The Express.
London, England, 1862-09-08 00:00:00

HIGH WATIRAT LONDON MIDGE.,

TIM, DAY Morning, lb. 50as.. AISDom sh 10111.
TO-DOlROW—Mornieg. Eh. 25+32.....ADar500n, Di. 4.m.

LONDON, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 8.

THE Archbishop of CArrasamtv has passed
peacefully away from the scene which he so long
adorned with a calm and gentle piety. Few
bishops have been more honoured by the general
body of their contemporaries than Dr. JOHN BIRD
SUMNER, and his death will rekindle the senti-
ments of reverence and esteem with which Chris-
tians of all orders have been accustomed to regard
him.

The anomalous arrangement under which the
most successful politician of the day gives chief
pastors to the Church of England excites the
admiration of Christendom ; but the most
light-hearted of Premiers will doubtless feel on
this occasion that a very serious duty is cast upon
him. Lord PALMERSTON has had a rare experience
in bishop-making. Without looking across the
Irish Channel, we may count up fourteen appoint
mental of this class under his administration.
Objections, some of them well founded, have been
made to certain tendencies perceptible in his nomi-
nations ; but we think the quiet worshippers who
make up the body of the Church would acknow-
ledge that on the whole they had never better rea-
son to be satisfied in this respect. Whatever orna-
mental acquirements the bishops of the present
day may lack they are men who regard the care
of true religion as their chief business. It was not
always so. For the high station now vacant,
however, the average bishop of the day will
not in all respects suffice. There are defects
which, though of comparatively small moment
in the administration of a restricted diocese,
the highest excellences could not compen-
sate in an Archbishop of Canterbury. If Lord
PAL mnawrow will on this occasion only look at
things with his own eyes, and give the country
the advantage of his practical sagacity, we shall
all have reason to thank him.

We think it will be generally agreed that in
these days it is not desirable that the Primate of
all England should be a man prominently con-
nected with either of the great Church parties.
The opposite tendencies which are struggling in
the bosom of the Established Church have their
root deep in English history, and are stimulated
by events of daily occurrence. To understand and
appreciate them, in order to do justice to both,
is one of the first duties of the prelate who is
placed at the head of the English hierarchy. This
is difficult under the most favourable circumstances,
but it would be peculiarly so to one who had iden-
tified himself actively with either side. No doubt
high responsibilities constitute of themselves an
education, and any Archbishop would come to learn
in time the value of good ministers of all kinds to a
religious society. But it is not desirable that he
should learn this lesson by a slow process at the
expense of the Church during years of weakening
prejudice. This matter is the more important,
because the old expedient for evading the diffi-
culty by selecting a person of weak religious cha-
racter, and then vaunting him as • " moderate "
man, is no longer applicable.
Another evil to be guarded against is the choice
of a bishop addicted to governing over much. It
would be easy to name prelates who are greatly
admired by some for the zeal which they display
in hunting up their clergy and driving them, when
possible, into novel and unauthorised organizations.
Not content with overseeing and encouraging, and,
if need be, stimulating the independent action of
the local pastor, they accuse themselves of negli-
gence if their hand is not seen and felt in all parts
of their diocese. An ordinary bishop needs some
high qualities to outweigh the evils of ex-
cessive interference, but we have only to suppose
the same meddlesome spirit transferred to the
sphere tilled by the Primate, enlarged as that has
been by the revival of Convocation, and imagine it
busying itself with the larger concerns of the
Church, to see how pernicious must be its action.
It is not superfluous to add, that the new Arch-
bishop should be a man who understands his
age, and especially its spiritual maladies, dan-
gers, and trials. Happily there is reason to
believe that we have bishops qualified to do this.
Unfortunately there are others who have taken
too many pains to prove that they do not, and are
moreover inclined to worry and annoy those who
do. Much of the efficiency of the Church of
England in the present generation will depend
on her power to win minds which, albeit Christian
in tone, need the patience of sympathy
while they struggle to the sun and centre of
religious truth through the perplexities of modern
thought. Certainly if we were in danger of ex-
aggerating the influence of the prelates of the
Church upon the formal and authoritative decla-
ration and Constitution of its doctrine, the expe-
rience of the last two years would have warned us.
But, without falling into this error, we may recog-
nise the great moral influence of the most eminent of
their number as representing to the world at
large, by their writings and in their personal inter-
course both public and private, the attitude, so to
speak, of their communion towards those who, weary