The Express.
London, England, 1848-01-14 00:00:00

THE 'EXPRtBB, FRIDAY EVENING, JANUARY 14, 1848.

11. We have to ingetire'llegebrieener it woad have been
Tight that Preetl.4s,...en .6..4.p, a being re-
onman er ,ded to hshainnepossedbr. hi Athena
to a sunned saran of •
eeendmhYs whin was
manihesly unjust, and whiett had ben anew set at
nought by the university itself.
As fee Dr. lisanden's general qualifications, of my own
prints opinion on that point I shall, of coiner, my nothing
but there Sr. mime in table facts cowman with it,
whin may probably be unknown to many of you, sad
whin Sought not to•be oveelookalta referent le the pre-
sent guidon. He obtained aesiendosi distinctions of
almost miry '
kind that maid be bestowed, either by
the advent, of by the college et which he was
dented Mow and tutor, and in which the fellow-
ship are sagests of pecelharly emu companies. And
bias UK SI, the appnalnint of the university and
of tti eleasseilet, several albs Idighost Gad most imporMat
aim,—pliltio examiner, fireboat of morel philosophy,
Bonstealestezer and head of a bone. His ability, and his
varier end szlese.n tiredness an gesonally acknowledged.
Aniipet, welder is ozganoll!opeonoo peoesse. what acrid
have Wand Wakens- to ileee the proisnesat a Man
" when pumessi Innis are nil I" •
I obi new weeds fors en arilibta Me et the periodicals,
not on assonat WOW ability with wink it is written, but, on
the contrary, bonne " a straw best noes how the wind
blows; ' because no writer is noisily the representative of
a elan not neonelisa he their aim b esea,—those who are
not at all neve in paint of fareighted wisdom
and elevation stabile' soneinown
the lawn elem.= sena," gays this writer,
"Goad nima Lied ;ski Rase to obsess out Dr. Hamp-
den, from mane the 15,000 eingyeass of the Church of
Blighted, to be dm new Bishop of Hereford ? Dr. Hamp-
den is ler than nobody." The writer evidently does not
mesa this to be andenton as signify lag that he is " jo-
hns is none."l " Ile is there tative of no party. He
Is the mouthmees of no ular set of opinions....
Theavangeliash distrust him to the full as much se the high
church party His claims, considered as a private pe-
en, are nil. Family influence he hes none ; and his repo-
nano, sea scholar and a divine, never would have been
taken into account at all, had not accident floated it, eleven
years ago, to the surface."
Now for the choice made by ministers may have been
easairl by the considerations here adduced to show the
alnagswes of It—how far Dr. Hampden's belonging to
=sly," and being the " mouth-piece of no
set of opinions," but adhering steadily
M the doctrines of his Bible and his church, and hoe
hieing risen to eminence without any aid whatever from
" family is " or from party influence, how far all this
may have recommended him to the choice of her Majesty's
advisers it is not for me to pronounce. But this, at least,
mast be evident to any sensible and right-minded man, that
whenever claims, generally, he may have been thought to
parr must have been greatly enhanced by the events of
the lest eleven years : first, because all men of any generous
feeling wish to distinguish and reward • deserving man, who
has been long subjected to unjust and cruel persecution; and
secondly, because Dr. Hampden's theological soundneas is
more fully established than any man's can be who has sot
been exposed to such attacks.
His works have been, as it were, tried in the fire. For
eleven years they have been scrutinised with the utmost
diligence, in search of something on which to fix a charge of
heresy. They "urged hint vehemently, and provoked him
to speak of many things ; laying wait for him, and seeking
to catch something out of his mouth, that they might
anus' him." For eleven years he has been demanding
a regular trial, and courting investigation. And in all
that time nothing has been established against him.
He has been assailed only by declamations,—by rumours
and suspicions,—and by gross falsifications. How many
theological authors are there whose writings have undergone
such a scrutiny ? How many of his accusers are there whose
own sermons could go through such an ordeal ? When, then,
a man, otherwise judged to possess high claims, has had
these laims thus strengthened, through the increased confi-
dence justly felt in one whom his opponents have long and
earnestly, but vainly endeavoured to convict of error, to have
passed over such a man, would naturally and reasonably have
been regarded as a sacrifice to party prejudice,—as an indi-
cation of a base and cowardly dread of unjust clamour. A
minister who should so act would be considered,—by the
best men, in his own times, amid by almost all men, in future
times,—as incurring deserved censure, for the sake of avoid-
ing undeserved. •
I should say, therefore, that, even supposing ministers to
have foreseen the very extraordinary movement that has
token place, they would not have been justified in allowing
themselves to be diverted from their purpose by the antici-
pation of so unreasonable an opposition. But,
Thirdly. Still more unjustifiable would it have been to
have withdrawn, in compliance with the remoastrants, the
recommendation laid before her Majesty, or to have sub-
jected Dr. Hampden to a trial on charges for which these
remonstranta ought to have brought hint to trial—if at all—
fourtee• years before. To have yielded to such an appli-
cation would hove been a gross dereliction of duty,
net less unwise than dishonourable' as tending to
shake the foundations of all legitimate authority, and
among the rest, not least, of episcopal authority. It
would have afforded a precedent and an encourage-
ment to any kind, and any amount, of wanton interference
with the exercise of the lawful rights, whether of the Sove-
reign or of any other functionary, civil, military, or ecclesi-
astical.
For example, let any one of you suppose the case of being
himself preaer.ted to a benefice in the bishop's patronage,
and of a remonstrance being sent to the bishop by some of
your brother clergy, together with some of the laity, praying
him to make choice of "some other person " instead of you :
and this, not on the ground of some imputed immorality of
private life, or of supposed strange doctrines maintained in'
private conversation, or, in short, anything that might have
never come to the bishop's knowledge (in which case he
might, with reason, commend those who had given him the
information, and make inquiries accordingly) ; but entirely
on the ground of your having published, several years before,
a work which had been charged with heresy at some public
meeting, by perilous of whom a large proportion had never
read the work, but judged of it from the representations of
avowed opponents and especially of one who has since joined
the church of Rome. And you should further sup.
pose that the persons thus remonstrating with the bishop
against you, did not themselves profess to believe the
charges; and that neither they nor any one else had insti-
tuted proceedings against you for heresy, but merely en-
treated the bishop to rescind his appointment of you, because
it would cause dissatisfaction in the minds of many, and dis-
turb the peace of the church In short, you are to suppose
them saying, as the Israelites did to Samson, "We ere
come down to bind thee, that we may deliver thee into the
hand of the Philistines .We will bind thee fast, and
deliver thee into their hand ; but we will not kill thee."

What would be your feelings, and what your expectations,
in such a case ? You would surely expect the bishop to do ,
justice at once to his own high office and to you. You would
expect him to reprimand the spplicants, as having suffered ;
themselves to be made the instruments for giving effect to ;
the unjust prejudices of others, and as countenancing an '
unwarrantaole interference with his rights. You would ,
expect him, instead of allowing himself to be controlled by ;
those of his clergy and people who were hunting you down '
with unjust clamour, to discharge the duty of his office, by
enlightening their judgment, and recalling them to their ,
duty. Should he act otherwise, you would regard him, I ;
conceive, as not only guilty of gross injustice towards your- ;
self, but as having deserted his post, and virtually trans- ,
(erred his authority to an irregular, and turbulent, and irre-
sponsible democracy. And you would consider hia conduct
as—what, thank heaven! it is—wholly unprecedented. But
a precedent for it there would have been had ministers ;
yielded to the remonstrances lately addressed to them. They ;
I would have shaken the foundations of all legitimate au- '
tkority, from that of the Sovereign downwards, and would
have left no man any protection against the worst effects of
party clamour and party persecution.
IV. I cannot but think, therefore, that the ill effects of
the late movement, the disturbance of the peace of the
church, and the contempt and odium thereby excited ,
li against it, and which, in fairness, must be imputed to the
authors of the movement, would have been incalculably
increased had the movement proved successful. Already ,
our bitterest opponents, amongst those who stigmatise us ,
as heretics, and those who decry episcopacy, are exult- ,
ing over our di/41,131.10ne ; while many members of our own ,
church have evidently had their confidence in its rulers
and in its constitution greatly shaken. But if the movement
had proved successful, every man of good sense would have
foreseen, what the rest would have soon learned by expe-
rience, that a total change must ensue in the constitution of
our church, and that the offices of it were to be henceforth
disposed of by a most irregular and turbulent kind of
election. Any man, whose superior learning or ability might
have exposed him to the jealousy of some of his brethren, or
who might have become an object of dread to a party, by his
firm opposition to their attempts to introduce strange doe.
trines or practices, would find a cabal formed against him,
which, calling itself " the Church," would overawe and in-
duce to join with them many well-meaning, out ill.advised,
persons, who are alw tys ready to make unlimited concessions
for the sake of avoiding a disturbance ; and remonstrances
and protests, continually more and more loud and peremp-
tory,.would be interposed to prevent this and that person'.
appointment to a bishopric or to a living, for fear of dis-
pleasing " the Church ;" and ultimately, no doubt, to dic-
tate to the nominal patron what person he must appoint, in
order to gratify " the Church."
Better, by far, would it be, that the constitution of our
church should be changed avowedly and regularly, and
placed upon a democratic footing, than that such irregular
encroachments should be encouraged—that the power nomi-
nally vested in the constituted authorities should be, vir-
tually, and in practice, exercised by any who should com-
bine to overawe them.
lam myself no friend to unlimited democracy, If
rectors and bishops were to be elected by a mejonty of
votes of the people, I believe that turbulence and heart-
burning' would be the result, and that the persons elected
would not usually be the fittest and most deserving. But
still, the person chosen in each instance would, at least, be
the one whom the real majority of the electors had, whether
wisely or not, preferred ; and at lent the wise and good, and
peaceably disposed, would have their share of thfluenee.
But if the constituted authorities of the church, or of any
other institu'ion, are intimidated and controlled by the
clamours of any self-constituted body of men, the result is
that the decision of every question is left exclusively, in the
hands of those who are the most turbulent, the most daring,
and the most unscrupulous.
For, in the absence of a well•constituted and firmly-
administered government, it is wonderful how small a
number of men of this description will usually succeed in
overawing the rest, and in representing their voice ss the
voice of the people, of then urch of the whole community.
In proportion as we appro towerds a state of anarchy, we
are always approaching to the condition of the worst kind of
oligarchy—the domineering of a few violent and unscru-
pulous men over the rest.

da:Zersies are seer the Weber emaliell, In Proportion es
Isla a disorganised ark teed destitute of an di
Vat
Ter
emislomi madame tor their boastful end
of thetroh. They are en-
, allied hi tido Nal that way z=, to join, therej
that Wig, have simoody *oho ro Mg,
lailailrgastreadosal rig,
*Mr nos Pr•tal
dem they mooed in steeds, vddl a pipit m
, imam maim than their own, by le Ulu=
•iiidelet's WO soldiers, who, by a sudden of
mad hawk • of Ire alarmed the OM
lariat tirmatiVis eaaaoai fay a great . Itis weendes,
and them wits with table ea the eoeaestut, sea the pagniar
11 sib, ara Asa 'sauced to aid in giving Chola victory. frees a
peresselen that they are already sure of it. And the timid,
and these who are such unwise levers of peace as to be
willing eternalit by yielding to the violent, refrain haw
all top roceedings which they inwardly (limp
prove; and are thence reckoned as favourable or as let-
different be sash proceedinp.
NIUDINOOII exemplifications of what I have been
might be cited from the annals of the French
It often happened that a comparatively small number off 111111111
were enabled, in that disorganised state of society, to over-
awe Paris, which in turn overawed France; and thee to rep
prment themselves as "tie French nation." And in this
island it has often happened that • comparatively small MIMI.
bar of agitators have been enabled, by clamour, by primes
golleitations, by simulating false roman, by representing
themeless as " the people," by dark threaM,—to overawe
and hold in a kind of subjection whole districts, of which the'
meater pactof the population, could their real wishes be
own, would gladly escape that thraldom.
I will here mention an anecdote, relating to a matter ig
trifling importance in itself, which (yet illesezetes what I
was saying es to the mistakes which men are bilk In eide.4
mit is estimating the real faros of agitators. sans' Mtge
of a pariah in Suffolk, I proposed to tare foolgedifs an*
a manner as to afford greatly besseimed e
lateenallegsm
most of the inhabitants. But the change was Illswielee
advantage to the rectory-house. This cireemeteneee lee
sufficient to arouse some of thou agitators who area to be
found, I suppose, more or lee, in every poi*. They in-
duced a small number to believe that the proposed change
was detrimental ; and a pod many more to believe that
the parishioners thought it so. They called meetings, and
made speeches, and circulated loud complaints of the projected
injury to the pubis for the benefit of an individual. And
some of my friends were so far misled by these representa-
tious as to advise the abandonment of the plan, on the
ground that the parhhioners—though most esteem's-
ably and unamountably—objected to it. I expreseed
strong doubts of the fact ; but promised that if,
on fair inquiry, I should find the majority opposed
to the change, I would think no more of it. Accord-
ingly, I sent round several gentlemen to go from house to
house throughout the parish, and, without using any soli-
citations, or entente into any discussions, simply to desire
each householder, if he thought proper, to put a white or a
black bean into a bag presented to him, according as he was
favourable or unfavourable to the proposed alteration. Most
of them did se ; though some few professed indifference, and
stood neuter. The result was, to the surprise of some of sty
friends, that there appeared, for the plan, upwards of 300
votes, and against it only twenty-nine. Yet these, who
were lose than a tenth, had contrived to make some persona
believe that they were " the parish."
Mistakes of this kind, as to the relative numerical strength
of parties, and as to what is really the public opinion en
each point, are, as has been above remarked, the more
likely to prevail, and to lead to the subjection of the many
to a few, and those, the least worthy to bear rule,—in pro-
portion as any society is in a disorganized condition, and
under no settled and steadily-administered government, It
is on this account, chiefly, that I have eo long and so ear.
neatly advocated a church-government; not a government
independent of the state, or claiming control over temporal
causes sad properties, but in due subordinatian to the state,
and in its own legitimate province ; not (what some seem to
understand by church government) a government by the
clergy, but, as in the American Episcopal Church, by the
clergy and laity conjointly; only, by those, exclusively, who
are members of the church.
And yet I have little doubt that the very idea of a church
government will, by many, be regarded with greater dread
and aversion than ever, in consequence of the late move.
meet ; as if the absence of such government were the best
security against the party contests, intrigues, and cabals
which are actually occurring before our eyes! Perham some
of our ancestors reasoned thus at the time of Cade's rebel
lion, sad the French Jacquerie, ; saying, " You see how
turbulent the people are as it is ; how much wens they
would be if they had • free parliament ?" In troth, a well
constituted government is the only effectual check to soak
evils as we are cuff ring under ; and, among others, to the
mistake above alluded to, respecting the real numerical
strength of clamorous agitators.
By far the most pernicious mistake, however, is that of
thou short-sighted lovers of peace, who think to secure it
by yielding to the clamorous and violent, whether many or
few, fur fear of occasioning a disturbance. There are always
men ready to take advantage of this diepeeition, by resolvingd
that there never shall be peace as long as any of their de-
mands remain unsatisfied. When our ancestors bought off
pirates by payment of Dane-gelt, they were, in fact, hiring
the Danes to repeat their incursions. Those who thus par-
chase present peace, are sure to produce, in the end, more
frequent and more violent contest', unless they are prepared
to make unlimited concessions, and ultimately to submit to
a complete tyranny. A timid and short-sighted mother is ,
sometimes induced to grant her children improper indul-
gences, and to aboain from enforcing wholesome regulations,
for fear of occasioniag a present disturbance, arising out of
the rebellious wilfulnese of some of them. But we do not
find that families thus managed present an aspect of superior
peace and contentment.
Yet many are always found (as in the present case) in-
clined, while they disapprove of the proceedings of the agita-
tors, yet to lay the chief blame on the imprudence of those
who, as they express it, caused the agitation, by refusing to
submit to the wishes of the more violent and intemperate.
And it is tree that almost every disturbance of the public
peace is, in a certain sense, caused by those who refuse such
submission : and they will always be, by some persons, re-
proached as occasioning such disturbance. We find Paul
represented by his enemies as a " mover of sedition." He
and his fellow-labourer* are described as "the men that
have turned the world upside down ;" and to them, doubt-
less, were imputed the tumults at Corinth, at Ephesus, and
elsewhere ; so far with truth, that if they had but refrained
from preaching the gos el of their divine master those tu-
mults raised against them would not have occurred. It is
true, that—u he foretold,—that Gospel did not " bring peace
on earth, but division." But it is the height of absurdity,
as well as of injustice, to cast the blame of disturbances of
the peace, not on those who unreuocably and unjustly make
such disturbances, but on those who occasion them by re-
fusing to forego the faithful discharge of their duty.
I cannot see, therefore, why the whole blame of the pre-
sent outbi eat, and all the evils resulting from it, should not
lie at the door of these exclusively who have taken part is
it, and especially of those who were the first movers of the
commotion.
These first movers, both thepresent occasion and also
en that which occurred on Sit esppointment of Dr. Hampden
to the professorship, are, I have no doubt, the members of
that party from which the Oxford Tracts emanated, and who
have acquired of late yearn an accession of strength which,
considering the exposure of their real principles that has
taken place, is as strange as it is alarming. Yet, on both ore '
casions, they succeeded in inducing several persons to join in
their assaults on Dr. Hampden, who do not really approve
of the doctrines and practices of the party.
By these who do maintain the principles of those tracts
Dr. Hampden's Hampton Lectures were early assailed,
though with little or no effect on the public mind. The cause
of the hostility was obvious. His lectures were, as well as
all his subsequent publications, wholly at variance with the
doctrinces of the tracts ; especially with their endeavours to
place human expositions and formularies, and oral traditions,
on a level with the Holy Scriptures. Accordingly, the title, as I
remember, of one of the earliest pamphlets written against him
was, " The Foundations of the Faith assailed at Oxford."
One may naturally ask, of what faith ?" Manifestly, the
faith of the Tract party, and not that of our church. For
this latter has its foundation on Scripture alone, which is
expressly declared to " contain all things necessary to salva-
tion ;" while creeds and other formulanes are received by
our church, not as a foundation, but as a superstructure, " be-
cause they may be proved by Holy Writ." Now it has never
been even pretended that Dr. Hampden impugned the autho-
rity of Scripture. The "faith" therefore wham ' foundations"
he was accused of assailing (and he did wail them very
powerfully), is manifestly not that of the church, but that of
those nominal members of it who studiously inculcate
doctrines utterly opposed to its fundamental principles.
The pamphlet just alluded to I recollect hearing my
valued friend Dr. Arnold, mention, as affording an instance
of the general disregard of truth in the writers of that
school. He pointed out to me that the author speaks of a sort
of combination of persons, whom he names, to propagate cer-
tain doctrines they had agreed upon, being connected together
by the bonds not only of community of opinions but
by those of intimate private friendship ; enumeratiog, among
others, Dr. Arnold himself, Dr. Hampden, Mr. Blanco
White, Dr. Hinds, and myself. Now, of althese persons,
there was, Dr. Arnold remarked, no one, besides myself,
of whom, in reference to him, the above description
was not utterly untrue. He never had any particular in-
timacy with Dr. Hampden ; and with Dr. Hinds and
Mr. Blanco White he never had se much as a vita-
ing acquaintance. "Not," raid he "that I should
have bad any reason to be ashamed of such an inti-
macy, had it existed; but as it never did, the put-
ting forth of such a fabrication to serve a turn,—to excite
suspicions agaiast a supposed clique of intimate friends con-
spiring together to propagate a certain theological system,—
serves to show the unprincipled recklessness of truth of
which we have, of late years, sees so many deplorable
instances."
In the same spirit it has been lately maintained, I under-
stand, by a nearconnexion of Mr. Newman, that Dr, Hamp-
den's Bampton Lectures were the work not to much of him-
self as of Mr. Blanco White; because the latter had been
observed to give utterance in conversation to many of the
sentiments contained in the lectures; no very wonder-
ful result, one would think, of his having heard or read what
Dr. Hampden was writing, and having acquiesced in some
of his views. Any who are at all acquainted with Dr.
Hampden, how little never they may concur with him in
opinion, mast be well aware that he is one of the last men to
adopt and maintain, on any human authority, conclusions of
which he was not fully convinced. Nothing could have
induced either him or any of the other persons above
alluded to, to combine together like the tract.writers,
as described by two of their own number,—Messrs. Palmer
and Perceval,—to circulate publications which some of them-
selves regarded as containing erroneous and mischievous doe.
trines like the Roman Triumvirs, each of whom consented
to sacrifice some of his own friends to the murderous hatred
of the others, on condition of receiving • like favour from his
colleagues in return. The close friendship which existed be-
tween Dr. Arnold and myself was not impaired by thine dif-

fewness of opinion between is on several points, which are
well known to the readers of our respective works ; nor,
again, did that friendship induce tither of aa to proles or
propagate anything that he did not in his heart believe or
to suppress anythieg that he *received to be as important
trot.
Buht, to thorougtogoiag and unscrupulous party-men. it lo
difficult to understand at all those who act oa higher mg
purer principles.
The earliest 'midis made by the tract party (far less nu-
merous then than now) on Dr. Hampden, produced, as I
have said. little or no affect on the public mind, till the mid
'leaden of hie pamphlet on Dissent (above adverted to) gave
offence to many others, and induced them to seek, in a
charge of heterodoxy, a pretext for censuring his appoint-
ment to be mitts professor.
But when this charge was thus made, I have no doubt
that some well-meaning, but incautious, permits suffered
themselves to be influenced by the misrepresentations that
we,. industriously circulated, and voted against him under
a sincere conviction that he was heterodox. When he
pointed out—what is undeniably true—that several terms
and phrases in which the articles of our faith are commonly
expressed, are of human, and not of scriptural origin, it was
easy to penned. some who were not very clear ressoners,
that he represented the Articles of Faith themselves as un-
scriptural, and of man's invention. And when passages in
hie works were pointed out to them, which aught, when
taken apart from the contest, be understood as favouring
Socinian, Sabellian, or Irian views, they failed to reeollect
that the same is notoriously the ems with the Bible itself ;
since otherwise, those sects—each appealing to Scripture,
which they interpret according to their own respective viam
—never could have arisen.
I shall not, as I have already said, enter upon any full die-
elusion of Dr. Hampden's theological views; bet I believe
the above to he a correct and full account of the mistake (se
I conceive it to be) of those who sincerely regarded his lec-
tures as at variance either with Scripture or with the tenets
of our church.
But I would again remind you that bad there been, in the
judgment of his accusers, any just ground for such a sus-
picion, they would not have waited 14 years before they
thought of bringing him to a regular trial, and have ulti-
mately abandoned the design as hopeless. Many, accord-
ingly, of those who were Minced to join in the first move-
ment against Dr. Hampden have long sines repented of
their rashness, and advocated the rescinding of the vote of
censure. And the same, I have no doubt, will be the case
with many of those who have taken part in the present
movement. Calm and dispaesiorate reflection will turn
their indignation against those who have seduced them into
prejudging, and condemning without good evidence; and
who have led them to mistake one of the universities, or
some self-appointed committees, for the church, and to allow
them to assume it* title and usurp its functions.
I shall rejoice if what I have said shall have furnished
you with such information as you sought, and if the remarks
I have made shall have been such a, you concur in. It is
always satisfaetory to me to find myself acting end thinking
with my clergy and with the other members of the united
church. But this desirable result can only be brought about
by a coincidence of my own deliberate judgment with your
opinions and your wishes. I will never—as you must long
since have been well aware-60 lend myself to the preju-
dices or to the designs of any person or party, however
powerful, an to do or profess to encourage in others, any-
thing contrary to my own sincere conviction.
Be it your business and mine to appeal with single-hearted
desire of truth, to Scripture and to sound reason. May
we be enabled, through divine help, to find the truth, and
to agree in it ; or if in any point differences of opinion arise,
may we have grace to differ without bitter hostility, and
without disturbance of the peace of the Christian world !
And may we be enabled to put in practice the apostle's pre-
cept, to " Study to be quiet (4wArrtiatar6u ilovxa(etv), and
to mind our own business"—the instruction end the guidance,
by good example as well as by precept, of those committed to
our charge !