A clergyman has announced his attention of standing for Shoreham,
vacant by the death of Sir P. Burrell. The Rev. J. Goring says he quite believes in the indelibility of Orders, and therefore cannot take steps to release himself from them ; but he does not think representation strictly secular work—or why are Bishops in Parliament ?—and he regards the Horne Tooke Act, which disqualifies clergymen, as mere tyranny. He desires, therefore, to be elected merely to try the question. As every vote given to Mr. Goring will be as much thrown away under the statute as if it were given to a woman or a child, he will not obtain much support, and must wait till the Church is disestablished or the Bishops removed from the Lords. Then he will have an unanswerable case for relief from his disabilities, though even then he will not be worse off than a Scotch Peer who happens to be a Liberal. He is never elected to the Upper House ; he cannot sit there of right; he is unable to sit in the Commons; and he must not vote, for fear of invalidating an election. He is as much disfranchised as if he were in receipt of parish relief.
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