The Sun.
London, England, 1836-02-29 00:00:00

dour, and, being free from all guile himself, suspects it not
in others, immediately waited op Lord Melbourne, and
stated to his Lordship that he had such an address to pre-
sent. Lord Melbourne informed his Grace that it would
be unnecessary to hurry the presentation, for that nothing
would be done .immediately. The Archbishop, satisfied
with this assurance, retired, when, in two or three days
after the interview, Lord Melbourne went down to Brighton,
and obtained the Royal assent to Hampden's appointment—
the King not having received the appeal from the University,
andi consequently, not being aware that he was sanctioning
the appointment to the most rssponsible situation in the
Establishment to which his Majesty is devotedly and con-
stitutionally attached—a man, whose business it would bes
according to the principles he has asserted, and the doc-
trines he has avowed, to undermine and weaken the faith,
in support of which King Charles the First was martyred
on the scaffold, and for the maintenance of which faith this
very Regius Professorship of Divinity was created and en-
dowed."
If this be correct, of which we have no doubt, Lord
Melbourne ought to be impeached. The Prime Mi-
nister who steals from his unsuspecting Sovereign the
the Royal consent to an appointment of this import.
ance, wilfully keeping him in the dark as to facts ne-
cessary to enable him to form any judgment on the
merits o& the case, is a faithless servant and subject,
a reckless and unprincipled foe to the Church which
the King his master has solemnly sworn to protect, and
to the State and people, whose welfare and happiness
mainly depend on the maintenance of purity, concord,
and peacel in the bosom of the Church. It might be
deemed incredible that Lord Melbourne, or any other
Minister in this country, should have dared to at-
tempt such a deception as is described above, cheating
by one and the same act the most learned and impor-
tant members of the University of Oxford out of their
right to petition their Sovereign, the venerable Lord
Primate out of his unquestionable constitutional pri-
vilege of access upon all suitable or necessary occasions
to the Royal ear, and the Sovereign himself out of
the effective controul which he.is entitled, and indeed
bound, to exercise over an appointment of this nature.
We admit that'it would be difficult to believe this, if
we could doubt it without encountering a still greater
difficulty on the opposite side. The gracious expres-
sions of attachment to the Church of England, which
have on repeated occasions fallen from his Majesty's
lips, have made too deep and too grateful an impression
upon the hearts of his subjects to be easily forgotten.
And is it to be believed that a Sovereign actuated by
those sentiments of attachment to the Church which his
Majesty is known to possess would have appointed a
teacher of divinity at Oxford against whom lie had been
previously warned by no lower authority than that of
the principal Tutors and Fellows of Oxford, as a
schismatic and a latitudinarian ? Yet this is what
we must believe if we suppose that Lord Melbourne,
as in the faithful execution of his duty he ought to
have done, had apprized his Majesty of the senti-
ments of Oxford before he procured his consent to
the appointment of Dr. Hampden. We shall watch
with the utmost anxiety the further steps in this im-
portant affair, which is at the present moment in a
position in which it certainly cannot be allowed to
rest.—Morning Post.
The Ministers have now an opportunity of enforc-
ing a practiCal ecclesiastical Reform. They have the
opportunity of serving the general cause of Reform—
of serving the cause of education—of serving their
own reputation for sincerity to the people, and, lastly,
of serving- the cause of the Church itself, whose pre-
sent unpopularity only the enemies of the Establish-
ment can wish to see maintained. A lucky opportu-
nity, which not unfrequently haprens in the promotion
of great events, and in the production of important
results, has placed a sudden and unexpected imple-
ment of great benefit to the country in their hands.
Our readers must have observed the singular mor-
tality which has hovered over the Bishop's bench.
The Bishop of Durham is dead, and the deaths
of others have been daily expected. The patronage
of four Bishoprics falling into the hands of Minis-
ters about the same time, would, indeed, be extra-
ordinary, and would seem as if designed by Provi-
dence for the purpose of paring down and pruning
away the inordinate revenues of the pampered digni-
taries of the Church. Of the men themselves we
have not a word to say. They may, and, we believe,
are, estimable, amiable, and honourable characters in
private life, and they have gone, or will perhaps go,
to give an account of the abuse or use of their talents
—to give an account of the manner in which they
have fed or scattered their flock, at that bar before
which every human being must stand in naked equa-
lity and responsibility for his own actions. It is not
against the individuals who, to their own bane as well
as to the bane of the Church, have been by circum-
stances enabled to revel away their lives in the midst
of anti-Christian luxury. It is against the system
that we raise our hands. If that 'system be not cor-
rected by the application of Reform, the Church
Etablisliment in this country, which is at present un-
popular in consequence of its parade and ostentation,
will inevitably fall to the ground. The revenues of
the See of Durham, which is now in the gift of the
Ministers, are perfectly scandalous by their enor-
mous extent. They, and the patronage connected
with them, are estimated to amount to an annual in-
come of from 20,0001. to 24,0001. sterling ! Is so
gross an abuse as this to be any longer endured?
Certainly not, if the Ministers do their duty and em-
ploy the remedy which they now have, beyond all
question in their hands. The See of Durham may
with propriety be reduced from 24,0001. a year to
4,0001. The surplus may be applied most justifiably,
either to the purposes of general education, or to the
increase of the poorer livings of the working 'clergy.
It may be very well for the Bishop of London, and
other Bishops of the Wolsey School, to advocate the
advantage of wealthy prizes in the Church ; but the
Edonegolimsh people
p-arail
comparatively nothing,
neverothn be
i4,arpuad
eertsohaed thatvecomtphoarsaetiNvvelliyo
all, while the working clergy--those who do compa-
ratively all—are to be paid comparatively nothing.
Starveling incomes, with
e appearN ex-
penses great majority of the clergy, like gentlemen and t
wish, is not the way to raise the character of the
of their public or collegitinoacteappaeaydciutt
clergi promote
y,anor
r
can the appendages of modern bishoprics,—epicurean
kitchens, troops of liveried menials, and gilded and
drapetied saloons, without disgraceful sophistry, be
chyaetrinooilt.h
argued to be fitting symbols of a dispensation whose
first Bishops boasted of their industry and their
poverty ; who preferred working with their hands even
to receiving voluntary contributions from their flocks ;
and " who went forth to preach to all nations, taking
with them neither scrip nor staff." Who will suffer
by the wholesome Reform now suggested ? Not the
last Bishop of Durham ; death has closed the door on
all his anxieties about the things of this world. A
Bishopric has no heirs. It reverts on the demise of
its incumbent to the Church, or more properly to the
nation, and it should be employed in such a.manner
as may promote the interests of the nation, both reli-
giously and socially. 'The new expectant has no
right to complain whatever, if Ministers reduce the
amount of the episcopal income ; and we doubt not
that Dr. Maltby, who is spoken of, will be per-
fectly well satisfied with the comparatively princely
income of 4,000/..a year. But more than this re-
duction is expected from the hands of Ministers
under the present circumstances of the country, and
under the present condition of public opinion. It will
be expected from them that they will obtain pledges
from the new Bishop of Durham previous to his ap-
pointment, as well as from the new incumbents of
. Peterborough, Ely, and Salisbury (should those Sees
become vacant)—that they will join hand and heart
with them in fulfilling the universal wish of the British
le for an effectual Ecclesiastical Reform. peopThey
have an opportunity which may never occur again of
correcting and mitigating in some degree the amount
of that baneful warfare for the popular measures as
well as Church Reform in the House of Lords, which
has always found its last rallying point and fulcrum on
the Bishops bench. Every liberal measure of every
liberal Ministry has been always trammelled, or muti-
lated, or counteracted there ; and we trust that the
Ministers—for their own sakes, for the sake of the
march of their administrative policy, and for the sake
of that pacific Reform in the Church which the nation
will have—will take care to obtain pledge's from the
new aspirants to the mitres which have fallen or are to
fall, of full co-operation, before they move a single
step in giving them away.—Morning Advertiser.