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fosa^i/ 1#55. ] ¦ X JI5E KtJL. M A! D m ...
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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.
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Church Extension—Church Diffusion. The C...
iajgH ; in . establishing perpetual curates , and in carrying out a sort of permanent organised agitation—a low-church extension upon the Evangelical plan . There are , however , other' parties in the Church besides the extremes of Puseyite and Methodist ; the point of unity being that all desire to reerect the establishment , with all its influences and powers . A commission has been appointed ; it has examined into the
cathedrals , their offices , funds , and territories , and it has made its report . It suggests a revision of the whole , and something more—that the lapsed duties be restored ; that the canons again become active officers , and resident , the canonries being severed from colleges or archdeaconries ; that cathedral worship be restored in full pomp and efficiency , the minor canons to assist in apostolical duties ; that schools be kept up in connexion with the Cathedrals and
Theological Colleges m the two provinces , the Bishop superintending the work of instruction , assisted by one of the canons . In slort , the officers , down to the bedesmen , are to do work for their pay . But it is calculated that in many cases the revenue can be so improved or redistributed as to provide for other purposes , and it is proposed therefore to erect new sees , probably some dozen in number , to begin with Bishops of Westminster ; of St . Columb , for
Cornwall ; of Bristol , divided from Gloucester ; and of Southwell ; with Bishops suffragan or coadjutor to aid their superiors who have fallen into sickness or infirmity . A new corps of Bishops , with an active Cathedral staff in every Cathedral town ; new Cathedrals made out of churches in other towns ; and a general stir that would call the higher Bishops , the Archbishops included , to a much more active exercise of their duties of superintendence and discipline—such are the cardinal points of the measure proposed .
We view this redoubled activity in . the leading men of the Church of England without jealousy , without fear ; on the contrary , with hope and satisfaction . It is not that we are blind to the predominant advantages with which the Church of England enters into the competition against other sects . It is privileged by its possession of ministers , revenues ,
state offices , territorial standing , and prestige as the Church of State , court , and fashion . It is not yet deprived of laws which it can wield to coerce Dissenters—persons who absent themselves from public worship , or those who neglect its peculiar discipline . In the competition of sects it ought to win far beyond every other , infinitely beyond all that it now achieves .
It is not that we are prepared to concede to the Church of England , in its present form , a monopoly of claim to our respect aa the great national church—the church of tho Reformation ; for if it led the van in tho reign of Henky the " Eighth to defy the Pope and facilitate the king's amours , it has subsequently proved reactionary ; and Independents did us at least as good service na ever the Church of England did , when they put Cromwki . t , in lish
the field to battle for tho rights of tho Eng gentry , a Commonwealth against an absolute monarchy with an aristocracy for its instruments . But we hope , and fear not , because the privileges of tho Church of England have clogged it with State encumbrances , undermined it with routine weaknesses ; and we desire to . seo it brought up to the level of other religious communities in zeal and working efficiency . There ia not a poition of tho establishment ; ontrusted to tho hierarchy that
has not suffered from the indolence of privileged dignity . The very leaders who have bden lodged in . cathedrals under the superintendence of tho ecclesiastical power have
bocome a generation of rats to feed upon the property of private subjects ; and the private subjects have been revenged by veritable rats gnawing under the bounties of the Cathedral while the sleek incumbents were slumbering in indolent forgetfulness of their duties . The poor church therefore is not so superior in the competition of sects as it looks . Its case is even worse , as Archdeacon Sinc . la . ib showed , when he advised the clergy to set itself on a level with its own congregation ^* by studying the accidence of ordinary information . The Church of England is far less furnished
than any other church that we know for purposes of aggression or competition . It has no order of Jesuits , no College de propaganda f ide ; no committees , like those of the Scotch Church , to spread its own version of the Grospel in all parts of the globe ; no committees such as most dissenting bodies possess , animated with a missionary zeal . It has its missionary bodies , but they are fettered by the routine of the church incapacity , by its own withholding of licences ; and its Convocation has become an annual ceremony , in which the very idea of conducting real business is considered a dangerous innovation .
While the Church thus shows signs of life in its central organisation , while Archdeacon Sinclaie is exhorting it to adapt itself to the school of knowledge proper , to the day , Lord Shaptesbtjry is proposing the break-down of the barrier between Churchman and Dissenter , by abolishing the licensing system . According to the Bishops , if Lord Shaptesbtjrt ' s measure be ' carried , " any clergyman " will be competing with'his brother pastor in the neighbouring parish , and " any gentleman " will be setting up against the clergy . This is probable ; and we have already shown how ,
by such incidents , the Church of England would forfeit its exclusive position . There are , in fact , as inany sects within the Church as there are without ; and here would licence be given to have one and all fraternising with , allies outside the bounds , while trying to gain the ascendancy within . What , however , would be the final and grand result of any such enlarging of the Church bounds , any such disruption of its frozen organisation ? What but setting free the Church of England to merge itself in that Church which we have imagined as the Church of the Future in these islands—the Church of the
People of England ? AUSTRIA STANDS AT EASE . TnE AVestern Powers are waiting on Austria ; Austria is waiting on events . She gains her objects , and risks nothing . Having succeeded in her military plans on the Danube , and in her diplomatic game at Vienna , she has no further interest in the war . It ia her historical policy not to oppose tho schemes of Russia , except ia so far aa they interfere with her own . Beyond tho mouths of the Danube she
contemplates no development as to the Black Sea . To her the Crimea is as unimportant as Scotland . While the Principalities were occupied by Russia , Austrian interests , of hereditary recognition , were jeopardised ; but CouoNiin ' a inarch and tho Conferences at Vienna put an end to this alarm . Tho statesmen , therefore , who havo ceased to solicit at Berlin , may probably learn to withdraw their hopes from tho Emperor Ehancis
Joseph . They rewarded him beforo he assisted them . They gavo him tho Principalities , which enabled his ministers to extort favourable terms from ltussia ; and now that his Wflllachian and Bulgarian interests are secured , we are witnessing a reduction of that vast neutral army which , it was hoped , was prepared to fight for tho general independence of Europe . " Tho independence ot
fEurope , " is a phrase of no effect in German councils . " Preponderance on the Danube , " however , has a political and commercial signification , and this , without the loss of a soldier , has been gained by the Macchiavellisti 6 & Vienna . The last report is that Russia , under the pressure of her military necessities , has consented to sacrifice some of her pretensions oil the Danube , in exchange for Austrian neutrality . Austria , in consequence , is reducing her forces in Grallicia , and thus relieves her treasury . This pacific change of attitude on her part set free a large Russian army to march from Poland southwards . It is
difficult to believe that any official negotiations of such a tenor are passing between St . Petersburg and Vienna ; yet the design on both sides is intelligible . In one empire financial exhaustion renders it important to diminish the drain of military expenditure . In the other , forces are required in the field , which are now employed as sentinels along a neutral frontier . At all events , the issue would closely resemble that which resulted from the Austrian descent on the Danube , when the Russian troops in Bessarabia were
released , and transferred to Sebastopol . A perpetual movement is going on through the passes of Volhynia , Podolia , and Cherson , to the actual theatre of war , and Count Buoii ' s circular contains the record of a distinct engagement on the part of Aleiaotes the Second to reward EEATsrdis Joseph ' s neutralitv by adhering to the concessions made at Vienna . These two circumstances point to one result : that Austria is to profit permanently by her cheap success , and that Russia is to struggle unmolested for objects which Austria does not care to oppose .
Plainly , when the Austrians were allowed to take possession of the Principalities , without a declaration of war , they were left without incentives to further action . At Bucharest their proceedings were those of conquerors , not allies ; and all their efforts were directed to the supplanting of Russian influence by their own . By both armies of occupation the rights of the Porte were equally ignored . But the Austrians had this advantage : that they were upheld by France and England ; that they literally fulfilled their obligations , when had retiredand removed
the invading power , the original ground of war ; and that the Allies were bound to defend them , if attacked . For themselves , they only engaged to treat for peace , and then " to deliberate on the right means" of securing it . If they committed an act of deception , diplomacy sanctioned it . When , towards the close of the last century , the Ottoman Empire ceased to be the object of respect in Europe , a frontier waB opened to the ambition of bordering states . Russia and Austria at once commenced a nnreer of rivalry on the Danube . Though
the Porte continued to affect the language ot power , and to give proofs of its sympathy with Poland , its territory became the arena of plans and speculations which Russia and Austria were equally eager to develop , lerhaps their jealousies saved tho Ottoman Empire TlJo German historians , except tho equivocal Mjwzier ,, declare that " tho Austrian Cabinet was resolved not to permit the Russians to penetrate beyond the attitude
Danube " It assumed such an , when tiio treaty of Kninnrdji was signed , that , without doing more than it has done within tho lastyoar , it deprived Catherine of half tho prize that had seemed within her reach . What she gained was principally m tho Crimea , on tho Black Sea , and in the Divan itself ; what she was forced to reiram from touching was the Wallachian and Bulgarian frontier , though tlna had been successfully invaded . That geographical hne ,
Fosa^I/ 1#55. ] ¦ X Ji5e Ktjl. M A! D M ...
fosa ^ i / 1 # 55 . ] ¦ X JI 5 E KtJL . M A ! D m H . T 6 ® p
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 23, 1855, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_23061855/page/13/
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