The Sun.
London, England, 1847-12-29 00:00:00

81 IRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
FROM THE MORNING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.
TIMES.—The Dean of Hereford has adopted or
acquiesced in a course of proceeding which, to the
popular apprehension, will assume the appearance of
a compromise, but the true character of which we
leave to the lawyers to decide. In order to the vali-
dity of the election, it was necessary that it ehould be
unanimous, as we believe to be generally the case
in ecclesiastical elections. The Dean and Mr.
Canon Huntingford, when it came to their turn,
voted against Dr. Hampden. Thus far the Dean
fulfitled the pledge in his letter of the 22d ins ant. On
a comparison of the suffrages, however, and on it '
appearing that all the other members of the Chapter
who were present, whatever their rank or right, had
voted in the affirmative, and on its being fur-
ther proposed and carried that the customary
documents should be issued, and declaration
read, the Dean contented himself with contributing
the agency of his office to the prescriptive forms
of an unanimous election. This apparent in-
consistency is familiar enough to all governing mem-
bers of our ancient collegiate or capitular bodies.
The pious spirit which pervades the whole fabric of
those institution supposed a perfect and, so to sneak,
a brotherly unanimity. The founders could not but
be aware that differences there would certainly be,
and therefore they must have anticipated the course
which, in effect, has generally prevailed. The votes
are taken preliminary to the form of election,
which, either with or without a fresh taking of suf-
frages, is concluded to be unanimous. Such is the
universal understanding, and we have never yet
heard of any protest against such formal unanimity.,
What stage of the proceedings the Dean referred
to when he undertook that the election should
not be unanimous, is not for us to say. Nor can we
say whether his formal acquiescence in the result has
relieved him from the serious consequences which
seemed to be entailed by his vote and address during
the taking of the suffrages. If an inevitable neces-
sity has overruled and nullified the Dean's own
course—if he was really bound by the majority to
yield himself a passive instrument in its hands, then
we can only most heartily rejoice that an estimable
man should still continue in the enjoyment of his
rank and position, and particularly that he should be
allowed to complete the cathedral which he has raised
almost from its rules. Dr. Merewether has been
charged, like many other people, with disappointed
ambition, but no one has ever accused him of a mer-
cenary object. It is said that he has spent in the
restoration of his cathedral the whole of his decanal
income. Liberality such as this may be allied with
weakness, and even with vice ; but it should procure
at least a charitable construction of motives. \Vtiat.-
ever the legal or the moral character of the course
taken by the Dean, that of Lord John Russell is
simple enough. The " law,"— the bond,—the pound
of flesh, is the substance, and not less the style of his
communications. The nearer it is to the heart of
the Church the better pleases he appears with his
lien. For our pert, as there never yet has been
the allegation of a departure from the statute
in question, and as there never yet has been
any legal decision upon it, we are not
sure that some second Daniel may not
live to discover that Lord John may possibly get an
ounce of flesh too little or too much, or may find a
drop of blood impair the validity of his process. We
are not sure of this. It is rather late in the day to
work a prcemunire the first time for three centuries,
especially when there is no Henry to quicken the pro-
cess, overrule objections, and clinch the work well
with a fagot or an axe. The Dean had received two
contradictory orders ; one to elect a fit man, and the
other to elect a very unfit man. There is just a
chance that the law might spare him the absurdity of
subscribing both to the black and to the white pro-
position. That the statute of 2.5 Henry VIII. is
" the Magna Charta of Tyranny" is a proposition
we feel most reluctant to subscribe. A law cannot
be very tyrannical which has been submitted to
without a murmur for more than three centuries,
the penalties of which, therefore, it has been found
unnecessary to inflict, which has been worked
with almost uniform delicacy and discretion,
and which has therefore been productive of much
eventual good to the Church. The harshness and
opprobrium of the statute were rather in the imagi-
nation of those who wished to expose the fetters and
sores of the Church, than in the facts of the case. No
one could ever pretend that a comparatively small
society of clergymen attached to one church in one
town of a diocese had any reasonable right to select a
bishop for the whole. Had that been the law it
would not have been submitted to for a day. The
law, as it has stood from the Reformation, not to go
further back, having charged the dean and chapter as
to the qualifications of the persons to be elected, re-
serves the actual nomination or selection to the
Crown—the Sovereign being the chief administrative
organ of all estates and orders in the realm. We
are convinced that, up to this period, no
other mode of election would be either
beneficial or satisfactory. Where is the ty-
ranny in this ? There are at least as many men
of honour and independence in the clerical as in other
professions, but few, if any, have complained that
their consciences were eliforced to an improper elec-
tion. The most scrupulous have had reason to feel
that the person recommended by the Crown very
fairly satisfied the requisites specified in the cove
d' lire. In effect there is no part of the royal prero-
gative which has been so carefully and tenderly admi-
nistered. Sovereigns and their advi=ers have prized and
feared this precious and awful function. If divines
of extraordinary genius, learning, and zeal have been
rather admired than loved by politicians, the safer
virtues have nowhere shone more conspicuously than
on the episcopal bench. Humble servitors and sis-
zars, the sons of curates and tradesmen, have been al-
lowed to win the race from rank and even from party ;
and a continuous body of men has been kept up for
which neither England nor any other country could
find a parallel. There has, therefore, been no
tyranny. But while we are forced to disagree with
the Bishop of Exeter in our retrospective view of this
statute, we must admit that Lord John Russell's
present construction of it favours the Bishop's strik-
ing definition. The Minister seems resolved to make
it the Charter of Tyranny fur the future—if he can.
CHRONICLE.—The Dean of Hereford has made
a bad business of it. The election took place yester-
day, when the numbers were—
For Dr. Hampden
Against
The Dean had just one canon-residentiary to support
him. We cannot say that in the conduct of this
irritated ecclesiastic during the proceedings of the
election, no more than in that remarkable epistle
which we presented to our readers yesterday, there
is anything to be found which can impart dignity
to so signal a defeat. Humbly as we rate the judg-
ment aril discretion of the refractory Dean, we
should have felt real pleasure in applauding, had it
been in our power, the moral courage and fidelity
with which Dr. Merewether so handsomely credits
himself. The spectacle of a good man struggling at
odds with adversity, and fighting the up-hill battle
of conscience against principalities and powers, has
something in it so ennobling, that it is a thousand
pities to be obliged to accept an undignified solution
of one of the grandest looking of moral phenomena.
however much we might regret the martyrdom which
our Dean has had the gallantry to brave, and however
widely we might dissent from the martyr's peculiar
views of ethical obligation, we could never hesitate
about awarding the tribute of our admiration to the
meanest soldier in that noble army which embodies
the highest of spiritual forces, and marshals itself
under the divinest of banners. It is really a heart-
stirring story, as the Dean tells it, and as the Times
indorses it. The holy man has deliberately sacrificed,
on the altar of his " most solemn religious responsi-
bility," all that is vulgarly imagined to be nearest
and dearest to the heart of ecclesiastical ambition.
He has voluntarily renounced those golden dreams
which brightened the existence of the common run of
steady-going dignitaries, and which, in his particular
case, had, it seems, the extraordinary warranty of a
deceased Monarch's " death-bed injunction." Dr.
Merewether has had virtue enough to take his name,
of his own free will, off the Premier's list of potential
prelates. He has sternly refused, at the bidding of
conscience, to be any longer one of that privileged
and happy class denominated, in the world's dialect,
rijps.tn men." As he modestly phrases it, " I preclude
myself from that which might otherwise have been my
lot." In plain English, Dr..lllerewether. has felt it his
duty to cut himself
iofut of a mitre. He knows that
he has spoiled himself for a bishop, and has totally
ruined his previously
certain l prospec t of having the
next see at Lord Johnesse I s disposal ; but he has
w
done it on principle. are truly sorry to damage
this delightful little romance. After the Times has
canonizing been at the pains of half- the martyred
Dean, there seems something unfeeling
cold water on so generous an enthu:
cufr
nobie redudlous
c We can
only say it is no fault of ours. If o
contemporary will swallow a story enthusiasm. throwing
and " heroic" self-sacrifice, without informing deeds"
self of the facts, and pass a candidate for sainterhip
without taking the trouble to eliminate the mythical
from the historical items of the claim, we can but
regret that his amiable temper and lively imagination
should lay him open to delusions which a sterner
criticism must dispel. It is not without sincere
5-empathy that we find ourselves obliged to assure our
contemporary, that he has got hold of a somewhat
.shabby sort of martyr, a thoroughly common-
place hero, a decidedly fictitious saint,
~and a
quite imaginary specimen of a " real man. The
truth of the matter is correctly divined by
4' A London Incumbent," whose communication
will be found in another column. Our correspondent
writes conjecturally and inferentially, but we are in a
t osition to speak positively to the same effect.
Blighted hope and disappointed ambition" are at the
150 atom of the business. When Dr. Merewether so