The Sun.
London, England, 1842-01-05 00:00:00

THE POOR MAN'S CHURCH.

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The following extract, from a work recently published
by Palmer and Son, Paternoster-row, strikingly pour-
trays the secular character of our National Ecclesiastical
Establishment :

"From these calculations" (contained in a tabular ex-
hibition) "it will be seen that Spain and Portugal are
the only two countries which cost 100,0001. per million
of hearers ; and in both these countries the income of
the clergy is being reduced. If tithes constituted the
only revenue of the English clergy, and we supposed the
Church to contain five millions of hearers, the English
clergy are then paid ten times more than the clergy of
priest-ridden Spain and Portugal. 'lf we take the ave-
rage expenditure of Roman Catholicism upon the clergy,
the difference between the income of the Romish and
English priesthood will be as twenty to one. If we add
only a third to the tithes of the Anglican clergy, which
may be safely done, the disproportion is as one to thirty.
If we take Italy, where Popery lives,.and moves, and
has its being ; where the man of sin is enthroned, and
where the Government has been for ages in the hands of
ecclesiastics, the excess will be as thirty-seven to one.
And if we go no further than France, we shall find the
revenues of the English clergy forty times greater than
the revenues of the French clergy, making the pure, re-
formed Church of England, forty times more expensive
in England than is Roman Catholicism in a neighbour-
ing country ; and thirty-seven times dearer than the ad-
ministration of Popery in Italy itself ! We ask whether
it be at ull probable that the clergy generally can enter
this Establishment free from secular motives ? Whether
a Church, possessed of so much wealth, can resemble the
true Church of Christ ? Whether it does not appear
thoroughly carnal, earthly, and contrary to the Church
of Christ ? And whether it be not indecent, as well as
absurd, for the clergy to upbraid the Catholics with ad-
ministering a secular religion, and subscribing fur the
sake of emolument?"

" Besides tithes, there are twenty-six Bishoprics ;
twenty-six Deaneries; fifty-three Archdeaconries; three
hundred and ninety-four Prebends ; at Oxford, four
hundred and forty-four Fellowships, and four hundred
and four more at Cambridge. Then there are the Fel-
lowships at Winchester College, Benefices in the Schools
at Eton and Westminster, besides the Masterships of
numerous Hospitals, Schools, Almshouses, and various
other charitable institutions, all productive of the good
things of this life, and all, or most of them, in the hands
of the clergy, their patrons, and dependents."—Pietas
_Eeclesice,the Dissenters' Text-boob, chap. ix., pp. 162, 3,
and 5.

And so our holy and Apostolic Church has dwindled
away, and become a tent-book for the Non.- Cons. ! The
thought is an ingenious one, but the fact is plain enough.
God help Old England, it this be her State Church.
CLERICAL Sunsc RipuoN.—" Eigh teen thousand clergy-
men, swearing that they believe. they are moved by the
Holy Ghost, and, in the same breath, taking their oath
to matters of hazardous and doubtful import. Subscrip-
tion is written and engraven upon every step in the
winding stairs of Episcopal ascension. A Vicar, for in-
stance, before he is regularly settled in the Vicarage,
must have made at least twelve solemn attestations, and,

if previously licensed to a Curacy, sixteen. Should he
graduate through minor degrees to a Bishopric he will
have had not fewer than thirty oaths imposed upon
him, all of which he has taken freely and unreservedly.
In fact, a clergyman cannot advance a single step with-
out taking an oath. Swearing begins with his beginning,
grows with his growth, and advances with his progress."
—Chap. viii. pp. 141, 2.

DEATH OF THE BISHOP OP OSSORY.--The
Right Rev. Dr. Fowler, Bishop of Ossory, Ferns, and
Leighlin, against whom a commission of lunacy was re-
cently taken out, expired at the Palace, Kilkenny, on
Friday evening. The deceased Prelate was in the 76th
year of his age, and was consecrated Bishop of Ossory in
May, 1818. pr. Fowler, previously to the melancholy
visitation with whieh he was afflicted, was distinguished
in a pre-eminent degree for his princely acts of charity.
Possessed of an ample private fortune, it is well known
that for a long period he devoted the revenues of his see
to the exclusive use of the poor and friendless throughout
his diocese. The names of Dr. Elrington, Regius Pro-
fessor of Divinity, and the Very Rev. Robert Daly,
Dean of St. Patrick's, are mentioned as the probable
candidates for the vacant bishopric.
Lord Vesey and Fitzgerald left town this morn-
ing on a visit to the Duke of Buckingham, at Stowe Park.
Sir Geoege Clerk transacted business this morn-
.

ing with the tliancellor of the Exchequer at the Right
lion. Gentleman's official residence in Downing-street.
THE PENNY POSTAGE.—(From a Corre-
spondent.)—We believe that we may give the most un-
qualified contradiction to a paragraph which has gone
the round of the Radical press, stating that it is the in-
tention of her Majesty's Ministers to increase the rate of
postage on letters to threepence. No intention of making
any such proposition to Parliament exists.— Tory Paper.
PRIZE FIGHT NEAR DLIBLIS.—On Satur-
day morning a large concourse of " the fancy" assem-
bled to witness a. prize fight between two men named
Hayden and Byrne—the latter the brother of Simon
Byrne, the well-known pugilist, who lost his life some

time ago in an encounter with Deaf Burke. The " mill"
took place at reamount, near Lucan, and continued,
with nu decided advantage on either side, up to the nine-
teenth " round," when the arrival of the police put an
end to the exhibition.—Pilot.

TLIE MURDER 01 THE BOY MAGUIRE.—
Another knife has been found near the place where the
murder was committed, which was clearly marked with
blood. It was brought toKilmainham by Sub-Inspector
Durban], for the purpose of ascertaining whether it
could be identified by any of the witnesses conined there;
and, on its being exhibited to the sister-in-law of Dela-
hunt she fainted, but, on recovering herself, acknow-
ledged that it was her property. A woman who resides
in Britain-street, next door to Mrs. Delahunt, also stated
that she knew the knife to be Mrs. Delahunt's, as she
had often borrowed it from her. This witness also po-
sitively states that she saw the prisoner sharpening the
knife in Mrs. Delahunt's room on the Sunday evening
previous to the murder.—Dublin Mail
MURDER IN IRELAND.—We believe prompt
measures have been taken to bring to justice the perpe-
trators of a murder committed in the county of Down,
upon the person of a ltoman Catholic, in which, we
deeply lament to say, Protestants are the accused parties,
many of whom are at this moment in custody. Mr.
Brew, Jr. P., has received the thanks of his Excellency
the Lord-Lieutenant for the activity and discretion dis-
played by him in effecting the arrest of the parties im-
plicated.—Dublin
THE NEW IMPROVEMENTS ON THE BED-
FORD ESTATE.—His Grace, we learn, has finally
arranged with Government respecting his claims for com-
pensation for certain land in the neighbourhood of
Covent-garden, where the intended improvements are
projected. In lieu of money his Grace has agreed to
take the Crown lands in the Regent's Park.
H. G. WARD, ESQ., M.P.—We are sorry to
hear that our excellent Member has had much affliction
in his family. by the illness of his children of the scarlet
fever. Two of them have been in extreme danger. The
fever was introduced into the family by one of Mr.
Ward's sor on his return home from school.—Shef-
field Iris.
" I understand," said a Deacon to his neighbour,
"that you are becoming a hard drinker." "That is a
slander," replied the neighbour; "for no man can drink
easier."