The Sun.
London, England, 1850-12-25 00:00:00

tait the battle he decidel, whether Popery, Tracta•
ti4nism, or l'iotestantit4o shall flourish in our ritual:,
;
I° Cur public teachings, in our private .xercies. It
41 our churches,
the Church of England, after
cinrging from the full caterpillar gorgeousness of
Popery, can remain for ever in a chr.\ salis state of
isaspended animation at the Tractarian level of aurieu,
P. confessions, fish fastings, and prayers for the
""(1., we have reached a condition certainly anomalous
and without parallel.
It behoves us, therefore, most particularly to look
lighted
only at the material manifestations of crucifixes,
lighted tapers, and genuflexions, but to look at the no
14a material temporalities. It does, indeed, argue an
114 paralleled audacity for any one to presume to assert
that by the English Constitution any one has the un-
fettered right to give lands and landed rights to a
church, or any church the absolute right to receive
,141E1 hold them without the especial authority of the
411'. There is not a pound of ecclesiastical revenue,
"or an acre of ecclesiastiCal land in Gloucestershire,
as to which there is not historical evidence to the
contrary of such assertions. The tithes are claimed
*Levu a date when, as our constitutional authorities
1",,°,v, the lands belonged in community to the people
°' each township, for their use and maintenance, and
when there were no manorial rights nor lands with-
00t the duties of citizenship annexed.
Neither Ina nor any King of the West Saxons,
'eld power to alienate for ever the inheritance of
nple yet unborn, andit was only by the consent of the
'vest Saxon witermotes and:lolkmotes that the Church
could for the time receive the use of tithes, though
,t!lis neither implies perpetual enjoyment and exemp-
tion from supervision, nor the absolute right to hold,
Without rendering any duties in return. On the
,sPnient practice of our fathers is held the constitu-
''Enal right of every Englishman to have his mainte-
,llEnce from the produce of its soil ; the most princely
landowner can claim no exemptionfrom an obligation,
which in its performance may exact every penny ( f
lls rents. In this and in many other respects is the
landowner restricted in the enjoyment of his posses-
, and burdened with charges and obligations
sot limited, but flowing from the general law. He
has not even the absolute power of disposing of his in-
Llritanee, and more especially is he debarred from
alienating it to foreigners or the Church.
It is not, therefore, to be supposed that whatever
west
may have been put into monkish charters of a
lest Saxon Ina, or an Anglo- Saxon Ethelred, that
tae Church, whether of Rome or of England, can, so
fart as the constitution of England is concerned, hold
latis exempt from its jurisdiction.
In this case of tithes, however, beyond the general
Jillrisdiction, they were subjected to other obligations.
It was not enough that the parish priest performed
services in the church; he was not allowed to appro-
priate the tithes to his own use, but a portion only,
it from the remainder, the poor, the school, and the
b®np were maintained. The landed possessions of
of Churches of Gloucester, Tewkesbury, and others
te this shire, were, as the ledger books of the monas-
teryshow, specially given by the Berkeleys and other
N owners, on the condition of masses for the souls
ti allowed
and their ancestors, nor were these lands
tpveed to be received without the especial permission
tae
the legislative authorities, and down to this day
e, Constitutional jealousy of leaving lands in the hands
of
' Inactive citizens is preserved in the statutes against
414tunain asserting and proving that no right of ab-
solute
tn.: ecclesiastical tenure has ever been acknow-
seized.
tellowever it may suit a a party to claim a pure
°f the
for their doctrines from the primitive Christians
(1„111e British Church, in opposition to the now British
b:seent of the English population, no such origin can
ih Claimed for the landed possessions of the Church.
4 tee were given in Roman Catholic times, and for
°tflan Catholic uses, and unless the tenure has been
altered,i we should expect to see the Chapter of
jlancester, or the Vicar of Tewkesbury receiving his
disbursing it, and discharging his obligations,
111 the time of Ins, Edward the Confessor, or John
4,,eldand. The clergy are willing enough to admit
00"ely tenure, so far as being discharged from the
"ells duties of a Roman Catholic priest, from
gasses for the dead, from specific appropriations for
tte Pew', but with very little consistency, still claim
1,e,. the full successors in income of the old tenants.
They can admit the authority of a Legislature which
setstia aside the stipulations of donors and benefactors,
h 24 Which suppresses superstitious practices, which
or removed by hundreds those who resisted the
boallge, and which introduced a new state of affairs,
ttiti they will not allow that Legislature to set aside
Po" superstitious practices not enjoined by com-
eeat authority, or bargained for by special endow-
The exercise of power, if needs be, must
it~dicate its right, but in the meanwhile, resistance to
thill becomes those who enjoy emoluments for which
vieeY neither return the original or any adequate ser-
he• The time has now come when this state of
freatra must be investigated, when the laity may be
stied from ritual observances at which their con-
eherleea revolt, and when the ministration of the
eour.ell, in a growing population, may be adequately
thevuted by a due organization of its officials, and,
tit`'f're, I claim, on behalf of the lay public, the
fight: In the emergency which has arisen, of a free un-
be-td scrutiny of the Church established for their
tiefur, and maintained from their means.
to at the time of Domesday survey the tithes of a
atifiris,hiP, ill-cultivated and mostly in waste, were
nt tu maintain its minister, to train up its chit-
th-r1 and feed its aupers, it may be expected that
the, tithes of such at ownship in the present day, fully
totivated, and with a larger average yield, will be
efi?elent to supply the simple religious ministrations
h t 8 increased population. Indeed the rights of this
'olulation are paramount, and not those of the clergy ;
fec, they demand relief from non-resident clergymen,
bistkil pluralists, from inefficient ministers, whether
11,4"P5. sera or patrons, nominees, from overgrown
atings, from ministrations held in unpeopled places,
vino fr°lll the non-ministration of Church ordinances in
theages and hamlets having a settled population. All
tio.!e Points, at any rate, involve no mysterious ques-
tet" or theological ones; they are within the compe-
teete3; of laymen, and the sooner the Legislature en-
ea„ams them, the sooner will it provide for the ad-
te;e.eenent of the Church of England, and for the pro-
Itollon of every unguarded point from the assaults of
illen Catholic antagonists.
garl Iny next letter I propose to allude to the specific
%to Neter f the Popish aggression, and the circum-
"lees apish
it.

HUMPHREY BROWN.
Tewkesbury, 18th Dec., 1850.

COURT CIRCULAR.
WINDSOR, DEC. 24.
WT he Queen walked this morning in the Slopes in
ndsor Park.
The Royal Family took their usual airings.
ilk, 13 "loyal Highness Prince Albert went out shoot•
i? this morning, accompanied by the Earl of
wirrci Camoys, Lieut.-Colonel Hon. C. B. Phipps,
er4el Hon. Charles Grey, and Colonel Bouverie,
in attendance on his Royal Highness.
IheEarl of Lincoln left the Castle this afternoon.
he Royal dinner circle at the Castle this evening
Lad "lelude her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent,
Qeol Fanny Howard, Baroness de Speth, and Sir
I:ge Couper.
Toel'd
Queen's private band attend after dinner.
~oed Camoys has relieved the Earl of Listowel in
'utY as Lord in Waiting to her Majesty, and
C
attt•-General Sir Edward Bowater has relieved
ptain Hon. J. Denman, R.N., in his duty as Groom
Mr • • •
Siting to her Majesty.
t. der AA
be oMajesty's private band was in attendance at
- Castle on Monday after dinner, and performed
theo. following selection :
evleerture, "Blaubart" Tauber t.
Notion, Pre aux Clercs',
AG:tial "Das Nachtlager"
.lei; "Der Grass in AlpPnlande"

bee,
i r Royal Highness the Ducire.s of Gloucester has
ndisposed for some days past, at her residence,
hi"ucester House, Piccadilly. Yesterday her Royal
guess was a little better.
• Freshfield, High Sheriff for the county of
rreY, attended at the Home-office yesterday to
tteetent the address agreed on at the late county
Itting to her Majesty, on Papal aggression.
of the
Finance Committee of the Royal Commission
11- e Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all
caf4`Pns in the year 1851 met yesterday, at the dice
the Board of Trade.
qezlajor-General Fox had an interview with Sir
~1:10 Grey yesterday, at the Home-office.
the Board
School of Design had a meeting yesterday, at
Dispatches
of Trade.
co, vatches were sent off last evening from the
for the Governors of Ceylon and

GOSSIP PROM PARIS.—A. series of paintings in the
vai ej'ape' of St. Paul, in the church of St. Sulpice, Paris, coin-
1411._eed several years ago by M. Drolling, of the French In-
-44e, are now complete], and have obtained for the painter
ebti' Praise. Some stained glass recently executed for the
lii4e,h of St. Lawrence, by M. Auguste'Galitnard, is also
,43' Praised ; but from what we hear it would be less so in
wittand. However, we shall be able to judge of the designs
ca thou going to Paris, for M. Galimard intends sending the
iL„‘`.°olis to the Exkibition in 1851:
arch will occupy about
wit"", `quare feet !M. Felix Pigeory, itect, co-operated
ar,,," throw these. M. Pigeroy lately visited Constantinople,
sta',,. h the French ambassador there, presented to the
4,,Ltysat, Abdul Medjid, a copy of his work, " Les Monuments
• II r
ris. e learn from the Revue des Beaux Arts, of
Ley leh M. Pigeory is editor, that the Sultan, in evidence of
sat'sfaction, has forwarded to the author a magnificent
ttl!ltc, set with brilliants. The great portal of the cathedral
Otieh- or Paris, Notre Dame, is being adorned again with
tatne3 of the twelve apostles, such as filled its niches
tore the first revolution. The figures are of stone, of large
Zze. find have been executed in the atelier which has been
rtned hi connexion with the cathedral, by the two archi-
tects g.whom the restoration of the hulling is eutrusted.—