The Sun.
London, England, 1856-02-06 00:00:00

ever.

Sir G. COI NEWALL LEWIS would, doubtless,
rejoice at being enabled to evade the serious re-
sponsibility. But if he feel incompetent to
grappl©
with the difficulty, or to meet the im-
pendixig crisis, he should vacate the important
position which he occupies, in order that the trust

may be reposed in more efficient hands. A fort-
night ago we referred to the opinions so clearly and
distinctly put forward by Mr. JAMES WILSON,
and although we cannot concur in all the views
entertained by that Hon. Gentleman, it is mani-
fest that he has the stuff in him, and could fairly
undertake the arduous and all-important matter.
He has already declared himself in favour of a
large issue of really national notes of the smaller
denominations, and receivable in payment of all
taxes and duties. It is true that he insisted on
convertibility, as an indispensable adjunct, which,
as he pointed out, could be secured beyond the
possibility of doubt, by a sufficient reserve of bul-
lion. But although we differ from him on that
point, we are convinced that the experiment to
which he gave the sanction of his name, would
establish the safety of the inconvertible notes we
advocate, and that while it would operate
as a large instalment of justice, even supposing
that it led to no ulterior results, it would eventu-
ally produce the soundest and most judicious
system of currency ever brought into operation at
any time or in any country.
The Times itself has declared that a " a re-
discussion of the whole question in Parliament
cannot be arranged too soon." We fully concur
in this opinion. It is all that we HOW demand,
convinced that the truth will prevail, and that,
when public attention has been sufficiently directed
to the subject, that which is for the benefit of the
community will eventually be established, despite
the interested opposition to which it may, and
unquestionably will, be subjected.

To-morrow evening the important and interest-
ing question of " Life Peerages," will be brought
under the consideration of the Upper House. The
veteran Lord LYNDHURST has undertaken the
duty of bringing the subject before their Lord-
ships, and there is no doubt that he is fully quali-
fied to place it in the clearest possible light be-
fore those whose privileges and position are so
greatly concerned in the result.
Two questions have been raised in reference to
the recent elevation of Lord WENSLEYDALE—bet-
ter known as Baron PARKE—to the Peerage,
without any limitation over either to the heirs
male, of his body, or of any kind whatsoever.
Its legality has been directly impugned, by no
less an authority than the Lord Chief JustiCe of
England, and many other eminent jurists, while
its policy and expediency have been far more
widely questioned. It has very gene-
rally been regarded as " the introduction of
the sharp end of the wedge," which if suffered
to operate without resistance, may, and most pro-
bably will, lead to a total change in the organisa-
tion of the hereditary branch of the Legislature.
It is admitted on every side that there could

not be a better subject for the experiment, than
the new Peer, Lord WENSLEYDALE. The Noble
Lord has no surviving son whose rights could be
compromised by the restriction. Nor is it likely

that in his case the question could ever be raised
by an interested party. His character and posi-

tion is so high, that no future person could com-
plain of an indignity in the following up of the
precedent established with respect to Sir JAMES
PARKE. The opinion of Parliament can there-
fore fairly be taken on the point, without any in-
jurious consequences, should it be held that the
Royal Prerogative had been strained or injudi-
ciously exercised.
We shall at present restrict our observations

to the latter portion of the case, without entering

into the question of legality, which mu,3t inevit-
ably be considered and adjudicated on by a com-
petent tribunal. We confess that we entertain a

very strong opinion on the.point, but that opinion

may more properly be deferred until a future op-
portunity, when the issue has been fairly raised
on both sides.

It is, we believe, agreed on all sides that there
:s at present an urgent necessity for Law Lords,
n order to preserve the judicial privileges of the

House. lt is the ultimate Court of Appeal, the
decision whereof, must be final and conclusive in
every important case. When questions have been
determined in the Exchequer Chamber, or by
the Lord Chancellor and Judges of Appeal,
in Equity, they may still be carried to the House
of Peers. It would be a farce to have the judg-
ment of such eminent men over-ruled by others
of inferior character. It is clear, then, that either
the judicial privileges of the Upper House must
be waived, or new blood infused, so as to render
the decisions satisfactory.
In the latter case there may be the danger of
abating the dignity of the Peerage by the intro-
duction of parties, who, although they have ample
means to maintain its honour during their own

lives, have not accumulated and realised property
to bestow on their successors adequate to the
positions which they may be called on to assume.
A pauper nobleman has, indeed, a hard card toplay.
He cannot discharge the claims incidental to his
rank, and is debarred from many occupations by
which he might, as a Commoner, have earned a
comfortable livelihood. What, then, can he do ?
He must endeavour to quarter himself on the
public, and be prepared to barter his venal vote
for an adequate provision. This alou3 would be
an evil to be especially deprecated, but with the
actual necessity for Law Lords it cannot be
averted, save by the creation of life, or possibly
ex-officio, Peerages. On the other hand, it will
scarcely be possible to maintain a hereditary
House, when an actual majority may be obtained
on any question of importance by the creation of
a sufficient number of life Peers. If the
principle be established and acted on, the English
Peers must be placed in the same category
as their Scotch and Irish brethren, and a

limited number elected either for the Parliament
or for life. We believe that this would be the
most eligible course, but at present we must re-
frain from further observation on a point on which
so much may be said on either side of the question.

The Church is just now fighting hard for two
incompatibles!, liberty to tax others and liberty to
govern herself. She sighs for a Convocation en-
dowed with legislative powers, but groans at the
thought of losing a church rate, or a burial fee.
Give her five millions per annum and self-govern-
ment and the Church, that is, as Churchmen mean
the clergy, will be the happiest corporation in ex-
istence. But rude and troublesome is the breath
of lay common-sense ;
that of Dissenters distress-
ingly so, and that of non-clerical members of the
Establishment, who think the body of some use to
, the head and members, hardly less. Mediators
arise to soften things a little. Archbishops have
allowed a " consulting Convocation to become—
Bishop WILBERFORCE tells us—an established fact,"
and Mr. PACKE labours to MVO some portion of
Church Rates to his worried mother ; but it will
not do. The talking is all that the Rouse of
Commons will allow to Convocation ; a reasonable
thing, too, since it finds by experience that there
is nothing like it for the obstruction of business,
and it is determined that Convocation shall do
nothing. Neither will the PACKE and Canter-
bury Church - Rate proposals do. Dissenters
won't have them ; they will fight it out rather.
They, at least, know better than to half do their

business after so many campaigns, and when they
know that righteous terms will be the result of
refusing a compromise.
On the question of Church Rates it were far
better for Churchmen to strike while they may.
They are now become a national nuisance, and
the dirt of them all sticks to the Church. Dis-
senters gain credit for their uncompromising man-
liness, while the Church is regarded as a stickler
for extortion. The tone of public feeling is
wholly changed from that which some years
ago laughed at six-and-eightpenny martyrs.
Partly the Census has revealed the unfairness of
of a personal tax levied by the wealthy minority
of worshippers on the poorer majority, a majority,
too, which has no 5,000,0001. per annum to ease
its shoulders of the burden of supporting its
clergy. Partly, also, the gross abuses perpetrated
by Church Commissioners and Bishops with the
public property have irritated the people. More
than enough has been squandered, literally squan-
dered, on the mitre and its adjuncts, than would
pay Church Rates, if applied to that purpose.
There is beside, n 3 doubt, even alongside the
Pasey ism of the day, a growing sense of what is
due to Christians of communities diverse from our
own ; indeed we must acknowledge that the so-
called Evangelicals are much bitterer enemies to
the social claims of Dissenters than the Ro-
manisers, the latter generally evincing far more
of that pecuniary liberality which is the only
basis of thorough ecclesiastical freedom.

It is instructive to notice the seemingly con-
stant flow of Voluntaryism. It appears to have no
ebbs. Lord STANLEY has predicted that whether
we like it or not, whether the change be for better
or for worse, Voluntaryism will be the creed
and practice of another generation. If our most
important colonies react at all upon the mother
country this must be the case, and nothing seems
more natural. Canada has already liberated her-
self, and now the " Times correspondent" from
Melbourne sends home some facts which must be
most unwelcome to Lord JOHN RUSSELL. His
Lordship was most resolute when giving the colony
a new constitution to saddle it with 50,0001. of
reserved revenue for the clergy. We are now in-
formed that there is a current of agitation setting
in against this reserve ; not a demagogue agita-
tion, but one carried on by the most respectable
portion of the community, which will certainly
in a few years compel its renunciation. That
even now those who depend on voluntary sup-
port are practically surpassing their opponents in
energy and promptitude of action. Lord JOHN
RUSSELL has outlived his age ; he will, we sin-
cerely hope, live to witness the extinction of
Church Rates, or we should lose him sooner than
we wish ; and probably live to see his Australian
Clergy Reserve kicked after his Canadian Clergy
Reserves—nay, he may very likely have as before
to aid in the task himself.

Odessa is still the basis of sinister Russian ope-

rations. It had its share in the slaughter of

Inkerman, and it now seems likely to share in the
negotiations of Paris. The late accounts from it

nform us that " the accumulation of troops on

the Danube is suck that no quarters can be
found for the new arrivals ; that Ismail, Bender,
and Chotym have been placed in a state of com-
plete defence." Of these places, Bender only is
entirely without the imaginary line drawn by
Austria for the Allies ; a line which it turas out
so splits Bessarabia lengthwise, as to leave Russia
all the fertile soil, and to add little besides barren
steppe to the territory of Moldavia. The Aus-

trian negotiators, being Austrian, would not g•

back to the Treaty of Jassy, and demand the
Dniester as the natural river boundary of Bes-
sarabia. Had they done so, the pet Odessa would
still have been Russian, and Bender once more a
Tallish, or rather a Moldavian, fortress. Ismail
is, of course, whollyand deeply within the territory
to be ceded, and Chotyai is the very important
fortress from which the proposed line starts, and
which, if the new territory is to be safe, ought to
belong to it.

There can be but one interpretation of the
crowding forces, otherwise much needed el4e-
where, into these places. Russia, must intend to
say to the Plenipotentiaries---if you want the
security you demand in this quarter, come and
take it. We are ready in that part for anything,
and we do not mean to surrender without being
dislodged. In other words, it is her intention,
by an imposing display of troops in the very
quarter where the Allies have most to ask, to be
in a position to refuso all they can. Sbe
will make a merit, perhaps, of withdrawing
a large garrison from Ismail ; and as to
Chotym, will declare it to be out of all
question to surrender it, it being, we be-

lieve, new a ranch stronger place than Ismail, and
of the utmost importance as the most advanced
post for the defence of the provinces agaiast the
future movements of Russia. It is to be hoped
Lord CLARENDON will allow no quibbling or
tergiversation on these important items of the
Five Points. Messrs. COBDEN and BRIGHT would,
of course, exclaim, then you are going to War
again for Chotym—a place of which few of you
knew the name till the other day ; and Mr.
GLADSTONE will follow with his fractional calcu-
lations, and prove that we have got seven-eighths
of what we ask, and then fight for the eighth.
Of course the answer is—but Russia fights for it
too. If she deems it worth fighting for rightly,
then she justifies us ; if wrongly, then heap half
you/ abuse on her also. These gentlemen would
also do well to remember that Russia would fight
about stolen towns and territory which are only a
44 years' theft after all, and that we should be
merely claiming what no time could make right-
fully hers.
It' is because of the danger of concessions of the
kind indicated that our Ministers ought to work
and©r the eye of their masters. Of what earthly
service can it be to us to turn out our Cabinet,
the only punishment to which they are now liable,
when they have done all the mischief. The pre-
rogative of the Crown is, in a constitutional
monarchy, to carry out the will of its subjects.
Even Lord JOHN R ussELL dares not maintain that
the Crown has any rights conflicting with those
of the people. As Mr. BRIGHT was forward
enough to argue on another question—the Ameri-
can complications—" What would be the result
to the Manchester merchants if they confided the
management of their affairs, the buying of their
cotton and goods, and the conduct of their export
and import trade to some concealed conspiracy
among their servants." We are happy to agree
with Mr. BRIGHT for once, only we fear " the
concealed conspiracy " more in the Russian, and
he more in the American business.

A Cabinet Council was held yesterday afternoon at
the Foreign.office. It was attended by Viscount Pal.
merston, the Marquis of Lansdowne, Earl Granville,
Earl of Harro why, Sir George Grey, Earl of Clarendon,
Lord Panmure, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir
Charles Wood, the Right Hon. R. Vernon Smith, Lord
Stanley of Alderley, and the Duke of Argyll. The
Council sat two hours.
The Marquis of Clanricarde, as colonel of the Gal.
way Militia, gave a grand entertainment to the Lfiloers
of that regiment at Aldershott, last evening.
Tne Countess Granville has cards out for a reception
on Wednesday next.