The Sun.
London, England, 1850-06-06 00:00:00

THE SUN,

Supposing such to have been the case, the result
would have been very soon manifested. The mer-
cantile constituents of these pseudo-Liberals would
have discovered with dismay and indignation
that the channels hitherto open almost un-
interruptedly for commercial correspondence
were stopped up abruptly and permanently through
their unjustifiable submission to Pharisaical humbug
and tyrannical superstition. Instead of receiving
their letters as usual on the Monday morning, the
business men of Manchester, or Liverpool, or Glas-
gow, or Edinburgh, would find themselves left en-
tirely without the information requisite for the con-
duct of their mercantile transactions until late on
Monday evening, or possibly in some instances
until Tuesday morning. The present delay of
twenty-four hours arising between the deli-
veries of Saturday and Monday would, conse-
quently, be increased to thirty-six or even
forty-eight hours. The injury inflicted by such super-
fluous delays it is scarcely possible in a mere hypo-
thesis to estimate. Very speedily, at least, those
injuries would have become so perceptible that the
Members already referred to would not have remeined
much longer in ignorance of the indignation of tiseir
various constituencies. That indignation would have
thundered upon them audibly enough, and the next
elections must have witnessed the only adequate ex-
piation of their short-comings.
Already we have held up the conduct of the so-
called Liberal representatives who voted the other
evening with Lord ASHLEY and his colleagues, we have
held up their conduct, we say, to the recollection of their
constituents. We observe that a similar course has
been pursued by our contemporary the Scotsman, in
reference to the Scotch Liberals whose names appear
in the same division list. The recollection of the
course pursued on that occasion by these representa-
tives will not very speedily be forgotten. As
eating the readiness of these men to succumb to the
yoke of hypocrisy, the motion made by the Noble
Lord the Member for Bath has not been altogether
useless. It has revealed before the decisive struggle
has commenced between cant and common sense those
persons who may be regarded with confidence, and
those who are to be viewed with suspicion. In this
particular, eft any rate, we repeat, the discussion of
the other evening, and the subsequent division, have
to a certain exte Dt proved advantageous.
The impertinent tiering latterly displayed by the Sab-
batarians is fast impe.lling them to attempt a wholesale
destruction of the few comforts and conveniences still
secured to our industriove and hardworking popula-
tion on Sundays. They sire trying to close the post-
offices, to stop the mail train's, to prevent the vending
of such articles of consumptic,n as tea, and coffee, and
sugar, and butter—they will .soon, if not stopped in
"
their aggressive movement, inters ere yet more irrita-
tingly with the domestic affairs ae`d public require-
ments of the population. Their proceeu'ings,indeed, are
rapidly getting beyond all bounds. Hitherto the
community has displayed a great deal too much long-
suffering towards them and their. sanctimonious ma-
chinations. As matters are now turning out,
forbearance in regard to them is becoming absolute) Y
culpable. We feel this so strongly that, for our own
part, we set their miserable schemes henceforth at
naught. We put them—the whole ruck of them—at
defiance ; and are fain to express that defiance in the
sarcastic and scornful language of Lord Braoer—
" Raise not your scythes, suppressors of our vice,
Reforming saints too delicately nice;
By whose decrees, our sinful souls to save,
No Sunday tankards foam, no barbers shave,
And beer undrawn, and beards unmown, display
Your holy reverence for the Sabbath day:"
Those words of the noble satirist are not less appro-
priate as expressions of our disgust at their sancti-
monious affectation, than they are useful in reminding
us that the Sabbatarian movement is of old date : an
indecorous agitation that ought long since to
have been dead and buried with other matters
of obsolete character. It suggests, moreover, the
question whether it may not be just as well to put a
stop at length and for ever to a course of proceeding
which is only calculated to breed evil passions in re-
gard to a divine institution, and to render unpopular
a day that should be looked forward to with peculiar
1 reverence and satisfaction. The saints have had
their fling long enough. 'Now comes the turn
of the sinners. And proud are we to be
numbered amongst the ranks of the sinners, if by
sinning is meant a contempt for the sanctimonious
projects of my Lord ASHLEY and his associates.
Sinners we must be called, and sinners we are glad
to be considered, if by sinners are meant those who
do not regard common sense as incompatible with
Christianity. As such sinners, opposed to such saints
as the Sabbatarians, we draw the sword of opposition
for once and for all, and fling away for now and for
ever the scabbard of indifference.

It is indeed fortunate for the community in general,
more especially for the members of the Established
Church, that the Bishop of LONDON'S Bill for the
abolition of the Royal supremacy, and the establish•
ment of a spiritual despotism, has been so decisively
rejected by the House of Lords. If the " Ecclesias-
tical Courts Bill," as it was termed, had unhappily
received the Legislative sanction, it is impossible to
foresee the extent of mischief that would arise.
Polemical dissensions and disputes would pre-
vail throughout the length and breadth of
the land. Minor points of doctrine, which
are now wisely permitted to remain " open questions,"
would be argued with the utmost rancour. No al-
ternative would remain for the dissentients but to
abandon the Church, of which they could no longer
be considered members if they ventured to differ from
the judgment of the infallible majority. Nay, the
minority itself—perhaps thirteen of the most learned,
most respected, and most amiable of the Right
Reverend Prelates—might be compelled to adopt a
similar course, and to secede from the Establishment
of which they were the brightest and most con-
spicuous ornaments. We shall not presume to
anticipate the probable consequences, if even the
SOVEREIGN should hold with the minority of the
Right Reverend Bench, and be duly pronounced as
a " heretic and schismatic" by the new tribunal,
which then, indeed, would be invested with absolute
authority.
But it is not merely the Royal prerogative
that would have been invaded. The very
Articles of the Church itself would have
been set at nought. " The QUEEN'S Majesty
would no longer have the chief power
in this realm of England," at least in "matters eccle-
siastical." " General councils might be gathered
together without the commandment and will of
Princes ;" and they would be invested with absolute
"infallibility," and their decisions would be conclu-
sive and binding for all purposes, although we are
told in the 21st Article that, " forasmuch as they be
an assembly of men whereof all be not governed with
the spirit and word of GOD, they may err, and some-
times have erred even in things pertaining
unto GOD." The appointment of a new bishop might
occasion, what would be practically a new reforma-
tion, and the Church itself would be swayed about
by every wind of doctrine. And all these evils would
arise, in order to gratify the mischievous activity of
a Right Rev. Prelate, and to put a stringent interpre-
tationst on matters in which, as the Marquis of LANS..
DoWjustly stated, "it was the wise intention of
the fotuninudeers. pea of the Church to leave a certain degree
Suchoeandquietness,
an attempt, "in place of
cofondlaucitg d
to
adm o u. would be an incite
would ment to dissension."
blbe, as the same
Noble Lord asserted in his
speech, "an endless considerationlra aenadn d r
ecooonnvisindci e
rnag.
) tion of doctrines, which, if raised, would be decided
once for all—decided by an impartial tribunal—that
was was to say, by a tribunal with
pre-
conceived opinions—learned in the law, accus-
tomed to weigh evidence, and thus best pre-
pared, when called upon by their SOVEREIGN
to inform her what ought to be the doctrine, what
was the fact, and what the law." We have at pre-
sent such a tribunal. The Judicial Committee of the
Privy Council are clothed with the authority of the
SOVEREIGN to decide on all questions affecting the
Royal prerogative, and on other subjects of deep im-
portance to the country. It consists of men learned
in the law, accustomed to weigh evidence, and as
impartial as any earthly court could possibly
be. These eminent persons are sworn to
administer justice according to their consciences, but
it was sought to make them the mere registers of the
opinions of another body ; whatever might be the
Views they honestly entertained, they were to pro-
nounce their judgment in accordance with the deci-

sion of a bare Tl.Naiweity of the Bishops, which would
" be binding anus
conclusive for the pu.'
poses of the
appeal."
It is vain to sup lose that the measure `IV., not in-
tended as a grave and heavy censure oil the deci-
sion which the 3'udicial Committee p;onounced
in the recent app,!al of Goanam v. the Bishop
of EXETER. The immediate withdraws of the
authority with which they had previously bon en-
trusted in a certain eiass of cases, and the substitation
of a new tribunal, especially constituted for the occa-
sion, would be a distinct declaration by the Legisla-
ture that they were dissatisfied with the course
pursued in that case, which, unfortunately, attracted
so large a share of public attention, and which had
produced an almost "distempered" state of mind in
many conscientious men. It, undoubtedly, gave
general satisfaction to all but the aiders
and abbettors of the Bishop of EXETER in
his attempt to establish a sacerdotal, or
rather a prelatical autocracy. He has shown how
earnestly his mind is bent upon maintaining his ori-
ginal crotchet. The Courts of Queen's Bench and
Common Pleas have been in turn, and we
rejoice to say, fruitlessly appealed to. Another
application :,to the Court :of Exchequer :is pending,
and the judgment of the Council has not even yet
been obeyed.
We trust, however, for the sake of the Church
itself, that after the unequivocal majority against the
Bill on Monday evening, no further effort will be
made to disturb Parliament or the country, but that
men's minds will be suffered to relapse into that
state of quietude and tranquillity that is so essential
to the interests of true religion and to the welfare
and happiness of the country.