
sad Sc. Albany might have profited by the exam-
ple. We are sorry to believe that they hays neither
of them done so. The circumstances of both contests
appear to have been of the usual character, allowing,
of course, for the political circumstances of the period,
and the improved feeling which undoubtedly prevails
among men of respectable position.
St. Albans has long been notorious for its avowed
and unblushing political profligacy. We have mom
than once told the tale of this most corrupt borough-1
the ruin it has brought upon candidates—and the opal'
way in which the town has been uniformly sold tol
the man, no matter who, who consented to pay the
highest price for it. One of the recent candidates
stated upon the hustings, in the face of all the con-
stituency, that the man who sold the borough in 1847
told him that the late Mr. Itamust. paid 4,00 W. kr
it, and that whilst the election wee going on one ell tie
ommitte• had to post up to London for 70W. monk
or they could not have secured the mat. This woe
the state of things in 1847. lie the borough im-
proved since? Mr. Alderman and Sheriff CARDIN
made the following statement in his hustings

speech :
Bet I will tell you something more. Before I thought
of apossiog down, a yawn applied to me in London to know
if I was &wow of swat in parliament, and in the mune of
conversation he modestly asked 2,0004 as the cost of it! I
observed that it was a large runt, end asked what it was
for? when the gentleman replied, " Oh, you base nothing
to do with that —you have no right to risk the
questioo." He than told me that the borough we. Bt.
(Great cheering and groaning, and miss ot
• Name, name.") I plates my surd and honour to the
trirl of what I say. When I understood what the money
was for, I told the gentleman at once I would rot give it
fee inch a purpose. He then went away, and in a short
time returned to my offim, and asked me if I would give
1.1C04 (Renewed confusion.)
Mr. Alderman CARDEN did not state who the
party was who made this offer; but if he knew, he
was, we think, in dray: bound to ?mooed to the cry of
the electors, that the individual should be .. named."
What cause or reason could the re be for concealing
the name ? If he was an elector hie brother electors,
at the time of an election, had a special right to de-
mand that he should be denounced. If he was not
oee of themselves they were entitled to be informed
who it was beyond the preciects of their borough that
was engaged in this endeavour to sell the representa-
tion of their town.
Mr. Alderman CARDEN made the following state-
ment in his speech :
My opponent has been introduced here by a man who
bag but little reputation to lose, but who, without even a
vote in the borough, without any ir Buena over the relpec •
table inhabitaate, as go late the lanes and bye alien end
trek for votes there. (Laud and groans—" It's
true.") It has been booted that Mr. Bell's great Nip-
pon', ems canvass the borough better in his bad than any-
where else; and he ones hirsute observed he did net want
say great train of gentlemen when he -eat to movers,; but
that be could do it better by himself. Yes ; he goes down
the back lanes, and seeks the per man's cottage who has
71. or Be. a week, and some halt do sea children, and there
it is he look, for votes. (Cheers and grout.)
This, then, is the way the representation of a borough ,
in parliament is managed. A person who, by the
basest means, has acquired influence over the poorer
voters of a town, comes up and gets 4,0001., or 2 00W.,
or 1,5001., se best be can, from some rich man in
London. He gem down and expends one-half of this
money among the poorer voters of the town; pocket. I
ing, most probably, the other half himself. Princi-
ples and politics are of no moment ; the privileges of
a body of electors are trel'ed with contempt
and ridicule. One individual gets the profit :
a whole town gets the shame. And the'
nation is injured by a member who goes to parlia-
ment to sell him vote to the government toe place or
patronage. Bad as was the system before the Re-
form Act, was it worse than this small borough
system now ?
Leaving St. Albans we turn to the (case of
Aylesbury, a borough in no way similarly circum-
stanced, but where there are influences at work at an
election which it would be scarcely lees desirable
to expose. Aylesbury is one of the four
boroughs in which the Reform Act reserved the right
ot voting to the residents within the surrounding hun-
dreds. This borough is consequently, in extent, a
miniature county. The boundaries include, we be-
lieve, nearly 30 parishes, and extend seven miles
around the town on almost every side. Since the
I Reform Act Aylesbury has not been free from bribery;
bat the extent of the constituency, who number nearly
1,800, has rendered it impossible to employ that de-
smiption of direct corruption in the same way as in
a smaller town. A less expensive, though
a not less potent medium has been employed.
"Beer " doe, that which gold effects elsewhere. It is
a engem at Aylesbury to open the public-houses
throughout the entire district for the free use both of
the electors and non-electors. At the election of 1847,
this precice was followed, and one of the members,
Mr. J. P. Dreamy, was, in consequence, unseated by
an [election committee, their decision being that "he
had, by his agents, been guilty of treating in
the borough.., What course was taken in con-
, segartee of the warning thus given to the
town? Why, a candidate was brought down
to it who, through a long parliamentary career,
may be said to have literally fasted into the House
of Commons upon beer and brandy. Of all the
boroughs of England, Maldoa in Essex is the most
notorious for debauchery at its elections; and of all
the candidates that ever stood for Malden, none ever
event half the money at the public-houses that was
spent by Mr. Quiterts Mex. Well, Mr. QIIIKTIII
DICK was found to be very acceptable at Aylesbury,
and was elected by a large majority. He is a tory
Id the stennehest stamp. The death of his colleague
made a vacancy in the borough, which was supplied
het week. Was the member elected one of the same
politics? No. A stanch supporter of the preeentgovern-
sent. Who is this new member ? A Mr. CALVERT :
a name which smacks of treble X to the ears of
very lover of the beverage. Out of the 1,800 elec-
tors of the borough this gentleman appears only to
have received the suffrages of 499. Out of this poll
we shall De obliged if some independent man at
Aylesbury will let us know how many are publicans
and relatives of publicans? We are informed that*,
streets of Aylesbury were full of drunken men oaths
day of polling : that in fact, despite the warning oI
1847, the election practices of this town were just as
had upon this occasion as they ever were. The coer-
cion of voters dependent upon the large landowners
of the district is understood to have been just as rife,
and the quantity of beer consumed, (or said to be
troasconed) is said to have been just the same as usual.
If this was it), we see no Men why Mr. CALVERT
Shona not be subjected to precisely the came
=std
d paaldlusent Mr. Dawn°. If pub-
IMMO ego, let the fact by all means
ho made knows to parliament, that the home
OW judge of the utility of the measures
they at present take to cheek ooremption, sad that
they may have an opportunity of learning what
are the praotee by which, under the present system
of represeatatim, ammbers find their way to the
table et the Mum

IT is maims ud instructive to notice the efforts
made, wheeler by nature or by art, to compensate
the law or delloimicy of any accustomed supply.
Thus, almost coincident with the partial failure of the
cotton crop there have been contriving and maturing
the means ter bringing into economical use a substi-
tute; and this proposed substitute is a material which,
in the progress of Illszaractures, bas been to a great
extant supplanted by the cotton that now, in its turn,
it threatens to drive out of the market.

The really quilt's§ of the fibre of the flax plant,
aa romeely premed, realer it unit, for being con-
verted Me yarn by web ebechaninn ea that of the
Miss uOll henee, though the actual cost of the raw
modal h esediseibly lees than that of cotton at its