The Sun.
London, England, 1850-05-07 00:00:00

L

LONDON, TUESDAY, MAY 7, 1850,

the House of Lords last night the Archbishop
Of CANTERBURY offered an explanation in justification
of his conduct respecting the R
egistrarship of the
Canterbury Prerogative Court, to
which WO had
directed the public attention on Thursday, the 2d in-
stant. We are, indeed, rejoiced that his Grace should
have thus come forward, that he deemed it necessary
to defend himself before the assembled Peers of
the United. Kingdom from what he must
hare considered a charge of considerable meg-

nitude, affecting the establishment of which he is
the highest ecclesiastical member. It is always de-
larable that bath sides should b
i
be fully and fairly
heard should be heard on every question, that 1
de-
cided on an ex parte statement.
Both cases are now
ample before the country, and there are
materials
for arriving at a correct conclusion on the
premises.lt will be seen, then, that the Most Reverend _re
Pre-
late has not joined issue on any of the allegations which
we, as public journalists, deemed it our dHty to put
forward. lle has not traversed or denied a single
fact ; his defence has been entirely what is termed in
legal phraseolegy " a confession and avoidance.''
He admits that he nominated hie son to the rever-
sionary office, but he asserts that it cannot be re-
garded either as a sinecure, or as bein
was supposed,--aPi opinion he Sao valuable as
founds upon the Act
9 and 10 Vic., e. 98, to which
we referred in our
article oa the subject. lie does notednture to defend
the existing system or the present state of the office ;
he tacitly acknowledges that it is note a sine
act the fortunate ROBERT MOORE is in the actual
receipt and enjoyment of 12,0001. sterling per annum
for doing nothing whatsoever. We say that it is
" tacitly acknowledged" by his Grace, for he has said
nothing whatsoever in opposition to our statement on

that part of the case. But inasmuch as the office was,
by the Act above alluded to, made subject to all regu-
lations and alterations that should be made by the
I authority of Parliament, and that the person. nomi-
nated would not acquire any claim or title to compen-
sation in case the office should be thereafter
altered, or abolished by Act of Parliament, he
appears to think that the office, if ever held by his son,
which he declares to b 3 " very uncertain, not to say
improbable," will be " performed in person, and its
salary regulated according to the duties and responsi-
bilities of the station." And this is his Grace's answer
so far as relates to " the sinecure" and " the value."
Now, with all deference to the Most Reverend Pre-
late, for whose high personal character and
' exalted station we entertain unfeigned respect,
we cannot feel the same implicit faith in the
future proceedings of the Legislature. There
are many other grave abuses still existing that have
been under the control of Parliament for successive
ages, without any adequate means being adopted to
remedy the evils. The Duke of GuarTox still re-
ceives his 7,1911. 12e. out of the Excise duties, and
3,407/. 102. from the Post-office revenue, which sums
are stopped in transitu before finding their way into
the Exchequer. Need we refer to the 2,9001. per
annum to the heirs of the Duke of &ROMBERG, the
4,0001. per annum to the Duke of MARLBOROUGH,
the 1,5951. 16s. to Earl COWPER, or the 1,2001.
to the assignees of the late CHARLES Bootie ?
Nothing has yet been done to stop these payments,
and relieve the oppressed And highly-taxed people
from the burden. It must make the hard-working
operative relish his glass of beer more highly when
he considers that in draining it he is contributing to
support the aristocratic establishments of his Grace
of GRAFTON and the Earl COWPER, and to render
the unknown assignees of CHARLES Booc more
comfortable. It is, no doubt, agreeable to every man
communicating by post with his absent friend, to
think that a portion of what he pays
must find its way to Holland, as a tribute to the re-
presentatives of the phlegmatic Dutchman who
died at the passage of the Boyne. Probably our
Legislators think it would not be right to deprive the
people of such an innocent source of gratification, and,
in like manner, they may possibly allow the future
suitors of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury to
pay similar fees to those now demanded, so that the
registrar may still have an exceedingly profitable
place,Zalthough subjected to "all the regula-
tions and alterations that should be made
by authority of Parliament." We cannot, therefore,
exactly agree with his Grace in thinking that " the
value, according to the doctrine of chances, is scarcely
equal to the stamp on which the nomination is
recorded."

His. Grace, then, in reference to the allegation that
he " had availed himself of a privilege which his ve-
nerable predecessor bad declined to exercise," ex.
plains that the Act which he seems to think " took
away the sinecure"—a point on which we respectfully
differ in opinion—did not pass until the close
of 1847, a few months before the death of Archbishop
HowLET. That revered Prelate might, therefore,
possibly have changed his mind, and nominated some
friend to the reversion, had he been longer spared to
the Church of which he was so bright an ornament-
Dr. HowLny, however, lived sufficiently long to have
exercised his unquestionable privilege had he con-
sidered it right or expedient to do so.
Our object, however, was not to attack the Arch-
bishop personally. It was with the system that has
so long prevailed that we waged war, and not with
any individual, and that system was as emphatically
condemned by his Grace as by ourselves. He said,
last night, that Dr. HOWLEY could not nominate to
the office before the passing of the Act, because " it

would have been inconsistent with that disinterested-
ness and moderation which distinguished all that he did,
if he nominated to a reversionary sinecure." Here, then,
is his Grace's opinion as to the conduct of Archbishops
MOORE and SUTTON, and of the various prelates who
have appointed to reversionary sinecures—an opinion
sufficient to justify Parliament in taking some imme-
diate steps to remedy the evils.
The Bishop of LONDON cited a case to show that
the Archbishop, when holding the diocese of Chester,
had given the Registrarship of, the Ecclesiastical
.Court of Chester, "an office worth many thousands
per annum," to a person totally unconnected with his
family (although he had at the time a son
old enough to fill it), on condition that he
should always perform the duties in person.
This was, indeed, a most disinterested and praise-
worthy action, that reflected the highest credit on
the party. But the beauty of the system was still
more strongly shown up by the Bishop of LONDON,
who declared that the former Registrar "had been
appointed to the office"—worth many thousands a-year,
be it remembered—" when an infant not more than
six months old, and held it for no less a period than
seventy years." We leave the public to judge for
themselves of the facts thus stated on the high au-
thority of the Right Reverend Pzelate.

DOGBERRY did not more effectually write himself
down an ass, even without the assistance of Master
&mote, than those very perverse and cantankerous in-
dividuals have done who have recently set their faces
against the projected International Exhibition of the
industrial products of civilization. According to
these wiseacres, the scheme propounded by his Royal
Highness the illustrious Consort of the SOVEREIGN,
so far from proving beneficial to the community, and
advantageous to the cause of skill, of science, or of
competition, will, on the contrary, turn out to be a
proceeding detrimental to the interests of the commu-
nity. After this who shall gainsay the truth of the
assertion that such is the impossibility of affording
satisfaction to the multitude that some would be
found to scout any enterprise even though it were
planned by an archangel visibly descended to us from
the clouds of heaven ? So it has been ; so it is ; so it will
be, ever. No matter how humane any suggestion of
a public character may be, it must inevitably irritate
some strongly acidulated temperament into a state of
excessive and petulant opposition. Benevolence, in
this respect, on the part of one mar, while it elicits
admiration from the mass of mankind., seems, at the same
time, as by necessity, to engender al), ise in the minds of
a fortunately select minority. In illustration of this,
we believe it may be laid down as see incontrovertible
fact, a fact proved by long experience, that your
genuine philanthropist is about the best abused man
in the whole world. He may, according to the beau •
tiful expression of the poet, " do good by stealth, and
blush to find it fame;" but let him not dream of sun-
ning himself, when found out, in the unanimous and
uninterrupted plaudits of the population. He'll very
soon, we warrant him, find himself wrong in his
calculations. Scarcely will the sound of the first
paean have floated away before he will discover this
minority of malcontents down upon him, rating him
in the choicest terms of vituperation, or, to speak
more plainly and to the point at once, abusing him
like a pickpocket.
Perfectly aware of this very =amiable propen-
sity on the part of a wretched little gang of snarlers
and growlers, we were not in the sLighest degree sur-
prised to witness the attacks levelled against the
noble and beneficent
project of Prince ALBERT,
almost immediately upon its first announcement. One
of our Contemporaries, moreover, evinced such an
exceedingly rancorous antipathy to the proposed
undertaking, that week after week it continued
to assail the scheme of the International Ex-
hibition with all the force and virulence
of the most unstinted ' •
inve3tive• Against
these sustained aspersions we shall not pause for an
instant to argue, recognising in them a fanatical in-
fatuation such as sets at defiance
all the powers of
ers of
logical disproof. Discussion in such instances could
prove of no possible utility, every conclusive argu-
ment against them only tending to confirm men in
their opposition. Another sort of malcontent de-
mands from us some more direct allusion; we mean
the flippant derider of the undertaking, who endea-
vours to propagate a feeling of contempt for
the originator by alluding to him in lan-
guage of derision. Such an one is a
certain resident near Brighton, who yesterday thrust
himself upon the attention of the
,public through the
medium of a communication addressed to one of our
morning contemporaries.
In the ist !antler of this sage
there is a pertness singularly provocative of that
species of contempt which cost Vu LCAN a broken leg
and JUPITER a twinge of pain in .xis shin bone, ac-
cordingthi to the facetious: intimation of the Greek an-
-4.--ists• The close of his epistle has especial re-
•erence to "the fool(pneter &eovered by a celebrated