The Sun.
London, England, 1833-03-15 00:00:00

efir
*stn.
_

LONDON,
FRIDAY EVENING, MARCH 15, 1833.

On Lord ALTHORP rising last night to move
the second reading of the Irish Church Reform
Bill, Mr. WYNN declared that the proceeding
was erroneous in point of form, and contrary to
all precedent, for that the Bill was, to all in-
tents and purposes, a Money Bill, and should
therefore be first referred to a Committee of the
whole House. Sir 11 .PEEL followed on the same
side, on which the CHANCELLOR of the Ex-
CHEQUER deferred the further consideration of
the Bill till Monday, and proposed that, in the
interim, a Select Committee should be ap-
pointed to consider precedents.

A curious scene presented itself last night at
the House of Commons. When it began to be
suspected that the debate on the Church Reform
Bill would go off, Members slipped out of the
House by twos and threes in a very mysterious
manner ; as the certainty of a free evening ad-
vanced, the departures quickened, and weary
reporters began to think they were abou
to have a half holyday by the House rising at

Accounts have been received at the Portu-
guese Embassy from Lisbon, to the 27th ult.,
five days later than the last date from Oporto.
They communicate nothing new from the latter
city—an additional proof that the report circu-
lated here on Sunday and Monday last of the
flight of Don PEDRO, and which was said to
rest upon letters from Oporto of the 23d ult.,
was of stock-jobbing origin, and intended for
the purpose of favouring the new Miguelite
Loan which had been blown upon in the market.

M. DEDEL, the new Ple►►ipotentiary of the
King of HOLLAND, had his first interview with
Prince TALLEYRAND yesterday. He was ac-
companied by M. Von ZUYLEN ; but the au-
dience was, we understand, merely one of intro-
duction. It is not expected that he will enter
formally on the business of his mission until
to-morrow or Monday. M. Von ZUYLEN is,
it seems, to remain here for ten days or a fort-
night, during which he will, of course, give
M. DEDEL the benefit of his views on the Bel-
gian question. It is not probable, from this
arrangement, that the King of HOLLAND will
make any concessions of moment. However
well disposed M. DEDEL may be, he cannot go
beyond the instructions of his Master, who is
one of those obstinate beings to whom expe-
rience brings neither humility nor profit.
If the King of HOLLAND had been at all
moderate, the Belgian question would have long
since been sett)ed in favour of his family ; for
the British Cabinet were at one time determined
on offering the crown of Belgium to the Prince
of ORANGE, with the consent of the French
Government. The Dutch Sovereign, however,
when informed of the wish of the two Cabinets,
observed that he would rather see M. de POT-
TER King of Belgium, and persisting in his
refusal to agree to the proposed arrangement, the
British and French Governments offered the
crown to Prince LEOPOLD. From this fact,
which we hear from an authentic source, our
readers may judge of the character of the King
of HOLLAND. There is, we think, little
ground for imagining that he will permit M.
DEDEL to yield more than the Baron Von
ZUYLEN.

Mr. HUME has called for a return, which the
House of Commons has ordered to be printed,
showing the number of resident and non-resident
clergymen, the number of curates, the amount
of their stipends, &c., for the year 1831, to
which we would earnestly recommend to every
Church Reformer to direct his attention. By
this return it appears that out of the 10,560
benefices in England and Wales there are only
4,649 which have resident incumbents. Of the
remainder there are 2,506 incumbents who are

non-residents by exemption, 1,968 who are non-
resident by license, 509 absent without license
or exemption, 412 who have made no return as
to residence, and 183 who have made no returns
at all. There are 115 benefices vacant ; and
in the few that remain the clergymen are non-
resident, from different causes, more or less
valid. It is but fair to state that this enormous
number of non-resident incumbents have among
them 1,684 who, in the worth of the return,
perform the duties of their respective parishes.
We suppose that the performance of divine
service every Sunday is meant by this, and, as
far as that goes, the evil complained of by the
country is mitigated ; but the duties of a clergy-
man, we apprehend, extend much beyond the
simple
performance of divine service; and, indeed,
public opinion has already very generally
changed the drinking, hunting, pig-pokeing
parson (to use Mr. COBBETT'S words) of the
last century, into a person having some regard

at least to outward decencies, and in many cases
to the real welfare of the flock committed to his
charge. What may be the nature of the
Church Reform intended to be proposed for
England, has not yet transpired ; but certain we
are, that one essential of it must be the en-
forcement of residence. It appears that the
nu,nber of livings, whose gross value is 3001.
and upwards, in which the incumbents are non-
resident, is 1,139.
The most lamentable circumstance, however,
apparent on the face of these returns, is
the, heartlessness with which many of the
curates are condemned to a starvation allow-
ance by the non-workers, who seem to
think they have nothing to do but eat,
drink, and sleep. There are six curates who
receive less than 201. a year, 48 who receive
more than 201. and under 30/., 112 who
receive more than 30/. and under 40/., 320 who
receive more than 40/. and less than 50/., 792
who receive more than 50/: and less than 60/.,
359 who receive more than 601. and less than
70/., 483 who receive more than 70/. and less
than 80/., 547 who receive more than 80/. and
less than 90/., 174 who receive more than 90/.
and less than 100/., 619 who receive more
than 100/. and less than 110/. Those who
receive more than 1101. amount to very few. It
appears, then, by this statement, that there are
1,278 curates who receive less than 60/. per
annum, that is, less than the wages of many
menial servants, and 2,182 others who receive
less than 110/. per annum. When it is considered
that these are the persons who really perform
the work the incumbents themselves ought to
perform, there can be little doubt that they
are, every one of them, underpaid. In some
instances, we are aware that the stipend given to
the curate is equal, or superior, to the whole
value of the living ; but this only proves that,
in such cases, the cure ought to be merged in a
second. Church Reform must wipe out this
and other blots that disfigure the Establishment,
or it will soon, we fear, lose what hold it still
has upon the mind of the community.

VICE-CHANCERY COURT.-(THIS DAY.

EX PARTE THE FELLOWS OF TRINITY-HALL,