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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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* br a BXBf ^ ei mdnaent . a JSEnisitarf Smiths , Ifoq ^ h ^ tffiroe aainfiristratiye genius ,, all "the ^ nsmei 3 » capadH ^ r , aQ the reforming sincerity tif ttie countrj- stould be typified by that illustrious aiamet : B ^ tishrespectabiKty ldv ^ ea a lord , and keeps its : Peerage handsomely "bound upon its drawing-room table . " Valets willbe insolent sometimes and poodles "will ¦ f tarlt f but they are still valets and poodles . And yet ; alas ! if the peerage were , for . a « Bas 0 n , Of ye free andindependent Britons ! out of print , and if the new Ministry were composed of names unknown * there might be a hope of saving the remains of an army , and retrieving the prestige of the nation ^
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T ^ EL HOUSE OF PEEKS . Non long singe a * certain group was very "well i ^ owa in IJtubiin ^ Seated in . a Bath chair , 3 wa saw ; a giri ¦; whose loveliness was only ¦^ imkn ^ fciGd Js > y iier evident sickness ; near ) f £ X walked , a young lady in robust health ; MLdmi&L them another lady of older years , handsome , face , and great self-possession . They w © W " persona of distinction , " for iodejuandently of a certain style in T ^ Mch outwardly they lived ,. their home was visited by men of title , insomuch that it used to iw called the ; " House of Peers . " Not long
sine © tih © father of those two girls died . He had been living for some time separate from the motherj but was reconciled to her by a kind friend } and he restored his affection both to th& mate of his bosom and to his daughters , who were left in the care of their aflfectionate mother . " What could be . more touching than that act of peace-makiag ? what more ; tender than the natural sheltering of that blooming girl , or of the delicate
invalid , by a mother ,, who , to experience of life , added the advantages of a good position and wealth . £ In . the Court of Chancery the other day , the Attorney-General told a story which leads us within the door of that happy family . There was not perfect harmony there .. A lawyer indeed once penetrated to the house , summoned by the interests of the eldest daughter , who had a separate title to some portion-OfLthe ^ propertyiM * d . ^^ the lawyer left the house faster than he had entered it . That matronl y lady rated him in good round terms for his intrusion ; vilified the daughter ¦ who had summoned him , as no better than
she should be ; ascribed her maladies to- the unspeakable results of bad life , and , apparently as her last resource , threw herself on the ground ia unwitnessable hysterics . The lawyer fled . Others have told through the Attorney-General that the young ladies were kept short of money , stinted even in their food , and subjected to claims of payment on the part of their affectionate mother . Certain ifc is , that by deed , or bequest , or some other form of transfer , they alienated tbueir own means to enrich the favourite of their
mother . . There was another member of the family whom we have not mentioned . He was born thirteen years after the youngest daughter ; he did not use the family name , he did not own to any parents in the world . Ho was quite'unaccounted for in the Population Returns . He was " adopted" by the lady , and singularly favoured by her ; and it is in
resistance of his claim of 20 , 000 / . on the property that the heir-at-law of the eldest daughter brings the case to Chancery . And what , all this while , had become of the peace-inaker who had restored the wife to h # r husband—had , in fact , it is said , been pngroaUy instrumental in the marriage ? He , W ( BjbiU two peace-maker—he appears as the a&yiftw : ;( 9 t . Ijhe daughters . The property ffibtah ; they « Jtam \ t « i is made over by deed t £ lffMe 4 ,. » him ,, The lawyer who acts in
this operation is his lawyer ,, the p hysician who attends the dying husband is his physician . Ho knows nothing that he ought not to know ; is by his affidavit almost ignorant of the ; femfly transactions ; except that oc-r casionaHy he appears as peace-maker and adviser : and John Dtlacoxtb , the youth of
unaccounted parentage , appears as ultimately benefited by the whole arrangement . . jSuch is the story told m the Dublin Court of Chancery of the Haotkjooe : family ; the peace-maker being the Marquis of CtAiin&i-, CABins . The aristocracy do not shine in this secret , part of social history . Tear off the veil at almost any portion , and you are sure to find some Yenerable baronet , some old
marquis , some familiar earl . Bat even that is not the darkest or most painful moral of such , cases . The lesson which they teach is , the extent towhich real life is sacrificed to appearance . IF it is true that living consists mainly in the satisfaction of those instincts and aspirations which are essential to life in its highest form , then much of the intercourse that goes on is in itself a deadly poison . The relation between a mother and her children is , perhaps , the purest and most vital exemplification of life ; and here it is reduced to the rule of a hardened
woman speculating in the reversionary interest of daughters who-are sickly or wished to be so . If a strong affection that drew the woman from the society of her husband to the society of another , there might have been some reality in that : but what affection can exist between those who are accomplices in speculating on the deaths of daughters and the paltry chances of legacy from their own offspring ? And the-. girls—fit , perhaps , for life , if their parents were not—endowed with affection , with the capacity for enjoyment , but tantalised by the fallacious show of means that seldom came home to them—offered a
view of society in its easier circles , only to know at home penury , infirmity , cruel treatment , and the scheming of professed protectors — those girls , what was * their fate ? The whole of their lives is sacrificed to secure by some base and paltry scheming the means of life . In sacrificing thus to appearances the woman becomes a fiend ; an adviser of the Queen becomes the deluder of young girls ! 5 « «<
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HERESY AND CONVOCATION . It was to be expected that the attempts made to place the Church of England in a position as regards the State harmonising with her antecedents and pretensions would but the more clearly demonstrate the reigning discord . So far Convocation has at least been successful . Whether a complete restoration can be effected , is a question which we are not bound to solve . But we should imagine that one of two courses must be ultimately
followed—either that the Church should recover her position and assert her independence , or that she should surrender her claims to that national position which she affects to occupy . The more she is honest * the . more she must become uneasy , disaffected , troubled . She arrogates to herself a mission of divine origin ; she frustrates it by succumbing to the temporal conveniences of the State . She comes down from Heaven , and casts herself
at the feet of Caesar . She declares herself harmonious within herself , well-knowing that heresy is rampant in her high places , and that she is powerless to expel the heretical . She seems to yearn with desires of selfamendment , yet before she can accomplish one step of progress , she is forced to beg humbly for the sanction of her secular-head , to take the matter into consideration , oven in that shadowy council which her temporal masters have permitted her to retain , Surely
this is not a > position , at alt becoming a divinely constituted authorit y * These reflections , not new with us , receive emphatic con firmation , from tne ^ proceedings at the brief sitting of Convocation last week . Take three instances . The "Upper House agree upon certain resolutions purporting to require a modification in the services of the Church , in other words , a redistribution of
the Prayer Book . More services and shorter services are wanted . The matter is simple . One would think that when the Bishops and Clergy agree that some alterations should be made they would be made , and there an . en . < J . But the divine Church of "England is powerless . Before this simple matter can be considered , the sanction , of the Crown must be obtained .
Again : the "Upper House receive a report on certain not unreasonable changes , in the constitution of Convocation . "What thert ? Why then they resolve that it is not expedient , even to ask the sanction of the Crown for leave to take them into consideration I The third instance is one even more illustrative of the impotence of Convocation as at present constituted . Our readers fcaow that Archdeacon Deitison has recently been defendant in a charge of heresy ; and that
certain commissioners , appointed by the Archbishop of * Caneebbitbx , held Inquisition on his case at Wason ' s Hotel , C / levedon , and pronounced a foregone conclusion thereupon . But do . our readers know that these CommissionerSjT ^ hjose authority originated at Lambeth , proceeded under an Apt of Parliament w hich its framers declare was never intended to be applied to cases of heresy ; an act declared by both Houses of Convocation unsatisfactory r Iiast week Mr . "DEKiaQN
impressively-reminded his colleagues of this fact , and essayed to Jbring his case under the notice of the Xower House ; he did not ask them to interfere ; he knew too well the impotence of the House . He only asked them to hear him : they declined ; he asked them to receive a plain matter-of-fact ; statement of his case ; they rejected it by 3 © to 33 votes . Convocation is not a p lace for dealing with heresy , or even for considering the . constitution of those tribunals which are or may be
devised for the purpose of pronouncing upon heresy . When he was interrupted , Mr . Dbnison said , " It may be necessary for me to bring a charge of heresy before this House ; " did he mean that it might be necessary for him to bring a charge against Archdeacon Debuson ? It would complete the
absurdity of the position . It is certainly remarkable that a corporation should pretend to divine origin ; that it should claim to be the sole interpreter of divine law , the sole guide to eternal life ; and yet that it should rest in a position bo fettered , so restricted , so emasculated , as to be expressly and carefully prevented from determining charges of heresy against its own members . Prob
What is it that stops the way ? e the matter home , and see whether Church property be not at the bottom of all these fatal absurdities . The Church is an institution based on property , not on the dogmas embodied in her creeds , her liturgies , and her articles . Why cannot convocation determine cases of heresy , or constitute the tribunal which shall determine upon them ? Because the decisions would interfere with the rights of patrons , Were it not for the substantial institutions of the Church—her lands an < J her wealth — it is inconceivable that
sheshould remain a congeries of persons professing a set of heresies , springing from the ctebris of the Koman Catholic svstem at tho Reformation . This may look like tho statement of a mere opponent of the Church ; but
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of E [ 148 THE liBABl . gATOBju * ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 17, 1855, page 158, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2078/page/14/
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