The Express.
London, England, 1866-08-24 00:00:00

BENSON, J. W., by ecial Appointment to
H. IL H. Use eatPr Willa

BENSON'S SILVER and ELECTRO-PLATE.
Prize Radii, 1962.

BENSON'S GOLD
masa*. JEVITEPXBY, Novel
me

• B W
ENSON,OIdBend-streetandestbourne-grove.
MOM Factory and ats Bhow Roos.
58 and 00, La 0840.8111

MAPINBROTiIKR.S. —Rstablished A.D. 1810.

CRESTSof SILVERTIATE for the COLONIES,

CUTLERY and SHAVER PLATE for
ll PURNMSHUKI.

WPM BROTHERS, LONDON-BRIDGE.

MAPPIN BRtYrHKRS, 222, REGENT-
STREET.

ArrErt WHAT t—After Mellon's Promenade
Coocorts, WANT to sop. Ws &all most them

rne
earproiL

TO 00R111113PONDENTS
oteerdeenwinte intended for " The Swum." London Evelang
=Banat be at the Oak% 10, lloaverieetroet , by Teo
it eek the day of publication.

NM WALTZ& n LONDON =DWG
Tim DAY —Morning, Oh.
,Ma MUMMA Ob. 60,0.
TO•NIOIMON—Mornhig, 4/tersoes, L 4Sm.

PRENCIENTE
TV Evian's, THE HUGUENOT CAPTAIN. Mews Thing,
sad G. Homy ; Mares Mann Asians Timms. sad Mn.
ithilag—iad Quin LODUL*OB.

113.111.111f1A.
TIMI svisrtia, JACC WI/400, MI LONDON WWI
BOY. Mr. Raynekb Yansold. Mr. G. W. Jester;
Mr. F. Evans & Mies Amy Rosalind ; Mr. C. Brown ; Miss Lydia
Loaner ; Maxim R. ikuidars.—And DIOGENNA

-- - -
LONDON, FRIDAY, AUGUST 24.

Tat Bishop of OXFORD'S vacation speeches,
though at times disfigured by patches of soma-
what tawdry rhetoric, are for the mast part
interesting and agreeable, and have an incidental
significance which relieves them from the charge
of being simply musical wind. He possesses in
an eminent degree the ready insight, facile enthu-
siasm, and command of effective address, which
enable him to seize quickly the general drift of
current opinions, to reflect their more superacial
phases in the most popular forms of speech, and
dextrously apply them to Mind:rate the particular
subject in band. Such attractive gifts, no doubt,
expose their possessor to peculiar temptations, and
may at times, perhaps in the ease even of the right
reverend prelate himself, have proved a snare.
As a favourite and celebrated speaker he naturally
likes to be for the moment in sympathy with his

audience, and almost instinctively trim his sails to
catch the passing breeze of opinion—social, eccle-
siastical, or political. bToman ever understoodbe.ter
the theory and practice des accommodentents. In the
presence of his clerical brethren, leavened
to a considerable extent by enthusiastic ritualism,
he exalts the priestly order, raises the Church
above the Bible, and looks with a friendly eye on
even the most extreme innovations of Anglo-
Catholicism. On the other hand, when brought
into contact with the evangelical section of the
Church, he speaks so fervently of what they have
in common, that single-minded low Churchmen
amongst his hearers cannot help thinking that his
sympathies are wholly with them. When sur-
rounded by the active laity, merchants, farmers,
and men of business, be takes a practical utilita-
rian view of life, and impresses the topic in hand
on their attention by appeals to their com-
mercial experience and material interests. But
if this flexibility of mind has its draw-
backs, it has also its advantages.
It enables the Bishop of Oxroan to realise the
strength of popular convictions, and appreciate
the true bearing of established facts more readily
than many of his episcopal brethren; and this in
itself gives at times a surprising directness to his
discussion of vexed questions. If as a sympathetic
overseer he gratifies alternately the sentiment of
rival parties in the Church, as a man of the world
he quietly acquiesces in the logic of events, and
accepts the doctrine of accomplished facts in
a manner that must be almost revolting to
Churchmen made of sterner stuff. His refe-
rence to the crisis in the Colonial Church at a
recent meeting at Salisbury, for example, well
illustrates this delightful versatility of the Bishop's
mind and character. Omnia omnibus. While
fully acknowledging the difficulties and perplexi-
ties connected with the position to which the
Colonial Church has been legally reduced, he
said boldly that if the Church looked the diffi-
culty in the face, it need not be afraid of it :
"He would not enter into the question
" whether it was better or worse that the
" Chunh in the Colonies should not be established.
" It was a fact, and Englishmen in their wisdom
" accepted facts, instead of speculating how things
" might have been if such and such an event had
" not occurred. They knew that the sun gave
" light by day and the moon by night, and if a
" man were to speculate on what the result would
"be if the order was reversed he would not get
" many listeners. What they wanted to know
" was the fact, and then to deal with the fact."
The Bishop's speech at Lewes " On the Spiri-
" tual Destitution existing in many parts of Eng-
" land " is marked by much of the same sort of
ingenious frankness and obtrusive simplicity.
In urging the claims of the Society for Promoting
the Employment of Additional Curates in Popu-
lous Places, he had to deal with the position of
the working clergy in the present day, and the
means of their increased support, and in both
parts of the subject he displayed the same kind
of astute humility in accepting current doctrines
and utilising established opinions which usually
marks his addresses to the laity. In both the
same order of treatment ia apparent. While
indulging the sentiment belonging to a different
order of things—to the past or the ideal—he
accepts the present and the actual, and deals with
the facts as they are. In discussing the position
of the working clergy he acknowledges that
we live in a levelling utilitarian age, when the
tendency is to estimate religious teachers not
by their spiritual attainments, but by their
influence on society—the practical results of their
instruction. Do they materially further the ends
of society by diffusing a spirit of order and content-
ment amongst the people t " What was wanted
" every where was that spiritual teachers should be
" a sort of spiritual police. The policeman is
" looked to because he wears a blue coat and was
" to be found on the right side in times of dis-
" turbance ; and the tendency of the age was to
" deal in much the same way with the re-
" ligious teacher." In dealing with the
question of increased means for the sup-
port of the humbler clergy, the Bishop
is equally practical. While referring to mediaeval
times, the times of munificent endowments when
those who had wealth " built great churches, en-
" dewed those churches with rich endowments,
" and left them here and there, until the whole
" land was bespangled with such stars," he frankly
confesses that the age of endowments has paased