The Sun.
London, England, 1850-05-02 00:00:00

LSlj

LONDON, THURSDAY, MAY 2,,1850.

We :lad fondly hoped that no such relic of the
" good old times" had descended to these dais
..of
economy and retrenchment as the case of the R Qbl-
St:arship of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury,
alluded to by the Honourable Baronet the
Member for Marvlebone on Tuesday evening, and
again yesterday, in the House of Commons. Many
similar instances formerly existed in our law courts,
but steps were taken calculated ;a3 prevent their per-
petuation. The Lord of Southam is still in the en-
joyment of two snug pensions, bestowed upon him
as cornpens,,Cea for the abolition of sinecure offices
to which he had been appointed by his father,
when LorUChief Justice of the Queen's Bench.
For one of these, having been chief clerk of the above
court, his Lordship receives the small sum of 7,7001.
per annum, or within 3001. of the sum allowed to the
Lord Chief Justice, and 2,7001. more than is paid to
any of the puisne judges, who are compelled to devote
their entire time to the performance of their arduous
and important duties. But this is not all. The same
nobleman is also in receipt of the further sum of
1,0441. 183. Bd. as his share of the compensation for
the office of Custos Brevium, which he held jointly
with a brother peer, who, lixe himself, was so fortunate
as to be the son of a former Chief Justice; and as 8,8441.
18.. Bd. would be quite inadequate fur services such as
pia 'Lordship has been enabled to render to bis grate-

ful c ountry, he also receives a retiring pension as a
Cable at Minister, President of the Board of Control.
But t ge will pass away with this Noble Lord,
and at ter Eis death it will no longer be remembered
that IP rcE, things have been. We need not now allude
Six Clerks' Compensation Bill, under which
four gi !ntlemen receive no less than 30,0001. per
annu ai„ with reversions to the surviving members of
their : families fur seven years after their deaths.
anwei ier rank these jobs, there is at least
so me time when they will be brought to
a termination. But the Ecclesiastical Courts
ha ve hitherto escaped all notice. The Reformer's
be lan has not yet penetrated into their snug recesses,
an .d there are extravagant salaries and enormous
sip secures still existing that exceed in iniquity any-
ti ling that prevailed in our legal or equitable tri-
te anals before an attempt was made to cleanse these
eugean stables. Ex uno dine omnes—from one
e sample learn the nature and character of some of
:these well paid offices.
There is, then, it appears, a situation denominated
the Registrarship of the Canterbury Prerogative
Court, the income of which, derived from
fees and emoluments of various kinds,
amount to the insignificant sum of 12,0001.
sterling per annum. We have not been enabled to
learn much of the duties required of the fortunate
official. They cannot, however, be very arduous or
irksome, as the present registrar (Mr. ROBERT
IVIOORE) is enabled to hold a plurality of Church pre-
ferments therewith, and to be at the same time a
prebendary of the Cathedral Church of Canterbury !
Rector of Latchington ! Rector of Henton !! !
both in the same diocese of Canterbury—and Regis-
trar of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury I ! ! !
From these various institutions this excellent
gentleman receives no less than 14,9631. per
annum, or 9621. more than the emoluments received
by the Lord Chancellor of England, includ-
ing his salary as Speaker of the House of
Lords, and 4631. per annum more than the aggre-
gate of the salaries received by the First Lord of the
Treasury, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Pre-
sident of the Board of Trade, and the Postmaster-
General, and within 371. of the salaries of the three
principal Secretaries of State for the Home Depart-
ment, for Foreign Affairs, and for the Colonies. Or,
to go to another country for an illustration, rather
more than the amount paid by the American Re-
public to its President, Vice-President, Secretary of
State, Secretary at War, Secretary of the Navy,
Postmaster-General, Attorney-General, and Pay-
master-General 1I ! A case so extraordinary
may well excite the public curiosity, and
occasion a desire to know how it was that this
Reverend Gentleman obtained such exceedingly
comfortable situations; and whether there is a pros-
pect of any other or others succeeding to similar per-
quisites.
We find, then, that the Archbishop of CANTERBURY
for the time being has the power, whenever vacancies
occur, of nominating one person to the office, and two
others in succession to the reversion. When Arch-
bishop Mooav filled the archiepiscopal see of Canter
bury, two vacancies occurred in the reversions, and,
as it was too good a thing to be sent out of his own
family, he appointed his two sons, Messrs. JOHN and Ro-
BERT Dlooge to the vacancies. The elder brotherJonet
came into the enjoyment of the emoluments of the
office by the death of the then holder; when Dr.
MANNERS SUTTON was Primate of all England, who
nominated hisgrandson, the present LordCersrearwar,
then a youth of 10 or 12 years of age, to the vacant
reversion. In 1845 JOHN MOORE died, and ROBERT
his brother became Registrar, and Dr. Howeer
became entitled to present in accordance with former
precedents. That pious and amiable Prelate, how-
ever, with a disinteredness that reflects the highest
credit on his memory, refused to avail himself of the
privilege. He felt that he could
,not con-
sistently with his high position act in a manner
that would be so derogatory to the interests
of the Establishment. He accordingly made a
communication to the then Premier, and, subse-
quently it appears, to Lord JOHN RUSSELL, to the
effect that he could not, in the conscientious discharge
of his duty, fill up the vacant sinecure. His state-
ment was, however, disregarded, and no step was
taken either for the abolition of the office or the re-
duction of the emoluments to something that might
be considered a reasonable remuneration for the ser-
vices rt quired from the holder. Matters remained
in this state until the death of that amiable prelate,
when Dr. SUMNER, the then Bishop of Chester, was
translated to the vacant see. The new Archbishop
did not, however, consider himself bound to follow the
bright example of his respected predecessor. It
might easily have been stipulated that he should
also forbear to fill up the office until Parliament
should deal with the matter, but no such condition
was made, and his son, a student at the Temple, was
appointed to the reversion, which would eventually
yield him an income higher than any which the
greatest success in his future profession could pos.
sibly bestow.

There is however "many a slip twixt the cup and
ip." The glittering prize, although almost within
,he young gentleman's grasp, may yet be beyond at-

taiament, and his most reverend father may have
brought discredit on his own high office, with but
little advantage to the object of his favour. By a for-
tunate accident it was provided by the 9 and 10 Vic.,
c. 98, sec. 9, that any person who should after
the passing of that Act be appointed to the
office of " Judge Registrar, or other officer of any
,cclesiastical court in England, should hold the same
subject to all regulations and alterations that
should be made by authority of Parliament; nor
should any person by his appointment to any such
office acquire any claim or titlu to compensation, in
case the same should be thereafter altered or abo-
lished by Act of Parliament."
After the exposure made by Sir I.3ENJAmIN lIALL
and the blushing confession of the First Lord of the
Treasury, who with shame acknowledged the luau;
of his Ministry, it is certain that some legislative
enactment will speedily take place on the subject, by
which not only the Registrarship of the Canterbury
Prerogative Court, but all similar situations
throughout the entire kingdom will be placed on a
new foundation. Who, after perusing the above state-
m9nt, will sly that the " careful revision of the salaries
and wages paid in every public department, with a
view to a just and adequate reduction thereof," is not
required, and that it is not sufficient to leave such
questions in the hands of the present Government ?

An oration of extraordinary ability, and replete
wi:h the most perspicuous argument, has recently
been delivered in the House of Assembly, Nova
Scotia, by the Ilonourable Josern Howe, the Pro-
vincial Secretary. Aware that however brilliant such
a speech may have been, it cannot by possibility in-
fluence the opinions of the population of the mother
country without obtaining some special reference
from English journalism, and cognizant of the re-
markable value of the truths embodied in the
harangue alluded te, we are eager at the earliest op-
portunity to direct the attention of the British mul-
titude to those admirable remarks with which
ar. Howe refuted the statements made not
long. since, in the shape of certain Resolu•
at Halifax, by
tions introduced
of the Opposition. to the house of Assembly
i obtain a hearing for thbueriluri.
the lOlon. J. w. JOHNSTON, the leader
solicitude,
Provincial
in
ercersepteacrty, to
s
I materially enhanced
advanced byphriensyenarte illustrative of the system
the reflection that the argu-
mentsof Government at
the affairs of our North
system of government which,
or obsolete, has been subjected toa
adopted 4 in the direction of
of
ficalnl possessions—a
calumny,the most inter-
'
others existing
minable abuse, the most detestable
tathe most rancorous misrepresentation and
Know-
ing that it was against this
the whole of the recent movement policy
among
the Canadians was directed, every ~n, mill
recognise the importance of a matter intimately
connected with the maintenance of our authority in
that portion of our trans-oceanic dominions. All
these riotous proceedings, which have reflected so
much disgrace upon a large and hitherto estimable
portion of our colonial fellow-subjects, all these burn-
ings of official documents, pillaging of Parliamentary
libraries, and destruction of the abodes of the Legis-
lature, all these miserable insults levelled against the
representative of our august SOVEILEIGN—owe their
origin to the misapprehension of the system of go-
vernment now in operation throughout the
Canadian put of our North American territories.

It must, consequently, be with no small degree of
curiosity that the reflective politician in England
turns to an oration like that of the lion. Provincial
Secretary at Halifax—an oration in which the mis-
representations of so many factious antagonists are
categorically exposed, and in which the character of
the policy pursued towards the two Canadas by the
local administrators, and by the supreme authority in
Downing .street, is very earnestly, and, to a certain
extent also, very successfully vindicated.

In refuting the specious and sophistical ac-
cusations condensed into the " Resolutions" of the
honourable leader of the Opposition, the Pro •
vincial Secretary, on the 20th of March, displayed to
the derision of his colleagues, and of the majority of
the Canadian representatives, the inconsistency with
which, in the preamble of his " Resolutions," Mr.
JOHNSTON described the Executive power as at pre-
sent constituted to be one altogether uncontrolled,
having asserted almost simultaneously, in so many
words, that " a Governor might arrive who
would obstruct the party obtaining power,
holding opinions contrary to his own."
Well might the Provincial Secretary inquire
how two statements so diametrically opposed to each
other could by any possibility be reconciled. Well
did he, in the exordium of his very masterly oration,
cast ridicule upon this factious and contradictory
mode of forcing embarrassments at once upon the local
and the supreme Governments. Recognizing the strange
and perverse ignorance displayed:in this manner by Mr.
JOHNSTON, as to the structure of the British Colonial
Constitution, the Members of the House of Assembly
might reasonably ask themselves if a man like this—a
man as ill-informed as he is glaringly disingenuous
—could be reasonably entrusted with all the serious

and heavy responsibilities devolving upon the prin.
cipal leader of the Opposition. But the Provincial
Secretary had anything but done with this redoubt-

able assailant of himself and his Ministerial col-
leagues. A little further on, referring to the •miser-
ably erroneous and whining remonstrance incorporated
among the " Resolutions " against the notion that
" a Minister of the Crown may hold himself free to
disallow what a predecessor in the exercise of his
official functions had established," Mr. Hover could no
longer conceal his mingled sentiments of scorn and
indignation. His comments upon the paragraph arc

altogether so felicitous that we must gratify ourselves
and our readers by transcribing a few sentences ver-
batim. He exclaims, therefore, in regard to this
particular—
" What arrant want of all constitutional knowledge
the learned (I) leader of the Opposition displays, if he
really penned this r mane in a spirit of querulous com-
plaint. Why, Sir, what are Ministers of the Crown for,
under our admirable system, but to advance with the
spirit of the age, and to change, in accordance with that
spirit, what their predecessors had established? Are
not Ministries changed, and Cabinets reconstructed, for
this especial end? If what was once established could
never be changed—if extravagance could never be re-
trenched—or a man once in office removed, we should be
living under a despotism, and not under a constitutional
monarchy."

Upon the second recital, to the effect that " the
Lieutenant-Governor has been denuded of all power,"
Mr. HOWE observes that the accusation is wholly in-
exact ; and upon the continuation of that recital,
that "so long as the Lieutenant-Governor is to be
viewed as the head of the Provincial Administration,
he must either sink into insignificance or become the

instrument of Executive obstruction," he gainsays
the truth of the declaration that in any respect
whatever the Noble Lord in question can be re-
garded as the head of the Administration. " Lord
ELGIN," he observes, with a sententious and decisive
brevity, "is Governor of Canada, and Mr. LA-
FONTAINE is the leader of the Administration. As
to the amount and nature of the authority exercised
over the affairs of the Canadian Government by the
Noble Earl, her Britannic MAJESTY'S Principal Co.
lonial Secretary, the Honourable Canadian Adminis-

trator insists that that supreme power is not only
judiciously apportioned, but also, and in an especial
manner, judiciously exercised. " I admit," says he,
" that Lord GREY, having frankly yielded the principles
of Responsible Government, has left them here, as in
Canada, to their natural and appropriate development;
giving us good counsel when be thinks us wrong,
and husbanding his great powers for great occasions;
he does not control our free action in questions purely
provincial, or irritate and obstruct by needless inter-
ference." The admirable and argumentative harangue
from which we have made the foregoing • extrac's
proved altogether as successful in its influence
upon the judgment of the House of Assembly,
as it was eminently successful as an oratori-

cal display : the .Resolutions introduced by way
of amendment by Mr. How's being carried
by a majority of twenty-six over fourteen. Those
resolutions declared, among, other things, the implicit
confidence reposed in the integrity and ability of the
Noble Lord the Governor of Canada, by the House
of Assembly of Nova Scotia, and the entire
satisfaction with which the same provincial Cham-
ber viewed the character of the political, admi-

nistrative, and legislative institutions of the
province. From what has already been observed
by ourselves, it will be seen that the speech of the
lion. Provincial secretary at Halifax, to which we
have here directed public attention, is one sufficiently
remarkable to deserve a very careful and serious ex-
amination.

The Ministers of the French Republic, MM. BA-
ROCHE and CARLIER, are bold men ; they have ven-
tured to do that which even CHARLES X. shrunk
from attempting in his most bigotted moments,—he
contented himself with establishing a censorship of
the press; they have ventured to prohibit the sale of
every newspaper that is not opposed to the con-
tinuance of that Republic of which they are the
sworn servants. Taking advantage of a doubtful
decision of the Court of Cassation, which relates solely
to the sale of books by persons not booksellers, they
have at once jumped to the conclusion that this de-
vision will also apply to the sale of newspapers, and
accordingly have prohibited newsvenders from sell-
ing any but Royalist journals, and, to make assurance
doubly sure, they send police to all the shops to seize
any journal which is not Monarchical. There can
be no excuse made for this conduct on the ground of
the necessity of stopping a Socialist propaganda (not
that we admit for the moment the validity of such
an excuse) ; the laws are already sufficiently strin-
gent —they empower the Minister to seize and prose-
cute
any journal which may contain an article offen-
sive to the powers that be ; and tthe journal to which
this stringent measure was first applied, the EVC7lC-
meet, has always been opposed to Socialism. It is
the property of M. VICTOR H uoo, whose name is a suffi-
cient guarantee that nothing subversive of society will
be found in its columns. It was the first journal that
advocated the claim of Louis NAPOLEON BONAPARTE,
to the Presidency of the Republic, and on every oc-
casion in which he has acted independently, as, for
example, on the occasion of his letter to M. EDGAR
NET, it has strenuously supported him, but, unfortu-
nately, M. Louis NAPOLEON BONAPARTE has of late
chosen to govern by and for the parti-pretre, and the
clerical party hate VICTOR liroo as theologians alone
can hate ; hence all former friendships and services
rendered by him are as nothinis
PRESIDENT
has bound himself to do the behests of the parti-
g
pretre: they demand the confiscation of the property
of
M. -VICTOR ELGO, and those Is ho boast
sincthem-
selves the especial defenders of the rights
thisof property
iticoonffistchaate
sale
et
ofa accordingly. Since
any
similar prohibition has been extended against the sale
by newsvenders of the National, the Presse, the
the Voix du Peuple, indeed of all, except the Minis-
terial and Monarchical journals. Never were men
snore mistaken in their lives than have been MM.
BARocuE and CARLIER, if they imagined that by this
attack upon the liberty of the press they would
succeed in preventing the circulation of the prohi-
bited journals. On the first night that the sale of
the Erenement was prohibited the persons who could
procure the journal mounted on chairs and
read it aloud in the public streets, and already
a plan has been organized for ensuring the
presence of a number of each of the prohibited
journals in every wine shop, cafe, and place of public
resort in Paris, and for sending a number of each
regularly to every workshop. The only effect there-
fore of this blundering attempt to interfere with the
liberty of the press will be to turn the casual pur-
chasers of the various journals into constant sub-
scribers, and to increase their circulation enormously.
In the mean time it would be well that both the
PRESIDENT and his Ministers should remember that
they are responsible to the Republic for their acts

that 1852 is approaching; and that Ministerial
responsibility under a Republic will not probably be
the farce it was under Constitutional Monarchy.
M. BAROCHE is exceedingly anxious to hurry the
Transportation Bill through the Assembly. It would
be curious if, PHALARIS like, he should be the first
to suffer by his own contrivance.

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

We have received the Paris journals of yesterday.
The returns from all the polling places have been
received and examined, and they give the following
as the complete result of the gross poll :
M. Eugene Sue 128,071
M. Leclerc • . ... 119,626
The Presse has the following on the subject of the
recent elections :
" On both sides, the electors voted with equal emula-
tion and equal ensemble. The most perfect order and
calmness was preserved in all the sections. This is an
impertatit fact, for the calm and order are the most con•
vincing condemnation of the alarm, whether feigned or
real, entertained of universal suffrage, and of all the at-
tacks, tither direct or indirect, which might be pro-
posed against it. At a time when France had a very
smell number of electors, two hundred thousand at the
utmost, England possessed relatively a very great num-
ber—more than three millions. Now France has eleven
millions of electors. Let a comparison be drawn be-
tween the manner in which the elections are carried
on in the two countries with regard to order and calm,
and it must be admitted by every impartial mind that
the advantage will be on the side of France, although
she bad a very much shorter electoral experience, and
has three times the number of voters. Nothing can be
more tranquillising for commerce and for the cause of
peace than this fact, and it cannot fail to rapidly raise
France iii the esteem of all people, and even of all na-
tions whose attention is directed to what is taking place
at Paris. The people, we do not doubt, at this election,
as well as that of the 10th March, were anxious to pre-
serve the sirname which they bad merited. That name,
already proved, is that of the Party of Order. On the
2d May, as on the 15th March, the people will abstain
from going to: the Place de l'Hotel de Ville, in order not
to furninsh any pretext or any opportunity for collision.
They know that it is by the maintenance of order
that they will regain the plenitude of their liberty.
The order of which the people persist in giving such a
praiseworthy example tends to unveil the weak-
ness of which the Government continues, to
present such a sorrowful spectacle. The co-
operation of time is secured to all that is true
and to all that is just; if Justice and Truth have not yet
universally triumphed, it is because man has been want-
ing in patience; he has wished to outstrip the action of
time; he has not known how to wait, and has too often
preferred victory to progress. Progress is victory with•
out the battle. That which is acquired by forceis always
uncertain; what is gained by patience is never so. The
liberty which is enjoyed by the English is a proof of
this; it was gradually acquired, and has never gone
back, but, on the contrary, has continued to advance.
Let us know how to imitate them. The French have
amply paid their debt to chance. They possess the
right of showing themselves prudent without any risk of
being called pusillanimous. The people have just
proved a second time that they form the real majority;
let them leave intoxication to those who govern them,
and let them conduct themselves as sovereign. Majesty
is impassable. It is thus that the people showed I hem-
selves on the 15th March; it is thus that they will be on
the 2d May."
It has been semi-officially notified that the publica-
tion of the Napoleon will be discontinued. The Mi-
nisters, it is said, declared they would resign en masse
if that journal again appeared.
M. PASCAL DUPRAT has presented the following
proposition to the National Assembly :
" The dispositions of the law of the 27th July, 1849,
relative t,.) the distributors and hawkers of printed papers
are not applicable to sellers in their own houses, or
tradesmen possessing shops, The authorisation required
by the law of 16th February, 1834, for the sale of
newspapers in the streets can only be accorded in a
general manner, without privilege or exception for any
re espapers."
M. BERRYER has been appointed President of the
Committee on the Budget of 1851, and M. Gonna,
Vice-President.

The Archbishop of PARIS bas directed that a Te
Drum shall be performed in all the churches of his
diocese on Saturday, the 4th of May, the anniversary
of the promulgation of the Republic.
It is said that there will be no change in the Minis-
try for the present, but that a propositio❑ for modify-
ing Universal Suffrage (a proposition which, accord.
ing to the Constitution, it is not competent fur any
Legislative Assembly to entertain) will be brought
forward by the Ministry.

Tne Ev- enement states that the Ministry of Marine
has received news from Senegal, announcing that an
attack was made by the natives of the Terra Firma
on the residents of St. Louis during the absence of
the Governor, Captain BAUDIN.
The Sentinelle de Toulon announces a severe colli-
sion between the crew of the Friedland, at Naples,
and the lazzaroni. Three shots were fired on the
ship's pinnace, and one of the seamen was stabbed
with a stiletto. The French sailors threw into the
sea four Neapolitan soldiers who took part with the
lcznironi. The French Admiral caused an inquiry
to be instituted into the affair.

M. CRETON hAS given notice of a motion in the
Assembly for a repeal of the laws banishing the
BOURBONS Cf the elder and of the younger branch.
Th‘e Patric is ludicrously savage in its denun-
ciations of the 128,000 electors who have voted for
M. SUE ; it speaks of them as "ferocious hordes,"
and calls upon its 'own partisans " to charge the
enemy." Will M. BARocas direct the Ministerial
journal to be prosecuted fur "endeavouring to sow
hatred between citizens, and for publishing an
incitement to civil war?''

PARIS BOURSE, MAY I.—Latest Prices—Five
per Cents., 87f. 503. ; Three per Cents., .54f. 50c. ;
Bank of France, 2,080 f.

SPAIN.

Madrid journals of the 25th ult. have arrived.
The semi-official Popular announces the approach-
ing resumption of diplomatic relations between Eng-
land and Spain. The same journal says that the
KING had had a conference with one of the Ministers,
in which he showed great regard for him personally,
and admitted the right of the Cabinet to exercise its
mission freely. It also states that the negotiations
with the Holy See were proceeding satisfactorily. It
was reported that the administration of the palace
was to be restored to the KING, or at least to be taken
by the QUEEN. A decree of the 25th October, it will
he remembered, invested it in the hands of the Minister
of Foreign Affairs.

AIADIIID BOLSA, APRIL 25.—Ti, Three per Cents.
were done at 30il, fur paper ; the Four per Cents., at
19-g-; the Five per Cents., at 12 9.16; the Dzbt without
Interest, at 3 15-16; and the Coupons, at