18 JANUARY 1851, Page 8

POSTSCRIPT.

SATURDAY.

It is now understood that the Government have decided upon the sur- render of the Window-tax, and the substitution of a moderate house-tax. There is reason to hope that the Chancellor of the Exchequer will have so considerable a surplus at the end of the financial year that be can easily afford a million or twelve hundred thousand for this long-desired object. By the substitution of a house-tax, calculated to raise about 600,0001. for the window-tax, raising about 1,800,0001., the sacrifice of revenue will not exceed 1,200,0001. Such a tax will in the first instance fall much lighter than the present window-tax, and will not interfere with the construction of our dwellings.—Daily News. • The papers of this morning contain a correspondence between Sir John Harington and Mr. J: N. Gibson on behalf of " the -congregation of St. Paul's and St. Barnabas," the Reverend W. J. E. 13ennett„ and the Bishop of London, on the subject of Mr. Bennetes' resignation. The congregation, on the 7th *January, urged an objection to Mr.Bennetes resolve On resignation; founded on legal analogy. The Bishop of London is patron as well as ordinary of the living ; a bond to resign by the incumbent to the patron is against the ecclesiastical, law, of the country ; the congregation are not casuists enough to distinguish that there is a difference m principle amongst honest men between a promise and a band; the promise was inadvertent, not wholly without blame ; Mx. Bennett should not follow it up. Mr. Bennett, in reply, declared that lie repudiated the temporal law referred to as binding 'on the conscience in spiritual matters ; and though he should be found wrong in temporal la*, he would not forego his obedience to the far higher court of God, and 'to the Bishop's judgment that he is guilty of unfaithfulness to the Church of England: he will therefore sign the legal documents of 'resignation on the 26th of March. The congregation then applied-to-tire-Bishop of London, proposing that he should "specify what, in the administration of the `ser-- vices at St. Paul's and St. Barnabas, he wished to be altered, omitted, or supplied." They desired to try in the Ecclesiastical Courts those ques- tions for which Mr. Bennett had been pronounced unfaithful to the Church of England; and to raise those questions with the least possible delay and expense, admitting the facts in an amicable spirit, and contend- ing. not for victory but truth. The Bishop, per secretary, "declines w- eeding to the request" The London correspondent of the 0.tford Birald.eontradicis the report that Sir John Harington has seceded to the Church of Rome.