The Express.
London, England, 1866-12-11 00:00:00

DR. PUSSY ON CONFESSION.

Dr. Posey continues to write upon this subject
in the correspondenoe columns of the 2'intes, answering
opponents at considerable length. He finds in the 26th
Article a justification of his statement that the power of
absolution remains with bad priests as well as good. To
the question whether forgiveness of sins of which we hive
true repentance is granted without absolution and con-
fession, he replies :—" I do believe that, when God does
give such grace, He does forgive the sins, and I am per-
fectly at rest about the good men whom I have known
and loved, and who never used oonfeasion. But they
missed the authoritative remission of their sins ; they
never had the comfort of hearing their Saviour's absolving
voice, ' Thy sins be forgiven thee.' They had other graces.
great grace ; but not the special gift of this ordinance of
Christ. We are, too, in both ways, bad judges of ourselves.
Men hold themselves forgiven, who have not the repen-
tance upon which God forgives, or think themselves unfor-
given who have it. An authoritative act, appointed by
Christ, is something out of ourselves. We believe his
, own most true word, ' Whose sins ye do remit, they are
forgiven.' We believe, with the Homily, that absolu-
tion has' its own special graft, ' the forgiveness of sins.'"
To another question he replies, "Our Lora and His
Church give us at once the power to absolve and to retain
sin. As I said in a former letter the occasions of 'retaining'
sin among us would be very rare, because no one would
come to us at all unless they truly rep. nted. But if we
were to absolve one who had no real intention to forsake
his sin, we should by absolving him only bind his sins
faster to him, because we should be encouraging him not
to repent, and so destroying his soul. We should be
damning him and ourselves. In all we are acting by
authority of Christ, as His ministers and representatives."
The concluding portion of Dr. l'esey's letter treats of
books of self-examination ; the wisest of which, he guys,
are so framed that, while they would speak to a person's
conscience who had committed a sin, they would be Untidy
unintelligible to one who had not. lint in confession
there is absolutely no need of this. " A pent n comes to
confession because his conscience is troubled with some
weighty matter.' Sins against the 7th Coronsialment are
so weighty that anyone who had been guilty of them
would, if he confessed at all, have them prominently in
his mind. The only object of questions, if used at all,
would be to enable a person to put into modest words what
they knew not how to express. As for ruthless inquiries'
they would be as needless es they would be wicked.
S. G. o,' may know about books of self-examination.
About confession, not having either used confession nor
received any, he can, naturally, only speak upon conjecture.
But, probably, he does not know—and parents and guar-
dians seldom know—at what early date practical know-
ledge of evil comes to boys. I believe that its the expe-
rience of those who have heard confessions that in eases
where there has been sin against the 7th Commandment
it has been the exception where sin, which has,
perhars, desolated or blighted the subsequent life, has
not been first fully known either at S or 12 years
old, their first or their second school, or the date of
their free intercourse with other boys. And whet has
been specially miserable has been that almost uniformly
sin was not known to be sin until it had a bold upon the
utiliser. All this might be prevented by the elinplest,
most modest questions, if parents were not afraid of the
whole subject. They shrink from an imagined risk of con-
veying hurtful knowledge which Satan has taught long
before, not for prevention, but in temptation. I have
ventured so say this on this delicate subject because no
one who does not already know to what I allude—no lady
who reads your paper— can in the least understand it, or
be supposed by others to understand it."

THE PARIS ExIIIBITION.—In consequ'once of the
numerous applications for assistance which arc being con.
tinually made to the British Charitable Fund of I'aris by
workmen who have been disappointed in obtaining em-
ployment at the Exhibition building, we are requested by
the committee of that charity to caution workmen against
going to Paris to seek such employment, unless they harve
obtained beforehuni a positive engagement through per-
sons officially connected with the Exhibition. The com-
mittee of the British Charitable Fund positively decline to
afford assistance of any kind to this class of aptlicanta.
FOREIGN COMPETITION WITH 13ILITISH 111•NUFAC-
TCRES.—Mr. If. ('teed, an ironmaster, who is honorary
secretary to the Associated Irontuasters of South Stafford-
shire, and Mr. W. Williams are now in Belgium, endea-
vouring to obtain by lOW meal investigation some informa-
tion upon the causes of the state of things which they
describe in the following terms :—" In cotton we were
dependent on another natiou for the raw mate vial; in the
case of iron every description of raw material required in
aid of its manufacture is the produce of our own soil. It is
under oar feet. And yet with all this advantage, with
the additional advantage, too, as we are told, of possessing
the bestand most advanced skilled workmen in the world,
Belgium and France have thrust us out of foreign markets
to an extent which the public will hardly credit, and of
which the trade itself is scarcely aware. They have almost
monopolised in Russia the trade in all matter, of manu-
factured iron for railway purposes. They make the
rail ; they supply the locomotive engines, the roofs
for stations and the pillars that support them, end
they build the carriages. Russia is now in the first
stage of railway development For • long time to
come she will be the best customer in Europe for
iron in all its various forms of manufacture, notwith-
standing her present exceptional produce in that high claw
material which even we ourselves occasionally buy of her
for the manufacture of steel. And yet in this market, great
and remunerative actually, greeter and more remunerative
in promise, the Belgian and the Frenchman bold the prin-
cipal position, and are in a fair way of obtaining an
absolute monopoly. A like state of things obtains in
Spain. There, again, England is thrust aside,
defeated by Belgium and by France. We cannot
compete with their producers either in price or
in continuousness and certainly of supply. Nor is
this all. Even at home, even within our own boundaries,
these industrious and pushing people are challenging owsupremacy,
supremacy, and that not unfrequently with success. /n
bar-iron, in rails, in engines for agricultural purposes, sad
even in locomotives for railways they have latel been ob-
taining orders even in our own market here at home. How
and why is this ? How is it that our position in so great
an industry is slipping front under us ?"
SUGGESTED PROSECUTION. JUStitia," Who
writes a long letter to the Times on commercial morality,
after dw ening on theOverend and Gurney's case proceeds
" Can there be a doubt as to who are the criminals ? Are
they not the members of the old firm of Overend, Gurney,
and Co., and the first directors of the new firm of Over-
end, Gurney, and Co. (Limited)? They concocted and
executed the whole scheme ; they deluded and misled the
public ; they by their representations induced the public
to become shareholders in the new conce•n, to throw their
money away, to ruin themselves and their families, to
become, in fact, the victims of • cruel and abominable
conspiracy. These are the criminals. What is the crime?
Obtaining money under false and fraudulent pretences--
swindling is the well-known, significant, and true &opens-
tion. What is the course that ought to be pursued with
these men ? They ought on a criminal charge to be placed
at the bar of the Old Bailey. If they be innocent,
will be acquitted ; if guilty they will be branded Wha
infamy, treated as disgraced and Oegraded criminals ; the
law will be vindicaLteedd, and a terror held out to all who
hereafter may wish to follow a course so mischievous mid
so fraught with ruin and misery to thousands."
Boma KENSINGTON MllSlON.—Visitors during
the week ending December 8,1866.—0 n Monday Tues.
day, and Saturday, free, from 10 a.m. to fu p.m.,
7,699 ; an Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday (aatia.
won 6d.), from 10 am. till 4 p.m., 1,039 ; total, 8,738.
Average of corresponding week in former years, 8,416.
Total fr= the opening of the Museum, 6,441,493.