The Sun.
London, England, 1829-06-22 00:00:00

(FROM THE MORNING CHRONICLE)

We refer our readers to a letter in' another
column on the subject of the case of the Rev.
Mr. Wray, the Bishop of Lincoln, and Arch-
deacon Goddard. The circumstances connect-
ed with the living of Manby, alluded to in the
letter, which render it of no value to the holder,
have been satisfactorily explained to us by the
writer. These circumstances are, we understand,
well known to those from whom the Times must
have received the information communicated in
the article in that Journal of Friday last ; and
this much we will say, that if, with the know-
ledge of the situation of the Rev. Mr. Wray,
Drs. Kay and Goddard could come to the con-
clusion, that the Vicar of Bardney " had no just
cause to complain of his diocesan," they would
find it difficult to persuade any other two per-
sons in England to share their opinion. The
case is exactly as it was stated in the pamphlet
publicly by Mr. Wray ; and, indeed, it was
pretty evident, from the correspondence between
that gentleman and Drs. Kay and Goddard, that
they were aware the case was not in the least af-
fected by his holding the living of Manby, other-
wise they would have alluded to that circum-
stance when he.:was holding them at bay. It
would perhaps be difficult to find a ca,.e, iu
which the discretionary power, which the law
gives to Bishops, hos been exercised with
more revolting severity. But though every suf-
fering Vicar or Curate may not have a family of
thirteen children, many hundreds, perhaps thou-
sands, are struggling to exist on a wretched pit-

Lance ; and while they are writhing under the
caprice of a superior who may plunge them in a
moment in -destitution, they are doomed to wit:-
Deis .every where around them the spectacle of
• •
-:rielt.Pluralists, for whom the law has no restraints.
The state of the Curates of the Church of Eng-
land was laid before the public by one of their
tiumbyr, ,itui letter to the Archbishop of Can-
terbury, a few Months ago. Speaking of the
manner in which the late Act in behalf of the
Curates has been carried into execution, he says,
" To enumerate all the paltry evasions, time scan-
dalous misrepresentations, the crafty subterfuges,
the shuffling expedients, the mean tricks, and
the direct lies, by which the plain and benevo-
lent intentions of the Legislature have been de-
feated, would be disgusting to any candid mind,
and would furnish ample materials for another
volume of Mrs. Opie's Illustrations of Lying,
in ail its branches:
Grace is -aware that, amongst the ministers of truth,
evation4 which would fix indelible disgrace on
tnekt of any rank in society, however low, are
ktot. uncommon ; that giving a title for orders'
13 seized on as a common pretext for consider-
ably abridging the rightful stipend to the Curate ;
that a rent is often exacted by non-resident in-
cumbents for the Curate's occupation of the
Parsonage-house, to which he has a legal claim ;
and that notes of hand to repay a part of the
sum promised are often required from the Curate
before or after his nomination, to secure the in-
cumbent iu case payment of the full sum due to
the Curate should ever be demanded." The
great evil is the enormous discretionary powers
of the Diocesans, the shameful partiality dis-
play tl by them in carrying the laws into execu-
tion, and the dependence of the working Clergy.
The observation is as old as the days of Homer,
that when a Man becomes a slave he loses half
his virtue ; and the Curates of the Church of
england, and those who hold small livings and
must eke out their incomes by an adjoining
Curacy, are slaves in every sense of the word.
We cannot conceive a more perfect engine for
corrupting a country, than an Institution in
which such a number of individuals exist in a
most degrading state of dependence. It has
been forcibly observed, that " the History of
Church property is a history of fraud. Its ac-
quisition, in almost nine cases out of every ten,
has been effected in opposition both to the laws
of man and the laws of God." All attempts to
meet the evil by Legislation have signally failed.
The Legislature has never shown itself. so ()play
unprincipled as when it comes in contact with
Churchmen. We need only mention the case
of Wright, the informer, when Parliament was
mean enough to interfere, to save the Clergy
from the penalties it had just imposed.
THE BISHOP OF LINCOLN AND THE REV.
J. WRAY.
To THE EDITOR OF THE MORNING CHRONICLE.
Sir,—l pledged myself two days ago that an ex-
planation should be given to the " holy and edify-
ing" article in the 'Times upon the above case.
That pledge I am now permitted to redeem.
The Times asserts that the Bishop is justified in
having deprived Mr. Wray of his Curacy on the fol-
lowing grounds :
Because Mr. Wray's own son was afterwards
licensed by the Bishop to the same Curacy.
Because Mr. Wray holds the Vicarage of Bardney
only " through the Bishops indulgence ;" and
Because Mr. Wray also holds a rectory worth 4501.
per annum.
I have no doubt that it gratified the Archdeacon
to see so dark a case skilfully exhibited in so fa-
vourable a light. One would suppose, from the
official statement, that Mr. Wray was not an op-
pressed, but an ungrateful man ; and that he
grumbled only in the spirit of a greedy pluralist
Now, Sir, it is true that Mr. Wray holds the rec-
tory of Manby ; but that, the Archdeacon knows,
is not the whole 0 uth. It is unnecessary to occupy
your columns or the attention of others with a detail
of private affairs. I enclose a paper to satisfy you
that I am not imposing upon the public ; and the
Archdeacon is aware, that although Mr. Wray holds
the living, he has but a peppercorn interest in it.
The Reverend Dignitary never, to my knowledge,
eschewed a good thing in all his various lines of life;
and if he deems the holding of the rectory of Manby
to be such, Mr. Wray's life-interest in it is at his
service, as a free gift, without purchase or redemp-
tion ! He shall even have it for a " cousin," if his
own hands are already full with pensions and pre-
ferment ! With this declaration, I leave the world
to pronounce upon the justification, and upon the
spirit in which it was attempted.
As to the succession of Mr. Wray's son to the
Curacv, the Archdeacons know also that the Bishop
bill nothing to do with it. Mr. Wray's son was
appointed by the incumbent's trustees, and the
Bishop could not refuse to license him. I congra-
tulate his Lordship upon the unavoidable act of
generosity imputed to him. The Archdeacon needs
not to be told, that although a mandamus to confer
honorary titles upon clerical parvenus may be
slighted, there is another mandamus which even
Bishops must obey. I ought not to omit that the
succession to the curacy was no object to the son
and no benefit to the father.
As to the " indulgence" by which the Vicarage is
held, I have already explained the nature and merit
of it, and am quite satisfied that it will be properly

exercised.
The truth is, Sir, that the attempt is made to
arrest inquiry, not only into this particular case, but
into the system, the abuses of which it exposes.
You will be surprised to hear, that after all this
fuss about the sin of a poor Clergyman not doing
double duty in a scanty vicarage, there are not three
instances of its being done in the whole archdeaconry;
that after all this outcry for residence, the Bishop
does not reside in his Diocese, and his Archdeacon
resides in London ! You will be surprised to learn
that forty-two Dignitaries and four Vicars, who are
remunerated by one hundred.and forty-nine pieces
of.preferment, are called upon for single duty only
as a body; and as for residence, I question if many
of then) know the road to their awn Cathedral. It
is a mockery to call this Justice. Ido not deny
that the discipline forced upon Mr. Wray is desir-
able ; but as matters . stand, I say that it is forced
harshly and capriciously, and that is all that Mr.
Wray liiinself says.
Your obedient Servant,

JUSTUS.

The Times of Friday says, that it has been at
some pains to investigate the circumstances of
the case of Mr. Wray and the Bishop of Lin-
coln, which we gave some days ago from a pam-
phlet published by Mr. Wray, and communicates
the following as the result of its inquiries :
" It is very true, as Mr. Wray states, that the
Bishop, by obliging him to perform double duty in
his parish church of Bardney, forced him to relin-
quish the curacy of Horsington ; but it is-,equally
true that his Lordship subsequently licensed Mr.
Wray's son to the vacant cure. Bardney,. also,
may be a living of small value, of 604 of 70t ft-1
year; but Mr. Wray has omitted to state in his pam-
phlet, and our cotemporaries were prOtahlY unac-
quainted
with the fact, that the same gentleman
holds also, in the same diocess, another living, that
of Manby, the annual value of which is between
4501. and 500/. a year. And, lastly, the living of
Bardney itself, which is in the patronage of the
Bishop, is at the present time, and was, when Mr.
Wray was called upon for double duty, legally void-
able, and is only retained by that gentleman through
the Bishop's indulgence.
We think, therefore, that the public will con.
elude with us, that Mr. Wray has najust cause to

complain of his diocesan. And here we would wish
the matter to rest. It is an unholy and unedifying
sight for clergymen to be tearing each other to
pieces in pamphlets."
All our knowledge was derived from the pam-
phlet of Mr. Wray. We have deemed it our
duty to copy the above statement from the Times,
without being able to speak of our own know-
ledge as to its correctness. We insert at the
same time the following letter, which we received
yesterday :
" To the EDITOR of the MORNING CHRONICLE.
" THE BISIIVP OF LINCOLN AND 'THE REV. T. WRAY.
" official sort of article appeared yester-
day in a Morning caper upon the above case, in
which the writer imagined, by distorting facts and
canting about the ' unholy and unedifying' practice
' of clergymen tearing each other to pieces in pam-
phlets,' to set the matter at rest. That the Reverend
the Archdeacon is pretty well ' torn to pieces,' I
admit ; and that the informant of the Times desires
the matter to rest here,' I can readily believe. But
in this matter the Public also have an interest. Dr.
Kay and Dr. Goddard are not the only patties to be
consulted in the petty reform they have commenced
in ecclesiastical discipline.
" With regard to the discoveries of the Times, all
I ask is this—hear the explanation. I have no au-
thority to give it, though fully capable of doing so.
That it will be given, I have no doubt—not a sha-
dow of doubt. There is one point, however, upon
which I will venture to anticipate it. A hint—an
indirect threat—is held out that Mr. Wray holds his
Vicarage of Bardney ' through the Bishop's indul-
gence. This sort of reasoning is unmanly and
tyrannical. The Bishop is vested with the power
of declaring the Vicarage void, as he is of nearly all
the benefices to the patronage of which he succeed-
ed, and it is to the contingency of his abusing that
power that his advocates appeal as a knock-down
argument. I happen, however, to know, for their
comfort, that this argument has already been tried
loog ago—lolidem verbis—upon the Reverend Gen-
tleman. I have seen it under seal episcopal—and it
was treated with the manly contempt it merited.—
Your obedient servant, "JUSTUS."
' (FROM THE MORNING HERALD.)
The state of the Established Church, as re-
gards the unequal distribution both of its labours
and emoluments, has long been a subject of
anxiety and apprehension to every disinterested
well-Wisher to its permanence and prosperity.
Facts, upon this and upon every other subject,
are stubborn things ; and we should like the
most satisfied encomiast of things as they are to
tell ns coolly and dispassionately how he thinks
the important office of cure of souls must be per-
formed in a Church in which 347 of its digni-
taries enjoy no less than 1,155 benefices ; and
this while no small part of the Curates—the
really labouring part of the Clergy—have not
emoluments any thing equal to the wages which
the major part of these same dignitaries pay to
their butlers, cooks, and coachmen. From a
document which we published lately, it appears
that the benefices in England amount to 2,200
in number; that these arc held by 7,659 per-
sons ; and that of this latter above half are
pluralists. Now what would be thought if half
the officers in the Army and Navy belonged to
two regiments and ships ? Yet we should think
that holding one commission in the Blues and
another in the Buffs, or the being a Midshipman
in a frigate, a Lieutenant in a 74, and an Ad-
miral of the Fleet, at one and the same time,
quite as proper, though probably not quite so
practicable, as one and the same person being a
Bishop, a Dean, a Prebendary, a Rector, and
Vicar, in the same breath. We do not over-
state the matter when we say this ; for from the
same account it appears that-
-370 persons hold 3 pieces of preferment.
73

38

13

1

1 151!

Who this last person can be we should like to
know. He must either have more zeal for reli-
gion or more love of himself than common minds
are capable of containing. But we would seri-
ously ask, is this a state of things which can or
ought to continue ? It cannot be denied that
great part of the opposition which the Catholic
claims have experienced has arisen from well-
founded fears of danger to the Church Esta-
blishment. Well, then, admit these to have any
foundation, the fears are realised. Concession
has been granted ; and the danger, if any, is at
the door. If the danger from without could not
be averted, is it not the more incumbent upon us
to look at the weak points within, and to fortify
them, now that the ramparts have been scaled,
and the garrison dislodged from the outworks ?
We know full well that it is the fashion with those
vho fatten on its abuses, or who are hungering
after vacant stalls, to hold up every one as an
enemy of the Church who speaks out as we are
now doing upon this subject.—Such a course,
however, is as fallacious as the ground on which
it rests is erroneous.

(FROM THE MORNING ADVERTISER•)
It is now generally stated that the Revenue
for the present quarter will fall considerably below
that of the corresponding quarter for the las
year. The decrease on the Customs is stated
at 58,0001., and on the Excise at 43,000/.—
To counterbalance this falling off, which evi-
dently arises from the distressed state of. the
country, and the paucity of means left to the in-
dustrious part of the community, the Govern-
ment has, in part, made up by enforcing the
Stamp Acts with the greatest rigour, and levying
every shilling in the shape of Assessed Taxes
which could possibly be collected. On the
former there is, in consequence, an increase of
14,000/., and on the latter of 46,000/. ; so that
the total decrease only amounts to 41,0001.—
But the decrease in the Customs and in the
Excise is a proof that the country is not in a
flourishing condition ; and therefore were the
amount of the Revenue, under such circum-
stances, even to exceed that of last year, it would
efford no subject for rejoicing.

(FROM THE EXAMINER.)
THE DEPARTED SESSION.—A philosopher
has fancifully contended that mankind are only
capable of receiving a limited portion of truth
at any one time, and that if knowledge gains
ground in a particular direction, error will in
some other quarter be making proportionate en-
croachments. In the elements which direct the
affairs of our nation, a similar observation
appears to hold good, for our political at-
mosphere appears capable of absorbing only a
certain degree of improvement at a season, and
having taken up the particles of good of which it
is susceptible, it leaves the rest'to stagnate in
Aeglect till the prompt surfeit of beneficence has
slowly passed away. The closed Session of
Parliament has been a Session of one act. The
Legislature achieved a single measure of benefit,
and instantly sunk into a delicate languour of
exhaustion, which has suspended all useful la-
bours. Something of conceit, something of
compliment, something of policy, there has been
in this general abeyance of action. According
to the old story, when the good simple gentle-

man in the House of Commons uttered a com-
mon-place, he was so overwhelmed by the sense
of his own performance, and its disproportion
to the ordinary capacity of mortal man, that he
sunk down fainting in his seat, and muttering in.
modest ectacy, " Non nobis, non nobis, Do-
mine ! sed nomini tuo gloria detur." he
Ministry, which discovered, in the year 1828
that a belief in the Catholic religion need not
disqualify for office, has been a little touched
with a like conceit, and permitted itself_ to be
rather inordinately grateful for it own wonders.
The disposition has met every encouragement.
At the close of the last Session, certain symp-
toms gave sanguine men to believe that the
Duke of Wellington had conceived the principle
of toleration. In the course of the summer his
Grace was reported to be big with Catholic
Relief; by the autumn it was confidently
affirmed that the Bill was quick, and moving,
in ventre. All these rumours we doubted, con-
sidering the age of the Duke and the constitu-
tion of his mind, as inferred from his past poli-
tical career; and with these regards we accounted
it a Johanna Southcote case, and looked for
tympany rather than a Shiloh bringing peace to
a distracted nation. The King's speech, how-
ever, dissipated all doubt—the words were the
cry of labour, and the " Juno Lucina, fer
opera serva me, obsecro," of a parturient Mi-
nister, resounded through Whitehall. The
Premier lay in, and was safely delivered after a
short but sharp labour. We all remember the
case of the Princess, one of the Four Sisters, in
" The Arabian Nights," who was brought to
bed of a young Prince handsomer than the day,
with diamond eyes and silver hair, which re-
markable birth the malevolent and envious sis,.
ters of the lady wickedly concealed, confidently
affirming to the Sultan, her husband, that her
Highness had been delivered of a brick-bat.
Our Duke suffered a similar injustice. We, in
common with all persons in their proper senses
and proper politics, will vouch for the diamond
eyes and silver hair of his offspring ; there are
those, however, who still insist it was nothing
better than a brick-bat. Up to this period,. all
_

was well. We rejoiced to find the Duke ano-
ther Sarah, fruitful in age —with pleased wonder
we saw the truncheon, mere stick of command
as it had seemed in our eyes, miraculously
sprouting forth the greenest myrtle. When the
Duke had afforded his one good produce, the
natural appetite was, however, for more of the
same quality, and to keep him teeming ; but
this • has not suited the ideas of the Whig
gossips, who have delighted in coddling him to
inactivity, exactly as they pampered Canning in
all his mischievous tendencies. The straw has
been down, and the knocker tied up for the
whole Session, and the Whigs have been doing
nothing but sipping candle and eating cake with
the Duke, and pretending that, in his delicate
situation, it would be barbarous to think of any
concern but nursing the pet. No noise, no
light, no stir, no moving, is the whispered ad-
monition, and no inquiries are suffered but
those of the tenderest sort. How d'ye do' in-
vestigations. A pampering of this kind might
have been allowable and tolerable enough for the
customary month, though the Duke, tough old
soldier as he is, might have been as hardy as a
soldier's wife, and in the straw one day and in
the baggage waggon the next ; but to carry the
nursing and fondling and deferring and
dawdling and maudling through a good
quarter, was too much for human pa:
tience, or aught but Whig complacency. What
has been the effect ? that, as we set out with
observing, it haS been a Session of one act, that
act. of negative benefit, simply the privation of an
evil. In consideration of this exhausting ser-
vice, every other useful measure or necessrry
consideration has been postponed, slurred over,
or scandalously defeated. The Game Law Re-
form has been thrown out, Chancery Reform
thrust over, Mr. Otway Cave's resolutions on
West India Slavery unsupported even by the
voice of a single Saint, Parliamentary Reform
left to the Marquis of Blandford, and a negative
put upon the affirmed existence of corrupt
boroughs, together with a host of other instances
of meglect, abandonment, or betrayal of duty we
have neither space nor patience to recite. In-
deed, following the example of certain South-
American Indians, it would almost seem that
because his Majesty's Government had been de-
livered of a good law, his Majesty's Opposition
had thought proper to lie in (in more sense than
one) and adopt the inactivity proper to the other
side, with only a father's part in the fruit. It
w is sufficiently clear that tile disposal of the
Catholic question would produce some great
changes in the character of politics, in which it
had so long acted as a distinguishing test. It
is gone, and the cement of parties crumbles with
it ; how they will re-form, what new combina-
tions and directions they may take, we cannot
even speculate, for the longer we observe, the
le<s confident we become of tile motives of pub-
lic men. The line of demarkation between
Government and Whig opposition is altogether
effaced, and the course is quite open across the
floor to the Treasury benches. This is a con-
venience which will doubtless have its operation,
and here we cannot lose the cpportunity of' com-
plimenting the old Whigs on their prudence in
having laid tile demonstration of their principles
on a moon-shine dispute. This point weather-
ed, they are now free to trim their sails to any
wind. How they may go, we cannot guess, for,
as we have already intimated, faith is waxing
faint with us. We have witnessed of late so
many cases of debauchery, and so many more
indications of frailty, that we know not where to
look with any reasonable reliance for the virtue
of constancy. The game of politics is far too
tricky for men of simple purposes and simple
means. The expediences which are necessary
to playing it are the rot of integrity. Men begin
by departing from principles for objects of public
policy, and end with abandoning them for their
own convenience. When we make these re-
marks, it is far from our design to assert that
there is more political profligacy now than at
any preceding period. On the contrary, we
know the present age will gain by comparison
with that of Walpole, for example ; but circum-
stances of our own time had tended to raise the
credit of professed patriots above its just degree.
The violent Government made strenuous oppo-
sitions, and excluded desertions ; hence we were
encouraged to mistake the absence of temptation
for improved constancy and inflexible devotion
to the just cause. In Lord Londonderry's time,
the flag of despotism was so strongly coloured,
of so crimson a hue, that no man professing
the principles of rational and practical social
liberty, could pretend to doubt its cruel colour,
and all were kept at their posts. Now, on tile
contrary, the motley Exchequer is any one's
wear, this Member goes over to it for its white
squares, while another adheres to it for the black.
A man-of-war's crew blockading a hostile Ota-
heite would be as apt to be chaste as a Whig
Opposition was to be honest in conflict with the

tomahawk Castlereagh Government. With th
mitigated hostility and intercourse of flags of
truce came the seduction. It is the desertion
and falling-off of men who had signalized them-
selves in the contest of forced fidelity to their
standards which now strikes us, and affects with
perhaps an unreasonable extension of mistrust.
The new Police Act is the only measure of the
Session, after the Relief Bill, which pretends to
useful reform, and we should have named it as a
credit to Mr. Peel, had its provisions accorded
with the principle stated in its introductory
speech, but such is not the case. He demon-
strated the policy of uniformity, and he brings
in a bill of piecemeal operation. One fact can-
not fail to have been impressed upon the minds
of the principal actors in public life, by the in-
trigues, difficulties, and troubles of the last year,
namely, the extreme inconvenience of having to
do with a wise and virtuous Monarch. The
main question with a Minister is not whether a
measure is necessary or salutary, but how the
King will like it .2 —w hat is the Royal taste on
it ? He does not confine himself to the consi-
deration of the good of the public, but in addi-
tion to this sufficiently heavy task, has to com-
pass the fancies or prejudices of the Head of
the State. If his Majesty's brain were alone
involved in this enquiry, the perplexity would
not be so great ; but the various influences
about the Royal person make a combination of
stupendous intricacy.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.

MANSION-HOUSE.

On Saturday, a female, about 30 years of age,
named. Con fort Patience Turner, was brought be-
fore the LORD MAYOR, charged with having very
much annoyed a respectable young man named Mar-
tin, who carries on the business of a grocer in the
city of London on his own account. The defendant,
although a servant, appeared without a cap and in
curls.

Mr. Mania said, that he had a very extraordinary
statement to make respecting this defendant. She
had lived as servant to his mother for four or fire
years, and conducted herself very much to the satis-
faction of her mistress. Afterwards she lived with
him in a similar capacity, but she took such vagaries
into her head about love, that it was impossible to
keep her longer in the house. The witness accord-
ingly got rid of her as soon and as gently as he
could. She, however, constantly made her appear-
ance in his shop, as if she had a claim upon him,
and acted in such a manner as was calculated to
lead his neighbours to the conclusion that he had
done her some mischief which she could not preva;l

upon him to repair, although bound in honour to do
so. The fact was, she wished for a husband, and
was of opinion that she could get a good one with-
out going farther. He expostulated with her fre-
quently on the absurdity of her behaviour, and
threatened to take the advice of a magistrate, but she
was determined upon being married to a shopkeeper,
and she therefore used to walk into the shop, and
while the customers were waiting to be served, to
dash the weights and scales and other apparatus
about. The effect of this was, the neighbourhood
began to suspect that he had seduced her.
The Lola) MAYOR asked the defendant what she
meant by proceeding in so nonsensical a course.
There was only one circumstance which could excuse
or palliate such conduct. ,
The complainant asked her whether she had it in
her power to say that he had done her any injury ?
She replied, that he had not ruined her virtue,
certainly, although he had ruined her feelings and
her happiness for ever. It was useless for her to
attempt to work. He had long, long promised to
make her his bride, and he had basely deceived her.
She should never be happy again.
Mr. Martin most solemnly denied that he had
ever made any promise. of the kind, of• that he had
ever said any thing to her from which a girl in her
senses could have been led to believe that he mean t
to marry her.
The LORD MAYOR ordered her to find bail, when
The defendant turned round to Mr. Martin, and
begged, as a favour, that he would procure bail, and
she would never tronble him again.
Mr, Martin declined having anything to do with
the matter; but she prayed and promised so much
to the Lord Mayor, and assured him so vehemently
that she would take up her mop again, and drop all
thought about " the ruin of her feelings," that his
Lordship consented to let her depart. He assured
her, however, that if she did not keep her bond, she
should cool her passion in Bridewell.