The Express.
London, England, 1850-12-04 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, WEDNESDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 4, 1850.

REV. MR. B 1

TO L01;13

foe the protection they naive, and rejoice that they live in •
lend where freedom is generally, and I trust I may my per-
maeently, establiehed."
But then I ask, bow is it, my lord, that the poor
ei tre of the Beglith church may not be permitted, ki
the take of their cue-tenth', to use the mode of wor-
sion e thick they think it right to adopt ?" Wh:re is the
reiLione• freedom of sending down upon St. Barnabas a
violent n„ 'the to teach us how to worship our God, and
not permit ffh to do as we like ourselves in a land
where et freed,. n establalsid 1" Are the clergy of the
Chunk of Befriend tn° yeverytmm who have not eon-
edemas
edemas ? Toot lorded 'P ralt: ' Yee, bat you are guilty of
,
of which you are wash -mi" I reply, " Who made y, ur
error: your practices a, not in neordancie with the church
has judged It so "—then you quote the bishop, axed shelter
lordship judge of that?" Y. '1 ay : " Why, I see the bishop
lord, the bishop is not Intel-
yourself under him. 80., my
lible. You object to the 101 l hbdityeven of the church.
(Seeyour own letter.) Much k 'me you most object to the
infallibility of a single bishop. Leon you would throw the
bishop nide, with perfect contempt, if he were to say tome.
thing in an episcopal charge about tsse 'shim of members
of the chunk of E .gland Irking their eh ildnin to be baptised
by a dimenting !onion, or about church of England mem-
bers frequentiog conventicle', which, a.'cording to the
canons, is • censurable, if not a punishaos • act; bow you
would rime up in iodigoation against such at.' infringement
of the rights of conscience then.
• • • • •
I may tail y say the whole spirit aid tone, the intention,
the wind of the whole church and college—the foundatlea
for the cluiristen, the masters, the mimeos's, the curate.,
the general scheme and arrangement of the whole—sod yet
still, moreover, as tor as I gayest( am humbly concerned—my
'leonine and my way of teaching—soy views and principles
in the regulation of the woke—toy character as • peiest—
intending to do, teach, and pursue my way in Gm very
way lam now pursuing it—l repeat, all this was known to
the bishop. I knew full well his kindness on that occasion.
I believe fully that he sacrificed much on that occasion of
Ms own private (satires and opinions as an individual;
and I am filled (and all who know me will boar me witness
how I have always expressed myself to this effect) with
the greatest gratitude for the kicdnest of manner and the
paternal affection:with which the tiahop thew treated me.
And therefore it is that I cannot imagine Oyu he should
speak no harshly now. I believe then there iv a delusion.
The bishop knows that I never can go bark in the things I
have said and done ; that I can never, from any her of ono,
change, or recede from that which bat been beaus at a
principle. I bare told him that I cannot. That which he
saw and knew then—that which he saw and blessed then—
that which he knew to be my intention and my mind then,
in ceremonies and ritual—that it shall be now, pines Cod,
and for ever themes, outstayed, unchangeable.
Therefore, my lord, I fear you have done unjustly by 8t
Barnabas. I fear you have troducsed our clergy here by ins.
puting false things to them. It cannot possibly he that we
are leading the pi opts stop by step over the precipice. How
con we, when the bishop led the way himself, in cook-
crating and blessing the church which now you see?
• • • •
Bat whatever this may be in other men—however in 6010.11
MN it may be isosgiued that a politician can have two con-
sciences, one hr his count and one for himself, 1 row
desire to show, in your lordship's cane, that there is no such
difficulty. You have been consistent, in being incoosistsot
in all ways—you have not as a statesman been now derning
and destroying what before you praised aid fondled, tied
that alone—but, as tar as regards the matter now in hand
Our you must remember Ua. I write this letter as a parish
priest to him parishioner) you have dote the very same in
your parochial connexion with our poor Church of St. Bar-
nabaa I wish, my lord, to remind you of this, and to expos-
tulate as gently 6.1 may with the fact of a sudden arid unac-
countable overlies when before there we at least some
degree of toleralon and countenance.
la the year 1843, the Church of St. Pettl, Knightsbridge,
was ormaergated by the Bishop of London. You being a
parishioner, became from the very first a member of the
congregation therein wonlrpping ; you ware constantly at
divine service, constantly at sermons you have received the
Ito r sacrament, you and yours, at soy hands. You must,
therefore, have been aware of my teaching in the pulpit—
Must bare been aware of the system or party in the church
to which we wen attached (for, my 1 sd, it is of no use
to disguise the fact that there us parties in the church).
You must have been aware of all this, and yet there you
remained for the period nearly of seven years.
Moreover, being one of our chief partabionen, you
generously contributed subscriptions to our pariah wheals
and all other charitable institutions devised for the use of
the poor. In private also, according as the need arose,
you have more than once, unsolicited and of a kind sym-
pathy with the needs of oar poor, sent me private same of
money for their bent fit ; you have fr,quently accompanied
these gifts with remarks of your own coi.cernicg the way in
which you desire them to be used, oil showing each
• spirit of charity and fellowship with us as induced us to
think that neither our public teaching nor our private pas-
toral works coult be altogether unacceptable to you.
In course of time, among other pscorol duties, we deviled
the scheme of building a new church. When the idea was
first set forth that this very church from which I am now
writing. nod which unhappily Ins drawn down on our heads
such hotrod and bitterness of spirit—this very church,
against which, among others, if not principally, your lord-
ship's lan„age, in your litter to the Bishop of Durham, in
levelled—when this project for the good of our poor brethren
was set forth, you must generous:y were among the first to
contribute of your alms for its advancement. And not only
this, my fort. It ten not the chance or careless gift of one
who thought not of what he was doing ; it we not money
thrown down and left, as it might „once, to be fruitful, or
not ; but you wen so good as to enter into the details of the
plan. It was at Christmas 1846, being then at Woburn,
that you wrote to me ecneerning this matter. You had
been at church the Sunday pannier, and theta had bees
an offertory, being Ember week, for the Curates' Fund. In
roar letter yea enclosed an alms gift for that purpose, and
t. en entered into details concerning the new church. You
were so rood se to propose a specific plan of your inns, which
he, indeed, some advantages in it, but we thought not on
the whole advisable. Though I coals not agree with you in
the idea which you suggested, still I was very thankful for
your expression of sympithy, and especially as it manifested
the fact that the good wick intended to b: done bad been •
matter of consideration with you. In that letter you go on
to speak of the new church is these words:—" Will you
permit me to say, that if I understand you rightly, the seats
of St. Samba axe to bean free seats ; I think you are Mil-
taboo in not requiring some small payment (say sixpence •
month) for at least half of them. I believe they would be
more valued, and the money might be spent in keegiog the
seats clesa and warming the church."
My lord, you can hardly imagine how gratified I was at
the reception of that letter. I was so pleased to think that
you could, in the midst of your laborious oecupstions, have
been able to gin our little church of St. Barnabas n a
thought; and I wrote, in reply, that oar idea was to maks
the church entirely free and open, on the ancient principle
of churches, leaving the payments necessary for the =mote-
Dance of the Nitric to the voluntary offerings of the potpie
which would be made at the offertory. But this by the
way. My object in reminding you of this letter is to
identify you with myself, and St. Paul's. and S. Barerthas".
in knowledge, if not in spirit; to show that at that time vsu
fully entered into the system of the church which I advo-
cated ; that you did not object to my teaching ; that you
had no fault sto: find with my general principles and
views. Could I at that limo have been among those
'• insidious" persons whom you now would have the people
to de s roy and get rid of ? And yet there has been no arson
vb.:sourer. It is all the same. The same ecolesiutieal
system; the same line of preaching; the same "mode
of worship," the some ritual, and ceremonial observances.
I would ask, then, is it corustent of your lordship, is i•
kiud, now to ;ennui* that which before you took part in ?
Have I done anything (aa for as my poor flock of St. Sir
nabs is concerned) to merit such an utter change of feeling
and of sentiment, as now appears in Tour litter and speech?
Last spring you joined in our worship at St. Pattl'e. This
autumn, not so touch as six months after, you say of cer-
tain of the clergy, among wbcm your description will of
necessity inclad• myself—you say of them, that you here
little hope that they will " desist from their insidious
course ; that course containing, in your es:nut:on, " •
orator danger than the aggression of a foreign sovereign."
Is this quite fair I
Bat, my lord, let me go on a little farther. So late VI
the year 1849, at oar anniversary festival of St. Barnabes,
you were so kind as to nay that you would come and teke
port, personally, la our festivities. You were to do this
as a parishioner, together with your colleague, the Earl of
Carlisle. When the day came, the unexpected summoning
of a Cabinet Council prevented you (you wrote to me to
say or).
• • • • •

So far, then, as Elt. Banshee day, 1849, there was is
diminution of apre.mest and countenance, to a certain
'lout, of the tone and principles of worship in St. Paul's
therein I say, to a certain f :teat, because no doubt
ith &lithe internal and apparent agreement, it would
be sr'', pueblo that points of internal disagreement
lurked beneath. It would be very povible that all yon
had dons gad said, were merely the demonstrations of a
kind Duet, wishing, although you did not agree, not to
manifest anything on your part of open hostility. It
might have been a desire not to kindle strife, not to
soli the reeds of disunion la a congregation—ti show
the example of a poreshioney, duly attending his perish
church ; or it might have been (which I hope sincerely
it was not) that you were like Gallic, and cared for none
of these things, divides to let them take their course.
Bet ttis, for the reasons jest given, I do not think could
have been the ease. At any rate, be it either the one or the
other sf these causes, there could not have been anything so
very severely wrong In me, as to justify the egression con-
tained in year letter, in 1860, when, in 1849, yen were will.
Inc to take open part in the charitable works of my parish,
with me and for me. If my course was Insidious, why did
you take part in that coarse ? if Iso asevered the liturgy
as to disguise its language, why aid yon Join in so shrill a
petifeninems for nearly seven years ? If I practised inmate
merles and supentitioa"=.—why did you come to join in
them for nearly seven years ? Why did you so far and ses
deeply join in them as to revive at my hands, so late as Le
Wednesday, 1849, the Holy Eucharist, yourself and rat
family ? If I were one of these designated la your lateen*,
bringing a greater danger than eves the Pope, why thew. I
my lord, was it that you said not all this teens? W.
for seven years not occasionally vesmetalk en •
snugger, but in your place as • regular ifahrm."-
why, by external acts of union sad participation
in what was being done—why, by this participation
manifested in the deepest mystery ef our faith, did you
*PHI to the world (as fares seek things stabs signified) I
yOut agreement essentially in all that was dens If yes
really thought that your soul, and the souls of your
were likely to b. enslaved, and theft fatale.* mated,
why yourself and yours within a ware of
trettab
which was Wade' tower& fist tad? Or you