The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-06-16 00:00:00

SlR,—Some ill-natured person has been quizzing your
respectable contemporary the Mercury, by writing an Sr-

tiara or, " Ecclesiastical Courts" that

caused n

amusement in this an

here we kno

thing about them

Tile writer seems to entertain a very 131 ible opinion o
the intelligence of his read to tree.
largely on their credulity. „ eccl
courts have the power of imprisoning offender
jury. Pray has not the Court of Chr.-
under similar circumstances, viz_
the course of proceedings. He likewise Int,.
judges, somewhat to their surprise, that they hold
at the pleasure of the patron who appoints them;
more than that, that their nominator, i. e. the bishop, is
interested in almost every question brought before them,
an amount of matrimonial and testamentary rapacity more
befitting a Mahometan pasha, or a retailer of masses, than
a Christian prelate. _ _

ers by ventu

lys the eccit

cery a simile

that of a c,

He likewise complains that the practitioners in these
courts are all members of the National Church, and that
sectarianism is not fairly represented. Now really, ad-
mitting the fact, I do not see very well how it is to be ob-
viated. It was an old charge against our nation, that the
English had a hundred religions, but only one sauce; and
with all regard to the unlimited freedom of conscience
think the public would complain were every• sect,
ing Mormonites and Socialists, to have a proctor repre-
senting its interests and litigating on their behalf. And
as to the practical effects of the system, does the writer
really believe, or expect his readers to believe, that these
courts prosecute for heresy or opinions of any kind ? It is
true they exercise jurisdiction over the clergy whose tenets
are part of their profession. But is he ignorant that
courts martial also exist for' the government of the am-

, I
includ.

and navy, and that they can try, ruin, or shoot a man for
being a coward, a bad sailor, or oven for being sleepy ? If
a clergyman harshly and mistakenly refuse to baptise or
bury a dissenter, where does he seek for redress but in
the bishop's court, which enforces the discipline essential
to a national church.

Now a word as to charges. In the case adduced, the
writer does not seem to know, what every old woman has
heard of, that effects under £2O are not, and cannot be,
subject to stamp duty at all. The hardest case that ever
came under my own observation, and I have seen rather
more probates and administrations than your contempo-
rary, was one where the effects were just £2l, and the
charges £2 Ss. 3d., of which, however, £1 was stamp

duty on the bond, and 10s. on the letters of administr,
tion, leaving 18s. 3d. for fees to manure the hot-bed
sinecures which Mercury so touchingly deplores.

We promise ourselves here much amusement and origi-
nal information when your contemporary comes to the
somewhat difficult subject of Bona Utabilia, or Notabilia,
as writers of less authority have it; and if the tracts
puffed in his article are by the same hand, Punch may
shut up his shop and sell his type.

„.
The writer generously pronn!es to do more ju
the subject next week. I defy him to do It
I remain, ye

,tice to

r obedient servant,
CESTRENSIS.

Chester, 13th June, 184(