Star.
London, England, 1830-03-26 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE STAR.

St n,—On Monday last, I gave a brief notice about
the advice which has been offered to the New Church

Commissioners. That notice may have been looked
upon by your contemporaries as premature—perhaps
non-official ; or rather, they know nothing of the mat-
ter. In that notice I intimated that it is, at this mo-
ment, a matter of deep study with the Commissioners
whether the Diocesan Courts— whose powers I described
—ought not to be regulated ; and whether the inferior
ecclesiastical jurisdictions—namely, the royal peculiars,
archiepiscopal, episcopal, deems', sub-decanal, prebendal
and manorial—might not cease to exist altogether, with
advantage to the public. When I repeat that these
Diocesan Courts have the power to decide in all matterb
of spiritual discipline, as well as of civil right; that
they may suspend or deprive clergymen,declare marriages
void, divorce parties, try the right of succession to per-
sonal property, and administer all other branches of
civil as well as of ecclesiastical law, I believe
that the same public to whom you have exposed
the system, will have as little hesitation in denounc-
ing the entire machinery, as you have. En passant,
for the information of the uninformed, you may mention
that these church parties can do every thing connected
with civil as well as with ecclesiastical law, except im-
prisoning a victim; for which arbitrary proceeding, an
order must be issued from the Chancery Court; and
upon this subject the Chancery Court an order without
knowing—or at least reading—t' e merits of the case.
There are certain subjects, at this hour, who have the
power, as well as the inclination, to divulge certain par-
ticulars on this very subject. So much for my preli-
minary notice; and I shall now proceed to tax the com-
missioners with the beautiful points which their counsel
sets forth:—

" The mode of proceeding"—the ordo injudiciorum—
guys he, "is very perfect." No doubt, in his opinion,
it is so. But then let the world look upon the inquisi-
torial and jesuitical proceedings of the archiepiscopal
Court of Canterbury. On this very head, you shall give
his very words—sure as you may be of meeting with
them, some two or three years hence, in some
mystified Parliamentary document. " Why," says the
champion of the church, " there are advocates and proc-
tors regularly brought up to the profession—the former
not permitted to practice without taking the Degree of
Doctir of Laws in one of the English Universities ; and
the latter only qualified by serving a seven years' clerk-
ship to a doctor of certain standing, and being required,
before being articled, to have made a due proficiency
in the Latin Language." So says the counsel ; but the
public will naturally ask, do these common qualifica-
tions, in the parties concerned, justify the prin-
ciple ? Then the counsel proceeds to inform
you that "to the practice of the archiepiscopal
court, the duty of all the subordinate courts ought to con-
form, as far as circumstances will allow." No doubt of
it—the co-ordinates will stick to the independents, the in-
dependents will stick to the next grade ; the manorial
will stick to the prebendal, and so on to the decant' and
episcopal power, till yon have recourse to the arch, and
then to the Court of Chancery ! Why cannot the Court
of Chancery, or why cannot any court of equity,
at once decide in the cases brought before this
inquisition ? But there is this objection :—the pro-
ceedings of these Church Courts are very orderly—as
for instance, says the Counsel: " As far as they go the
proceedings in the Archiepiscopal Court of Canterbury
are not clogged with fictions, nor requiring to be varied
with each particular object of suit. They are more ana-
logous, in all their parts, to proceedings in Equity, than
to those at Common Law" Indeed ! An instance shall
he given, by and bye,—not in this letter—of the Equity
and Common Law of this very sentence. Then, says the
Law writer :—" The Court itself is composed of, first,
one Judge to hear and decide ; second, the registrar to
record the proceedings: third, the apparitor to serve
the process. The suitors are represented by their respec-
tive proctors"—that is, these articled gentlemen who are
skilled in the Latin language—" who in the Courts have
the same duties to discharge as attoenies and solicitors in
the temporal Courts, while the advocates perform the
functions of Council." This, alone,—this form—is the
only defence for maintaining this diabolical court. More
of it anon.

SCRUTATOR.

The Duke of WsLuNOTON, after having an audience
of his JIMMY, at hb Palma at Windsor, on Wednerday,retunsed
to town ahem Ilse o'clock in the afternoon, and dined with the Ca-
blare Minissen in the evening, at the residence ot Sir GEolltal
illtranarr, in Drigrave-equare.

el MN-EXCHANGE, IiAItIE•LA/12. Mascot M.
The supplies this day am very large, mad Mem will scarcely
resiMais Ilimaday's prices. The Increased egg* of Dinky, with
sum emplia Amhara remained unsold, boa nand a reduction or
foil Ys,psr grosit, with an inclination en be still lower. Oats may
also be gamed at per quarter less than the last market. Other
Onin remaincr needy the same. Flom has undergone no alter dos.
11111101ITAIIONS SEIM MOSMAT.
Wheat. llnglish (qrs.) . IWO Barley, Foreign
Foreign . 1,600 Oats. Xagileb .
Irish • tad Foreign
aiter. Lodi . 11450 Irish .
Irish . . Flour (auks)

10,800

4....
110°
910U°

COALJOLCHANCIE, ISAMU SS
Ships strived dudes the moody ifool---Dsrire week, 111.
it Walissad Coals Od Us U
Mhos sorts rik Od no Id
Ships at Malts, 941

btwer : Mood tad Psbisbill by Jam Mivw, at tea•
Orme 14.1. risbet-plossaisspie