The Sun.
London, England, 1838-03-02 00:00:00

LONDON :
FRIDAY EVENING. MARCH 2, 1838.

Brawling in Church is a punishable offence—brawling, in
Parliament some persons seem to think is entitled to
honour. If any Member of the House of Commons
should be as indiscreet as the Bishop of ExETEn, and
answer his attacks on the honour and good faith of the
Catholics by attacking the honour and good faith of the
priests of the Church of England—if Mr. O'CONNELL,
for example, quoting the Bishop of LLANDAFF as his au-
thority for its being the duty of every man to denounce
perjury, which the Bishop (knowing the habits of the class
he associates with) admits is frequently committed, and
taking his text from Lord RADNort's often-repeated and
unrefuted declaration in the House of Lords, that the
Members of the Universities, and those who matriculate
there, and most of those who swear that they belicre the
thirty nine articles are guilty of perjury, were to repeat, week
after week, and month after month in the House of Com-
mons, charges of perjury against the Clergy of the Church of
England, as the Bishop of EXETER repeats his charge of
perjury again • t the Catholic Members of the House of
Commons—we do not see, bow, consistently with preserving
that liberty of speech which is so necessary to both H use;
the brawling could be put a stop to. What passes in one
House cannot be corrected or punished by the other, and
as the Press must, according to the privileges of both
Houses, only admire, not criticise, what is said in either
we see no re :son, if there be any other Members of
either House equally indiscreet as the Bishop of EXETER,
why reciprocal charges and reciprocal brawling may not
occupy the whole corps of reporters till the end of
the session. Such a conclusion demonstrates at once
without further remark, the absurdity of the proceeding
which the Bishop of EXETER began last night in the
House of Lords.
The charge of perjury which the Bishop makes against
the Catholic members of the Legislature is wholly unde-
served. The oath taken by them was never intended,
and never could be intended, to suppress their legislative
functions. In fact, the Legislature can have no power to

impose an oath on its Members not to fulfil their duties ;
and such olth would be, ab &Julio, void, whoover might
impos4 it, from its own i-dierent lice, like an ostli to tcll
lie=, or commit murder. eery Member of the Legisla-
ture is hound by the very nature of his functions to vote
mi all questions which coma before him, according to his
conscientious epluion of what will promote the public

welfare. No oath can dispewe with that obligation.
the Catholic Members of the Legislature, therefore
thought that cutting -off twelve Bishops from the Church
of Ireland was for the public benefit, they were bound to
vote for it. If they think, as we hope they and all reason-
able men think, that a further reduction ia the Church
Establishment in both countries, that theabolition of Church
rates, and the abolition of tithes would be for the public benefit
they are bound to vote for these measures. As Legisla-
tors, their duty to consult the public welfare overrides
all other obligations ; and unless the Bishop of EXE-
TEit and his friends can prove that the Catholic Members
have knowingly toted for measures which they conscien-
tiously believe will be injurious to the public, to charge
them with perjury in their Legislative capacity is absurd.
The conduct of the Bishop amt of the Church gene-
rally in placing its whole sectuity en oaths, is calculated to
awaken some serious reflections,. There is no necessity to
impose oaths on men not to put an cud to baking bread
or slaughtering cattle—not to use their influence to sup-
press firming or weaving—nothing, in short, which is use-
ful to the public, requires that men should swear to sup-
port it. The great desire of the heads of the Church of
of England, to impose oaths son other men, for its secu-
rity, and their feverish anxiety to inculpate those who
do not observe these oaths in their sense, betrays cn their
part a deep, inured, conscience-born conviction, that the
Church and the Clergy, are not useful to mankind, like
the arts and their professors. The weakness too of the
tie, which an oath imposes, was well illustrated by Lord
MELBOURNE, and the Bishop of LLANDAFF. Indeed, we
know nothing more contemptible at this age of the world,
than Statesmen relying, with schoolboy simplicity, on the
obligation of an oath, when in opposition to the interests of
large classes of men. If experience may he relied on, such
oaths never can save a useless institution, and the proper
conclusion is, that they ought in no case to be imposed.

Lord JOIIN RUSSELL last night introduced into the
House of Commons a very important measulf, arising out
of the ameliorations which have lately been made in the
jurisprudence of the country. By the reforms in the
criminal law—for which, whatever may be thought of their
proceedings in some other respects, her MAJESTY'S Minis-
ters are entitled to the unqualified thanks of the nation—
many cases of offences which before were capital, are now
liable to be brought before the Courts of Quarter Sessions.
The business of these Courts has thus not only been in-
creased in quantity, but rendered much more difficult for
the Magistrates, in consequence of the humane provision
which allows persons accused of felony to be defended by
Counsel. Points of law will, as a matter of course, come
more frequently into discussion, and the interference of the
Chairman be oftener required than formerly. It is ther9-
fore a matter of the first importance that the Chairman
should be well skilled in the laws of the land. In conformity
with these views it is proposed, in the first place, that
the County Magistrates who now act as Chairmen of the
Quarter Session shall be superseded by men of legal edu-
cation, competent, it is to be presumed, to deal with
any question of law that may arise.
The next point of importance in the new measure is the
more frequent sitting of the Court. Instead of meet'ne-.
as it does now, every two months, the Court is to be held
every six weeks, or eight times a year. No one will dis-
pute the necessity of this regulation, who considers that,
under the present system, for every five days of
imprisonment suffered after trial, four are undergone before
that period. It is surely high time that an end were put
t.) such a system of injustice and cruelty.
The measure is not to be compulsory, but to be brought
into operation on the application of the Magistrates them-
selves, and the salary of the Chairman is to be paid out of
the County rates. This, it is believed, will entail no addi-
tional expenses on the Counties, as a greater sum will be
saved by the shorter imprisonment of the accused before
trial.

Mr. SHELL has been re-elected for Tipperary, but not
without opposition. At the close of the election on 'Mon-
day he was in a majority of 123 above the candidate put
forward by the Tories ; on Tuesday when the poll opened,
the agent for Mr. BARTON stated that " he would proceed
no further, as he had ample grounds for a petition, by which
he hoped to be seated." In this case a contest is entered
into without the slightest chance of success, merely with a
view to have a tight to present a petition, and so enable a
Committee, should it chance to be composed of Tories, to
elect a Member for Tipperary. The whole fruitless oppo-
sition, therefore, grows from the known readiness of Mem-