The Express.
London, England, 1861-02-08 00:00:00

ESSAYS AND REVIEWS.

We have received from Derby a "Declaration
sad Protest" of the Church of England Clerical and Lay As.
societies for the Maintenance of Evangelical Principles in
the Midland District, in which the recent volume of " Essays
sod Reviews" is condemned as mischievous, heretical, and
havinge tendency to undermine belief Mall the moat essential
trails of religion. Three quarto pages are devoted to ex-
tracts from the work, designed to support the verdict pro-
nounced, and four more contain the names of those who
have signed the declaration. There are more than three
hundred signatures; a very large proportion, if not the
greater number, being those of the clergy. The first
name is that of the president of the association, Sir Mat-
thew Blakiston, Bart., Sandibrook•hall, followed bv those
of Mr. T. P. Bainbrigteaaid Mr. Henry Con, magistrites, of
H. Derby ; Mr. T. , head-master of the grammar
school ; Dr. W. Ogle; r. Rowland Smith, banker ; the
Itev. Sir Christopher Lightfoot, Hart.; Sir Oswald Moseley,
Bort., &c. All the subecribers are not members of the as-
sociation, but some add their names ss ex press ieg omicurreoce
in its statements and protest. The paper concludes with an
appeal to the bishops, heads of colleges, principals
of theological institutions, and all others occupying
positions of authority in the church or in schools,
to consider the dangerous character of the publication, and
to direct against it in their respective spheres of duty such
special action as may be most effectual to counteract its
pernicious influence. A memorial to the Archbishop of
Canterbury %pipet the NUM volume has just been adopted
at a meeting of the clergy of the deaneries of Kimpton and
lilockley, in the diocese of Worcester. An address to the
archbishop is also receiving signatures in the diocese of
Oxford.

Oaths other hand, doubts are expressed in some quarters
as to tits advisability of arousing 6o much attention to •
work, and miming in its perusal minds unprepared for
its study. A correspondent of this opinion writes to our
High Churelecatemporary the Guardian this week :
" My own adventures the other day in the streets of a
remarkably decorous and unexcited cathedral town have led
me to there redactions. I had occasion to call on the prin-
cipal brewer, as active and intelligent man of business, and
a good churchman. Five minutes had not elapsed before
be led the conversation to the ' Eames and Reviews,' a work
which, it appeared, he bad eagerly devoured in consequence
of the tumult that was being raised against it, and with
which he profaned himself highly delighted. I sauntered
thoughtfully up the street, and could not resist refreshing
my orthodoxy by breathing the air of a long-establiahed
bookshop, the B.P.C.K. depository, and the very focus of
everything churchmanlike and respectable in the town.
What was my surprise to see several copies of the same
inevitable volume lying on the counter, and to learn that
four or five had been sold that very afternoon!
Now, I ask, whose fault is it that these deli-
cate and difficult problems ara being thus wrested
from the hands which ought to deal with them,
and placed in the hands of people necessarily MAC-
iWpainted with the first principles of theological science!
Whose fault is it, if a proferaiou already seriously denuded
of men of ability and learning bids fair to deter altogether
from its service thaw who value free thought and fair die-
' euselou And whose fault is it, if a question of the deepest
interest and of the most vital importance, and on which
much fresh light has providentially been thrown of late, is
relegated hack to darkness and doubt amid anathemas and
protests, such as, in an earlier age of the Church, induced a
heathen by standee to declare he could liken the religions
controversies of Christian divines to nothing else than the
savage conflicts of wild beasts in the amphitheatre ?"
On the other hand, it may be said that the time for
limiting the influence of the work by Ignoring its opinions
is past, and the number of the lay subscribers who have
signed' the Midland Counties' protest, domino not without a
deliberate nal conscientious examination of the work they
cuudemn, countenances this view.