The Sun.
London, England, 1844-04-26 00:00:00

SPIRIT' of .the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
17-1 A EVENING PAPERS OF YESTEMLIY.
GLOBE.—The.course which the Government has
taken wielarespect to the Ecclesiastical Courts Bill is
calculated to lower it in character, and to brand it
with' merited and lasting reproach. The Bill has
passed its second .reading. Dr. Nichol], who has
been appointed dry-nurse to the Lord Chancellor's
bantling, gave notice last evening that he
intends on Monday to move the cemmittal
"f ;he Bill pro fornvz, in order that- the House
meg getahrough the money clauses awardingeompen-
sation to the-sinecure holders, Who haVe been allowed,
by'eufferance, to flit posta, and performs the duties, by
deputy:: - therefore, be a bootless task to per-
• silt in denouncing the Bill. ' The public will have to
bearethe burdets which-it will impose.. The Ministry
founded' its claim to public confidence on many
groitnets. Among others, the Reform it undertook
to• effect in the administration of justice were espe-
cially'. dwelt upon. The Bankruptcy Law Re-
form—fraught with patronage to the Chancellor,
and with increased inconvenience and ex-
pense to the creditors, while it afforded additional
chances of escape to the fraudulent and improvident
bankrupt—was the first fruits of the promised Law
Reform. The Ecclesiastical Courts Bill—rendered
worse by the efforts to improve the measure which
was abandoned in despair last session—is the second
of the series. Party power was never prostituted to pur-
poses of mischief with perseverance so determined. No
measure was ever forced through Parliament with such
admissions of defects, by- those who framed and fa-
shioned it : these have been humiliating and complete.
What, in effect, has been the language held by its
supporters "We admit that in pressing the pre-
sent measure we are without excuse, except on the
haeknied plea of expediency. We are open to re-
proach ; for we are compelled to reproach our-
selves. We confess that we have gone so far 'as,
personally, in our places- in Parliament, to expressly
and: deliberately utter and pronounce the sentence
of condemnation on ourselves, with reference to
this very proceeding. But we are a ' strong Govern-
ment ; and, right or wrong, blamed by ourselves,
and condemned by others, we will do what we please.
We will, in fact, if we So like, do what we well know,
and admit, is wrong It is our fancy. Argue, or
not, as you like best—the end will be the same.
We can beat you on the division, and therefore
care little for the case you make out against us.
In fact, it may save you some trouble if we state
at once, that the principles upon which we con-
duct the business of the country are briefly these—
Sic vole, sic jebeo, stet pro ratione voluntas."
Last session, in a discussion upon a Bill on the
same subject, which the Government withdrew, Sir
R. Peel asseverated, " So help me God, I have no in-
terest in the matter !" We have no desire to impugn
the solemn declaration. We certainly do think it un-
fortunate for the Right Hon. Baronet that the Bill, on
its very face, raises a presumption that some one in the
Cabinet has more concern in the adoption of the
measure than the Premier himself. Certainly, if the
Bankruptcy Court Reform Bill be excepted, there has
been no recent change in the administration of the
law which creates so many snug berths, and so large
a portion of law patronage, as the Bill before us. Dr.
Nicholl would certainly have taken a larger amount
of benefit under the Bill of last year. The present,
however, secures an increase of emolument not to be
sneezed upon. As Judge-Advocate, the Hon. and
Learned Doctor receives 2,0001. a year. The duties
of his office are performed by Deputy Judge-
Advocates--a set of functionaries who perform all
the drudgery, while the Principal rejoices in
Ms good fortune, snugly ensconced in his mansion in
Belgrave-square. Dr. Nicholl is also Vicar-General ;
an office the duties of which are almost as laborious as
that of Judge-Advocate ; the emoluments are, how-
ever, considerably less,being only about 4001. annually.
It must, therefore, -be obvious, that to one so ill-pro-
vided for as Dr. Nicholl—whose duties are so onerous,
and his emoluments so light—it is a matter of supreme
importance, if not of absolute necessity, that he be
better provided for at the public cost. The salary fixed
by the -present Ecclesiastical Courts Bill is not quite
equal to that of the last session, the untimely fate of
which no one deplores so deeply as the Learned
Doctor. 1,200/. a year is not to be rejected, espe-
cially when the office is one of little work. Doctor
Nicholl is therefore content to take the good the gods,
or rather the Lord -Chancellor, has provided for him,
and earnestly wishes he may get it. In addition to
providing for • Doctor Nicholl, the Govern-
mentahas also to propitiate the country attorneys,
who practice in the Diocesan Courts. Their profits,
derived from following the bipartite profession of
attorney and - proctor' would have been diminished
had not the Diocesan Courts been retained ; and the
public interests—which, as the Government had
explicitly admitted, required the abolitiOn of these
Courts—has been sacrificed, because these practi-
tioners, backed by the Bishops, were too formidable
to be dealt with by the "'strong Government."
There was a little job-work also to be done in the way
of providing about thirty snug posts for juvenile bar-
risters. These gentlemen, though too young at present
to'he of much Use to the Government, will in time
grow into use. Their political influence, in the places
where their tiny Courts are to be held, may be of ser-
vice at- a pinch. Perhaps, once in two or three
years they may exhibit, to the conviction of some
qUeruloue Dissenting cobbler, the awfulness and or-
thodoxy of ecclesiastical law; proving to him, that for
refusing to pay a few pence, as church-rates; he may
be -Sent -to- prison " for his soul's health," until he
submit Now, returning to the assertion with which
we set out, that argument .must be vain when em-
ployed with a Ministry which admits that its policy is
opposed to its own sense of justice, we may be held
justified in adhering to our opinion, that the " So-help-
sue-God" declaration of the Premier is all moon-
_ shihe. Let Ministers throW over the utterly unnea
cessary and expensive Vicar-Generalship. Let them
abolisfi that office entirely, and blot it from the Bill.
Let' them—as the Report of the Ecclesiastical Courts
Commissioners, after mature deliberation, recotn •
mended- annihilate all the Diocesan Ecclesiastical
COuris; there will be then no slight passed, and
no injury inflicted, upon a highly respectable, learned,
and noirahlealass of men, the College of Advo-
e-dfei; by the -appointment of a number of suckling
judges, such. _as.. the Billsuow. proposes to create.
Let them allow no man- to ride rough-shod over
Went, under the apprehension of losing his Parlia-
.. mentaay supp?rt- Let theni, in short, do that
• whiCh in their own consciences they know, and
-. which. their own lips have admitted, would be
rigies. Let them abide by that which they pro-
fess to. have -made the basis, and:which ought really to
be .their gui.-le, in legislating for the improvement of
. the tcclesiastical Courts. The revert of the Ecclesi-
astical. Coin. to Commission is in the hands .of the
public.. The reforms recommended by that Com-
mission were such as the public interests do-
- mended, and these the public had a right to
expect. The excuses which were urged for delay
in carrying out the. recommendations of that Coin-
- mission are no longer available ; for the grounds of
- those- excuses no longer -exist. The Government,
were it honest in its professions, is possessed of
Fewer sufficient to counteract the influences opposed
to those recommendations, and to carry a measure
- which should embody them as a. whole. Instead of
nobly. rising -superior to the weak and, beggarly
elements which have combined to perpetuate the
institutions of a by-gone age, and to fasten them
upon . a state of society to which they are not
merely inappropriate, but a positive nuisance
and an injury, they determine to lend themselves
las a Government, to their preset vation I They
Chau the dead carcase to the living body ; and thus
fettet the Movements, and jeopardize the health, of the
latter. And this is the result of Sir Robert Peel's
promise to reform the Ecclesiastical Courts, in con-
/artaity with the recommendations of the Ecclesiae-
• twal.Courts . Commissioners, and by virtue of the
. powers posseesed by-Ma -" strong Government !"
- STAND ARD will not recur at unnecessary
length to the.
truth,
the house of Commons
,:last because, in
Pr"e-edintgrl
. upon the merits ofthe question 1(11:•° discussed say nothing
. not already said. see J. Gm:nen:it'd that ":4?.1137e
acted with re-
: spect to Mr. Ferranti upon a
statement which proved
-to be incorrect, Mr:Hogg
given . a vote upon
the Nottingham -Election Committee;
• .. so clearly
opposed to law and evidence, thatave loudly remon-
strated 'against- it "at the time, and have never heard
a • man since who would seriously undertake to
justify it. These were earors, but such errors as
the hest me•l
• might-• commit, and the "alialaetera
of the Right Honourable Home Secretary and of
the Learned Member for Beverley stand so- high,
that every unprejudiced man. feels . that they
cast no stain upon the integrity or honour of either
genlieMan but Mr. Ferrand, who is not. an unpreju-
- diced man, who,' as the party injured by one error, and
as ,the friend and political associate of the party injured
• in the. other, cannot be an unprejudiced man, takes a
" prejudiced man's views of the errors referred to, and
ascribes 'them to motives which certainly could never
enter the breasts of the Upright and honourable men
whom he accuses. Is llr. Ferrand to blame for this,
to blame for not being infallible in judgment in a
canes in which his feelings are warmly excited ?
Where are ' the judges who will condemn him ?
. We, certainly, who remember how often Wo have
• unjustly imputed. bad .motives because we saw
bad acts for which we could not find good ones
certainly not •be the. first- to cast a
stone. But a l6cus'penitentice is left open to the
Itemiser for Knaresborough : if on Friday he con-
fess his error he may be
forgiven. What error is
. he. to, confess, error in fact in or error opinion'
Error in fact—is he to' declare the dismissed
Assistant-Commissioner Mott's report corrector
• Mr. nogg's ,vote on the Nottingham Elec-
tion Committee a proper, vote? If he. does this,
he. will do wbat scarcely another man. in Eng-
-. laud would do, and what would degrade hins—
seievaSver be permitted --t and th House Of QC:Mr:lnns