The Express.
London, England, 1848-01-04 00:00:00

T 9 CO RII LSrl / RErf.

D "—The *teal half 01 obe £ note nWof ta Nn. O. I. G0b1e...4 pl
by manta antra, Inand,^ b,. o naiad.
n• hharanonent• onoetnno.l one la Lateran.- Inning. Panda pa.. tuna
be a the babe. a honorer...taet. be Two ...cart a the ay a patlba.

HIGIf O'ER AT LONDTI

Two rho— Mom., 24 mas. we 0 . MUT 0100.70;la. loot 0.
To MO•6oW—llerang, Y..if mot I: AM/we% 3) ow. mot I.

LONDON, TUESDAY, JAN. 4.

THERE is little temptation to criticise the Bishop
of Oxeor-o's letter to Dr. HAMPDEN. All persons of
all parties, lovers of ecelesiestical authority, and en-
thusiasts for the royal prerogative, friends and oppo-
nents of Dr. lisuenex, high church and low church,
will form a nearly similar judgment of 1)r. WILBER-
Foßees conduct as a whole, although some may cen-
sure one part of it by pref, rence, and some another.
Among the various insufficient reasons assigned by the
Doan of HEREFORD to justify his propessl disobe-
dience to the QPEEN'S letter of Hectic:, one argument
was drawn from the high character, learning, and
piety of the Bishop of Oxiotto, as one of the parties
to the remonstrance against 1/r. HAMPDEN. For the
remaining fallacies of his letter, for the r. &rouse to
the matriculation oath, and to King XVILLIANIN
private life, the dean must still be responsible ; but it
was really hard upon him to be induce• ! to lean on such
a broken reel as the Bishop of Oxientu's support. In
remarking on the address to Lord J. Ittsiesm. by the
13 bishops, we endeavoured to point out the unreason-
ableness of their renting their opposition on the fact that
charges against Dr. HAMPDEN had been made, with.
out pledging themselves to the truth of those charges.
We then thought it possible that some or all of the
remonstrant prelates might be really ignorant, as well
as judicially eon-cognisant. of the %melts of the cele-
brated " Hampton Lectures," but we scarcely expected
that one of the most prominent members of the body
would, in a short time, openly avow that he had never
investigated the charges on which he relied, and that
on inquiry he dissevered that they were unfounded.
It appears to us to savour of impertinence, at least
in the legal sense of that term, for the bishop who has
countenanced accusations of sy against his future
colleague, and affected to take official notice of
them, to accompany his retractation, not with
an apology, or an expre salon c f regret ; but with
criticisms on the style of his injured opponent, and
" longings for the manifestation of a mole nverential
spirit. It is barely conceivable that the bishop
should have thought, that his duty demanded of
him to countenance a prosecution against the
rector of Ewelmo at the moment when he was about
to leave the rectory and the diocese for offences
which had not called for any notice from the bishop
or his predecessor, at a time when Dr. HAMPDEN was
permanently settled within their jurisdiction; but we
know of no law, or canon, or tradition, except the
rule aflame poem lessens, which requires or entitles
Dr. ll'ibeeiteemee to publish his literary disappro-
bation of the works which it is no longer convenient
to treat as heretical. He has made a mistake, and he
retreats. That lie should cover his retreat by pre-
tending to continue his attack is very natural and
intelligible, but not very creditable. In the whole of
the bishop's conduct, and in his own account of
it, we are at a loss to discover one cre-
ditable circumstance. He has made a mistake—in a
worldly point of view—and he tries, awkwardly
enough, to repair it.
The moral mistake, which explains hie conduct,
lies a good deal deeper, or rather, it can scarcely
be called a mistake. He says that his "remon-
strance was grounded on the censure of the
University of Oxford, tied on the aide prevalence of a
strong opinion of the unsoundness of some of your
published writings." The bishop blindly accepts the
authority of the Oxford majority, and of common re-
port, on a question which it might be supposed parti-
cularly belonged to himself, as the oiocesan of the
alleged heretic. But it farther appears that Dr.
WILBERFoRCE himself formed a part of the majority
who concurred in the vote of censure, and added
whatever authority his name could c trey to " the
strong opinion of the unsoundness of Dr. HAMPDEN'S
writings." Quiet country clergymen may be excused for
overrating the value of a decision by the convocation on
a point of doctrine ; but Dr. WILBERFORCE, who pro-
fesses to be a scholar, a divine, and a leader in the
church, who has long been a dignitary, and now is a
bishop, could scarcely suppose that, if he condemned
without examining, all the members of the hetero-
geneous majority, lay and clerical, except himself,
had taken a severer view of the duty of candour and
justice. Probably some of those who concurred in
the vote of censure may have been influenced by the
authority of the very individual who now justifies
himself by their decision. He must know that the
first duty of a bishop who hears that one of his
clergy is charged with heresy, is not to demand in-
quiry, or to make common report of guilt a ground for
punishment ; but to inquire himself. If the doctrines,
alleged to be heretical, are contained in a book, it
seems an obvious course to read it. The bishop
has now read the Hampton Lectures; and he
finds that "they do not justly warrant those suspi-
cions of unsounduess to which they have given rise,
and which, to long as I trusted to selected extracts, I
my self shared." He even seems to think that he shows
candour and fairness in this late retractation, and
that his former hostility was as much in the ordinary
course of things NI his present concession. Let us
illustrate his position by an imaginary case. If the
bishop had been informed that the chancel of Ewelme
Church was in ruins, and that the rector in omission of
his duty, neglected to repair it, he might have taken
no notice of the matter till the vacancy of the see of
. •

Hereford occurred. He might then 'have alleged to
the crown, as a reason for withdrawing the nomina-
tion, that. according to common report, the bishop
elect had been guilty of a serious neglect of
duty, to the injury of his parish, and that
it was fitting that some inquiry should take place into
the facts before the delinquent rector was raised to a
higher station. Failing in his application to the
crown, he might have signed " ministerially " the
necessary documents for authorising the commence-
ment of an ecclesiastical prosecution. At this stage of
the proceedings, under some unaccountable influence
we must suppose the thought to have for the firsi
time occurred to the mind of the bishop, that it would
be as well to inquire into the tact. He rides over to
Ewelme. lie finds the chancel in perfect order, the
ten commandments brilliant with gilding, not a
pane in the east window broken, and a notice posted
up that boys who throw balls near the church
will be tsken into custody. Returning home
in altered mood, lie informs the promoters of
the ecclesiastical suit that he cannot allow it to pro-
ceed any leather; and he writes to the persecuted
rector to admit that the building is in excellent re-
pair, but tnat he feels it his duty frankly to state
that he found a cobweb in a corner under one of the
altar rails. _ _ _. . _

--.--.,...
Substitute the spiritual for the brick and mortar
o;soaside I,ocm/trier, and this is an accurate = of
the Bishop of Oxfono's proceedings with to
the alleged breach in the edifice of the faith. It is
amusing to observe that his functions with regard to
the ecchsiastical suit, shift their character as readily
as his policy and intentions. When he signed the
letters of request a fortnight ago, his office was
merely ministerial: now that he is, for whatever
reason, in metre judicial frame of miud, his duty also
is judicial. It suited him to commence the prosecution,
and it suite him to stop it ; and fortunately he finds
that in one case it was his duty to be passive, and in
the other to be active.
In whatever manner either or both of these courses
may or may not have suited the Bishop of OXFORD,
or those whom after inducing to follow him in his op-
position he has deserted, it will answer the interests of
the public and of the church. The HAMPDEN contro-
versy may, we hope, be considered entirely at an end.
The orthodoxy of the bishop elect has obtained the
testimony of one of his most active opponents; and
it is admitted that the censure was based on hearsay,
ongossip, and on garbled extracts, w
tion is justified by full know
If the Bishop of OxroßD WOW 7, 14 Mink
extracts,
\,'",! ill : , ~ ".•
rer
......._.c" 1• ' - "7:
..... s ' .—..
tr. •: •• r .::.
~ -.'.-- .• .
. 1
_`.-.' :1.7 : • :1'