The Sun.
London, England, 1856-05-31 00:00:00

become a mockery and a reproach—a blot on the
laws of the United Kingdom—and bad as it is
at present, it must become far worse when some
of the most efficient Law Lords should in course
of nature drop off—and serious obstacles existed
to the infusion of new blood, or the satisfac-
tory filling up of the vacancies thus occa-
sioned. This, thee, was the great desideratum,
and the question, therefore, naturally arose—
why it should not be met by the creation of a
perfectly independent tribunal, the efficiency
whereof would be as generally acknowledged as
the inefficiency of the existing one is deplored ?
Their Lordships, however, cling to the privilege
with extraordinary tenacity. They seem to have
some vague notion that, in surrendering that
which, to the great majority of their members,
must be a great practical inconvenience, they
would lose a great portion of their dignity, and
that, unless the judicial be still united to the
political function, they would forfeit the brightest
gems of their coronets.
To persons of ordinary capacity it would seem that
the transfer of the jurisdiction to a body like the
judicial branch of the Privy Council would be the
best mode of getting rid of the difficulty, and that
a judgment would he just as sound, although de-
livered by an experienced Judge not possessing
either an hereditary or life peerage, as by a
noble lord, advanced in years, whose physical
and mental powers had been in some degree im-
paired by the labours he had undergone in
winning his toilsome course to the distinction he
had achieved—that, in the words of Ermis,
"The rank is but the guinea's stamp,
The man's the gowd for a' that."

Sed Diis &her vistm. The Select Committee
th.night otherwise, and hence the diluted measure

now introduced, which is neither one thing nor
the other ; which, while it will not give complete
satisfaction to the _suitors, will let in the sharp
end of the wedge in reference to the vexed ques-
tion of life Peerages. It would surely be far bet-
ter that the retired Chancellors and Judges should
be permitted to enjoy the otium CUM, dignitate
which they had fairly earned than that they
should be expected to serve' gratuitously as Law
Lords, when their age and infirmities had con
-
polled their retire:nent from the judicial
situations they had previously occupied. Should
they find themselves competent to discharge
the arduous duties of Appellate Judges, there
would, of course, be a great desire to retain

their services. They might eve:a be entitled to
e✓s officio seats in the Wilds with the priviiege of
working if they thought proper, and without
being liable to invidious remarks if they sought
the ease and;relaxation for which they had laboured

in their earlier years.
The new Deputy Speakerships, with sabries of
6,0001. per annum, and the possibility of being
created life Peers, is at best a miserable expedient
to achieve that which might be much better ac•
complished in another way. Thsi les, the matter
savours strongly of a job, for there is nothing to
prevent Peers, whose services at present are gra-
tuitously. given, but wh© might.not be unwilling
to avail themselves of the salary to be given, from
being nominated. Oa the whOle, we should say,
let either a new tribunal be constituted, or
let there be a real reform, such as we have al-
ready suggested, of the Upper House, making the
seats therein elective, although the possession of
a hereditary or life Peerage should be a necessary
qualification. This is what the country requires,
and which we have no doubt must sooner or later
be conceded, if the privileges of the Peerage are
to be perpetuated.

It now and then occurs that the note of "spiri-
tual destitution" is vigorously sounded throughout
the kingdom. S )me fussy curate, incapab'e
distinguishing himself in any_ other way, fin is
himself in occupation of a district where people
go to chapel instead of church. Straightway he

has recourse to the census returns—calculates Uri,:
number of people who can't go to church if they
Would, and who wouldn't if they could. The
result is a letter to the Church newspapers, in
which the existence of Dissenters' chapels is stu-
diously ignored, and an alarming state of heathen-
ism is piteously set forth. So many thousand
people going to—we won't say where—for want
of Church extension ! His example finds imita-
tors—the note of "spiritual destitution" is
sound©d ; and, when it has gathered force, down
come the High-Church party with the cuckoo cry
of " more Bishops." Who that has heard it but
has been reminded of the French Princess, who,
on being told the people were starving for want
of bread, inquired why they had not recourse to
sweet cake ? One would have thought fewer
overpaid Bishops—and these relieved of their
Parliamentary " duties" (?), which take up half
their time, by keeping them six months per annum

in London—and more and better paid curates,
would be more germane to the matter. Say so,
and to what a torrent of ecclesiastical laudation of
the divine virtues of the episcopate you expose
yourself ! _ _ _

A fortiori, the cry of " more Bishops" should
be louder, if not more general, when there is a
practical diminution of the number of acting
Bishops. Just, however, as the Sabbatarian
party make reverence for " the Sabbath" a cloak
for the usurpation of clerical authority, High
Churchmen make reverence for the episcopate a
cloak for party aggrandisement. Now that two
Bishops (London and Durham) are, so far as the

discharge of their spiritual duties goes, defunct,
and a third stands in need of a straight-waistcoat,
they have not a word to say on the matter.

Batter, they seem to think, the people should
lack the choicest spiritual alms than a Low-Church
Bishop should be appointed ! Hold on, my Lord

Bishops, though one foot be in the grave—hold on
till there is a prospect of High Churchmen filling
your places, and then hie as fast as you can to
your reward ! Religion is really faring very
badly just now in the hands of its ostentatious

champions of most creeds.
The contemplation is sufficiently offensive, and
we gladly turn to something more practical. Tho
Episcopacy may be a very good thing for all that
is:said. of it, or it may not. Ono thing is certain—
the public are entitled to have what they pay for.
They pay the Bishops of LONDON and DURHAM
handsomely, and these Bishops can discharge no
episcopal duty in return. They are too old and
infirm. The
greater reason they should retire
and make Way for younger men. The best
Judges that have adorned the B.:lnch have
done so in like * circumstances, and surely
Christian bishops should not hesitate ! On the
brink of the grave they should surely se-,
au example of self-denial.
?.
The public, how-
ever, ought to have better ground fur relianc .
An Act should be passed, not for the appointment
of suffragan bishops, but, as the Dean of BRISTOL
recommends, "enabling the Crown to inquire, by
a commission specially appointed, into the aide-
gations of any petition from a bishop praying
leave to retire, or into the presentments by corn.
petent authority of the inability of any bishop
to discharge efficiently his duties, whether becms-,,
of old age, protracted illness, bodily or mental
linfirmity ; and on incapacity being reported, to