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    Arail. 20, 1850.] %£%t %tti*tt+ 77

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    THE MO V EMENTS IN THE CHURCH. Among the...

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    The Education Movement. The Movement In ...

    of N ottingham , made a long and eloquent speech in favour of Mr . Fox's bill . Resolutions -were also passed in its favonr , the only opposition coming from the Reverend James Gawthorne ( a Calvinist minister ) , "who , through age and decay of memory , was obliged to read a speech against the measure ; and occupied an hour and twenty minutes . He denounced it as " an evil to society , an encouragement of vice , drunkenness , idleness , and dissipation ; a Godless system , a piece of perfect tyranny , nothing but a Socialist scheme . They wanted Government to educate , employ , and feed all ; they even expected to be well clothed , well sheltered , and well educated . ( A voice , * So they should be . ' ) It was nothing else but French Socialism , a vile scheme to upset the ¦ present order of things . "

    The Leeds meeting of the 15 th was held in the Music Hall . A resolution in favour of secular education was carried unanimously . Another meeting was held on Tuesday in the Coloured Cloth-hall-yard , capable of holding more than 20 , 000 people . Owing , however , to the day being showery , with a drenching rain at intervals , the numbers at one time assembled did not exceed from 3000 to 4000 . The object of the meeting was to petition against Mr . Fox ' s bill . Mr . Hamer Stansfeld moved an amendment in favour of the bill . Mr . Edward Baines spoke for the petition , Mr . Councillor Barker replied . The amendment was carried by a considerable majority .

    At Manchester there were two meetings . In the one held within the Corn Exchange , presided over by the Reverend Hugh S to well , was ostensibly for the purpose of presenting him with an address , but used as an opportunity for declamation against the new measure of the Member for Oldham . From 2000 to 3000 persons were present , and the proceedings terminated with a resolution condemnatory of the ** attempts now making to dissociate Religious and secular education . " Meanwhile a much more numerous meeting held outside the Exchange , and addressed by Dr . " Watts and Mr . J . R . Cooper , adopted a counter-resolution , and a petition in favour of the B ill introduced by Mr . Fox .

    Arail. 20, 1850.] %£%T %Tti*Tt+ 77

    Arail . 20 , 1850 . ] %£% t % tti * tt + 77

    The Mo V Ements In The Church. Among The...

    THE MO V EMENTS IN THE CHURCH . Among the developments which the Gorham decision has produced is an interesting correspondence between Miss Sellon , the Sister of Mercy , and Lord Chief Justice Campbell . Miss Sellon addressed the following letter to Lord Campbell : — " The Orphans' Home , Plymouth , March 19 . " My Lord , —It is with a pain the intensity of which , amidst such apparent ingratitude , your Lordship will not readily imagine possible , that , in writing to express my deep sense of your kindness in consenting to aid the ¦ work at Devonport , I have now to request the withdrawal of a name which , noble and honoured as it is , is connected most painfully with a decision which for the present brands the Church of England with uncatholic teaching .

    . . .. . " As a most unworthy yet faithful daughter of that Church , I have , as your Longlship will perceive , no choice left me in working for her but to withdraw from one who has assisted in a judgment which I am bound to believe is so contrary to her fundamental principles as to be fatal to her unless absolutely rejected . "It is useless to multiply words of sorrow . Your Lordship will know and feel that such a letter as the present ought not and could not be written without much grief and embarrassment . Entreating your forgiveness , and praying that all blessing may attend you and yours , " I am , your Lordship ' s humble and grateful servant , *• Phiscilla Lydia Sellon , " Ye Mother Supr . "

    Lord Campbell seems to have thought Miss Sellon ' s puie character and elevated motives a sufficient room for waiving official punctilio . He wrote back , earnestly testifying to her piety and benevolence , and begging her to reconsider her request that his name should be withdrawn from the list of those who are desirous of assisting her in the truly Christian objects to which her life is devoted . With a characteristic polemical turn , he added a few qualificatory reasonings respecting the decision . He really believed she must have misunderstood it ; " we have given no opinion contrary to yours upon the doctrine

    of baptismal regeneration" ; the two Archbishops , who have approved and concurred in the judgment , are as much answerable for it as if they had been members of the Court , instead of being only our advisers "; " perhaps you may find that a majority of the pious sons and daughters of the Church of England think that the decision is sound , and that it may heal the wounds from which she has lately suffered . " " However , " he concluded , "if you romain inflexible , I must submit to your determination , but I shall continue to pray that Heaven may enlighten your understanding and further your labours with its choicest blessings . "

    Miss Sellon wrote in reply : — " Need I say that the unexpected kindness of its contents only made me the more bitterly mourn over the unhappy cause which separates me from such a benevolent and noble heart—separates me , as I still hope , only for a time , for how can I believe but that your lordship will in time perceive what is involved in your

    decision , and will lament as deeply as any one of us that it should have endangered the Church by the apparent admission of heretical teaching ? " " Alas ! " she continued , " how could it heal the wounds of the Church to tell us her articles admit of a heresy which her creed rejects ? " " I may not believe it although such words are sanctioned by the two Archbishops . " " Many hearts since the decision do fail . They believe that your decision is just . * * Their faith is utterly shaken . I speak from a bitter knowledge of facts . I see her forsaken by those who have loved her . And you , my Lord , do you also believe the Church of England has been untrue to herself , that her formularies are so constituted that she contradicts her own belief , that she will not maintain the faith of her creeds , that she will admit priests to teach her children that which has been condemned as a heresy ? " * * The difference of age , and sex , and station ; all fade away " while I recollect the wonderful kindness of your letter—the noble relucance with which you withdraw the aid which once I should have so joyfully and gratefully accepted ; and I cannot but speak to you heart to heart . " " I am not worthy to pray for you , and yet , if the God of all goodness will hear the supplication of a loving and deeply sorrowing heart , He will bring you to grieve for the injury done to the Church , and will help you to repair it , and give you all blessing in time and in eternity . " Yours very humbly and affectionately , " P . Lydia Sellon . "

    Lord Campbell ' s answer winds up the correspondence . He deeply grieves at her adherence to the " stern resolution" of excluding him from the gratification of being on her committee ; " must confess " that she does not seem to have " made any way in proving" that his concurrence in the decision should disqualify him from humbly assisting her " in taking care of orphans , in providing a Christian education for the children of worthless parents , and in mitigating the physical sufferings of our fellow-creatures . " He cannot think himself called on to answer her observations on the merits or the effects of the decision , or he could show that she begs the question , and might demonstrate that , whether right or wrong , there can be no reproach cast on the Church by a misconstruction , and that it can be but a very slight reproach if she has omitted to denounce one false doctrine as heretical when no Christian Church has professed to settle dogmatically all points of doctrine , and when the very Church in which those who most bitterly complain seem disposed to take refuge has studiously left open various questions considered by her of high importance . But he has to submit . He ventures to remind Miss Sellon of the peril she may incur by implicitly giving way to a religious impulse , quoting Lord Erskine's wellknown apothegm that " some of the darkest and most dangerous prejudices of men arise from honourable principles" ; and his explanatory argument : — " "When prejudices are caught up from bad passions , the worst men feel intervals of remorse to soften and disperse them ; but when they arise from a generous though mistaken source they are hugged closer to the bosom , and the kindest and most compassionate natures feel a pleasure in fostering a blind and unjust resentment . "

    If at any time hereafter she shall relent , Lord Campbell will "joyfully avail himself of the opportunity of again trying to further her benevolent schemes" ; and in the mean time remains , with the highest respect , her " most obedient and faithful servant . " The correspondence closes with a letter from Miss Sillon , expressing how much she is " surprised and pained" to hear that her letters have been published : —

    " I own , my lord , that I am rather indignant with you , but I am still , " Yours humbly and affectionately , "P . Lydia , " The Mother Supr . of the Sisters of Mercy . " The Bishop of Bath and Wells has forwarded to the Times the following copy of a declaration issued to the clergy of his diocese , and also a copy of his letter to his Metropolitan , the Archbishop of Canterbury , enclosing the declaration : — " London , April 15 , 1850 . " We , the undersigned Richard , by Divine permission Bishop of the diocese of Bath and Wells , within the Church of England , being deeply impressed with the great disquietude which prevails within the said diocese , in consequence of the decision of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in the case of Gorham v . the Bishop of Exeter , '" For the satisfaction of our own mind , and from a desire that our judgment and intention in thia matter may be generally known to all whom it may concern within our diocese , do hereby declare as hereinafter follows : — . " Whereas the construction put upon the Articles and formularies of the Church of England by the . said decision implies that the remission of original sin to all infants in , and by the grace of , the sacrament of baptism is not necessarily the doctrine of the Church of England , although such remission of sins has been always held to be affirmed in and by an urticlc of the Nicene Creed ( to wit ) , « I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins : ' . ...

    " And whereas doubt has been cast by the said decision upon the teaching of the catechism of the Church of England , that all infanta arc * made members of

    Christ , children of God , and inheritors of the kingdom of Heaven , ' in and by their baptism ; " We do hereby solemnly declare , that it is the doctrine of the Church of England , as of the whole Church of Christ , in all ages , that original sin is remitted to all infants by the application of the merits of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ , in and by the sacrament of baptism ; and that it is the plain teaching of the Church of England that all infants are ' made members of Christ , children of God , and inheritors of the kingdom of Heaven , ' in and by that holy sacrament . " R . Bath and Wells . "

    In the Court of Queen ' Bench , on Monday , Sir Frederick Kelly moved for a rule calling upon Sir Herbert Jenner Fust and the Archbishop of Canterbury to shew cause why they should not be prevented from carrying out the Order in Council of the 9 th of March last , in the case relating to the appointment of the Reverend G . C . Gorham to the vicarage of Brampton Speke . He showed by reference to certain Acts of Parliament that the appeal from the

    judgment of the Court of Arches ought not to have been made to her Majesty in Council , but to the Upper House of Convocation , and to that tribunal alone . He regretted that this had not at the time occurred to those who had argued the case for the Bishop of Exeter , and that they did not refer to the Acts of Parliament which he should cite , for had they done so it would have been unnecessary for him now to be addressing this Court .

    " The two acts to which he referred were the 24 th Henry VIII ., c . 12 , and the 25 th Henry VIII ., c . 19 . By the first act , appeals to the Pope of Rome were forbidden and punishable in three classes of causes—in causes testamentary , in matrimony and divorce , and in tithes , obventions , and oblations . By the latter statute the right of appeal was given in all manner of causes ecclesiastical , in the mode pointed outin the first statute ( 24 th Henry VIII ., c . 12 ) . " He then cited the several sections of the act for restraint of appeals ( the 24 th Henry VIII ., c . 12 ) , which , by the 2 nd 5 th , 6 th , and 8 th sections , enacted that in ' causes testamentary , causes of matrimony and divorces , rights of tithes , oblations , and obventions , '

    the appeal should lie ( sec . 5 ) from the Archdeacon , if the matter began in his court , to the bishop , and from the bishop , if it began in his court , to the archbishop of the province ( sec . 6 ); but in case any matter should come in contention ' for any of the same causes , in any of the aforesaid courts , which hath , doth , shall , or may touch the King , his heirs or successors , ' then the party grieved might * appeal from any of the said courts' in which the said matter touching the King should happen to be begun ' to the spiritual prelates and other abbots and priors of the Upper House assembled andconvocated by the King ' s writ iu the convocation being or next ensuing within the province or provinces where the same matter of contention is or shall be begun . ' "

    With all respect towards that high tribunal , the Judicial Committee , it was impossible not to perceive that the Upper House of Convocation was a more suitable body to decide in a matter of spiritual doctrine . The writ of prohibition would lie even after judgment and appeal in a case like the present , where the defect of jurisdiction appeared on the face of the proceedings . Lord Cami'Ukll intimated that Sir Fitzroy Kelly need not argue that point , as there could not be any doubt about it . And , after conferring with the rest of the judges , Lord Campbell said the court would look at the statutes which hacl . been cited , and inform the learned counsel at an ' early day whether they thought it right to grant a rule .

    A strong effort has evidently been made to quash the alarming agitation within the Church ; and the following semi-official manifesto in the Times of Wednesday will indicate the mode of action : — " A rumour has for some time been abroad that an address , emanating from the moderate and evangelical parties of the Church of England , was about to be presented to the Archbishop of Canterbury , expressive of approbation of the decision iu the Gorham . case . We are aware that it has been a subject of anxious deliberation among some of the most eminent men of every shade of opinion , the extreme high church of course exceptod , whether such an address might not be advisable , but the

    determination—and we think it a wise and salutary oneis that no such address should be recommended . Tho present position of matters , so far as affects these parties , would not be bettered , but might easily be damaged , by any such interference . A decision is given from which there is no appeal , and of which , therefore , there can bo no reversal . The competency of the Court may be called in question before the Queen ' s Bench on some interpretation of some obsolete statute , but its fitness to decide , so far as depends on the quality or character of its

    judges , is firmly maintained , by those with whom would rest the power of altering it . If the Bishop of London begs tho Government to support him in substituting a court of appeal differently constituted , the Government declines . If the Bishop of London begs his right reverend brethren to join with him in demanding such differently constituted court , the Bishops decline . If not only the Bishop of Exeter , but another bishop also , beg the Archbishop to summon his corn-provincials for purposes of deliberation on this decision , the Archbishop declines . There is nothing , therefore , for which those who arc pleased with the decision have to struggle .

    " We can well understand that there may have been hesitation in abstaining from some demonstration . It may have been felt that if the great body of religious persons congregating in London did not give a tone of

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), April 20, 1850, page 5, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_20041850/page/5/