The Express.
London, England, 1850-01-29 00:00:00

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LONDON, TUESDAY, JANUARY 29.

Ws are, it some, to have a little electoral reform,
little fiamial rotors, and a little more sanitary
reform is the spprosching session :—ell very useful
to in their way ; but are we to have no
kat reform ? Or are the power of the
and theme imidity of the whig °AVM! es
rllit=subjrcts ain to postpone melesisWeal ro-
tas f
If the inclination far pestememeat exists, enemies
are at hand. The Biabops' Oommimion appointed
yeses ago to dales a better territorial arrangement
for the episcopal sees ham not yet reported. Lad
Ilmutowee's Commission, now more them 12 ohs
old, appointed to suggest the means of improvise
the vales of church property, has not yet
reported. And Iced Asauree emunission for the
subdivision of large 'adobes has only emitted • me.
liminary report d ao earthly valee. In the Mimes
of these ormaimionera ministers can, therefore, find
excuses for sitaMing off the greater questions of eccle-
siastical reform this session; if they are so minded.
There is, however. one church subject on which
Mr. Hoasues's letter to his constituents de-
prives them of all exam for further delay; it is
the reform of that great moister abuse of episco-
pacy—the Reel Commission. The bishops
on this commission, not content with squandering
the feeds of the church entrusted to their
keeping, oa palaces, gardens, park. and estates
for themselves; have allowed its feeds to be
robbed and plundered by their treasurer, and mas-
tery, and this embezzlement of church property has
taken plies after a oommittee of the House of Com-
mons had warned the bishops of the danger of allow-
ing the amounts of the commission to go nn-audited
for years, and of permitting one person to hold the
inconsistent offices of secretary sod treasurer. This
warning has been disregarded by the prelates,
whereby the church has been defrauded of upwards
et 9,0001. And the freed thus perpetrated by a ser-
vent in whom the bishops- placed their ab-
solute treat, for whose personal advantage
they set at nought the reammendatioes of
a mone committee, has hitherto gam unpunished
by the hierarchy of the church ; nay, it has actually
been rewarded by one of the episcopal guardians of
our religion, who—good Christian'.—presented the
culprit, on the coatemion of his aims, with a sum of
money.
Such a state of things leaves ministers no honour-
able alternative but to propose a reform of the eccle-
siastical commission. The property of the chunk
meet longer be entreated with any safety to the
care of bishops who squander it partly on themselves;
and who take so little cam et it as to allow their
secretary, treasurer in his torn, to squander
9,0001. on MniselL 8o mach is certain. Some-
thing most to done with the mclesiestioal eons-
miasma What, is another question. After months
of inactivity, during which they were plundered, the
commissioners are now, we see, all activity.
are meeting tyke or thrice a week. This ImmiesTll
for reform. It looks as if ministers were phi to,
allow them to prepare the measure of improvement
themselves ; and, if so, all hopes of any abysm
change may be resigned. Mr. HUDSON entertains
as jo,t notions of railway reform as the bishops do et
ecclesiastical reform ; for as he cannot me that he bee'
done any wrong in railway. mmagement, so an
not they that they have °smutted any faults in their
administration of church property. What mimes
and episcopal gardens are to the bishops, shares and
iron contracts were to Mr. HUDSON: to both the
temptations of their position have proved to be
irresistible.

A correspondent inquired the other day what o
notion of a "real boat," was' Perhaps, the beat
reply that could be given to this inquiry would be, a
prelate who has no time to give to the ecclesiastical
cocornistioo. For, either a bishop of the church of
England in these days must neglect his diocesan and
spiritual dish* in attending to those of the sock-
statical commission, or he must *select his duties as
an ecclesiastical commissioner in Milling those of his
episcopal office. Now, whether it be the diocese and
religion, or the commisica and ecclesiastical tem-
poralities that staffer, the church is damnified.
And, as the office of bishop was erected
fur diocesan and spiritual purposes, so it fol-
lows that they have the primary claim to episcopal
time and attention. For their fulfilment it is that
bishops are so inordinately paid. Tin most effectual
reform, then, that could be made in the ecclesiastical
commission would be to withdraw from it the whole
bench of bishop, and to place its affairs in the bands
of a few lay and paid commissioners, partly nomi-
nated by the crown, on behalf of the laity, and partly
nominated by the bishops, on behalf of the church.
By such a change, responsibility and efficiency would
be substituted for irresponsibility, inefficiency, squen-
daring, and malversation.
The episcopal supremacy in the commission, it ,
must never be forgotten, is a whig innovation on its
original constitution. For in the commixdoa as
launched by Sir Rosm Pm, the lay principle,,
was predominant. It was to the predominance
of that principle therein, that all the early reforms
recommended by the commission were ascribable
And it is to the substitution of episcopal for lay su-
premacy that all the jabbing, the mismanagement,
and the plunder of the church, in and by the commie-
s on, is distinctly to be traced. So lost as it was a
lay commission it was a reforming commission; since
it became an episcopal commission it has lapsed into
&jobbing erupt body. True, in its former capacity,
i• had not the sum rt or confidence of the high church
party ; but in its present character it has neither the
refixct nor the esteem of any party in church or
state.
A return to Sir ROBERT Pm.'s principle, and the
carrying oat of that principle efficiently by the intro-
deem° of lay, and paid, and responsible commis-
inmate, is, we repeat, the wily sound principle on
which the ecclesiastical commission can he reformed.
Na confidence can be given to it so long as episcopacy
beers sway thesis; and until the bishops are removed
from the commission, the character and matt/bless of
the bench of prelates are injured.
From the present government so thorough a reform
is i ot, however, to be expected; for against it they
can oppose the reemuusadatiose of a Commons Com-
mittee, which mopped far abort ofso completes change.
Tre composition of this committee, however, /all
accounts for its short comings. For not a single
member was placed thereon whom nomination had
not best sesetionsel by the late Archbishop of CAN-
TERBUIRT ; sad there ware an it no fewer than five
lay soclesiaatioal commisdosers : besides several
Ministers and ex-Ministate of the Crown, who, of
course, were responsible for tlmeonflrmatioo given by
the sovereign to scams, of the commission. A full
masers of reform hose a body so composed is, there-
fore, utterly hopeless. The utmost that could be ex-
pected was medisaisal improvement and suggest-
ive manipulation of internal details. And this is
exactly what the etnamittee's recommendations
amount to.
But, if ministers shelter themselves behind these
reemasesadatieas from the duty and the task of
thorough refers, they are boated not to allow their
measure of impretemeat to fell short of the protective
recommesdatises. For the sake of unanimity, the
few reformers ia the committee forbore (whether
wisely or set is another question) to press their ex-
treme *plains, sad consented to support the tams
qualified views of Sir GIORGI OUT; and they were
lest session willing to be bound in legislation by
ti me views of the Home Secretary. But he and
Lord lowa Items= shrank is the House from what
he lied prepaid hi esenseittee and instead of
a bill to wavy set the moderate re-
ef the essemittee, they intro-