The Sun.
London, England, 1849-03-19 00:00:00

which we have adverted could not, of course, be
brought into immediate operation. We would not
interfere with any existing interests ; we would no
more deprive an Admiral of his pay or pension
than we would turn adrift an experienced
seaman " brought up to the service, and who
wished to remain in it." But only one promotion or
new appointment should be made for every three
vacancies in any grade or rank, until a fair propor-
tion was established between the number of officers
and men employed, and that promotion should be made
according to the merits of the candidates, and the
actual services they had rendered, and not on ac
count of their aristocratic birth or Parliamentary
influence.

From every part of the kingdom and from every
denomination of Christians which does not repudiate
the name of Protestant there has arisen one universal
shout of indignation against the continued persecu-
tion of the Rev. JAMES SHORE by the Bishop of
EXETER. The meeting of ministers of the Gospel,
held this day week at Exeter Hall, has been followed
up by district meetings in every part of the metro-
polis, and by meetings in all the large towns of the
kingdom, for the purpose of petitioning Parliament on
the subject; and as it is above all things advisable that
in this weighty matter uniformity of action should
be secured, we give from the Leeds Mercury of
Saturday a copy of the Leeds petition, which we
strongly recommended as the " model petition " to
the friends of religious liberty :

To the Honourable the Commons of Great Britain and
Ireland, in Parliament assembled.
The petition of the undersigned inhabitants of the town

of feeds,

SHOWETH,—That your petitioners have heard with
deep indignation of the imprisonment of the Rev. James
Shore, for the costs of actions brought against him by the
Bishop of Exeter, in the Ecclesiastical Courts, for preach-
ing the Gospel.
That your petitioners regard this proceeding as an
outrageous violation of the rights of conscience, con-
demned by the spirit of Christianity and the principles
of religious toleration.

That your petitioners pray your Honourable House to
pass without delay a Bill that shall have the effect of
releasing Mr. Shore, and prevent the repetition of such
acts of oppression; and also to abolish the Ecclesiastical
Courts, and remove every penalty or restraint for the
free exercise of religious opinion.
And your petitioners shall ever pray, &c.

The concluding portion of the prayer of this petition
is most important ; there can be no safety for the
religious liberty of the poor man, there can be no
protection for the humble curate against the lawless
tyranny of a persecuting bishop, until the Ecclesias-
tical Courts shall be abolished, as the costs are so
enormous, the proceedings so dilatory, and the power
of appeal so extensive, that the man of large income
has it in his power to ruin the poor mar, however
just may be the cause of the latter, and to obtain a
judgment against him as a defaulter, from the inability
of the latter, through poverty, to continue the contest
in these courts of injustice. It is time that these
abominations should cease from out the land. The
only excuse attempted to be set up for the Bishop of
EXETER has been by his secretary, Mr. RALPH
BARNES, and the excuse of Mr. RALPH BARNES is
nothing more than a repetition of the cuckoo cry,
" It is for costs and not for preaching the Gospel that
he is imprisoned "—an excuse as old as the days of
the: Inquisition. " The Holy Office does not burn
heretics," said the Dominican friars, "it merely
hands them over to the secular arm ;"—so, Mr. RALPH
BARNES—" Mr. SHORE is imprisoned not for preach-
ing but for costs," as though those costs had not been
inflicted as virtually a punishment for preaching.
Indeed Mr. RALPH BARNES is himself compelled to
admit that such is the case, for he says—" The suit;
on which this proceeding has been taken against Mr-
SHORE for costs was instituted in the Court of
Arches in my name by directions of the Bishop of
EXETER, for officiating as a clergyman of the
Church of England in the Bishop's diocese
without his licence." Now seeing that Mr.
SHORE had before the occasion alluded to by
Mr. RALPH BARNES publicly declared that he had
seceded from the Church of England, and that he
officiated on that occasion as a Dissenting minister,
seeing that the Bishop of EXETER directed the suit
to be instituted against Mr. SHORE, in order to con-
strain him to re►nain in the Church of England,
whether he would or no, we think even Mr. RALPH
BARNES himself will scarcely venture to maintain that
Mr. SHORE is_not imprisoned " for preaching the Gos-
pel." As was well observed by the Rev. J. BURNETT,
at the Exeter-hall meeting on Monday, when
speaking of the defence set up by the Bishop's
secretary, "if this doctrine were to hold good,
the Bishop of EXETER might have knocked
Mr. SHORE down with a bludgeon, and then,
when the Rev. Gentleman was taken to an
hospital, he might say Oh, he has been confined in
that hospital, not because I knocked him down, but
because he has a wound in his head.' " The letter of
Mr. RALPH BARNES concludes with a paragraph
which a Puseyite neophyte might have written at
the suggestion of his Jesuit instructor. " I will only
add," says Mr. RALPH BARNES, " that since the case
was finally decided by the court of appeal, I have
never asked of or received from the Bishop of
EXETER any directions or instructions in regard to
my proceedings on the sentence whatever, and I am
alone responsible for the course which I have taken.'
There can be no possible objection, to Mr.
RALPH BARNES taking upon himself the responsibility
of all the sins that the Bishop of EXETER has ever
committed ; he may, if it so please him, advertise
BARNES as the ame damnee of PHILLPOTTS on all pos-
sible occasions, but he should remember that all the
advantage he gains thereby is the perpetual compa-
nionship of his patron. The responsibility of BARNES.
does not lessen one whit the responsibility of FRILL-
PUTTS. As good Protestants we eschew the doctrine
of works of supererogation, and BARNES'S responsibi-
lity in this instance is entirely supererogatory.
The Bishop of EXETER is responsible for the
imprisonment of the Rev. JAMES SHORE, and that for
the very reason which Mr. RALPH BARNES has
set forth to show that he (Mr. RALPH BARNES) is
alone responsible for the course which he has taken.
The Bishop of EXETER knew right well that in the
absence of any instructions it would be Mr. BARNES'S
duty to proceed in the manner he has done, and that
it is precisely because he (the Bishop) gave no direc-
tions that Mr. SHORE is in prison. Had he given
directions to stay proceedings Mr. SHORE would have
been at liberty at this moment, and this both the Bishop
and Mr. BARNES knew full well at the time this
sentence was penned. The paragraph is worthy
the pen of an Escobar or of a Mariana.
The movement against the overbearing tyranny of
the Prelacy is becoming general, and as though tc.
I prove to the world that the Bishop..of EXETER is not
to be considered as an exception to his order, it has,
pleased another Right Rev. Prelate to thrust himself
forward as a candidate for the same unenviable noto-
riety which Bishop PHILLPOTTS has taken such pains to
acquire. The Bishop of LONDON has thought alright;
to reprimand the Rev. E. CRAIG for presiding at;
the meeting of ministers of the Gospel held.
at Exeter Hall on this subject on Monday last.
The Bishop of LONDON, like the Bishop of EXETER, is
a great agitator for Church extension. Fifty new-
churches for the metropolitan districts alone, to be
built and endowed by the State, with fifty new cler-
gymen, to be appointed by himself, is the modest de-
mand of the Right Reverend reprimander of the Rev.
E. CRAIG. We put it to all those who have not repu-
diated the name of Protestant, whether the Church
which they desire to see extended is the Church
which empowers the Bishop of EXETER to imprison
Mr. SHORE, the Church which authorises the Bishop of
LONDON to reprimand Mr. CRAIG—if it be not, we
say to them, " No longer suffer yourselves to be bam-
boozled by names ; when the plate comes round for
subscriptions for Church extension, under the patron-
age of the Bishop, button up your breeches pockets ;
when a measure for Church extension is proposed i,:n
Parliament, agitate and petition against it."

ARRIVAL OP THE COURT FROM THE ISLE OF
WIGHT.—Her Majesty and his Royal Highness the
Prince Consort, accompanied by the youthful Royal
Family, and attended by Lady Portman, Lady in
Waiting, the Hon. Flora Macdonald, Maid of Honour
in Waiting, Major-General Bowles, Master of the
Household, and the Equerries in Waiting, arrived :at
Buckingham Palace this afternoon from Osborne
Palace. The Royal cortege was escorted from the
Nine Elms Station by a party of the 11th Hussars.
The Court is expected to remain in town until Wed-
nesday, the 4th of April, when her Majesty and her
august family proceed to Windsor Castle to pass the
Easter ho;idays, and return to town for the season :at
the end of the month.

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