The Press.
London, England, 1858-08-21 00:00:00

THE PRESS, AUGUST 21, 1858.

against the overbearing sway of' popular impulse,
in the members chosen by the more sober and
calculating class of the community. Let them
propose a scheme, then, liberal in its nature, yet
soberly limited, having respect to the well-
working of the State rather than to the predomi-
nance of any party; and then, though clamour
should be excited against it in the ignorant
multitude by " leading" journals and fkctious
partizans, and they should have to appeal to the
country, they will find themselves supported by
the good sense of the nation.

THE BISHOP OF OXFORD AND MR.
SHAW.

THE correspondence bet ween the Bishop of
OxFoan and the Rev. JOHN SHAW, Vicar of
.Stoke, which has recently appeared in the
papers, will, we have no doubt, be read with the
greatest interest. The practice of confession is
so loathsome and repugnant to the minds of
English men and English women—at least to all
who are not caught in the trammels of a false
and idolatrous Church—that all attempts to in-
troduce such a practice into our Reformed
Church will be examined into with the deepest
interest, and will meet with the most unrelenting
opposition. Of the many vile and unchristian
doctrines which disgrace the Popish Church, the
vilest, the most mischievous, and the most un-
social, is that one which enjoins as a duty the
practice of confession (more especially by
females) to a frail mortal, pretending to be en-
dowed with the power of absolution. Thinking
thus of this practice, we are glad to see it justly
denounced by the Bishop of OXFORD as "break-
" ing up the confidence of family life," and as
" erecting a vast system of priestly domination
" over the soul, with its innumerable consequent
" evils, spiritual, domestic, and political."
These being the opinions on this point pro-
claimed by the Bishop in the above-named corre-
spondence, the question has been started—
Whether in his dealings with the case brought
before him by the Vicar of Stoke he has fairly
and honestly acted up to the principles which he
has so clearly laid down in the words which we
have quoted ?
Now we desire to deal with this matter simply
and exclusively by a fair consideration of the
documents which have been published.

It appears from them, that if the account
given by the woman of what the Curate (Mr.
WEsT) said to her be true, the conduct of the
Curate is deserving of the severest censure. And
so the Bishop admits; but he refuses to condemn
the Curate, not because he would justify such
conduct, as is described in the report of the
conversation, but because the truth and accuracy
of that report is denied by the Curate. The
question, as the Bishop puts it, is a question of
fact—the testimony being conflicting; and in
this dilemma the Bishop believes the Curate and
disbelieves the woman. Now, we think, unless
the Bishop had ground for distrusting the Curate,
that he was quite right in preferring his testi-
mony to that of the woman, provided, however,
that the woman's testimony remained uncor-
roborated by any other witness, and unsupported
by other considerations.
But how stands the fact ? The Bishop suc-
cinctly sums up the charges against the Curate as
follows :

1. That the Curate put to "a voman about to
be confined most improper questions,'" espe-
cially with regard to the Seventh Command-
ment.

2. That he told her that "if she hoped to be
delivered, and live, she must make confession to
him."

3. " That he further told her that if she died
unconfirmed she could not enter into the king-
dom of heaven."

4. " That he urged her ' not to tell her hus-
band."

5. " That by this treatment the woman was
greatly 'upset.'"
With respect to the last four of these charges,
they are dismissed by the Bishop on the ground
that the Incumbent "had assured him, from his
" inquiries at the time, that they had no founda-
" tion in fact." In this we cannot help thinking

that the Bishop arrived at an erroneous concln
sion and missed an important point: because_
The fifth charge—that the woman was
" upset "—did not depend at all on the testimony
of the woman ; on the contrary, it was proved
beyond reasonable doubt by the lady who report
the conversation; and, unless that lady's testunon)
be quite unworthy of credit, there can be no
question but that the woman actually wu
" upset," and that she was so by some recent
occurrence : this is clear, from the lady having
found her in tears, and having been therefore
induced to ask her, " Why are you crying w
much ?" But according to the Incumbent's in.
quiry the very " " contrary " to her being "upset'
took place, for she had expressed special grafi-
" tude for the treatment of her case." The
Curate therefore, it appears, had been " treating
her case," and if she really fek
." spiritual grafi.
tude" for his mode of treating it, it may well be
asked, why was she in tears ? Surely it is evident
that if she was crying her "tears" were the
consequence of her " treatment," and the Bishop
says very correctly that the " treatment" which
produced expressions of gratitude must have
been " contrary " to the treatment which pro.
duced tears.

Now, this is a very important point in the
case, for the tears have to be accounted for.
Whatever the "treatment" was which the
woman had met with, it had clearly made her
cry. The question, then, is, can it be reasonably
inferred from the crying that she cried because
the Curate's " treatment " had led her to repent-
ance ? or is it not more natural to conclude that
she cried because " most improper questions'
had been put to her, whereby she had been flus-
tered and " upset" ? It is difficult not to be-
lieve that the latter alternative is the true one,
and, if it be the true one, then we regret to say
that suspicion must rest upon all the other de-
nials of the charges, respecting which the Bishop
has come tt) the conclusion that they have "no
foundation in fact." These denials are, indeed,
carried too far. If the Curate had contented
himself with contradicting the second, third, and
fourth charges against him, which depend on the
exclusive testimony of the woman, such denials
might have been fairly accepted by his Bishop
but he betrays too great an anxiety to free him.
self, and to smash the whole case, when '

affirms that the fifth charge has no "foundation
in fact ;" because, after he had left her, how
could he undertake to say that the effect of
conversation on a poor weak woman, expecting
her immediate confinement, and " dangerously
ill" (in which conversation he admits having
exhorted her to repentance), had not "upset"
her after he had left the cottage ?
This over-zeal to deny what he was not in
position to deny of course throws discredit upon
his other denials, and leads us to look more '
probabilities than testimony. What, then,
the internal evidence in favour of the accuracy
the conversation as reported by the lady?
false or inaccurate, it must either have been
vented or misrepresented by the lady or
woman. It is quite unreasonable to suppose that
the lady invented it. That something passed
between the Curate and the woman is admitted.
If invented, then the woman must have
vented it on the spot. Let us suppose, then,
that it was invented, and also that the Curate'
representation of the transaction is the correct
one, and that he really had just been successful
in his endeavours to " lead her to repentance.
We then are called upon to believe that a woman
who had just been expressing her gratitude `
having led her to repent, immediately that
Curate's back was turned set to work to malign
his character by inventing indecent questions,
and falsely representing that he had addressed
them to her. Assuredly this seems hardly cre-
dible, and we are constrained to say that, ijoklng
at the probabilities of the case as set forth in
correspondence, the truth of the woman's air'
tions appears to us far more to be relied on than
the denials by the Curate of those assertions.
But again : the Curate's denials, and his repre-
sentation of the conversation, leave the tears
wholly unaccounted for. On the other hand,
woman's story accounts for those tears, and
consistent with them : the fact that she

• _ _
crying surely cannot be disbelieved.
But admitting the Curate's account to be;
corr ct one, we still do not like the transacnoi
We do not think that it is part of the duty of

to go, uninvited, to a poor woman
ly ill," on the brink of her confine-
tuestion her as to the way in which,
past life, she may have kept or
Ten Commandments. We have no
efficacy of repentance brought about
pressure of an uninvited monitor or
it seems to us, moreover, calculated to
, mind of a person in that condition so
possibly to produce disastrous con-
And should it so happen that
was not, but that insanity was,
, of such exhortations, the un-
sufferer might thereby be deprived
chance of making peace with her
Tf the clergyman select such seasons of
his ministrations, we do not hesitate
tat we think they ought to be of a
and not of a terrifying, character. It
different if the patients, or the patient's
lye to her condition, both morally and
solicited the clergyman to " move her
examine her estate both towards Gou and
And this difference is especially marked
Rubric for the Visitation of the
the minister's coming at all into the
.'s house is made to depend on " notice'
.ven thereof"—viz., of there being a-
.l—" to the minister of the parish.'
where in the Rubric is the minister
go through the decalogue, and to
answers respecting every sin therein for-
is only in case of " a neighbour's
conscience feeling troubled with any weighty
that he " is to be moved to make a special
of his sins." But in this case the
it far beyond these directions; for the
t's " conscience " was not " troubled
weighty matter," and therefore she
according to the Rubric, to have been
to " any" special confession. This
olves far more serious consequence than
decision which may be taken on the par-
- case at Maidenhead, for it affects the
rule which the clergy ought to adopt in
cases. The Rubric has been appealed to
iustification of the course pursued by the
We are content with the test proposed;
lying that test, we are obliged to say,
condemns instead of justifies his pro-
as set forth by himself.

SIBLE GOVERNMENT IN NEW
SOUTH WALES.

things are more discouraging to earnest
diligent workers than exaggerated expecta-
They see the utmost that they can do, and
their "possible" will not give satisfac-
They are thus not only cut off from the
'praise, but condemned to the anticipation
inevitable censure. Such discouragement
make them timid or fretful, and dimi-
their power of useful exertion. This is
true in the political world. The
who, to adopt the terse phrase ofJUNIUB,
the cause and the country," cannot have
distressing damper to his zeal than the
' demands thoughtlessly or malignantly
an ability which a thousand necessities
to limit. Ilad the English press in
, for instance, imitating the exigeant spirit
Times, expected Lord DERBY in a few
to supply the omissions and rectify the
ten years of " Liberal Administration,"
the well-earned popularity of the pre-
Government would have been grievously
but their power of usefulness would
been seriously curtailed. "Iniquum pete
'turn feras" may be a dangerous text as
to demands on public servants.
claims for the impossible in legislation
mischievous even here, where long experience
taught us the delays and drawbacks which
on responsible government, much more
• so when addressed to legislative assem-
free communities of more recent origin,
constitution has been framed prospectively
than retrospectively, with an eye to the
future rather than from the experience
past. In such communities the friction,
speak, of the machinery of government is
and the working power, if not propor-
ly less, yet more fitful and irregular. The

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