The Sun.
London, England, 1845-01-09 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

711031 THE EVENING PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.
GLOBE.—The remaining points in controversy
between the Bishop of Exeter and the laity continue
to occupy more space in publicity than perhaps any
other subject. We agree with the Times in con-
gratulating the public on having obtained concession
of that which the Bishop made a great point of, by
preference, because it was a small one. We so far
concur with the Right Reverend Prelate, that we
consider the smallest point equally good with the
greatest one to try the right upon—to try,
namely, the question whether the hierarchy
have a right, ex cathedra, to impose unde-
sired innovations (as regards this generation, and
many generations back, they are so)—or whether a
Protestant hierarchy is under the obligation to con-
sult the Protestant community in some shape, before
introducing novelties (to them) in their discipline
or worship. If, again, the title of Protes-
tant hierarchy is not aocepted, if—as Mr. Pal-
mer said, in one of his writings he, and
those thinking with him, would leave the
Church, if it expressly adopted the Protestant de-
signation—if, as Mr. Gladstone says in the Quarterly,
our Chureh was not founded by the Reformers of the
sixteenth century—and if the inference to be drawn
from this (although it by no meaus follows as a neces-
sary consequence) is meant to be, that those Reformers
had no right to make any fundamental changes in it—if
all this, we say, is admitted, then we are thrown back for
ecclesiastical titles to some state ef things previous to the
Rekrmed, and previous to the corrupt Roman ers.Now,
to find this, we must go a great way back. We must go
a great way back to find the ecclesiastical system free
from those characters which the Anglican Church has
struck out of her symbols as unscriptural. We must,
in short, go back to primitive times; and this our
Anglican doctors indeed say they do. Well, we have
no objection. But if we do this in good earnest,
we shall find that it was not " the Reformers of
the sixteenth century " who first took it into their
heads that the laity should have something to do
in controlling Church matters. "We cannot fail
to recognise," observes a recent Church-writer
(Conybeare, " Bampton Lectures for 1839'') " many
minor differences between the earlier discipline of
the Church and that which still remains ; and this
is particularly striking in the more direct in-
terference during the primitive ages of the lay
members of the congregation in the election of
Bishops and Presbyters. Bingham, in his invaluable
storehouse of Ecclesiastical Antiquity, the " Origines,"
produces many authorities to show that the power
of the people on such occasions was not barely
testimenial, but judicial and elective ; that in the ap-
pointment of Bishops they exercised exactly the same
consent, suffrage, veto, election, and choice, res the
inferior clergy; and the same privilege was like-
wise on sonic occasions conceded to them in
the designation of Presbyters. The testimony of
Cyprian is very important on these points. ' In
the 67th Epistle, p. 172, he strongly insists,
.that
the whole analogy of the appointment of the
priesthood under the old covenant, and every
order of ministers under the new, demonstrated
ordinationes sacerdotales not nisi sub populi assiskintis
conscientia fieri oportere ; ordinatio jesta et legitima
esi, quo omnium suffragio et judicio fuerit examinata ;
and he himself apologises (Ep. 33) for having been
tinder 'the pressure of the times of persecution obliged
to ordain a very meritorious individual by his own
single authority, without having had an oppor-
tunity thus to consult the Church. It appears
then that the laity were considered pars magna
of " the Church" in those primitive times which
our orthodox Anglican doctors are fond of appealing
to. And with reference more particularly to ques-
tions of discipline (more important than the present
ones) it is clear that, in the earliest ages of the
Otturch, those were not decided, as it were, over the
heads of the laity, but, on the contrary, remitted
to their express concurrence. " A painful con-
troversy arose," says the writer above cited,
" as to the terms on which the lapsed brethren,
as they were called, were again to be admitted
into the bosom of the Church they had for-
. saken in her hour of trial. He (Cyprian) throughout
scrupled to issue any determination on the subject
from his own judgment alone; and declared his
desire to remit its decision to the public
synods ,of his Church, which appear to have
included it; lay as well as clerical members. He will
take no steps, he says, sine petite et constientia
pkbis." That Father of thel Church who had perhaps
most reselsiblance to Henry of Exeter (if we may judge
by the tone of his fulminations against Vigilantius)
—we mean Jerome—by no means, however, extrava-
gated in the direction of " dropping-,town-deadness"
before Bishop,. On the contrary, he devoted much
of his monkish labours and temper to demon-
strating not only his personal disposition to defying
eeiwoptiey when it came across his way—hut the non-
existence of any original distinction in office between
Bishops and Presbyters. On tli•o. whole, We ra.nnot think
;fiat ecclesiastical sticklers will take much by their
motion', if they insist on driving 113 back to primitive
time; from " the Reformers of the sixteenth cen-
tury." The plain question we take to be—whether
the Church-going people are to adhere to die general
s,ty le of worship of the ages after, or the ages before,
the Reformation. Of course a very imblatecable pro.
ferense may he entertained either for the one, or the
other. We do not etrelertake to decide on any
grounds applicable to all religious commitnios,
between altar and cominunion4able, priest and
minister, sacrament of penance, and doctrine or te-
pentanee rind remission. We do not undertako to
shy what human forms most approach divine
truths. But we do say that the people of Eng-
land, w:10 have hitherto been accustomed to one
act of forms, as those most expurgated from ad-
mixture of superstition, have a rieett to be con-
salted before the usage of centuries is changed
in complaisance to the feelings of certain scrupu-
lous clergymen—whose scruples, for the most part,
point Homewards. In fact, it is shrewdly suggested
by a correspondent, that the Bishop of Exeter himself,
however satisfactory a testimony he adduced lately
to his own Protestantism, in stating that he had
withdrawn from the Cambridge Camden Society,
because they patronised windows with pictures and
mottoes indicative of " MariolaTry"—has placed
himself in a singular position towards ;Protestantism,
awl august Protestant personages !
•
STANDARD.—It certainly is not the least
gratifying of the profs of the advancing intelligence
of the couetry, that, notwithstanding the successive
announcements of the rapid improvement of the
revenue, 4Te hear little or nothing from the people
of a reduction of taxes. The millowners, no
doubt, clamour for a diminution of the cotton
duties, though they never had cotton at so
low a price, and like demands are heard from
other classes, bat the claims for reduction are
all class claims, in which the people take no
part. It cannot, however, ba supposed, that the
present generation have more pleasure in paying taxes
than the generation before them; and, therefore, we
must conclude that their contentment with the ex•
istiag financial arrangement arises from a conviction
that a hasty reduction of taxes may be in the end
more injurious than beneficial. In short, that the
" ignorant impatience of taxation" (to borrow the late
Lord Londonderry's happy though much abused phrase)
has given place to an enlightened consideration of the
future. The reductions of the late Administration have
demonstrated that such relief may be bought too
dear, and fully exposed the fallacy of Lord Syden-
ham's theory of fructification from deficit. Never-
theless, it is scarcely to be expected that,
with that steady and rapid improvement of the
revenue, which may be anticipated from the
continuance in office of an Administration

that has, in four short years, so wonderfully
reversed the financial state of the country--
it is scarcely to be expected, we say, that IT Sir
Robert Peel s Government continue to hold office, the
public will not look at its hands for a remission of
taxation. 'We fear the ltime has not yet arrived
when all men will see, what all thoroughly-in-
formed men see already, that the contribution to
a public revenue wisely laid out in providing for
i the national defence, and in promoting national m-
irrovements, is the most profitable of all investments ;
that double taxes may be made to produce double
wealth to the people collectively and individually. As
yet we have had but half the lesson—that half
which teaches that a deficient revenue, arising from
(imunished taxes, leads to collective and individual
distress—the other, and more_ valuable portion of the
instruction remains to be inculcated by an experience,
for which, perhaps, the mass of the people are not yet
prepared.he time,
however, will come, and question-
less the measures of the present Administration are
well calculated to advance its arrival, when the public
will feel that defence and war are not the only good
reasons for a nation's making large pecuniary sacri-
fices—when it will be thought that nmey may be
as properly, and much more profitably, laid out
in providing docks and harhotirs--in promoting a
Well-considered system of colonisation---an extending
ieligisus and secular education, and the means of
.
comfort to the poorer classes--as equipping
fleets and armies, important as the dna equip-
went of fleets and armies must always be. A
great deal has been done, and will be done, in
this country by individual enterprise and by pri-
vate benevolence ; brit there are objects of the
greatest national importance (we may cite the
construction of refuge harbours) which present no
temptation to individual enterprise ; and there are
...ithers of no less importance, as the full extension of
religious and secular education, too vast to be ade-
quately effected by private benevolence. Sir Robert
1 no doubt, acted with true wisdom in leaving
to private enterprise the Irish railways, so pro-
lmising of prosperity and civilisation to the sister
e-land ; but if the construction of the Kings-
town harbour had been left to private en-
terprise, the whole western coast of the Irish