The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-03-26 00:00:00

THE LONDON PRESS.

(FROM THE MORNING HERALD.)
The clergy of the Established Church in Irelatid—that
is, a large portion of them—have petitioned the King and ,
the House of Lords against the Irish Church Reform Bill
now in progress through the Commons. Our limits will
not permit us to insert the petition at length. We there-
fore give a short abstract of its leading points.
It begins with an expression of deep alarm at the na-
ture of the contemplated measure, which it denounces as
Calculated to undermine the church in both countries. It
disapproves of the absence of the church and parish cess,
which it states to have been chiefly collected from the pro-
perty of Protestants in Ireland, and denies the right of
the Legislature to alienate any portion of the church re-
venues from ecclesiastical purposes. The petition pro-
ceeds to deprecate the suppression of episcopal sees, as
an encroachment on the spiritual privileges of the church,
a preparation for its subversion, an interference with its
functions, and a violation of the principle of dissolving
unnecessary unions, though professedly adopted into the
bill itself. w The next topic of objection is the appointment
of an ecclesiastical commission, consisting chiefly of lay-
men—an appointment which the petition describes as in-
consistent with the independence and spiritual authority
of the prelates, and calculated to injure, in various ways,
the progress of true religion. After quoting the fifth ar-
ticle of the union, and representing it as violated by the
bill before Parliament, the petition concludes by implor-
ing his Majesty to summon a convocation of the clergy,
and accomplish, through their instrumentality, a safe and
adequate reform of the church, without endangering its
existence.

Another petition on the same subject, from the clergy
of the Deanery of Bristol, has also been agreed to. It
concurs with the petition from Ireland, in recommending
a convocation as the fitting medium through which the
reform of the church ought to be accomplished. Many of
our readers would subscribe to this opinion if the clergy
had voluntary taken up the subject, but now the attempt
would, we fear, have too much the appearance of compul-
sion to afford satisfaction to any one. The strongest
point in either of the petitions is that which refers to the
spoliation of church property; for all the more spiritual
objections are but inferences, which will strike different
minds in a different light. His Majesty's coronation oath
is strongly insisted on in the petition from Bristol, as
precluding the royal mind from giving assent to such a
bill. It is somewhat curious that the tone of a petition
from Ireland should be more guarded and moderate than
the tone of an English petition on the same subject.—
This, nevertheless, is the case in the present instance.—
We do not pretend to account for the fact, but the fact is
so.

The Irish petition is to be presented to his Majesty by
the Lord Primate, accompanied by the Archbishop of
Canterbury, so that care has been taken to afford it all
the effect with his Majesty which personal solicitation can
lend to a public document.