Gardener and Chapel Clerk, The Bishop elect and Sir William Scott, The three Bishops attending, viz., The Archbishop, His Grace's Trainbearer, The sermon was preached by the Rev. Dr. Goddard, late Master of Winchester. Dr. After the sermon, the Archbishop of Canterbury, attended by his two chaplains, proceeded to the altar, to perform the ceremony of consecration, communion service, administer the sacrament, &c. Mr. Jenner, the Registrar of the Province, read the mandate from the Prince Regent, in the name of the king, for the consecration. Howley retired to an ante-room, and put on his rochet, having been previous to that time only in doctor's robes. He was then introduced by the Bishops of Oxford and Gloucester to the archbishop at the altar, where he went through several ceremonies, and then retired to the ante-room again, where he was invested with the full bishop's robes by Mr. Webb, the king's robe maker. He was then introduced again to the altar, and a number of questions put to him by the archbishop, which he readily answered. The imposition of hands by the archbishop and the other bishops concluded the ceremony. The sacrament was then administered to him by the archbishop, and of which the other bishops present partook. The procession returned from the chapel in the following order, Porter with staff, Secretary and Gentleman Usher, Apparitor, Archbishop, and the new Bishop at his right hand, The senior Bishop, The other Bishops and Vicar-General, Archbishop's Chaplains, Preacher and Council, Librarian, Proctor and Registrar, Clerk of the Kitchen and Butler, Servants of Doctors and Bishops out of livery, Livery servants of Doctors and Bishops. A most superb collation was prepared in the principal drawing room, consisting of all the delicacies of the season, of which her majesty and the princesses partook.' We have seldom, in the discharge of our official duties, been called upon to pass judgment upon a work in every view so unworthy of a christian and a gentleman, and so utterly contemptible as a literary production, as My Life, by an Ex'Dissenter.' The church that can welcome such an auxiliary must be in the sad plight of Samaria, when so strait was the siege with which she was besieged by her enemies, that 'an 'ass's head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver, and the 'fourth part of a kab of doves' dung for five pieces of silver.'2 Kings vi. 25. Art. IX. 1. Report of the Committee on Import Duties; ordered to be printed August 1840, and to be reprinted February, 1841. 2. Speeches of Lord John Russell, Sir Robert Peel, Viscount Palmerston, Lord Stanley, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Right Hon. Henry Labouchere, on Sugar Duties, May, 1841. 3. Speech of Charles Hindley Esq., M.P. for Ashton-under-Lyne, on Taxation and the Corn Laws, in the House of Commons, Tuesday, June 15, 1841. THE HE long predicted crisis has arrived. The season of compromise and inaction has passed; and the time is come when election must be made-decidedly and promptly madebetween advancement and retrogression, between intelligence and bigotry, between the rights of conscience allied with_rational freedom, and TORYISM. There is no alternative; there can no longer be any halting; we must choose the right hand or the left. If Lord John Russell will not lead on the forces of the Reform cause, Sir Robert Peel will carry the war into the liberal camp, and drive him from his position. The day of dallying has gone, we trust, for ever; for, next to an actual coalition of parties for the division of the spoils of office, there is nothing so lamentable as the compromise of principle in order to conciliate a party whose rapacity is only stimulated by concession. While we write the tocsin rings through the land; Tories and Reformers are set in array; and in many places the struggle has already commenced. This then is the time for those who desire the advancement of civilization and the establishment of civil and religious liberty on an immoveable basis, to act. The Sovereign appeals to the nation, and it is now the part of the people to do their duty. Now or never!-for if the country do not respond to the call,-if the constituencies allow the auspicious moment to pass by unimproved, it is probable that within the life-time of the present generation, no such opportunity will return. We say, Now or never; because if the people do not shake off the fatal lethargy that, for so long a time, has benumbed them, the Tories will strengthen themselves in official power, and at the end of seven years will be able to defy them. And who is there that is ignorant of the designs of the Tories? Who doubts their anxiety to undo all the good that has been done during the last ten years? The Quarterly Review and Blackwood's Magazine tell us plainly that the Reform Bill has been a failure; the Tories never conceal their hatred to democratic control, and the principle of responsibility. It is, therefore, justly to be inferred, that if the Tories had the opportunity, they would gladly take from the people the power conferred on them by the Reform Act, and would render that act null and void. Perhaps they would not venture openly to repeal that great charter; but they would undermine and neutralize it. Lord Stanley's registration bill of last year, was a direct attack upon the Reform Bill. Its object was to contract the franchise, and render the electoral body manageable in the hands of the aristocracy; and yet its progress was arrested by a bare majority in the House of Commons, and the Tory majority in the House of Peers hailed 'the scorpion' with delight. Every effort to relieve the electors of England from annual vexation and expense has been resisted, and we may add defeated, by Sir Robert Peel and his followers; all which facts clearly prove that the Tories still cordially detest the Reform Act, and would, if at all practicable, destroy it in detail. And who is there who supposes that the Tories have become reconciled to religious liberty? Who is there that can believe for a moment that they have forgotten or repudiated their love of sectarian ascendancy and intolerance? Do we not see daily the fiercest denunciations launched against Dissenters? Do not influential and leading Tory publications mock their claims and ridicule their grievances? Has not the doctrine of 'apostolical 'succession' gained admittance to a thousand pulpits,-which doctrine strips all ministers beyond the pale of the state church (save the Roman Catholic priesthood), of the character of true pastors, and leaves their people to the 'uncove'nanted mercies' of the Most High? Church-rates are not yet abolished; ecclesiastical courts still flourish, although condemned by a resolution of the House of Commons,-and instead of CHURCH REFORM, Sir Robert Inglis meets us with cry of CHURCH EXTENSION! And to these considerations add the fact that in almost every city and borough in the kingdom is to be found an association of men pledged to achieve, if possible, the repeal of the Catholic Emancipation act; those enlightened Protestants supposing liberty of conscience to be incompatible with the safe existence of that religion which is based on the right of private judgment and religious freedom ! It is impossible, then, for those who are sincerely attached to the progress of human improvement, and the native rights of man,—all of which are comprehended when we say attached to civil and religious liberty-to contemplate the return of the Tories to office without alarm and indignation; and it becomes our duty to press upon our readers the immeasurable importance of standing up vigorously and manfully at the crisis, through which we are now passing, in defence of truth, justice, and freedom. The events which have led to the present state of things are in themselves most momentous. Forced by the irresistible justice of the case, and the peculiar exigencies of the nation, her majesty's ministers have brought forward measures broad, comprehensive, and valuable, embracing the total revision of our tariff, and the destruction of the great monopolies that have oppressed the population of the united kingdom; and have boldly unfurled the banner of ' FREE TRADE.' Those measures have endured a temporary defeat in the House of Commons, for the monopolists and class interests have combined against them; but we mis-interpret the symptoms of popular feeling throughout the country, and greatly overrate the energy of truth when opposed to injustice, if the result of the elections will not be an indisputable decision in favor of free trade. The evidence taken before the Committee on the IMPORT DUTIES, has produced a revolution in public opinion respecting our commercial policy. It has broken down with irresistible force prejudices and popular errors in every direction; and when the facts stated in it are sufficiently discussed and brought home to the conviction of the people, monopolists of all classes will be compelled to give way, and the restrictions which cripple and mar our commerce must for ever be abolished. It is proved that ON ARTICLES OF FOOD ALONE the amount taken from the consumers exceeds the amount of all the other taxes which are levied by the government; and that the sacrifices of the community are not confined to the loss of revenue, but that they are accompanied by injurious effects upon wages and capital; the operation of our tariff diminishing greatly the productive powers of the country, and limiting our active trading relations. It is demonstrated irrefutably that while the people thus suffer from this enormous monopoly-tax (by which expression we mean the indirect tax laid on the consumers at large for the benefit of favored classes), the revenue is defrauded by the same VOL. X. H process. They do not,' observes the report of the committee, make the receipt of revenue the main consideration, but allow 'that primary object of fiscal regulations to be thwarted by an attempt to protect a great variety of particular interests at the expense of the revenue and of the commercial intercourse with 'other countries.' These facts alone are well calculated to arouse the attention of the electors of the united kingdom to this most important, though perhaps at first sight, repulsive and uninteresting subject, and plainly point out the expediency of those financial measures on which the Queen now appeals to her subjects. To enter formally into an analysis of the parliamentary paper referred to would lead us too far from our present purpose, but we cannot pass on without fastening attention upon one remarkable fact illustrative of the injustice and partiality of the existing import duties. The total amount of customs revenue received in the united kingdom in the year ending January, 1840, was £22,962,610. The customs duties are levied on nearly 1700 articles; but on the articles of the first necessity to the community, nearly the whole of this burden is raised; £22,018,284 being raised upon SIXTEEN articles out of the whole seventeen hundred. The matter is thus demonstrated in the evidence of Mr. M'Gregor, one of the secretaries of the Board of Trade :— The following were the duties levied on ten articles in the year ending January 5, 1840: 1. Sugars and molasses 2. Tea 3. Spirits 4. Wine 5. Tobacco 6. Coffee and cocoa £4,826,917 3,658,763 2,615,413 1,849,308 3,495,686 794,818 "On the following six articles, the duties levied in the year ending January 5, 1840, were as follows: 1. Seeds of all kinds 2. Oils of all kinds 3. Spices of all kinds £145,7'2 69,964 98,261 4. Hides and skins 94,987 5. Tallow 181,999 6. Wool (cotton and sheep's) 556,225 £1,147,148 |