The Express.
London, England, 1867-09-24 00:00:00

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LONDON, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24.

TO-DAY, after a fortnight's preluding, the Pan-
Anglican Synod—to call the Bishops' Conference
by its grandest name—begins its sittings. The
ambiguity which has from the first attached to
this extraordinary gathering has not been
diminished by anything that has lately taken
place, and churchmen as well as the gereral Eng-
lish public still ask what so large an assembly of
Bishops collected from all quarters of the globe
will do. This natural inquiry is variously
met, according to the temper of the respondent.
Some point to the published order of proceed,,igs,
and to the resolutions which the Conference will
be called to adopt. But this answer is found
exceedingly unsatisfactory. Nobody believes
that Bishops have been brought from dioceses at
the antipodes merely to discuss secondary
points of order, most of which after all must be de-
termined by the various Colonial Churches for them-
selves. When the Bishop of Naw ZEALAND is
tempted to suspend his apostolical labours, and
journeys to England at an expenditure equal to
the value of two years of his epiempal income, we
must assume the existence of an inducement of
value corresponding to the effort. Another line
is taken by some whose faith in Bishops is not only
vigorous but implicit ; it is said that we need nut
trouble ourselves with the how or the why, for it
is not possible that an assembly so rich in Episco-
pal virtue can meet without benefit to the Church.
This is neither more nor less than to refer the
public to the final, net result ; to forego the future
advantage, realisable under certain oontingenc'es,
of the plea that the Bishopsmeant well, and to make
the Conference depend fur justification on success.
Some such thought appears to be in the minds of
the managers of the Conference. A self-reliant
spirit is shown in the determination not to admit
the public to a knowledge of the deliberations,
through the medium of the press, but to keep the
proceedings strictly private. If the Bishops have
met to consider matters which merely concern
themselves, or if the proceedings of the Con-
ference are merely of a preliminary character, this
precaution is intelligible : but it is frtal to the
prospect of any really authoritative deliverance
of the assembled Bishops such as some Churchmen
are expecting. Englishmen are accustomed to
learn the reasons of the measures proposed for
their acceptance. Not being invested with
lawful authority to enforce their resolutions
the Bishops stand the more in need of the
support to be derived from an intelligent ap-
preciation of their views and aims. If they
had met to confer with one another merely with
reference to matters pertaining to their office they
might properly do so with closed doors. But if
they have met to discuss what may be called
Church politics, and to prepare recommendations
which they hope will give the relations of the
Colonial Church to one another and to the mother
Church a determinate character, then they have
taken the best way to diminish the authority of
their counsels.

Perhaps it may be found in the end that the
incidental advantages attending the meeting of an
unusual number of Dia engaged in the same
work under the most opposite social conditions, ex-
ceed in value any positive result that could be for-
mulated in the record of &Conference. We are not of
those who can bring ourselves to ridicule even the
mistaken efforts of men who in their own way
are doing what they can to kindle or keep alive
the flame of religion in heathen lands, or in coun-
tries where the conquest of material nature de-
mands an incessant battle, in which the higher
claims of humanity are in danger of being forgotten.
It is true that this Conference presents a great
variety of Episcopal character. In the list of
its members we see names which for the honour
of the Church of England should have disappeared
years ago from the roll of Bishops, a sinecurist
who has not visited his diocese for, many a year
side by side with another whose labours and
character may compare with those of • HENRY
Diaavvir; a pastor who is quartered by law, with
a large official income, upon • people with whom he
has no sympathy, and near him a scholar and gentle-
man, who has sacrificed family connections and
ease to spend his days in civilizing the savage ; a
dogged apologist for slavery sitting in council with
the son of WILBERFORCE. But the presence of
these baser elements need not trouble us ; they
are the remains of a bad old time which is pass-
ing away ; their elimination is as sure as
the rising of the sun, and is actually going on
before our eyes, while all that is good is confirmed
with increase. During the last fortnight English
Churchmen have had brought home to them, more
vividly than ever before, the nature and character
of that colonial and missionary work which they
are called to sustain, and been supplied with new
motives for zeal. Especially must the essential
unity of Christian work at home and abroad
have been impressed on those who listened
to the statements of the Colonial Bishops. The ,
difference between the physical and social
condition of men and women in Australia
and Bethnal Green is of far less conse-
quence to the faithful pastor than the practical

community of character which he finds in each.
In both places he has to wage the same warfare
with indifference, selfishness, passion, and mate-
rialism, and in both to encounter the same obstacles
to success. If we may judge from what we read in
common with the public, not only a deeper feeling
of community, but a quicker sense of life has re-
sulted from the informal intercourse of the last few
weeks, and that is a gain of the highest kind.
The representatives of the Church of England in
the colonies, where they miss so much that sus-
tained religious sentiment in the mother country,
deserve the consideration and aid of their friends at
home ; but the latter may usefully ask themselves
whether they are not leaning too much on props
that may fall from under them, and be led to seek
a deeper foundation for their faith than educa-
tional prejudice and social preference. All Chris-
tian churches are now passing through an ordeal
of uncommon severity, but the Church of Eng-
land has trials such as we believe vex no other
church in the world. Her Bishops have actually
had to complain that men seek her ministry who
not only reject doctrines which she considers im-
portant, but deny the fundamental historical facts
of Christianity. Formerly members of the Church
disputed as to the amount of liberality with which
certain doctrinal propositions, accepted alike by
all, should be interpreted; but the question now
is whether any bond of common belief shall re-
main. This is the great difficulty of the day, and
Episcopal courts, the Privy Council, Convocation,
are powerless to meet it. The Bishops, by
leaving it unnoticed in the programme of their
meeting, confess themselves equally powerless.
The remedy can only come from a revival and
purification of genuine Church life, and an exten-
sion of that freedom which it requires and
will inevitably seek and obtain.

OUR CONTEMPORARIES.
(THIS DAY.)

COURT BISMARCK'S CIRCCLAR.

The Times finds it easy to understand the irrita-
tion which the above circular has created in Paris, where
the people have assumed it as settled that finality was
established in Germany at the very point whence Count
Bismarck now contemplates development, and where the
Prussians have for the last 50 years been objects of enmity.
But if the French resent the circular as a denunciation of
the Treaty of Prague, it should be observed that Prussia
bad received a certain provocation ; for it was only reason.
able to suppose that in the l►te conference between Austria
and France, designs which were hostile to Prussia formed
the subject of debate. In assuming that Germany may
form a single state without giving any other power the
least title to complain, the circular really does override
the Treaty of P.ague, or, at all events, that what France
expected from the treaty may not be forthcoming. The
weak point in the French view of the case is in the idea that
France has a certain vested right in the relative weakness
of her neighbours, while we in this country cannot but
hold that the German people have the right to constitute
themselves as they think best.
The Daly News asks what it is that so severely exercises
French susceptibilities at this moment. If there is
any shade of irony in Count Bismarck's tone, it
must be charged to the responsible authors of the rumours
from Salzburg to which the circular alludes. French
public writers insist that they do not object to the unity
of Germany provided it is not a military monarchy under
Prussian leadership. But is not France herself a great
military monarchy, and that in a more Merl sense than
Prussia ? The only effect of the French sympathy which is
extended to the South Germans has been to rally to the
Prussian standards every German who owns a fatherland. 1
It would be contrary to all experience, and to nature itself,
if in the hour of trial the eight millions of German Aus-
trians should gravitate to an empire in which they are a
minority among races and nationality, rather then to an
empire in which they would be Germans among Germans.
The Telegraph thinks its French contemporaries put an
erroneous construction upon the circular, and that when
read in the light of the semi-official comment which has
since been made every sh►dow of alarm disappears, and
the circular will help to assure Europe that the desire for
peace is shared by the most influential statesmen in Europe
—by Baron von Beast, Count Bismarck, and the Emperor
Napoleon.

)11 TOPICS..

The Times regards the visit of the Duke of Edinburgh
to the Cape as an event which will contribute to
rouse, and to render still more vigorous, the feel-
ing which binds this and other colonies to the
crown and to the people of England. In another article
the Times sketches the great internal revolution which is
going on in Austria, where • lumber of reforms are being
encouraged for which the empire needs repose. A fourth
subject dealt with by our contempormy is the retirement
of Sir T. Bateson from the Social Science Congress on ac-
count of Lord Dufferin's references to the Irish church.
The Times thinks that the hon. baronet was in the wrong,
and that the facts justify the inquiring tone of his lord-
ship's address.
The Deily New gives a satisfactory account of the
working of the Patent Law Amendment Act of 1852, and
states that by its operation, and without any cost to the state,
the poor inventor can now secure to himself the profit
due to his ingenuity, instead of being condemned, am Ne
once was, to sell to his wealthier brother, for • small
sum, the secret for which the latter would first obtain
• patent, and then reap from it honour and fortune.
The commissioners complain that they are debarred from
applying their large earldom in erecting • suitable office,
the ipso* now at their disposal being wholly inadequate.
The Daily News mopeds to condemn some of the com-
pensations which are paid, and which are attached,
not to persons, but to Aloes, namely, the law
offices of Scotland and Ireland. The Attorney-General for
Ireland receives 1,2001., the Solicitor-General 8001., and
the Lord Advocate for Scotland 8501. The clerks of the
Attorney-General and Lord Advocate receive 3001. each.
None of these gentlemen do, or have dons, any service to
the Patent-offiee in return for these sums.

The Star thinks that in the Alabama controversy we are
within sight of land, and that the proposal of Lord Stanley
as to the oonstitntion of the court of arbitration is in every
sense a just one. Whether Mr. Seward ultimately gives
way or Lord Stanley makes another suggestion, it is at all
events not a point about which the negotiation can be
broken off.

Waiting the decision of the Treasury as to the new postal
contrast, the Telegraph points, to the good services of the
Peninsular and Oriental Company, and condemns as
short-sighted and mischievous the policy of trans-
!ening any portion of our mail service to the
subsidised agency of 'a foreign government. If •
money oaring in the several branches of our adminis-
tration were the be-all end end-all of executive supervi-
sion, the principle logically carried out would go far beyond
mail service. The military organisation of the French is
perfect, and certainly much cheaper than our own. Let
us throw open our national defences to public tender. It
would be • subject of profound regret if by any chance
the Peninsulas and Oriental Company should become the
victim of a tremendous ministerial blunder ; for of all our
great mercantile associations none has been so important
a link in connecting England and her Eastern Empire, or
has, in did:knit crimes, done so much to deserve well of the
country.

It is understood that the Queon will prolong her
♦isit to the Highlands till the Gth of October, a week
later than was originally intended.
It has been stated that the Queen of Holland
would take her departure from our shores on the Roth.
Her Majesty goes to-day to visit the Earl of Clarendon at
the Grove, near Watford, and will remain there till
Saturday; proceeding on the 28th, not to the Continent,
bat to Knowsley, on her visit to the Earl of Derby.

A statement by an evening paper that parliament
will re-assemble in November, to consider the question of
supplies for the Abyssinian expedition, is an anticipation
which the Herald venttuve to say is as great a surprias to
the government es to the opposition.

General Menabres, dike Italian army, is at the
present moment in Paris.