The Press. — London, England, 1854-09-02 00:00:00

THE PRESS. receive their dividends at a fixed rate, whatever he the surplus or the deficit in the annual public income of India ; and if that income falls short, as it now does, of the sum required for the expenditure, the balance will have to be made good by the people of this country. Under such circumstances the money thus expended by the Directors in feasts at the London Tavern is virtually taken out of tho pockets ef our people. But even were the case otherwise—were we in England in no way interested personally in the question of this expenditure—we should find a legitimate subject for comment in this constant feasting at the public cost of Sir JAMES HOOO and his colleagues under the pre sent circumstances of India. With a deficit to meet of nearly a million, economy might surely be looked for. With large claims for additional scholarships in India, what more simple way of endowing a hundred such, than devoting to educational purposes the sum thus annually expended in turtle and champagne ? With people on all sides crying out for roads, what easier method could there be of meeting to at least some degree the de mand, by appropriating to that purpose the capital of a hundred thousand pounds, the interest of which the sum thus annually wasted in feasting would exactly discharge ? To dinners given to political friends as con venient modes of reunion for political purposes we, of course, can have no objection, but we do object to the devotion of the public money to such purposes ; and we object still more strongly to the devotion of it (as in this case) to the feasting by the hundred of the Direc tors' private friends. The several members of the Administration and the leaders of the Opposition give political parties occasionally, but they do not think of making the cost of such parties a charge on the public purse ; and there is the less reason for any such charge on the Indian revenues, as the salary of the President of the India Board was last year raised to its present figure on the very ground of enabling him to practise the in creased hospitalities incident to his new posi tion without detriment to his private fortune. At the same time proportionate additions were made to the salaries of the Chairman and De puty Chairman, and whole directorial body. These have now the salaries of the members of any other public board, and they have a far greater share of other incidental cfficial ad vantages. It is not, therefore, too much to demand that, in the face of an Indian deficit of nearly a million, and with large and in creasing requirements for purposes of improve ment in India, they should be made to give entertainments to their friends at their own expense. PROCEEDINGS AGAINST ARCHDEACONS WILBERFORCE AND DENISON. WE give insertion to the subjoined announcement from the Morning Advertiser, having satisfied our selves of its accuracy : " We are able to announce that both these Archdeacons are now on the point of being brought before the proper tribunals for their Romish teaching. The honour of vin dicating the faith and Protestant doctrine of the Church of England will devolve upon the two venerable Archbishops of either province. The Archbishop of York, at the in stance of the Rev. John Jarratt, Vicar of North Cave, in the East Riding, has determined to send the charge against Archdeacon Wilberforce to his Provincial Court ; and in con sequence of Lord Auckland, the present Bishop of Bath and Wells, having refused to send the complaint against Arch deacon Denison to the Court of Appeal of the Province of Canterbuiy, the Primate, at the instance of the Rev. Joseph Ditcher, Vicar of South Brent, Somerset, has issued a Commission of Inquiry on the subject of the charge against the Archdeacon of Taunton." There can be no doubt that these proceedings will excite the strongest interest in the Church of Eng- land, as their result will decide whether a stop can be put• to the Rotnish teaching of that party in our Church,—happily few in number—for which there is but one appropriate name,—the Jesuit party. On general points of discipline and doctrine we think great latitude of opinion should be allowed. A narrow sectarian spirit only would wish to secure an exact conformity in the teaching and practices of the Church. There may be High Churchmen and Low Churchmen with positive benefit to religion, from the spirit of inquiry various principles excite. But the Church of England is a Protestant Church— the line which separates her from the Church of Rome is distinct, and n clergyman of I.er communion should on any pretence be suffered to pass it. Whether 819 Archdeacon WILBERFORCE has not done so may be partially judged by the few passages we take from an able letter, all es .ed W the Archbishop lof YORK, by the Rev. W. BROCK, Rector of Bishop Waltham, containing passages from Archdeacon WILBERFORCE'S work on the doctrine of the Holy Eucharist : " When our Lord spoke of his Body and Blood as be stowed upon his disciples in this Sacrament, he must have been understood to imply that He Himself, Godhead, Soul, and Body, was the gift communicated. His Manhood was the Medium through which his whole Person was dis- pensed. Christ is in that Sacrament,' says St. Ambrose, because it is the Body of Christ.' "—Page 78. " What was that body which was offered to the Holy Apostles at the Last Supper? Was it not the self same body which they knew to have walked on the sea, and to have b'en transfigured in the mountain? Was it not that body which was about to emerge from the unopened tomb, and to enter, the doors being shut, into their assembly ? Was it not, in short, the body of God, which must needs receive new qualities from its relation to the Deity, with which it was personally united?"—Page 82. " That which our Lord did in person at His last supper He has done ever since by the medium of His ministers. Through them does He still bestow that gift of His body and His blood which He gave to His twelve apostles. He still speaks the words of Institution, and thereby affirms the presence of Himself, of His Body, Soul, and Godhead. Neither is His Body any other than that human body which, by the mystery of the Incarnation, He made His own; that body which was once humbled, but is now exalted; the selfsame body which He took of the Virgin, and which suffered on the cross."—Page 95. 01111Nommilor ,•••,/, SEPTEMBER 2, 1854. the growth and designs of his Church. Speak• ing of what the Papists have done since the Emancipation Act, he says : At the same time, Catholics had begun to recover from that first torpor which benumbs, for a time, the limbs just freed from fetters . Signs of a more active circulation had shown themselves; communities were sprinping up; schools were beginning to be multiplied; new missions were opened: churches upon a scale of size and embellishment previously unknown were contemplated or begun; and the people were evidently manifesting more interest in our re ligion, and a more fair disposition to hear and judge it justly. It seemed the favourable moment to strike another chord and stir up a spirit yet slumbering, but ready to awake. As one result of this resolve to " stir up a "spirit yet slumbering, but ready to awake," the effort to maintain religious equality in the Queen's Colleges of Ireland has beeen derided, and a " Catholic University " has been erected at Dublin, by means of contributions levied from " the faithful " in all parts of the globe. Hence, also, "another chord " has been struck, a CULLEN has been sent from Rome to rule over the Irish priesthood, and " heretics " like the Archbishop of DUBLIN and Mr. BLACEBURNE have been forced out of the National Board of Education. Let us further observe that Cardinal WISE MAN early saw what havoc amongst" Anglicans " he could accomplish with the help of that " wonderful movement " which led to so many secessions from the Church of England, although more moderate Romanists, including the late Dr. LINGARD, did not share his expec talon. Recording his triumphs in a jubilant tone, in the preface to his second volume, he proceeds : And it is not known how friends remonstrated with the bolder of hopeful views, how they treated him as en enthu siast, or rather a fanatic, who was digging a pit of bitter disappointment for his own feet ; how even the most learned of our historians wrote in friendly warning, to remind him of the vain hopes raised and doomed to bitter disappoint ment at the times of Laud and of the Nonconformists, and ask him what be saw in the present movement that gave better grounds of reliance than experience had proved to exist then. Even those so situated as tohave near them the evidences which convinced him of hopeful advance viewed them in a very different light, and thought their importance, to say the least, much exaggerated. Events have since demonstrated that the Cardinal's hopes were not "much exaggerated." With complacent exultation he records a cata logue of perverts, specially referring to NEW MAN, WILBERFORCE, NORTHCOTF., LEWIS, BE LANY, RENOUF, CAPES, and others. Twenty years ago its powers of mischief were derided, and yet, with such evidences exhibiting its pernicious potency in corruption, there are ambiguous statesmen and equivocatory poll ticians who deride the dread of Popery as childish. Minds poisoned by Papistieal logic can undermine Protestantism, though they cannot establish Popery Let no true reli gionists underestimate our danger. THE EAST INDIA COMPANY'S BANQUETS. ON recently looking over the morning journals we met with an announcement of a grand dinner to be given by the East India Directors at the London Tavern, covers to be laid for a hundred guests. This dinner was not one to celebrate the departure of some newly appointed governor, or on any other particular occasion : it was simply a meeting for the dis posal of an unlimited quantity of turtle and champagne by the Directors and their friends, the bill being paid, not out of their own pockets, but out of the public revenues of India In this mode, the Directors dispose of about three thousand pounds annually. If those revenues were like the revenues of some city guild, the appropriation of which to feasting may be deemed in some sort legiti mate, we should have nothing to say to this proceeding of the Directors of the East India Company. But the revenues of India are not the property of the Directors, nor is the East India Company, though dwelling in the City, like any of the City comranies. The revenues of India are the property of the Crown, the East India Company collecting and• expending those revenues as trustees for the Crown and people of England. East India proprietors OPERATIONS IN THE BALTIC. A despatch from Dantzic of yesterday's (Friday's) date states that on Sunday, the 27th ult., General Baraguay d'Hilliers and Vi. e-Admiral Napier went up to Hango. In their sight the Russians blew up the fortifications, and retreated to Abo, where there are 15,000 troops. Abo will be attacked by the allies. The Med in, Scott ; Gorgon, Cracruft ; Driver, Ho bart ; and Lightning, Sullivan, engaged eighteen Russian gun-boats, carrying about fifty men each, and four steamers at Abo, on the 18th of August, without loss. Admual Martin, with a small squadron, is gone up the Gulf of Bothnia. The Moniteur publishes the official reports of General Baraguay d'Hilliers, General Niel, and of Vice-Admiral Parseval Deschenes, of the operations of the capture of Boman,und. The account is more detailed than that by Sir Charles Napier, but the narratives already published have anticipated these French despatches. General d'Hilliers does full credit to the English troops. He says " General Harry Jones, by contributing by his marines and sappers to the attack on the towers of Homarsund, has shown us once more what may be expected from the bravery and discipline of English soldiers. The greatest cordiality did not cease to prevail, not only between the officers of the two fleets and those of the expeditionary corps, but also between the soldiers and sailors." The Cologne Gazette has the following from Stock holm, dated the 22nd:—" The French general has handed over the civil government of the Aland Islands to the Crown Provost, M. Lygnell." It is singular that this event, if true, should not have reached us earlier, and from other quarters. The Emperor Napoleon reached Boulogne on Thursday, and will stay for some days. On Tuesday and Wednesday next grand military manauvres will take place among the troops in the camp, at which Prince Albert and the King of the Belgians are expected to assist. The Emperor occupies the whole of the Brighton Hotel at Capecum. General Count Merlin, one of the last surviving officers of the expedition to Egypt after the first French Revolution, has expired at Montmorency, near Paris, aged 70. THE ELECTORS OF FORFARSHIRE have been for mally addressed by Viscount Duncan, as a candidate to fill the vacancy in the representation caused by the death (1 Colonel Maule. The noble lord declares himself a Free-trader, Reformer, and financial econo mist, as well as a " general supporter of the Govern ment." THREE CANDIDATES are expected to be in the field for Wigan, namely, Mr. F. S. Powell, who was unsuc cessful in 1852 as a Conservative ; Mr. Acton, mayor of the town ; and Mr. H. Wood, a manufacturer and coal.propnetor. The two latter are Liberals. Mr. Wood mar. ied only a few months ago the only child of Mr. Hindley, M P. A MEMORIAL, signed by 2R4 persons, including the committee, teachers, and students in training at the Home and Colonial Society in Gray's-inn lane, has been presented to the Privy Council, praying that the Educational Exhibition of the Society of Arta, at St. Martin's-hall may be taken up by the Committee of Council on Education, and maintained as a perms rent museum of education for the use of teachers in elementary and normal schools and others en gaged ineeducation. THE Aberdeen Journal intimates that the electri telegraph to that city is expected to be in operation about the end of November. 4 .9