The Express.
London, England, 1852-01-05 00:00:00

MR. BENNETT AND THE CLERGY OF
FROME.

The following address hos been presented to the
Most lion. the Marchioness of Bath:
Madam,—We, the undersigned clergy and laity of the
parish of Frome, address ourselves to your ladyship with
mingled feelings of respect and anxiety on an °erasions of
the deepest importance to our spiritual cares and interests.
We have heard that in the exercise of a power, of which we
believe you to estimate the responsibility as seriouelY as our-
selves, it is your intention to present the Rev. W. J. E. Ben-
nett, the late incumbent of St. Paul's. Knightsbridge, to the
vicarage of Flume. With an unfeigned conviction of your
ladyship's; desire to act rightly and to the glory of
God in the discharge of your sacred trust, we lay !afore
you our grief at hearing that announcement, end our
earnest entreaty that you will reconsider that intention.
We owe it to God, to our flecks, to our children, to our ser-
vants, to ourselves, to protest egainst the confiding the
cure of souls among us to one from whuse writings, pub-
' halted hut a year and a-half ago, we cite the following
passages, not by any means us exhibiting the whole
of what we deem opposed to the scriptural trutlifidnees of
our beloved church in his productions, but merely as exem-
plifications of the teaching which, us members of that
church, we solemnly repudiate. We take the first Irom the
second preface affixed to the second and latest edition
(IMO) of Mr. Bennett's' Letters to his Children on Church
Subjects.' It professes to hare been composed fur that
edition. He avow. in it that in the work itself be has
said minty things more strongly than he did aix years Is-
fore," because he feels things more strongly;' and that he
has altered anti added many pawiges, and riven to all a
more emphatic tune.' It was then the studied and deli-
berate expression of his sentiments; and among those senti-
ments he promulgates this,—thut, unless a certain
possi-
bility,'—namely, as appears, the reversal of a recent de-
cision of the Judicial Committee of l'rivy Council,—bo
realised, ' the pastors who have as yet been enabled
to adhete to the church of England, finding that she
denies herself and forfeits her claim to catholicity, will, one
by oar, be ejected by the force of the law from her
communion ; and, although not loving the peculiarities of
Rome, will, in order to preserve any faith at all, either
in their own hearten or in the hearts of those over whom
they are set, be compelled to seek iialvation within her
bosom. This will probably happen within ten years. Then
will come the end. Protestantism will sink into its proper
place and die, and whatever was catholic in the church of
Englund will become Roman.' We take our second ex-
tract from the body of the Mist volume of the work itself :
' in England a man looks round him for the church, and
finds it represented by the bishops and priests de facto such,
and recognised with jurisdiction as such. lie has no need
of arguing any matter. As long as the church stands there
before him, it is her business to see that all is right, not
his. . . To go out of her would be schiematieabto remain
iu her catholic. In the same way, being horn in Italy, he
looks round him for the church, and finds it represented
by the bishops and priests, with all things appertaining.
lie has, as an individual, no right to dictate to the church,
buttes hear it. Dues it deny anything necessary to salva-
tion ? Does it insist on any practice which will bring
damnation ? Certainly not. Then, whether he likes what
is taught in detail is nothing to the point ; he looks to the
church, which he sees visibly before him ; he submits to
that church. To do so is catholic, to do otherwise would
be schismatical. He is to live as though he did not know of
the existence of any ether church than that where he was
born; he is to act, a priori, as though of course, and accord-
ing to our Lord's rule, the church was one. If the re be dif-
ferences that is nothing to him. The churches, with their
bishops and rulers, must look to that. It is their sin that
unify is broken: it is their duty to restore it.' (The italics
aro Mr. Bennett's own.) 'lt is hi. alone to obey. In Rome
be obeys; in England be obeys; in France he obeys, His
obedience makes him a catholic ; the rest lie leaves to God.'
Our third extract is a sentence which heads a paragraph co•
curving in a subsequent chapter of the volume:—' All ideas
of the Bible, and the dispensing of the Bible, as in itself a
means of propagating Christianity, are a fiction and an absur-
dity.' We are not aware that Mr. Bennett has retracted any
of these passages, or renounced the opinions professed in
them, or other opinions of similar character, which we
forbear citing. We consider such professions of opinion
as directly at variance with the spirit which pervades the
articles of our reformed branch of Christ's holy catholic
church; and, as churchmen who would ' keep the faith,'
we deliver our consciences by protesting against them. We
purposely abstain from grounding our case on the circum-
stances under which Mr. Bennett resigned his former pre-
ferment. We arc among the many who regard such views
as those which we have cited as perilously unsound; and
we cling to the hope which we were assured that we might
entertain, that your ladyship would not make any appoint.
ment which would be otherwise than agreeable to the in-
habitants of Frome' and conducive to their spiritual be-
nefit. We have expressed ourselves freely, knowing that
we are addressing one who will duly estimate an honest and
conscientious declaration. With equal sincerity, and with
a deep sense of the benevolence which your ladyship exer-
cises in manifold ways, we pray that divine grace may guide
and bless you, now and evermore."

COLLISION ON TILE GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY.
—A collision, which might have been attended with very
serious consequences, occurred on this line of railway on
Saturday morning, between the Chippenham and Wootton
Bassett Stations. The up goods train, which arrived at
Chippenham shortly after midnight, being somewhat later
than usual, was detained by the station-master, in order to
allow the up mail to pass. The mail was due at 12.40 a.m.,
but as it had not arrived at 1.15 cm,, the station•master
felt it dangerous to delay the luggage train any longer, and
the mail being 35 minutes overdue, he gave instructions to
the driver of the goods train to make the best of his way to
Swindon. Fifteen minutes elapsed after the departure
of the goods train before the mail reached Chip-
penham, and this being considered more than sufficient
time to allow the luggage train to get far in advance, the
driver of the mail does not appear to have been cautioned
on the subject. After the goods train left Chippenham a
heavy fog came on, and the load being heavy, and the rails
very slippery, the engine made but slow progress, and at
the foot of the Wootton Bassett incline, about Wes miles
from Chippenham, the train became almost stationary. At
this miment the mail came up, and the fog preventing the
driver from seeing the danger-signals of the engine on the
tail of the train of the mail, dashed into the rear of the
goods train with great force, crushing the guard's break
and a horse-box, and blocking up the line for some distance.
The guard of the goods train, perceiving the danger,
jumped out of his box, and escaped unhurt. The stoker
of the mail train also escaped, but the driver, a man named
Ellis, received very severe injuries about the head and face,
and it is considered doubtful whether he will recover.
The effect on the passengers in the mail train was lees
serious than might have been anticipated, and several par-
ties who happened to be asleep at the time were not eves
reused by the collisioo. The portion of the railway where
the accident occurred being some miles distant from any
Place where essistaneecould be procured, considerable delay
took place in clearing the line. The tint thing that could
be done was to uncouple the goods trucks, whieh were not
mach injured, from the debris of the horse-box and the
guard's break, and this having been accomplished, the
driver took them on to Swindon, whence • pilot engine
with a large body of men were sent down to the scene of
the accident. The hone-box having become fixed firmly
between the rails of the up-line,. it was found necessary to
send the mail back to Chippenham, and thence on to
Swindon, by the down line. The arrival of the mail in
town was thus delayed four or five hours, and letters frees
the west of England were not delivered in town on Satur-
day until after mid-day.
IMPORTANT TO SHIPOWNERs.—A ease of consider-
able importance to shipowners and seamen was heard on
Monday last by Mr. Ald. Dunn and Captain West, R.N.,
at the borough police court in this town. Mr. Scott, owner
of the ship Alexander, was summoned fur discharging six
foreign sailors at this port without the presence of the
shipping-master, and, therefore, contrary to the provisions
of the Mercantile Marine Act. Mr. Fleming appeared on
behalf of the Board of Trade and of the Local Marine Board
of Newcastle, and Mr. Lowrey, of North Shields, en behalf
of Mr. Scott. Mr. Fleming stated that the Alexander arrived
in this port from St. John's on the 3rd of December. Now
by the 13th and 14th Victoria, chapter 93, it was explicitly
declared, that, in the ease of foreign-going vessels, all sea-
men discharged in the United Kingdom shall be discharged
and receive their wages in the presence of • shipping.
master. In this ease, however, Mr. Scott discharged six
men, not in the presence of a shipping master, but die-
chewed them himself, at Shields. By the 101st section of
the act referred to, the penalty of such an act was any
911112 not exceeding 101. The Local Marine Board, how-
ever, thought that a fine of 21. for each sailor discharged
would meet the justice of the present case, and this miti-
gated penalty he asked the bench to sanction in place of
101., wishing most distiretly to state that the board had no
personal feelings of hostility against Mr. Scott, but merely
instituted proceedings for the purpose of teaching ship-
owners of the port of Newcastle and other districts the
law with respect to ships going from foreign porta. Captain
West expressed his opinion that the case was a very proper
one for this court. The bench, however, would have no
objection to the mitigation of the penalty in this case. Fined
121. accordingly.—Sewcastle Chronicle.
ROYAL INSTITUTION, ALIIEMARLE-STREET. —OR
Saturday Professor Faraday delivered at this institution
the third of a series of lectures (adapted to a juvenile audi-
tory) on attractive forces, before a very numerous assem-
blage of visitors, • large proportion of whom were of the
" rising generation." The lecture (which was brought
under the designation of " chemical force") was devoted to
• brief illustration of the peculiarities of electricity and the
attraction, Mc., produced by it. Professor
.1. a
in bodice,
niday lint
tested its excitement to a high degree by friction
such as glass with wax, resin, and then showed its entire
removal by passing the hand over the bodies, the whole
oecuring without any change is other properties..He next
demonstrated the attraction at • distance and afterwards dwelt
upon the equally powerful repulsions and the considera-
tions which suggested the idea of two kinds of electricity.
lye then proceeded to illustrate the transference of the
power from place to place by conviction and also by conduc-
tion, end the apparent independence of the power as re-
spected matter shown. He next called attention to the
peculiarity of light and heat produced by electricity in its
transmission across bad conductors, and offered, in conclu-
sion, some observations to prove that its presence was uni-
versal. The lecture was illustrated by a variety of in
teresting experiments, and was listened to with much
attention throughout.