The Express.
London, England, 1851-01-25 00:00:00

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LONDON, BATURDA 7, JANUARY 23.

A correspondence and statement of facts bas ap-
peared in the Daily News, which, were the church of
England in any but a very anomalous state, would be
read with feeling., not of dirges*. only, but!:of in-
credulity. —raven IC=
Mr. It.IOSIIAW, one of the partiees to this cones-
nondence, seems to bare been long impressed with
the lamentable deficiency of church accommodation
which exist' in the metropolis, and some months since
he determined to do something to diminish that de-
ficiency. His attention was turned to a part of
London which lies not a thousand miles from the
Paddington estate of the bishop of that diocese, and
finding that although that prelate was very sensible
of the charms of a well-secured ground-rent, be
had not been equally alive to the more spiritual
beseeies of a well-filled church, Mr. BAOSIIAW
fixed upon a site in the Westbourne-park-road, Bays-
water, made an agreement with the ground landlord.
determined to vest the church in trustees for the
whole term of his lease of ninety-nine years, so as to
prevent the application of the building for any other
purpose, made his plans, executed hie contract, stakt.d
out his ground, dog his foundations, and began.
Mr. BAO9IIAW no doubt laboured under a delusion,
which is certainly a very common one, and one to
which we can plead guilty to have been ourselves sub-
ject, that the Bishop of LONDON is desirous of treed-
leg church accommodation. And if this cones2on.
dere:: Les no other s &et, it will certainly have the
very salutary effect of dispelling this delusion, and of
informing the public that what the Bishop of LONDON
really desires to do is to consecrate and endow new
buildings with spire and bell, while he is totally cal-
lous to the true object of church-boilding—thelireach-
ing of the (lapel. But the fond dreams of Mr. BAG-
SHAW were soon to be dispelled, and no exorcist of the
middle ages could with greater celerity have " scat-
tired the rear of darkness thin," than the
Bishop, by his first paragraph, gave to the,
winds any vain imagination which might brave
ler lied in the mind of his correspondent,
that he Lad the spiritual good of his diocese at betel.
lie have the spiritual good of his eiocese at heart;'
Why, in all these letters there is not a word which
might not have been written by the priest of Jug-
gernaut. Church extension, forsooth! say, rather,
I bishops' exaltation. How strong must he the secu-
larising influences of a position like his, to have suc-
ceeded so completely as they appear to have done in
rendering the Bishop utterly careless even of the
decent formalities of a Christian profession.
It appeals from the oorrespozdesee that there is at
Paddington Mr. Goren, whc, we believe, unites
in his own harmonious person the double
office of local surveyor and agent for the Bishop
of LONDON. This übiquitous gentieman, in the
course of his prowls round the parish, was not slow
in detecting preparations for a building of • most
questionable character. What could it be? A dis-
senting meeting house? If so, his vigilance is vain,
for there is no law or rule to prevent any such edifice,
however the hearts of true churchmen may be wrung
by so sad a spectacle. But perhaps it is a proprietary
chapel. He grasps at the notion a ith the avidity of
a bishop's jackal, and he finds it to be true. Conceive
with what glee he hails the next cab, and posts
down to London House to eimmtinicate the

delightful news. A Bishop shall here the
rare felicity of stopping the building of • church.
The delight of the prelate is more easily imagieed
than described. But he cubs Lie natural *initialer'',
and despatches an epistle which positively Miele, of
sheepskin, and which any man who had ever read oe'
paid for a lawyer's letter could not fail to recognise ee
belonging to that peculiar order of composition. Hal
" thinks it right to let Mr. BAGSDAW know that he
cannot license any unconsecrated proprietary chapel,"
&c. Mr. BAGNUAR remonstrates, pointing out
in a very calm manner that the effect of the
Bishop's veto would be to deprive many hundreds
of people of church accommodation, and also al-
luding, but with no very great stress, to the heavy
pecuniary less which the Bishop's freak would bring
Dim under. It is not likely that a man who is
weedy callous to the spiritual wants of his diocese,
should bestow one civil expression of regret at a
sacrifice which does not affect the income of theme
of London. Through half a dozen letters the argu-
ment is carried on—if argument it can be called,
where all the might is on ore side, and all the right
on the other. 'lite eatlict, of course, ends in the
triumph of Guide and Company, and Mr. BAG9IIAW
retreats, heavily damaged in pose and deeply disap-
pointed in spirit.
We trust that our readers will not be contented
with this brief summary of the proceeding, but
read for themselves the correspondence in another
column. Space will not permit us to analyse it
so closely as we could wish, but there are
certain points to which we would shortly advert
And the first of these is the marvellous absence of
any semblance of religious feeling in the letters of the
Bishop of LONDON. It never seems for one moment
I to strike him that by iosistieg ou this rule of cones-
' eratien and erdownient he is to this one inseam.' alone
interfering with the church accommodation of 1,500
persons, and hinderieg the good effects which, if the
religion he professes be true, must in all human
probability be derived thence. He does in-
deed introduce some slight swagger as to his
having procured the erection of 63 additional
churches in the metropolis; how many has be shut
op or prevented building? But it never occurs to his
Lordship to consider what an awful responsibility he
is taking upon himself in standing in the way of
the spiritual enlightenment of thousands. Twenty-
two or twenty-three years has this blind guide been
sacrificing the interests of the religion which he pro-
lessee to believe, to an ecclesiastical theory. Day after
day, month after month, year after year, the encored .
for thousands of London have been pitched headlongl
into the reeking peel-pits, which are designated by
the mime of churchyards. They have rotted away a
1 'theme life in garrets and cellars ; they fled appro-
priate sepulture in a pauper's grave. Hive these mi-
-1 fortunate beings, victims of circumstance, ever heard
even the leading facts of that religion which the
&shop of LONDO'N is paid a prince's revenue for up-
' holding ? Many thousands of them have perished, ,
do perish, will perish, as ignorant of Christian it as:
brats*, and all the while the arch-priest wraps him- I
self in his purple and fine linen, and chuckles with
delight that he his prevented the licereieg of a single
(delight
church fur three-and-twenty years.
There is no more melucholy spectacle than that of
• man who, with great opportunities for good, has
abused these opportunities for an evil object. And
such t man is the 11,shop of LONDON. Raised by his
own abilities from a comparatively humble station—
a station of which, to his credit be it spoken, he has
never been ashamed—the country schoolmaster's boy
has become chief spiritual ruler of • city which is ell