The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1882-12-23 00:00:00

•

Porget emit' exprpos.

DORCHESTER, DECEMBER 23rd, 1831
4
THE NEW PRIMATE AND THE NONCOM- :
FORNIBTB.
Our Nonconformist friends are not disposed
to acoept the appointment of the Bishop of
Truro to the Primacy (presuming, of course, that
Dr. Benson has accepted the office), without
grave apprehensions of coining evils. The key-
note has been struck by the Hey. J 0. Rogers,
an eminent member of the Congregational con.
notion, and a prominent Liberationist, who
although he disclaims the right to hold any
opinion as to the appointment, asserts Chet the
selection of the Bishop can hardly be
reoeived by them in silence. Be and his brother
Nonconformists recall the kindly relations
which the late liberal Archbishop had so assidu-
ously endeavoured to foster between the Church
and Dissent • and, bearing this in mind, Mr.
Rogers recall a "slanderous charge" made by
Dr. Benson against the Liberation Society, the
tone of which would seem to foreshadow awk-
ward difficulties between the twe great bodies.
The statement which has proved so offensive to
Mr. Rogers is as follows :—" When I see the
crafty forgeries, and miles of printed falsities,
which are rolled out and about by our would-be
deliverer', it is time we spoke out." This,
spoken openly at a Diocesan Conference by the
president, reveals to Mr. Rogers a feeling of
bitter hostility to Nonconformity, or, we had
better say, the Liberationists (although it is a
distinction without a difference, in our mind),
which,in all probability, will create a vast amount
of mischief in the yearsof Dr. Benson's Primacy;
and, for the sake of peace and quietness, Mr.
Rogers suggests that the imputation should be
withdrawn, unless the good and Christ-like work
of Archbishop Tait is to be interrupted, for, says
he, the words might have been treated with
comparative indifference so long as the speaker
was nothing more than a Bishop of Truro; but
they assume an entirely different character if
endorsed with the authority of the Primate.
For our part, it is difficult to see any consistent
course for Dr. Benson to take. To commence
his administration by declaring open war will
be a fatal mistake, and should he accept the
irchi-episcopal chair, perhaps the best course
for him to adopt will be to either withdraw or
greatly modify the statement which is so gal-
to Nonconformists. ere is one fact
ch There
is not in harcaony with the complaint
that the new archbishop is imbued with the
spirit of innate ,ad scarcely concealed hostility to
Nonoonfonnity, and thatisthe knowledge that all
parties in his Cornish diocese, where ho is "as
much surrounded by Dissenters as a Welsh
Bishop," have been conciliated, and they seem
to express genuine regret at his removal, and
complete satisfaction at his appointment.
Aspirants to the honour of representing their
fellow-eitisens in the Town Council will be
interested in the following case :
" A candidate for • Town Conseil in Cumberland
was disenaliflid by the Mayor at the recent municipal
stealers because he had not been described in the
corniced= pen= as occupying the qualifying residence
•in succession.' Mr. Jadlos Field, who was asked to
over-rule that decision, regretted that ha could not do so,
the Act of 1175 making it absolutely necessary that
the description of the qualification should be correctly
dated in the nomination paper."