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    JiraJ ^ y * 855 . ] T IE E < £ Ii \ E ! AID 3 E m . T 6 & ®

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    ings , 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 in the two provinces , the Bishop superintending the work of instruction , assisted by one of the canons . In short , 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 . Col urn b , 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' —persona 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 as the great national church—the church of the Be formation ; for if it led the van in the reign of Henhy tub 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- aa ever the Church of England did , when they put Cnoftiwitix in the field to battle for tho rights of the English gentry , a Commonwealth against an absolute

    monarchy with an aristocracy for its instruments . But we hope , and fear not , because the privileges of the Church of England have elsgged it with State eneumbrnuces , undermined it with routine weaknesses ; and we desire to sec it brought up to tho level of other religious communities in zeal and working efficiency . Thoro in not a portion of tho establishment entrusted to tho hierarchy that has not suffered from the indolence of privileged dignity . The very leaders who have be ^ n lodged in cathedrals under tho superintendence of the ecolosiastical power have

    bocome a generation 01 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 Sinclair 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 fide ; 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 missionarv 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 Sinclair is exhorting it to adapt itself to the school of knowledge proper to the day , Lord Shaftesbukt is proposing the break-down of the barrier between Churchman and

    Dissenter , by abolishing the licensing system . According to the Bishops , if Lord Shaftesbttry ' 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 many 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 he the final and grand result of any such enlarging of the Church bounds , any such disruption of its frozen organisation ? What hut 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 ? ture in these islands—the Church of the People of England ? AUSTRIA STANDS AT EASE . The Western Powers arc 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 A ienna , she has no further interest in the war . It is her historical policy not to oppose tho schemes of Russia , except in so far as they interfere with her

    own . Beyond the mouths of the Danube she contemplates no development aa to the Black Sea . To her the Crimea is as unimportant as Scotland . While the Principalities were occupiod by Itussia , Austrian interests , of hereditary recognition , were jeopardised ; but CohoninVb march and tho Conferences at Vienna put an end to this alarm . Tho statesmen , therefore , who have ceased to solicit at Berlin , may probably learn to

    withdraw their hopes from the Emperor JniANOis Josisrir . They rewarded him before ho assisted them . They gave him the Principalities , which enabled hia ministers to extort favourable terms from Bussia ; and now that his Wallachian and Bulgarian interests aro secured , wo aro witnessing a reduction of that vast neutral army which , it was hoped , was prepared to fight for tho general independence of Europe . " The independence of

    Europe , " 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 of Vienna . The last report is that Russia , under the pressure of her military necessities , has consented to sacrifice some of her pretensions on the Danube , in exchange for Austrian neutrality . Austria , in consequence , is reducing her forces in Gallicia , 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 Bfol ' s circular contains the record of a distinct

    engagement on the part of Alexander the Second to reward Francis Joseph ' s neutrality 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 vrere those of conquerors , not allies ; and all their efforts were directed to the supplanting oi 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 Trance and England ; that they literally fulfilled their obligations , when tho invading power had retired , and removed 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 ib . If they committed an act of deception , diplomacy sanctioned it . When , towards the close of the laat century , the Ottoman Empire ceased to be the object of respect in Europe , a frontier was opened to the ambition of bordering states . Russia and Austria at once commenced a

    career of rivalry on the Danube . Though the Porto continued to affect the language of 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 . 1 orhaps their jealousies saved tho Ottoman Empire The Qerninn historians , except the equivocal Menssel , declare that " the Austrian Cabinet was resolved nob to permit the Russians to penetrnto beyond the attitude

    Danube" It assumed , such an , when tho treaty of Kninardji waa signed , that without doing more than it has done w ithin tho last year , it doprived Oatiikbinh of half tho prize that had seemed within her reach . What she gained was principally to the Crimoa , on tho Black Soa , and in the Divan itself ; what » he waa forced to roiram from touching was tho Wallachian and 13 uk enrian frontier , though this had been suc cessfully invaded , That geographical lino ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), June 23, 1855, page 601, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2096/page/13/