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

THE PRESS.

Nor let it be forgotten that the enemy has
had such ample time given to him for prepara-
tion. This is another of the responsibi-
lities which the iNitgnet cannot evade.
The Cy.ai: has been fesewarned as to what was
intended egainst him, end it will not be his
fault if he does not rev 4bundant profit from
the ancient friendship of Lord ABERDEEN, and
the petty abilities of Opll Duke of NEWCASTLE.

BUREAUCIinig NOTIONS.
THE Secretary of War has discovered the rea-
son why the Coalition Government does not
work so well as could be desired. It has not
patronage enough at its disposal. It has only
as yet been able to create two new Ministers,
viz., a fourth Secretary of State, and a Presi-
dent of the Board of Health. Several more
arc wanted—as a Minister of Improvement, a
Minister of Justice, with a Judge. Martial and
Prosecutor-Martial for the Army. Money is
not an object. Ten thousand a year is not too
much for an efficient Minister. The plan is
all ready—LAWLEY and STONOR are waiting for
places—nothing is wanting but the sanction
of Parliament, and that Parliament is not
likely to afford. What is to be done?
The question is suggestive. What is the use
of Parliament ? Why not do away with " this
troublesome obstruction of a House of Com-
mons" ? It exists only to thwart the measures
of the Coalition, and pick holes in the Duke
of NEWCASTLE'S appointments. With a "free
Executive," free floor all representative con-
trol ; a " free press," superintended, of course,
by a chief censor ; and a " free public," kept in
strict order by a Police Minister,—what use
can there be in retaining representative insti-
tutions ?
It seems incredible that an educated English
gentleman should gravely propose notions
like these in a journal of good standing. But
we must deal with facts as we find them. We
cannot mistake the brain which has spun
these crotchets. The stamp of Newcastleism
is on them. His Grace is proud of his politi
cal theories, and imagines he is destined to
destroy the old worn out fabric of English
liberty, and substitute a bran new system of
bureaucracy in its stead.
It is his misfortune that he entered political
life at a time when principle and opinion were
ignored as elements of power. A false esti-
mate was taken of the public mind, and the
success of parties was supposed to depend on
the unscrupulous zeal of their secret organisers.
The Duke was educated in the school of Mr.
BONHAM. At the feet of this electioneering
Gamaliel he acquired his political morality,
and learned how corruption might be reduced
to a system. In the Ministry of Sir ROBERT
PEEL, Mr. BONHAM was rewarded with an ap-
pointment in the Ordnance, and the public will
recollect through what circumstances, in con-
nection with the great railway speculations, he
was compelled to resign his post. But the
Duke retained a greatful recollection of his
early instructor, and Mr. BONHAM is now one
of our Income-tax Commissioners.
If we recal these circumstances, it is be-
cause they furnish a key to his Grace's cha-
racter. As a jobber he almost rises to great
ness. A shrewd observer who noticed the
earnestness of ROBESPIERRE in debate, re-
marked, " That man will go a great way, for he
" believes what he says." The Duke is entitled
to the same sort of praise for conscientious-
ness. He has no belief in a higher standard
of political morality than that he practises. He
dispenses his patronage on principle. The
testimonials to character which find most
favour in his sight are those which tell of
voters bribed, of elections influenced, and of
the dirtiest and most unscrupulous party
services. In his view a party means no more
than a certain aggregate of votes, and states-
manship is but another came for managing
elections.
To his mind it must appear impossible to
strengthen a Government in any other way
than by increasing the number of Ministers
who have au interest in holding together, and
by augmenting the number of places at their

SATURDAY,

disposal. He must highly approve of the
remedy recommended for the weakness of the
Coalition Ministry. " We would have it coalesce
"yet more--take in Winger relations—have
" more legs to stand tpon until it became a
"very cett ede of ministries." Here there is
no partep ton of the {strength which springs
from tinily of purpose, and of the weakness
which !loving front divided/Onion. To be sure
when pulikie principle is entirely extinguished,
and men covet office only for its emoluments,
an Administration may become stronger as the
legs it stands on are multiplied. And it is to
achieve such a consummation that the Duke
of NEWCASTLE and his friends are labouring.
They have made, they think, a capital begin-
ning with the Coalition,—they have been suc-
cessful in creating two new Ministries,--and,
could they but get rid of that troublesome
obstruction, the House of Commons, they
might hope to effect their object of converting
our Government into a job.

REVELATIONS BY CARDINAL WISEMAN.
IT is of the highest importance, in the present
state of Christendom, to watch the arts by
which Romanism seeks to gain its ends. To
the fact that there does exist a great conspi-
racy on the part of Rome, not only against the
Protestant faith, but against the civil and re-
ligious liberties of the world, we have the tes-
timony of no less a person than Lord JOHN
RUSSELL himself. Rarely did a more impor-
tant declaration come from his lips than that
delivered on the introduction of the Ecclesias-
tical Titles Bill :
For many years since the restoration of Louis XVIII.
the Court of Rome has endeavoured to revive pretensions
—to attempt domination—to restore supremacy—which
many thought had been for ever abandoned. . . Since
1848, men, seeking fur some safety, for some plank by
which they might escape iu the shipwreck, have resorted
to the authority, the influence, the power, and the name of
the Church of Rome. And the clergy of that Church have
seen an opportunity of reviving powers which, if success-
fully claimed, must be fatal to the liberty of every country
in Europe.—Hansard, 3rd s., vol. 115, p. 310.
Such words could nos have been uttered by
Lord Jost; RUSSELL unless grave evidence
were before him of the truth of his assertion.
Unhappily, the facts of that evidence are now
too patent throughout Europe, and it will be
our duty to-day to advert to some of the pecu-
liar arts of Popery from which our national
Church is in peril.
Indifferentists and nominal Protestants have
inquired where is the real danger, in presence
of the fact that the Papists are such a paltry
minority of our population? To that question,
often sneeringly asked, we answer that it is the
leavening element of Popery, its tainting su-
perstition, and its morbid humours that are
just as perilous as its more open assaults. A
hurricane may at first give more visible proofs
of its immediately destructive energy, but the
invisible influence of an epidemic plague can
leave behind it more deadly results of its fear-
ful power. We have been much impressed
with some striking revelations on the effect
which a clique of enterprising Papists can ex-
hibit, and we desire to bring them under the
attention of our readers.
Cardinal WISEMAN has recently republished
his " Theological Essays," and has prefixed
remarkable prefaces to his first and second vo-
lumes. Referring, in a moment of giddy exul-
tation, to the origin of the Dublin Review, he
says that its leading object was to observe and
assist " that wonderful movement which, on-
" ginating at Oxford, was destined to pervade
" and agitate the Anglican Establishment till
" it should give up many of its most loving and
" gifted 50155 to the Catholic Church." lie
goes on to say that, to watch the progress of
this " great religious revolution,"
to observe its phases, to influence, if possible, its direct
tion, to move it gently towards complete attainment of its
unconscious aims, and, moreover, to protest agemst its
errors, to warn against its dangers, to provide arguments
against its new modes of attack, and to keep lifted up the
mask of beauty under which it had, in sincerity, covered
the ghastly and soulless features of Protestantism ; these
were the duties which the new Review undertook to per-
form, or which, in no small degree, it was expressly crested
to discharge.
A little further on he illustrates more clearly

I

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.

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