The Sun.
London, England, 1855-04-05 00:00:00

Isibility of keeping up the vicarage-house. This
seems to have been in 1847, at which time Dr.
Griffiths was Romish Bishop of the " diocess," ac-
cording to the arrangements prevailing in the com-
munity.: Six or eight months afterwards Dr.
Griffiths was succeeded in this office by Dr.
Wiseman, and things appear to have gone on in
their usual course till 1850—the year, as will be
well remembered, in which Dr. Wiseman threw tho
whole kingdom into agitation by his assumption. of
new titles and powers. In that year Mr. Boyle
received a letter from his superior to the effect
that he was to be superseded in his situation,
though it does not seem that the proceeding was
grounded on any direct complaint or any charge of
misconduct. Dr. 'Wiseman appears simply to
have alleged that, after full consideration, ho had
resolved upon making a " total change of men and
system" at Islington, and had accordingly ap-
pointed " two fresh priests," one of whom proved
to be the Rev. Mr. Oakley, a seceder, as will be
recollected, from the Church of England, and a
gentleman of considerable property. Whether the
Cardinal thought that a church with 3,000 or
4,000 sittings ought to be supplied with more than
half as many attendants—whether he thought that
a wealthy minister was better for the place than
a poor one, or by what motives in particular he
was influenced, is more than can be said ; but,
at any rate; he decided that Mr. Boyle must
be dismissed, though he offered him "an im-
pyriant mission at Chichester,"—a proceeding
which of itself would seem shoiv that no impu-
tation attached to his character. Mr. Boyle,
however, was by no means willing to leave Isling-
ton.' His salary there, as curate, was " ss. a-
day," and this was raised by certain dues to
1501. or 1601. a-year. He seems, moreover, to
have laid out 3001. or 4001. on - the curate's resi-
dence, in furniture and repairs, having intended,
as he deposed, to increase his income by " edu-
I eating young gentlemen for the Universities,"—a
design in which Cardinal Wiseman promised to
assist him. According to his statement, he had
expended his money on a distinct understanding
with Dr. Griffiths as to the permanency of his
position, but he had no written document. in proof
of such arrangement. "In our church," said
he, upon his cross-examination, "an inferior
would not dare to ask for such a document
from a superior. We are so much in their power
and control that no priest would dare to
say to his superior, Put this in black
and white ; he would not do it, but would
most probably say, This is not the man
for me: " Neither did it appear on the trial
that he was' unacceptable to his congregration, for
one of its members deposed that when his removal
was talked of a memorial in his faveur was signed
in a very short time by 1,100 of his parishioners,
—i.e., something like four-fifths of the whole.
However, . though he appears to have questioned
Dr. Wiseman's power to remove him, he was
nevertheless removed ; he took his furniture with
him, and, in liquidation of the other demand which
he made on the score of his disbursements, he re-
ceived only 601., of which '3Ol. was due for arrears
of salary, and 201. absorbed by the costs of re-
covering the debt. For this purpose he employed
a solicitor, contrary to whose advice he reduced
his original claim, in consequence, as he testified,
of the Cardinal's " pleading poverty." It seems
hard to discover in these transactions any great
offence committed by Mr. Boyle, unless it be that
of demurring to the will of his superior, in what-
ever way signified ; but we learn, notwithstanding,
that some time afterwards thedismissedcurate wrote
two "letters of.apology" to the Cardinal, waited
upon him at his " palace" in Golden-square, and
there, in the "reception-room" of that establish-
ment, " went on his knees and asked him for par-
don and forgiveness."
As long afterwards as May, 1854, occurred the
circumstances out of which the trial in question
arose. A Romish priest deposed in evidence that
there were two parties in his church—" a loyal
party and a party which was not," which remark-
able definition he presently corrected to "an ultra
and a moderate party." One of these sections dis-
approved the Cardinal's conduct in the proceedings
of 1850 ; the other defended it, and the disputants
appear to have advocated their respective opinions
in two foreign journals—the Ami de la Religion,
and the Univers, the latter of which was alleged
on the trial to be " under the inspiration" of
the Cardinal himself. A certain article adverse
to the views of the ultra party having appeared
in the Arni de la _Religion, the Carditia! seems
at once to have attributed it in his own mind
to the pen of Mr. Boyle, and in return himsell
indited an article in the Univers, signed with
his own name, which contained the matter
charged as libellous. In this statement Mr. Boyle's
connection with the order of the Jesuits, his subse-
quent career at Islington, and his proceedings in
the matter of his removal were all so described
that, although the plaintiff was not mentioned by
name, there was no doubt as to the bearing of the
allusions, and on these grounds the action for
libel was brought and decided in the manner we
have already related. The case first came on for
trial last summer, but, the plaintiff having been
nonsuited on that occasion, an application fora new
trial was made and granted.
Such is a compendious exposition of the facts in-
volved in the case of "Boyle v. Wiseman," and the
reader will admit, we think, that they convey an
edifying view of the discipline maintained in the
Romish Church. Whatever may be the position
of this community in other respects, it is at least
plain that its interests are not likely to suffer from
any want of power in its authorities, or any lack
of rigour in its administration. These points,
perhaps, are chiefly important to Papists them-
selves, but Englishmen may do well to observe
and reflect upon the organisation of a church from
the advances of which the interests of civil and
religious liberty have at all times had so much to
fear.

THE ENGLISH MIDDLE CLASS.
(From the Daily News of this day.)
The " middle class "—the phrase is exclusively
English, and the thing is exclusively English. The
bourgeoisie of the French, the Burgerstand of the
Germans, and the synonyms of all the other conti-
nental languages, have a much more limited mean-
ing. The English "middle class " does not express
burghers or townsmen as opposed to nobles and pea-
seants, or merchants and master-mechanics as op-
posed to nobles on the one hand, and a proletariat
on the other. The " middle class " embraces all
who do not enjoy the privileges of the peerage, and
all who are not dependent on their precarious daily
' labour for their precarious daily bread. As early
as the days of Chaucer the "middle class" was
fully developed in England. The Pilgrims so gra-
phically described by Chaucer, belong, all of them,
to the middle class. The Franklin, or, as he would
be called in our days, the jolly, wealthy Squire ;
, the Knight, alike trusted in the council and the
field ; the Monk, the accomplished, wealthy cler-
gyman ; the Serjeant-at-law, with his legal lore ;
not one of them is noble any more than substantial
Burgesses, the Reeve, the Friar, or the Miller.
Superior culture and superior talent alone place
any ono of them above the rest. The poor Parson
and the poor Clerk of Oxford are the equals of the
Knight, Monk, and Franklin ; the Shipman, the
Miller, and the Reeve acknowledge in them a per-
sonal superiority, but no superiority of rank.
Even in that early day the English lawyers did not
aspire to separate themselves from the rest of the
"middle class" as a " noblesse de robe," as in
France ; the prebendal stalls and abbies were not
as in Germany, reserved exclusively for those who
could show their sixteen quartering% The untitled
but substantial "middle class" comprehended land-
owners, merchants, master mechanics, and the
learned professions ; its members felt that they were
Englishmen, not mere members of a class or craft.
After the wars of the Roses, when the old aristo-
cracy had almost realised the fable of the Kil-
kenny cats and eaten each other up, this
" middle class" became in fact the English nation.
Under the Tudors the remnants of the old Barons
were few and almost constantly under proscription.
A new nobility was gradually called into existence
by Henry VIII. and Elizabeth, but their honours
were too new and their numbers too limited to over-
awe the powerful middle class. The Englishse
the
no-
bility never could bring themselves to recotganti
be
Stuarts as their superiors ; and indignant
jostled by swarms of new-created Irish _
d identified
Peers, they fell off from the Courtan _
y d wealthy bur-
gesses. Scotch
thetuselves with the landed g
gesses. After the accession
.olifeetsnhetrilon
the rich and powerful families which House
came ellfaoll:Galrd
hso,
as leaders at the
vernment in the name
speak
Re voloufitwo beenlodoethesei
veremmosn
aofro
nor understand English.
who could neither_.de facto rulers, to b©
.more se-
.
They came thus,_ puddle class" than previously.
narated from the
With George W. commenced a struggle between
-biand
d the great Whig Houses, in the course
the lternatelycourted the " middle class,"
Ofwchetm
but-nei tiler King nor nobles sincerely threw them-
selves upon the people. At the present moment the
iateuigent, strcaig, " middle 045134" Of EnglAnd has