The Express.
London, England, 1866-12-04 00:00:00

LORD AMBERLEY ON THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

In the Fortnightly Review, Lord Amberley deals
with church questions. He says :—" The church of Eng-
land is simply and entirely the creation of the state. The
basis of its authority is entirely secular. No remote anti-
quity, no apostolic or patriotic origin can be pretended in
favour of its doctrines. They may, indeed, in some cases
have an accidental coincidence with beliefs of an
ancient date ; but their authority in this country rest
not upon their conformity either to Scripture, or to the
fathers, or to the general opinion of Christendom, but
upon the will of parliament The church of England is
built up from its foundation solely upon acts of parlia-
ment. There is ao doubt that parliament may either
add to or take away from the sum total of doctrines
which the clergy are required to hold. There is
no doubt that the interpretation of these doctrines
is committed to secular courts, and that the church
has no legal voice in the decision of their scope or meaning.
It is the more necessary to insist upon these facts, because
we sometimes hear appeals to some vague, extra-legal
tribunal, which is supposed to condemn particular opi-
nions as inconsistent with the position of a clergy-
man, or with the teaching of the Christian church
Thus it is occasionally said that the Bishop of Natal
is acting dishonestly in not resigning the position he
holds, because he no longer believes in the infalli-
bility of the Pentateuch. Those who argue in this way
appear to have in their own minds some unknown and
unauthorised standazdof belief by which they think proper
to judge. At any rate they completely overlook the fact
that there are means by which an heretical clergyman
may be tried and punished, but that they have not the
smallest right to adjudicate upon the question what tenets
are contrary to the formularies of the church, or to blame
any man for remaining in an ecclesiastical office so long as
his opinions have not been condemned by the recognised
tribunals of the land. The belief to be demanded of the
clergy is, therefore, a matter which, in this country, the
state has power to determine. Had the arrangements
made in Mng Edward's reign continued in force, every
clergyman must have believed three more Articles than
he does at present. Were parliament to abolish subscrip-
tion to the Thirty-nine Articles, and to take away the penal-
ties for teaching in opposition to them, there is no reason
to doubt that they would all of them sink into an oblivion
as complete as that which has befallen those omitted
from the series in the revision of 1562." Lord Amberley,
favourable to a national church, holds " that the state
has no business to protect any one set of theological
opinions rather than another ; it ought to hold the scales
with perfect impartiality between them all. Let this be
granted, and it will follow that an established church, in
order to justify the fact of its existence, ought to be not
sectarian, but national ; and national not only in name
but in fact. It ought to represent the religious feelings of
the whole community. No one should feel himself utterly
excluded from it ; no theological faction should be per-
mitted to use it for the exclusive promotion of its
own opinions. Variety rather than unity of doctrine
should be its aim ; for the manifold beliefs of the nation
cannot be summed up in any single formula or aggregate
of formulas, however comprehensive. Should it appear
that the conditions required of the clergy, by checking
the free development of thought, put obstacles in the
way of this variety, and thus leave a large part of the
nation quite unrepresented in the church, a sufficient
case has arisen for the interference of the state ; for the
laity are defrauded of their rights when the national
church, which ought to have room for all, is, in fact,
reserved for the benefit of a few." The article closes
with an argument against clerical subscription. " The
theory here maintained," says the writer in conclusion,
" is, that all legal provisions, contrived with the express
purpose of preventing the full and free expression of in-
dividual thought among the clergy, are impolitic and
unjust; impolitic, because they tend to exclude from the
ministry the very men who would be the best fitted to enter
it ; unjust, because in a national church they shut out
from its pale a large portion of the laity, and thus prevent
it from being a real or accurate representation of the reli-
gion of the people."

A PANIC AT DUBLIN.—A number of idle rumours
are daily floating aboat, arising no one known where, but
propagated with result of creating alarm. These would !
be absolutely unworthy of contradiction except that they
may teed to increase an unreasoning panic, which, we are
ashamed to say, has already induced some weak persons to
flee from their homes. Among these rumours is one to
the effect that certain gentlemen in official posi-
tions had left their residences to take shelter in
the Castle. Nothing of the kind has occurred. There
is no apprehension of real danger entertained among that
class. A paragraph in a morning contemporary would
produce an impression that the legal profession generally
shared in the alarm. The deputation so Lord Naas
alluded to consisted, we understand, of some three or four
nervous gentlemen. Al we learn from the paragraph re-
ferred to, they were assured that the government enter-
tain no fears of any emergency arising —Dublin Evening
Mail.
A RAILWAY TRAIN ON FIRM. —On Saturday
morning last, the lit inst., about a quarter-past 10
o'clock, while the passengers were awaiting the arrival
of the up-train from Roniford, they were rather alarmed
by observing the approach, from the opposite direction,
of a luggage train on fire. The conflagration proved to
be in the fifth truck from the engine, laden with 54
trusses of hay. It was supposed to have become ignited
by a spark from the engine, and the flames were first
observed on this side of the Whalebone-gate. A few of
the trusses were removed in coming down the line, and
upon reaching Romford the remainder was one sheet of
dame. The next truck laden with sacks of corn was par-
tially ignited, but the trucks were speedily unooupled,
which prevented a further extension of the flames, and
the burning track was shunted and removed to near the
gullet. Plenty of assistance was procured, and under the
direction of the station-master, Mr. Collier, a copious
supply of water was poured upon the burning mass, while
others removed it from the truck before the latter sus-
tained any considerable damage. The whole of the hay
was destroyed • the traffic was not in the slightest degree
interrupted.—kssez Herald.
ESCAPE OF A FEYALS PRISONER FROM A GAOL.-

On the afternoon of the 26th ult., a fine robust young
woman, named Mary Ann Webber, convicted by the
borough magistrates of stealing an alpaca umbrella from the
County Court-office, Church-street, Chelmsford, and sen-
tenced to seven days' imprisonment, made her escape from
the borough gaol. After her conviction she was removed
to the female portion of the prison, and about ten
minutes past I was supplied with her dinner by Mr.
Harvey, the governor, who, in consideration of her
having been confined all the previous day, left
the door of the airing yard open, in order that she
might have an opportunity for exercise. Shortly after-
wards, while Mr. Harvey was at his own mid-day meal,
he was startled by the announcement that his prisoner
had been met in West Stockwellestreet, going in the di-
rection of High-street, by a young man named Peachey,
who had been present in the court during the in-
vestigation of the case. Mr. Harvey was at first rather
incredulous, but on examining the gaol he found the
escape to be a fact, on which police-constable Wass and
the man Peachey started in pursuit of the prisoner, and
overtook her near East Bridge. She was brought back
to the gaol, and on an examination being made of the
means by which the prisoner escaped it was evident that
she had first endeavoured to get over the wall at the north
end of the yard, hut failing here, in consequence of the
revolving spikes, she went to the south-west corner,
adjoining the Green Market. Here she placed a chair
against the wall, and climbed up the bars of the room
used as the prison chapeL She was then enabled by
means of some fixed spikes above the chapel window (in-
tended to prevent (!) the escape of prisoners) to catch
hold of the bars of the window above ; then, placing her
foot on a slight projection in the brick wall it
was no very difficult task to step over the projecting re-
volving spikes on to the top of the wall, which is on a
level with the buildings in the market occupied by Messrs.
Kierman, photographers. At one end of this building a
men named Simmons had been engaged painting during
the morning, and there was a plank pined across from the
wall to a ladder leaning down to the Green Market. Being
dinner time there were very few persons about. The pri-
soner was seen by Mr. Kierman as she was descending the
ladder. but, thinking she had been up with Simmons'
dinner, his suspicions were not aroused ; and thus the
woman got off clear, until met as related above.—Essex
Herald.
ACCIDENT TO • FOLKESTOSE STEAKEIL.—A. strong
south-west gale prevailed as the South-Eastern Company's
steamer Prinoe Ernest, from Folkestone, was making
Boulogne Harbour at about half-past six last evening. She
struck the western jetty and disabled the starboard pad.
dle-wheel, but succeeded in entering the port and landing
her passengers safely.