The Sun.
London, England, 1850-01-24 00:00:00

the Government. Nevertheless, we had now the
Minister's word—his assurance that the Bill would

be put into such a shape as to secure its pa7sinn with-
out difficulty completely satisfied us—and we thus al-
lowed ten more days to be lost.
" The House then went into Committee pro forma

on the Bill—it Wai late at night, and the House im-

patient. The Attorney-General was moved into the
chzir. The Home Secretary handed in his amend-
ments—they were put, one after another, from the
chair—no one heard a word—and no one tried to

hear. It was a matter of course that they were the
amendments which the Prime Minister had promised

Ihould be introduced in that Committee. I should

as soon have dreamt of keeping my eye on a Cabinet
Minister lest he should steal my hat, as of suspecting
him of substituting one set of amendments for an-
other which had been promised. So the business was
galloped through, as formal business usually is, at
half-an-hour past midnight. The amendments were
reported to the Speaker, and the Bill ordered to be
re-printed ; and, though some days more must be lost
in the re-printing, we left the House with the convic-
tion that at last one step had been achieved in the
great and important work of Church Reform, and
that the days of the Ecclesiastical Commission, in its
then mischievous and irresponsible shape, were num-
bered.

" You may, th?refore, imagine, but I cannot de-
scribe to you, my surprise when the reprinted Bill
came out. I could hardly believe my eyes. Not a
tingle one of the promised amendments had been in-
troduced ; nay, it was impossible to discover, from the
beginning of the Bill to the end, that one single line
or one single syllable had been altered so as to bring
it more into conformity with the recommenda-
tions of that Committee on whose report it was
professedly f ninded. What then were the slips of
pai,er which I saw the Home Secretary hand in, as
tire promised amendments, to his colleague in the
chair? I leave you to judge. On the character of
that proceeding I will not permit myself to make a
single comment. But its result was, that the Go-
vernment had succeeded in gaining a whole month at

the close of the session ; and the raising a remon-
strance or reviving a discussion at that late period,
with a view of getting a good Bill passed, was entirely
hopeless.
" Tne Government had accomplished its purpose
~f postponing an improvement of the Ecclesiastical
Commission now for the fourth year.
" I hive often been asked why, after such very de-
cided pledges as we had received from the First
Minister of the Crown, we did not achieve more last
,e4sion ? You have now the answer.

I make these statements advisedly, and not be-
hind any man's back.' Immediately after the occur-
rence of these facts, I embodied them in a letter of
reinonstrance to Lard John Russell, dwelling espe-
c4lly on what had taken place on the committal of
the B'ill, and apprising him of my intention to make
it ;public. Had there been, on his part, the faintest
indication of a denial I should have hesitated before

I. bomrnitted myself publicly to statements which
might well excite is credulity.
:" But, gentlemen, one reflection arises immediately
omit of all this. What is that unseen awl mysterious
iopuenee which imposes so much that must he painful
34 the Minister ? It is not his interest to postpone
Ebele,4astieal Reform, and it cannot be his wish.
lyith him the path of duty is also the path of popu-
larity and power. Nor have our Episcopal rulers, out-
aa'ardly at least, the means of So coercing him to the
ptblie injury and his own embarrassment. In their
obstructive policy they have met with no Parliamen-
tary encouragement; they have long ceased to corn-
niaud popular sympathy ; they are unaided by the
clergy, and unknown to their flocks ; and yet, without
apy of these outward or visible signs of influence,
they do contrive, by the exercise of some means as
mysterious as irresistible, to divert a Minister from
the wisest courses—compelling him to depart from his
pledges to Parliament— to mock its forms, and trifle
I,ith its expectations—nay, to become the slave of the
hierarchy in the perpetration of abuses which his
jiulgment has long since condemned, and in with-
holding from the poor of his country those religious
lessings which, as a statesman or as a Christian, it
irst be his first wish they should receive.
" Whenc( i I ask again, this mysterious and mis-
iieious power? Will it hear investigation ? Can
i Much imager endUre ?
1 " But though ac have not had complete SUCCCSS, we
awe, as yet, met with no discouragement but delay—
, d delay, in such a cause is, happily, not defeat. We
ay ha baffled for the moment—but the question of
'colesiastical Reform will lose nothing ultimately by
'hat.' The longer postponed, the more severe the
peration ; and I, for one, will not now be satisfied
ith what I contended for three years ago.
I' " litany of our friends, who knew nothing of Par-
iamintary 'preaeedings but what appears in the
epe!rts, have thoiight that the question of Ecclesiasti-
al Reform *as lest sight of last session. I have,
heyefore, Olought 'it right to give this explanation.
'-You Will perceive that I allow no weight what-
ver to the apology, now habitually put forward by
the Ministry for the evasion of their duty, that they
have 'difficulties to deal with.' This plea of diffi-
tleulties I have found so little to justify in the case of
(I'4`c:elesiaitical Reform, that I have been tempted to
inquire whether it is not put forth on equally
slight grounds irs other cases; and the conviction
that it is so has led me to deal with other measures
of the Governmentin a freer and less indulgent spirit
than might seem quite agreeable to their notions of
patty obligations and requirements. But party with
me has no meaning and value, except as symbolical
of principle-; 'and' lown no allegiance to leaders, ex-
cept as thefaithfnl types and exponents of the prin-
ciplei of the party that placed them in power.
"Between the majority of the party with which I
have ever acted and our present Ministers it is un-
happily too apparent that a great want of sym-
pathy has been created, by the reluctance of the latter
to deal with those abuses against which they were so
virtuously indignant in opposition.
"If I had succeeded in my intention of visiting you
I should have gone further into these questions, and
tontrasted the difficulties with which Lord J. Russell's
Government has had to contend with those of pre-
ceding Ministers ; but I do not wish to make them
the subject of a written address. It is obvious, how-
ever, that, as regards Ecclesiastical Reform, with so
many motives to promote it, and so many aids—in
public approval, Parliamentary support, and the most
laudable of all ambitions in a Minister, the desire to
elevate the moral and religious character of a people
—the real difficulty consists, not in granting the re-
form, but in withholding it.—l have the honour to be,
Gentlemen, your very obliged and faithful servant,
"E. HORSMAN."

RVIT,WAY SHARE MARKETS.
BRISTOL, JAN. 23. _

STOCK EXCHANGE.—The market was again firm to-day,
and a good business has been done, but the only alterati ns
in prices were—Great Western, Quarters, 1654—Ditto, lit.
Shares, 5% dis.