The Sun.
London, England, 1833-07-23 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNAL S.

The Lords' Committee on the Irish Church
Bill have commenced their critical labours.
Rumours were rife yesterday of the Tory Peers
retaining their determination of excising the best
parts of the Ministerial measure; and that, reck-
less of consequences, and despairing of unseat-
ing the Cabinet, they by such a course were
nevertheless obstinately bent on proving their
power and " independence." The Conserva-
tive Lords, like parlour-boarders, will " have
their way;" but it is a very erring and dangerous
perverseness of understanding. Their Lord-
ships may think proper to destroy this Bill,,that
they may have a larger to sport with next year,
and when they may not find it quite so easy to
play their political antics. They may keep the
Staff of useless Irish Bishops at its present full
complement, and in 1534 they may be called
upon to reduce the number of the English Spi-
ritual Peers, and to relieve them all—English
and Irish—from their unnecessary and bur-
densome legislative duties in the House of
Peers. They may uphold church cess for
nine months, when Irishmen may deliver
themselves of the whole compulsory weight of
the Irish Protestant Establishment. The Tory
Lords may yet awhile retain the sinecure " liv-
ings," and those disgusting monuments of a
worn-out and unpopular hierarchy may eventu-
ally root up the foundations of the Irish Church.
But what can these wilful Nobles gain ; and
what may they not speedily lose by their blind
and destructive policy ? Church abuses are the last
remains of the boroughmongers they can perpe-
tuate. The tears and deep drawn sighs of Lord
Eldon come too late to water the Irish church-
yards condemned to the plough of reform. The
military reputation and party manoeuvring of the
Duke of Wellington will not successfully throw
up outworks or fortify the bishoprics proposed
to be dismantled. Sir Robert Peel has not
even a common-place or a skein of casuistry on
this subject. The clear and strong understand-
ing of the Marquis of Londonderry is not
able to defend the Irish Protestant priests.
Lord Wynford can gain no credit for consistency
or piety on this solemn occasion. The Duke of
Cumberland's strict conformity to the Ten
Commandments will not give wei6ht to his ar-
guments, nor can the hobgoblin nonsense on the
coronation oath drive away the watchmen of
church reform. Lord Eldon last week sensibly
observed, that if it be assumed that men have
a right to form their own religious opinions,
the church establishment must fall ; and this ac-
counts for the growing opposition of the English
Protestant dissenters and laity in the large towns
to the payment of church rates. Will Noble
Lords not open their eyes and their ears ? But
faction and party triumph over reason. The
Carlton Club Conservatives fancy they can un-
der-work the Ministry, aggravate the number of
their political difficulties, and endanger their
character, by " clipping" the Irish Church Bill.
We can assure them that, if they succeed, Par-
liament will be prorogued, and a larger dose
exhibited without delay—as restive horses,
under medical treatment of the farrier, are
held by their noses, while " drenched."
The necessity of a premature prorogation
would not enhance the popularity of the Tories.
The West India interest would not procure
their millions of indemnity. If Parliament
were dissolved, Anti-Slavery pledges would be
exchanged for "No twenty millions to manumit
negroes while white slaves exist." The West
India merchants of the City and the London
planters would turn Radicals ; the East India
monopoly would survive a year, and the country
ports, coveting participation in the privileges of'
Leadenhall-street, would not be extremely
pleased. In short, a more inopportune or in-
auspicious time for the party gambols and cabals
of the diminished Conservatives could not be ;
and their plots will all fail, however carefully
and shrewdly concocted in the Divan of the
Carlton Club, or however carefully perfected in
the Speaker's forcing-house. The Tories will
soon discover the insanity and idiotcy of their
last effort. Their tricks at Court will not find
favour with the King, or raise them in the eyes
of the people. Will the British Aristocracy
ever awake to a sense of their real interest and
common danger?—Morning Chronicle.

The extraordinary scenes which have been so
often exhibited, both of late and heretofore, in
the course of investigation before Coroners'
‘Turies, appear to wise from two causes,—the
one, that the persons to whom the serious charge
of presiding over these investigations is intrusted
are not always thoroughly qualified for the
task—the other, that the proceedings are gene-
rally carried on in some crowded room of an
alehouse, where space and accommodation, and,
of course, dignity and regularity, arc all wanting.
Looking upon the office of Coroner as one of the
oldest and most valuable of our judicial institu-
tions, we feel that it is one which almost above
any other it is desirable should in no respect
fall into abuse or decay ; but which, we fear,
there is great chance of its doing, unless the
above defects are speedily remedied. Though
we do not wish to see the choice of the Coroner
taken away from the freeholders of the different
counties, we think it would be an improve-
ment if some standard of qualification were
adopted in lieu of that total want of it which
now exists. At present the choice seems to rest
wholly between attorneys, surgeons, and political
demagogues—neither of whom are exactly the
class of persons from whom it is the interest of
the community that the selection should be made.
We think a barrister of a given standing would
be a fitter person ; and though it might be
difficult to obtain such a candidate pro-
perly qualified in the provinces, yet the expe-
riment, we imagine, might with ease be
tried in the metropolis, end, perhaps, in coun-
ties possessing other large towns. With
regard to the second point, that of the Coroner's
Court being held in a place sufficiently spacious
fot conducting its inquiries with facility and
decorum, there is not so much difficulty as may
be imagined. There are few parishes, in the
metropolis, at least, where a place of the kind
might not be obtained if there were any disposi-
tion either to require cr concede it. The late
Calthorpe-street inquest might, for instance,
have been held in one of the rooms of the Ses-
sions House, Clerkenwell, which is the pro-
perty of the rate payers; and the Shadwell in-
quest might have been held in one of the many
large rooms in the neighbourhood, so renowned
as the resort of sailors during the war ; or if
none of these could be obtained, there is the
Court House in Osborn-street, Whitechapel,
and another in Wellclose-square, both the
property of the public, which are all better
adapted for the purpose than the very con.
fined and ill adapted rooms which have been
selected for the purpose. In short, there are
very few instances in which proper places might
not be found, instead of the very improper ones
which are generally selected. While on this