The Sun.
London, England, 1844-04-03 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

FROM THE MORNING PAPKRS OF THIS DAY.

TIMES.—A somewhat heavy storm seems to be
gathering in Ulster. The Preebyterian marriage quei,-
' tine threatens to bring no small weight of Presbyterian
denunciation upon the heads of Lords Lyndhurst, Cot-
tenhain, Abinger, and all other judges and justices who
have been party to the late judgment in the House of
Lords. The exci'ement was of course not wholy unex-
pected, but anything more strangely gratuitous we have
seldom had occasion to observe upon. The Presbyte-
rians of the north of Ireland have long been a very
favoured body. They have had many of the advan-
tages without the dependence of an establishment. On
this point (the celebration of marriages--their position
contrasts somewhat favourably with that of the Eng-
lish clergyman. Observe the restrictions as to time and
place—the paraphernalia of bans, licenses, and registra-
tions—which surround the solemnizations of our own
marriages) the penalties of transportation for four-
teen years, by which a departure from the pre-
scribed formalities is visited on the unlucky clergy-
man--the legal obligation which was unquestionably
laid upon him till within the last few days, and perhaps
is so still, to administer that sacred rite in its full so-
lemnity to any notorious despiser of religion and mo-
rality who may choose to demand such a mockery ;
observe, we say, all this variety of necessary and mis-
chievous, wise and unwise, valuable and vexatious, bat
certainly stringent, regulations, which are enforced in
the celebration of marriage in the English Church ; and
then turn to the Presbyterian minister, who can unite
his own people in his own way, and at his own time, and,
above all, who is not bound to profane the ceremony
which he respects by administering it to scorners. Any
one, we think, who regards the religious solemnity as
more important than the fees by which it is attended,
will think that the Presbyterian has indeed little to com-
plain of in point of freedom of conscience or dignity of
position. A grievance, however, has at last arisen. A
doubt has long existed whether marriages performed by
a Presbyterian minister, between parties of whom
both were not Presbyterians, were valid at law. Those
ministers, naturally perhaps, but, as the event has
shown, not very considerately, eager' to extend the
sphere of their services, chose to disregard that doubt,
and to encourage persons not members of their own
communion to be satisfied with this disputable form of
marriage. At last a prosecution for bigamy has raised
the question in a court of law, and the ablest and
soundest lawyers in England, including Lord Cotten-
ham, the last man to favour any extravagant claims in
the Anglo-Irish Church, or to cast a slight upon any
body of Dissenters, have pronounced that the law—the
ancient law of England—the law as it stood centuries
back, in the time of Lord Cottenham's great grand-
father, and previously—did not sanction the authority
which the Presbyterian ministers have somewhat reck-
lessly exercised. And now these same ministers—
anxious, we suppose, to make up for their past indis-
cretion by present zeal—fly out, not against the judges
or legislators who determined the. law of past. centu-
ries, but against those who have been now the passive
instruments of declaring that law—Lords Cottenham
and Abinger—against the Irish Church, " from the
mitred bigot," as one Presbyterian minister chari-
tably expresses himself, amidst the cheers of his
audience, " who misspends his time in the House of
Peers, to the almost imperceptible midge of a curate
that floats in the sunbeam of metropolitan patronage, or
gasps for promotion in some obscure nook of the
country." Presbyterians are told to "think on the
bloody persecutions that their forefathers have endured
for these principles." They are told that " the State has
pronounced their religion not to be Christian, their
members to be unbaptized individuals, and Vie acts of
their worship to be unmeaning and worthless ;" and,
finally, the Moderator of the General Assembly has
issued an address to the ministers, bidding them to con-
vene meetings, which he says "are to be pre-eminently
devotional." but at which—
"ln addition to devotional services, the minister is at
each meeting to preach or address the congregation from the
pulpit, explaining to them the origin, progress, and present
state of the marriage question, and exhorting them to be
fervent in prayer, and diligent in the use of every mens by
which their religious rights may be vindicated and their
liberties secured."

With this preparation, they (especially women) are
to sign congregational petitions, and to collect money
for the necessary expenses of the same.
" Lest absence," concludes the writer, " might have left
some of you in ignorance of these arrangements, and to
stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance,' I have
been advised to trouble you with this notification.

" I remain, yours faithfully in the Lord,
"ROBERT STEWART, D.D.,
" Moderator of the General Assembly."
All this seems very angry and determined, but it is diffi-
cult for an Englishman clearly to understand against
whom it can be fairly levelled. Is it against the judges?
They are not charged with having done anything but
declare the law. Is it against the English Legislature ?
That holy has not as yet shown any indisposition to re-
ject any the most extravagant demands of the Presbyte-
rian body. Presbyterianism, indeed, is not the established
religion of Ireland, nor probably will it be made so. But
even this is yet but conjecture. All that the Legislature
has yet done has been to anticipate the sentence of the
Peers, by passing an Act in the most generous haste and
with the most entire unanimity, to establish all past
marriages which have been solemnised under the late
misapprehension. Is it against those who have brought
the question to issue ? We know not what reasons
Presbyterians may have for suspecting the motives or
resenting the conduct of individual Irish Churchmen ;
but surely the desire to keep such a question in doubt—
to avoid the light—to bolster up a mistake of so painful
a kind—argues great want of consideration for the real
interests of those "injured females" whose battle
they profess to be fighting. Surely all honest men
must simply and warmly approve the determination
to leave nothing doubtful on a question of such para-
mount importance in its bearing on the duties of the
clergy, the devolution of property, anti the :happiness
et' families. What would be thought or said of an
English clergyman who first persisted in marrying
his parishioners in a mode of which he had reason to
doubt the validity, and then, on the exposure of his
mistake, flew into a passion with those by whose deter-
mination the question had been probed to the bottom ?
Could we avoid thinking that such a gentleman was
rather more careful for his own dignity than for his
people's welfare ? But it seems that the judges have
found it necessary to deny the validity of Presbyterial'
orders. What this complaint means, we profess our-
selves wholly unable even to comprehend. The English
Church and the English law acknowledge three orders—
those of Bishop, Priest, and Deacon—and no more. This
every child knows. 11; hich of the three can the Presby-
terian ministers possibly want ? The office of deacon,
'e believe, exists among them, but is surely below the
acceptance of a minister. The name of priest would be
rejected with horror and indignation ; probably there
are not ten ministers in the Assembly who have not, in
the course of their teaching, expressly repudiated the
anti-Christian title. And as for the episcopate, we know
that it is the very monster against which their name,
their history, and their constitution are so many stand-
ing and deadly protests. The Roman Church indeed has
a few more orders at their service, but we presume they
can hardly be anxious to be known as " exorcists" or
" acolytes. And yet those who deny them any or all
of these titles are accused of" pronouncing their religion
not to be Christian, their members to be unbaptised in-
dividuals, and the acts of their worship to be unmeaning
and worthless." How are these gentlemen to be pleased,
or what is to be done for them ?
CHRONICLE.—The House of Commons adjourned
for the holidays last night. We do not think Ministers
are likely to have a very pleasant Easter. What with
Lord De Grey in Ireland, and Lord Ashley at home,
the harmony within doors cannot be very great, and an
earthquake may come any day. Sir James Graham of
course resigns, if' a Ten Hours, Bill is carried, or if the
Lowthers are preferred in the Lord-Lieutenancy of
Westmoreland. Lord De Grey resigns if he is not
allowed to appoint anti-education bishops. Poor Sir
Robert Peel is in a sad fix with his Jack Cedes. They
all require so much, and will let him do so little, that his
character for power is gone, and his character for pru-
dence is declining. The Duke of Wellington has en-
sured the Irish Curch a longevity equal to the union—
how prudently those who remember his analogous de-
clarations about Old Sarum will determine. The Duke
of Richmond will not stand another peck of corn, whe-
ther foreign or colonial. It does not matter whether
Australian or from New Zealand, not a grain shall
come. Mr. Hutt may go out if he please, and be a fari-
naceous animal amongst his brother colonists ; but not
a taste shall the pe pie of England have of what their
swarm of compatriots can grow. The New Zealanders
may eat them, and welcome ; but as for sendine• such
outlandish grain to the mill, or such outlandish flour to
our English housewives, it must not be thought of. Sir
Robert Peel may reduce the Three per Cents., and -
wel-
come. The noblemen and gentlemen of the Anti-
League Association have not much to do with them ;
but as for doing anything which has the remotest ten-
dency to pull down the price of true born British wheat,
the time is gone by for any such concession. These
things were permitted for a time, during the Peel
honeymoon ; but a course so opposed to the wisdom of
the squirarchy, and the new balance of power conse-
quent upon the Richmond treaty, is out of question.
Things, in short, are approaching the annual dead
lock. The schemes of Government appear before the
public like the magic-lantern phantoms. This time last
year there was a Factory Bill, with education clauses.
Presto, the dissenting clauses were denounced, and the
Factory Bill fell into the shade. The Ecclesiastical
Courts Bill fared no better. It was too good for the
Tories ; this year it is too bad fur the Liberals. In
1843 it proposed some useful changes, and was worth
having, of itself, although an imperfect measure. This
year its changes are so valueless, that it will do more
harm, by giving a sort of new lease to ecclesiastical
abuses, than good, by remedying some minor grievances.
It is a creation singularly characteristic of the sort of
Government we live under. Sir R. Peel is supported by
Tories, and so are ecclesiastical abuses. lie cannot do
without the proctors, and the proctors cannot do with-
out abuses. The public know these things, and see them.
They know that the Measures proposed by the late
Government to correct those abuses were adequate and
efficient. They see by the failure of last year that the
Tories will not permit their chief to do so. Sir R. Peel
was saved last year from a defeat on this very Bill by the
Opposition, as he was last week on the factory proceed-
ings. He cannot, therefore, carry out his own declara-
tion with respect to his willingness and power to
remedy proved abuses. If the unanimous opinion of
mankind means anything—if reports of committees super-
added to reports of commissions, are of any avail, if
there be a concentration of opinion amongst all
lawyers of sound mind that the courts ecclesiastic are
a nuisance—that they require change_ riot less than.
'those °Nast year to miike them endurable, and-far more
to make them popular,—if the allegation of a proved
abuse means anything, Sir R. Peel is bound to do some-
thing more drastic in the way of remedy than his puny
efforts of the present year to bring up the old recep-