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September 9, 1854.] THE LEADER. 849
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THE PROSECUTED ARCHDEACONS. The Archbish...
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EUROPEAN COMMISSION DE REGjE INQUIRENDO....
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
September 9, 1854.] The Leader. 849
September 9 , 1854 . ] THE LEADER . 849
The Prosecuted Archdeacons. The Archbish...
THE PROSECUTED ARCHDEACONS . The Archbishop of Canterbury has no doubt performed his distinct dutj , in instituting a prosecution of Archdeacon Denison for the promulgation of erroneous doctrines ; and the similar course taken ~ by the Archbishop of York against Archdeacon Wilberforce , for the promulgation of Romish doctrines in a work on the Holy Eucharist , is
equally to the credit of that prelate . Ill one ease , the result is anticipated by the resignation of Archdeacon AVilberforce ; who assigns as the cause more particularly his dissent from the thirty-sixth canon of the Church , the one asserting the royal supremacy . It is not for us to anticipate in the other what may be the result of the proceeding . That the two Archdeacons have asserted doctrines ¦ wholly inconsistent ¦ with that of the Church
of England , as it is generally understood , is obvious to the most ordinary conception . That Archdeacon Denison has also asserted doctrines which are , on their premises , perfectly logical , we adntit as distinctly as we areprepared to maintaiii that his own conduct lias been illogibal . He has insisted upon the necessity * of reviving Convobation , in oider not only to renew a power of legislation in tlie Church , bu ^ t also to l'enipye doubts a 8 to the interpretation of her standards . The
present Convocation , which meets ' -toadjoiirn , is a mockery which indeed brings ridicule and disgracenipon the Establishrnent . What should we think of a temporal Parliament , Xords and Commons , which should meet about the usual time , not to make laws , not to rote supplies , not to exact an account from the responsible Ministers of State , but only to move those adjournments which the skeleton of Parliament performs during the recess . In such case we should declare that such
representative Government was worse than worthless ; that it was a disgrace to the State which tolerated it , and to the members winch ¦ consented to take part in the farce . At the last meeting of Convocation , it was resolved that some portion of the church ' s offices should be revised ;—a work much wanted ; and if we could allow that there is more than a wretched paltering in these very small steps towards an obvious want , we should bo prepared to claim , for George Anthony Denison , and for others his associates in suspicion , the credit of having forced Convocation to that step .
It is not the less true that Mr . Denison ' s interpretation of those doctrines is inconsistent with the view entertained by the two primates at the head of the Church . If so , however consistent the two archdeacons may be in . their own views as to the duty of a clergy or the meaning of Christian ordination , we must admit that they do not j ) roperly belong to the Church of England . They belong , of course , to some-other church ; and as they have not joined the Chuxch of Home
they must be accounted members of some new Dissenting body hitherto unnamed . But if the Church of England really means a definitive incorporation , if it has any stanclsirds of faith , it cannot tolerate within its bounds men who deny those standards , or who desert them . The prosecution of two men who are bo distinguished in the Church , but who are suspected of being ronogadea , was duo ,
os a matter of course , to the Establishment . "We must always be understood to speak ot the Church of England as a definite corporation , which at ono time embraced almost the entire body of the clergy , and of the people of this country . Ib ™ , indood , n bold step which onabled the Church to cast oil the authority of Homo , while maintaining ior itself an apostolical accession of its bisliopa Irani the original founders of Christianity ; bat the difficulty was overcome , and tlvc
Church of England was at one time an establishment comprising the clergy of the town . As soon as the Independents had asserted equality in citizenship , the identity of the Church of England with the Church of the people of England ceased , and , in recent times , the name has been no more than a title enjoyed through inheritance and privileged possession of property , by one of the many sects into which the nation Is divided . In
retaining possession of that property , after it ceased to be the Church of the people , the Church of England , we think , acted in a manner more consistent with the rapacity ordinarily ascribed to ecclesiastical corporations , than with religions virtue or public honesty . The property we still regard as being in truth , the property of the English people , set aside for religious purposes ; the parish church ought to " be the church which the people of the parish retain for their own use in their religious observances . If the Church property of England were viewed in this light by the people , they could soon recover ^ possession of
it , and the archbishop of one -particular ; -sect would cease to have the power of arraigning or expelling clergymen for departing from the standards of a sect . But / the English people is , of all others , the inost careless about its own property , and it suffers the property of the parish to regain the property of one sect in the parish . The- officers and trustees of that sect are unquestionably charged with the duty of preserving its own interests , privileges , and property ; they can * not admit other sects within their privileged corporation , any more than the 3 Lord Mayor of London could allow the aldermen of
Dublin and the town-councillors of Xork to sit and vote in the Guildhall . The Primates , therefore , were only doing their duty when they challenged men entertaining views so heterodox as those of a "VV"ilb erforce or a Denison , to explain their position , to prove that they were still members of the Church , to undergo its penalties if they remained in it—their heterodoxy notwithstanding—or to leave it as Baptist J ^ bel has done , and as Archdeacon " Wilberforee has partly done by becoming a lay member , and inducing his Primate to wink at his evading responsibility by that irregular retreat into laity and silence .
European Commission De Regje Inquirendo....
EUROPEAN COMMISSION DE REGjE INQUIRENDO . The poor people of Madrid are disappointed in the hope of bringing Queen Christina to trial ; and the newspaper reader , if it had been an open court , ought to be still more disappointed . IJet us imagine her Majesty , wife of King [ Ferdinand the Seventh , mother of the Duchess de MContpensier , married to the Duke llianzares after most of their children were born , sister-in-law to Don Caxlos , and always daughter of the house of Naples —imagine that Italian cosmopolitan under cross-examination ! Fsincy her asked how she got her property , where she lived , and who visited her ? when her children were born ,, and how they were registered ? In short , compelled to toll , under an Old Bailey pressure , how she had got her livelihood ; how slio had brought up her family , and why she stood at tho bar ? It might have been a most instructive inquiry , and if some of the ciofensive matter thrown out had let us into the secret of railway speculations , of papal bulls , of King Pordinand ' a melancholy and conjugal eccentricities , tho narrative- might have told us more than tho natural history of a Neapolitan princess in a Spanish court . Decidedly , tho reader who is fond of " causes calebvcs " hns a right to reproach Eapartero with having stopped tho moat interesting trial of modern tim os .
It appears to us , however , that an expedient might be adopted for allaying that disappointment , by extending the inquiry , and rendering it yet more instructive . The great English public has been perplexing itself much , of late , with the conduct of Prussiaso iveak , so vacillating , so equivocal , so dangerous in its impotency to its allies . Could we know the causes of evil , we should be half way to learning the method of producing
good ; could we neutralise Prussia in something more than name , we should save much bloodshed , much taxation ; for her pettifogging weakness is sure to prolong the war , and to increase our expenditure under both heads . It would be very desirable if we could send out a Commission de lunatiw inquirendo , in order to ascertain how the grand trustee of Prussia deports himself in his office . The Commission would have to travel over
an extensive ground ; it would have to examine Frederick "Williani on the reasons which actuated him in fraternising with his beloved Berliners when they rose against his 6 wn authority ; on his purpose in . joining with Austria io put down Hesse ' Cassel , which it was his business ; and policy to defend ; and oh the notion he had in . trying to carry on an alliance Vith Austria for the purposes of Russia . But King Frederick
William ' s motives' would not be enough : we want to learn what . causes .. -the motiires ; an < l it is possible that theCommission might he compelled to push its investigation into the King's wine cellar , into his secret correspondence with St . Petersburg ; to inquire into the fact that his branch of the line of Stop ' sburg - terminates with himself- — -he , th at seemed the main line , being genealogically no better than a " siding" that leads- .-tonothing :.
Bat an enquiry into "Prussia alone would be invidious . Prussia might justly say , 1 am not worse than my fellows ^ Why investigate Frederick "William , and leave Ferdinand of Naples iinexamined ? " Why ask what has been done with the beloved Berliner ' s , ' and leave Neapolitans or Sicilians Unprotected from enquiry into the insane misappropriations of their resources , of their geographical position , and their influence ? Yerily as we travel over the tops of states , the summits of their royal mountains tipped by thrones , it seems that we encounter a population differing from those of the healthier plains , as in many high mountain regions we
seem to meet a cretm population—weakly , sickly , malignant from birth . Is it so , or is it not ? A great question of our day . "We are far from adopting the idea of some German , revolutionists , that there will be no peace on earth until thirty tyrants' heads be cut off ; although there are good grounds for that interesting problem . Btit let us first ask , if they are tyrants , or only idiots ? Are they wicked of malice prepense , or unconscious of crime ? The examples are in favour of the latter supposition . There we have touched upon , three thrones , and tho lunatic element decidedly preponderates . Arc the royal classes efficient ? Are they of a grade of character beneficial to tho countries over
which they arc placed ? Is their conduct to bo judged by ordinary standards ? Tho trial of Queen Christina has boon stopped , but why should we not huvo this moro oxtend od enquiry ? It would not bo impossible , if tho Western Powers know all tho alliances that they might ; bring to forwnrd their purpose Why not have an independent commissioner from each of tho chief Sfciitoa of Wuvop o , under tho patronage and direction ol ' fclio Western Powers f —tho commission to comprise an ihnghshmjxn , a Frenchman , a German , n Spaniard , an Italian , an Hungarian , and a representative of every dictinct ; nationality . Such a commission iniirht bo aont out to examine
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 9, 1854, page 9, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_09091854/page/9/
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