The Sun.
London, England, 1835-01-29 00:00:00

PIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Six 'Robert Peel has addressed an answer to the
Iltez-V. Mr. McCrea, the Dissenting Clergyman of Dub-
lin, who had transmitted to the Right Hon. Baressas
the resolutions passed by the congregation of the Rev.
Gentleman and Mr. Stuart, expressive of confidence in
the liberal policy of the Government. The only por-
tion of the reply which calls for observation is that
wherein the Prime Minister " differs from the Rev.
Gentleman as to the policy of curtailing the privileges
which the Act of 1829 had conferred upon the Roman
Catholics" of Ireland. That they, who live upon the
spot, and have opportunities of ascertaining the man-
ner in which the elective franchise has been exercised
by the poorer order of Papists since the temptation to
abuse it has been so infinitely augmented by the Bill
of 1829—that such eye-witnesses, we repeat, should
be shocked by the iniquitous proceedings of those
who direct and dictate the application of the fran-
chise, does not at all astonish us. In fact, as
we have before remarked, the franchise nominally
vested in the small Roman Catholic freeholder is the
substantial property of the Roinish priest, who wields
the power thus at his disposal for purposes not con-
templated by the law of the country, nor consistent
with the authority of any law which shall not be sub-
servient to the pleasure of the Popish hierarchy. But
the Rev. Dissenter, who declares his terror at the
working of the political power thus vested in the hands
of Catholics, is somewhat mistaken in his theory of the
effectual cure. He proposes to repeal the law of 1829
which made Catholics eligible to seats in both Houses
of Parliament. The evil does not lie there. We are
sure that great good has been accomplished by the
bill for removing Catholic disabilities, inasmuch as
through its operation the noblemen and gentlemen
of that faith, who before the passing of the act in
question had been incorporated by a sense of griev-
ance with the rolicontents of both countries, have
since been det:elied from their former associates,
and fairly won over to the State. Now these, who
would naturally corm the material of Catholic repre-
sentatives in Parliament, might, as it seems to us, be
fitly chosen to represent either Protestants orCatholies ;
nor can we Understand any possible mischief to
.have
accrued from their accession to the legislature,'''but
much benefit from their intermixture with their Pro-
testaut fellow-sui.jeCts of the same rank in society. No,
we repeat once more, the evil does not lie in that direc-
tion. It is the privileges granted by the bill of 1793
that are abused—namely, the elective franchise, which,
under the hourly increasing despotism of the priests,
has been employed for the furtherance of objects never
deemed practicable, until within these five or six I tst
years, and for the introduction of men into Parliament,
whether Protestant or Catholic, equally unqualified,
by character and station for such an honour, that
they might help forward the one great end, the subju-,
gation of Ireland to the joint rule of lay adventurers
and priestly rapasety and ambition, by snapping off
the connexion with England, - the sole obstacle to
such a plot. It would now be a gross miscalculation to
suppose that O'Connell, though to serve his purpose
he may pretend to play fast and loose with "a Repeal
of the Union," will ever again let go his gripe of
that undertaking, in the success of which his own
fancied aggrandizement, the resumption by, the
Romish hierarchy of more than its pristine wealth and
power, and the hoped-for fruits of wholesale confisca-
tion, are so deeply involved. To throw theßritish go-
vernment off its guard, the repeal of the union may
be declaimed upon one day, and dropped the next :
it may be treated one day as a fixed and vital mea-
sure, and the next as a mere contingency—the pis (tiler
of a people who never will resort to it but when
goaded by despair. We nevertheless entertain and
abide by the conviction that time project was conceived
much earlier than it was promulgated; and that it will
be cherished long after its abandonmsnt shall be for-
mally proclaimed. Even should O'Connell relin-
quish it, the priests would cling to it with a per-
tinacity characteristic of the church of which they are
ministers. There is too much to be gained by victory',
and too little to be lost by defeat, for them to sacrifice
their single chance cf superseding the Established
Clergy in those possessions of which twenty centuries,
instead of three, would not to the mind's-eye of a Ro-
mish priest suffice to consecrate the transfer. For
those two evils which we have adverted to—viz., the
abuse and the enormity of priestly power, and the
consequent abuse of the elective franchise by those
whole helpless poverty and abject superstition leave
them at the mercy of the priest, it will require a dis-
creet and a fearless Government to see and apply the
remedy. We klieve that the right of voting for Irish
members of Parliament is exercised by many thou-
sands to whom it does not lawfully belong. It has
been stated to us, that of those who claim to vote in
virtue of a 101. freehold, hardly one in three pos=
sesses a real qualification. The gross produce of
the soil is
_almost invariably taken as the measure
of the elector's interest in it, instead of the pro-
fit rent which lie could fairly obtain for it in the
market ; and thus the qualification is reduced more than
half, and a class of electors allowed to vote over whom
the terrors of the church can work with the most re-
sistless power, but one and all of whom it was the ob-
ject of the Reform Bill to exclude. A strict enforce-
ment of the letter of the law on this point would
sensibly improve the independence of the constituent
body, and circumscribe the jurisdiction of the priest,'
With regard to the priest himself, his hatred of a rival
and victorious church is, as the law stands, unmiti-
gated by any other consideration, but on the other
hand severely aggravated by interest, acting upon
passion. If the priest were paid by the Protestant
state, his abhorrence of the Protestant church would
be neutralized, and his interest would weigh in the op-
posite scale, to mere professional animosity. We
hold a settlement with the Catnolic Church of Ireland
to be almost on a par in political importance with a
reform of the Established Church itself. We have
not time to proceed with this subject, but refer to a
Tralee letter for • further evidence of the machinations
of those Popish clergymen, who boast of being ex-
clusively dedicated to the service of Heaven, and of
whom it may be said without hesitation, that if they
continue to retain their actual power in Ireland, no
other power can be co-existent with it.--Times.
The elections may he said to have terminated ; and
the question now is—a question much more easy to
ask than to answer—which party has succeeded ?
Claims are urged, and calculations in support of those
claims are appealed to on both sides, but the conclu-
sive test can only take place within the walls of Par-
liament—in other words, experience alone can tell. It
is gratifying, however, to reflect on the peaceable man-
ner in :which, with some few exceptions, so great a
movement as a general election, conducted too under
circumstances peculiarly calculated to inflame party
zeal, has been carried to its close in the populous dis-
tricts and extensive counties of the united kingdom.
Even in the metropolitan boroughs, where there was
neither a Tack of seal nor an overflow of discretion, we
cannot but admire the quiet, the order, and, generally
speaking, the good temper, by which this struggle has
been distinguished. Civilization has much to boast of ;
but nothing can display its influence to greater advan-
tage, or, at all events, to more striking effect, than those
extraordinary combinations of power and tranquility
which remind one of the operations of nature her-
self. With respect to the result of the elections,
if they can be said to have decided anything, they have
decided not between the two parties which of them
possesses the public confidence, but between two pro-
positions maintained by both parties respectively, one
urging the reasonableness, and the other the absurdity,
of granting those Ministers a trial whom the Sovereign
had been pleased to call to his councils. This was the
chief point at issue during the late elections, and not
whether reform should go on or stop short, as some have
insidiously represented. The project of putting a stop
to reform, in the present disposition of the people, and
with the present means of the people to ,aive effect to
their wishes, would require a Cabinet of madmen for
its originators. But though madness might conceive
it, madness could not execute it ; and, in fact, it never
was a question with the present Ministers whether
they would attempt anything so impracticable as, by
treachery or cajolery, or any kind of trickery which the
animals of deception could supply, to retrace the steps
which the country had taken in advance, and undo,
with the assistance of the people themselves, all they

had been doing during a struggle of no ordinary diffi-
culty.tne . late elections be
It- is decided, if bur view;,;
correct, that the
specteel- Kings choice shall
"irerofative of the Crown shall be re-
that ihe Ministers of the
1 1
have " fair trial;" but the very tet.sa of tne request,
which also dekribe the concession, are conclusive as to
the extent of the victory obtained by Ministers against
their antagonists. When their measures are befote the
public, then, and not till then, we shall see how far
the confidence, now conditionally reposed in them,
ought to be Confirmed or retracted. But in the mean-
time it would be the height of folly to suppose that,
because the public have granted them a trial, they have
granted them_ anything more. We would, therefore,
impress upon the new Ministry the absolute necessity
—nay, the reiterated pledges they are under to bring
forward good measures. The cry of " Measures not
men," much as it has been ridiculed by some, will be
strictly applied, even by those who now exclaim most
loudly against it, to the case of the present Ministers.
So far as they have hitherto succeeded, they have, at
best, done nothing more than cleared the way for those
measures by which they must stand or fall. We re-
joice, for the sake of justice, that the trial is likely to
be granted, and we shall watch the progress of that
trial with every disposition to judge impartially, always
remembering that while we owe a duty to the Govern-
ment, we owe another not less imperative to our coun-
try and ourselves.—Morning Herald.
Our view of Church reform has always contem-
plated a total extirpation of sinecures=-and any mea-
sure of reform which does not secure that object, we
.would consider mutilated and imperfect. We regret,
therefore, to observe that our respected contemporary,
the Standard, puts in a plea of . mercy for some por-
tion of the ecclesiastical sinecures. The plea, indeed,
is put on as plausible a ground as a plea for an abuse
can be put upon. "We mean," he says, " the pre-
servation of some of_ what are called sinecures in the
Church as rewards for learning, piety, -and exer-
tion." Now, to our mind, it appears a strange mode
of encouraging exertion, by giving it that sort
.of re-
ward which is a direct temptation to indolence ; that
is, if the Standard uses the word.- sinecure in the
sense that we do, meaning an office the income of
which is independent of the obligaiien of any real
duty. Thus there are sinecures in the law—in the
civil and military departments of the State—and in
the
_Church-414 of which we would have swept, away
"as abuses inconsistent with the purity and efficiency
the establishments on which those excrescences
grow, being what the fungi are to the tree, whose
nutriment they absorb, while they accelerate the decay
"of which they 'are the rank unwholesome symptoms.
'As to piety anif learning, we like both very much,
1
and wish to seeethem encouraged and rewarded ; but
lit them be rewarded in some more direct and honest
-4atv than that JVhich " make's God's work a sinecure."
'Let the patronage of the Church be extended to pious
anti learned men in preference to other claithants for
ecdlesiaatic,alspreferment. If patronage be exercised so
as to regard nothing but the qualifications of the can-
didates in respeetlto piety, learning, and industry, the
man possessing those requisites for the ministry will
have his reward without society losing anything of the
usefulness of his exertion. It is_ possible that a
scholar of great attainments and of shining abilities
may be rendered usel4ss- to society, and eventually
a burden to himself, hal being taken out of the path
of hardy enterprise and manly emulation, to become
the spoiled and pampered child of enervating sine-
curism. It is true th4t scholarship, to flourish well,
should be raised above' the sordid cares of daily life ;
but it is equally true that the indulgencies of luxury
and indolence are not 14s fatal to the energies of ge-
nius than the crushing weight of ininutigated poverty.
But, in point of fact, thcinecures of the Church have
never (for excepted cash only prove the rule) been
disposed of, as if they were set apart to he the rewards
of "piety, learning,iind exertion." On the contrary,
they have, in general, been so bestoWed as if they
were created for the .peculiar advantage of well-con-
nected dullness and favoured incapacity. Defending
the integrity of the establishment as we do, against ail
its enemies, we cannot conceal its abuses—we cannot
disguise the evils which corrupt patronage has brought
upon it. How few of thee stalls in cathedrals have
ever been given to poor and meritorious scholars—how
many of them have been aPpropriatcd to increase the
wordly wealth and luxurpof the already overgrown
pluralist, whose fortunate-family and political connec-
tions more than compensate for the poverty of his
mental accomplishments and spiritual resources !
Long before Bishop 'Watson's time, whose plan of
Church Reform, we and others hare lately alluded to,
the celebrated Bishop n3urnet endeavoured to bring,
about an extensive reform of the establishment ; but, in
consequence of the! opposition which he met with in
-the Church itself,J"was not able to effect any thing be-
yond the passing-"of the Act in the second year of
Queen Anne, ta: appropriate the tenths and first-
fruits to the augmentation of the maintenaeecos of
the poorer clergy:'- We know that this hai, 'men a very
limited reform, and has operated.-very slowly, or
there would not be at the resent day, so large 'a
proportion of the, worle:tog clergy without adequate
means of livelihooel in the Church, and therefore
obliged to con:fed With their sacred duties some se,
cular offices, Such as 'keeping a school, to enable them
to streport themselves and families. But Bishop
I.,urnet made an atteitipt to render the stalls in ca-
thedrals serviceable tO,the reward of " piety and learn-
ing," He set the example in his own diocese, but the
heads of the Church a that time—in the reign of Wil-
liam lll.—Set themselves against his plan, and he was
obliged to abandon it. He was even maligned as an
enemy to the establishment, though, by the timely re-
formation of-its abuses( he would have proved hims
its benefactor and preserver. In the life of this
eminent Prelate, whose reforms flowed from conscience,
and not from popular- clamour, we, find the following
passage, bearing upon the part of the question of
Church reform which we are now discussing :—" He
perceived that the chief strength of the sectaries lay in
the market towns. The livings there were most com
monly in the gift of the Lord Chancellor, and as
the Lord Somers, during • the enjoyment of the
Seals, left the nomination to those in the dio-
cese of Sarum to the Bishop, he endeavoured_ to
place in them pone but learned, pious, and moderate
Divines, as; : the best qualifizti to prevent the
growth of schism. But as these enefices were gene-
sally small,,and a poor church will be too Olen served
by as poor a clerk, he determined to obviate this
difficulty by bestowing upon those cures the prebends
in his gift, as they became vacant, and, until such a
vacancy happened,` out of his own income he allowed
the minister of every such church a pension of 201. a
year, (equivalent to a much larger. sum at the present
day.) When the, prebend itself was conferred upon the
incumbent ;of the small living, the Bishop insisted
upon his giving a bond to resign -it, if ever he quitted
the living. ' Though this plan had been laid before
the most eiMinenst prelates and Divines of the Church,
as well as tbe,most learned among the Canonists, who
highly approved the design, yet it was so warmly op-
posed by some of the Clergy, that in order to raise no
further strife in the Church, the Bishop was prevailed
on to relinquish the project, and give up all
the bonds he had taken." It was the same pious and
Learned Prelate who, denouncing the vice of pluralism
in his first visitation at Salisbury, cited the authority
of St. Bernard, who being consulted by one of his fol-
lowers, whether he might accept of two benefices, re-
plied, " And how will you be able to serve them both ?"
" I intend," said the Priest, " to officiate in one of
them by deputy." " Will your deputy be damned
for you too ?" cried the Saint. " Believe me, you
may serve our cure by proxy; but you must be damned
in persop.' If we may judge by the extent of plu-
ralism in the Church at the present day, the doctrine
of St. Bernard and Bishop Burnet, as to the damna-
tory consequence of holding two benefices, is not re-
cci ed among the orthodox articles of faith. The
Standard, towards the conclusion of the article to
which we have adverted, says, "We do not want
more of those cathedral sinecures to be saved
than the offices necessary to carry on the cathe-
dral service ; and we believe the Ministerial plan
does not contemplate the preservation of more."
Not enjoying any share of that Ministerial con-
fidence which could put us in possession of Mi-
nisterial secrets, we can only say that if the Go.
vernment mean to preserve no more of the ecclosia4lica°l