The Express.
London, England, 1850-12-26 00:00:00

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HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIX'S
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LONDON, THURSDAY. DECEMBER 28.

IT is the custom of the Church ef England, in obe-
dience to the thirt3 -first anon, to ordain her minis-
ters on the Sundays immediately following what are
called the Ember-days, and at no other time. Tnis
custom is said 4) have originated in primitive egos,
and to have been contemporaneous with the appoint-
meet of the Bober-days themselves, those days
having been set apart by the early Christians u days
of prayer for &AI'S blessing on the fruits of the earth.
By the same anon it is further decreed that the
sob mn ceremony b i performed in the cathedral or
parish church where the bishop resideth, in the pre-
sence, nut only of the archdeacon but of the eean and
two pub* ndaries at the last, or (if they shall happen
by any lawful eanse to be let or hindered)
in the preeeece of four other grave persons,
being masters of arts at the last, and
allowed for public preacher.. In part pursuance of
this canon the B shop of LONDON held an ordination
last Sunday, al hough in contravention of the same
canon it was held neither in the cathedral of St.
Paul nor in the parish church of St. James or St.
Martin—in whichever of the two parishes London-
bones is situate—" wit' re the high( p resideth"—but
in the banqueting chamber of Whitehall.
Perhaps it is fitting that the initiatory ceremonies
of a church which exists under SMART canons and
STUART acts of uniformity should take place, in the
diocese of Lor don at least, in a room on the c, ding of
which is painted the Apotheosis of JAkES the FIRST,
from a window of which CHARLES the FIRST walked
forth to receive the reward of his misdeeds, and on
the floor ef which CHARLES the SECOND, amidst
Italian priests and French intriguers, reduced Eng-
land to degradation and the monarchy to a jest.
In this sacred apartment the solemn ceremony of
ordination was last Sunday performed on about forty
or fifty men who are now priests or deacons of the
church of England. But the ceremony was chiefly
remarkable for the sermon of the Bishop of LONDON,
that prime patron of unlighted candles, that great
originator ot the surplice and cassock controversy,
that prelatic syrin who, if Mr. BENNETT is to be
believed, first lured his victim by Anglo catholic
charms, and who Ilia now turn him and his living
into pieces and cast his spoils to the chaplains.
The Bishop's text was from those words of PAUL'S
second left. r to Timomite where he exhorts him to
watch in all things, to endure afflictions, to do the
work of an evati4elist, to make full proof of has
ministry. It was of course addressed for the most
part to the candidates fur ordination, and in illustra-
tion of the text it presented a lucid summary of the
duties of the Christian ministry, mingled with
talcum and appropriate exhortations to those who
were about to undertake the office. But it was
chiefly noticeable from the entire absence of any ex-
pressioos such as might have been expected to fall
from the lips of n prelate who has distinguished him-
'pelt even within the last two months by stirring the
ashes ot the Gontism controversy, and from the
manner in which he explaired, even to explaining
away, those sent, noes in the Ordination service which
seem to imply a spiritual authority given by
the imposition .3 hands. lie told his hearers that by
the question in the service when the candidate is
&skid if he tree's that he is "inwardly moved by the'
Holy (Most to take upon him" the sacral office,
nothing more is meant or requirid by the church than
that the candidate should be predisposed by tames and
previous pur4u•ta fur the ministry, and that he should
have prayed for the aid of that divine auxiliary to fit
him fur his malice, and to guide him in the discharge
of them; but there was no word of exaggerated euloty
and high church satisfaction with resptct to the office
itself. The candidates were not told that they were
to it invested with powers of absolution and &open.
eatiou of sac. isinentary grace above other nsor•
tale, eor was the institution of the ministe-
rial office ascribed so much to CHRIST'S ordi-
nut ce as to man's necessities. There was, it is
true, a slight flourish of trumpets about the unbroken
hue of succes4iii: but it was followed by no ponti-
fical assumptions, no vauetin4s of au exclusive right
derived from apostolic hands. Nay, the hearers

were told that that solemn and much debated sen-
tence.in lk h the Deacon or the Church of England

is bidden to receive the Holy Onost for the office and
work of a priest in the church of God, is to be inter-
preted more as a prayer than as an authoritative im-
parting of supernatural powers, and the neophytes
themielvee were warned its very solemn words, words
which concluded the sermon, and in the delivery of
which tue speaker wu visibly and deeply moved, that
on them it de waded whether or no should rest on
the church of England that blessing which, as be
observed, was conferred on one only of the apocalyp-
tic churches, that of being 0 kept from the hour of
temptation which shall come twin all the world," and
which was conferred upon that one church in conse-
quence of its comparative fidelity.
Now what does all this mean ? Is it a sign of the
times ? and has the mercury run so rapidly down in
the episcopal barometer because there is a storm at
hand? Or dues the Bishop re.aly ate that, after all,
the only legitimate object of the ministerial office is,
not to administer sacraments as means of magical
grace—not to boast about claims which, if histori-
cally traceable, are theologically absurd—not to mutter
and bow, and gesticulate—but, in one word, to
preach the gospel? If It be not so—but
we will nut pursue the disagreeable alterna-
tive, for it is so pleasant to find • man
more honest, more wise, more conscientious,
better than we thought him, that we will postpone a
more marching examination; but, if it be eo,—if the
superintendent of the most important subdivision of
&gland for religiose purposes has really begun in
the evening of his days, and after twenty-five years'
experience of episcopal functions, to take such • view
of ministerial duties as has usually been taken by the
beet and wisest of other reformed churches, we can
bat rejoice in the change, and look forward to hie
assistance in that great struggle which is surely on
the eve of its commencement, in which will be arrayed
superstition in all forms: intolerance and priestcrah
on the one side, and the principles of civil and religi-
ow liberty, social order, and spirituel freedom on the
other.

Now that railways everywhere monopolise the
great arterial lines of communicition, the combina-
tions and strikes of their engine-driven have an im-
portance such as do not belong to any other confede-
racy of any other claw of workpeople ' • such as take
them oat or the ordinary consideration by which the
power and the right of artisans to combine ars regu-
lated. It is, therefore, quite possible, as Mr. °solos
OLT* told the deputation of North Western driven,
who waited on Mtn on Tuesday, that the legislature
will deem it proper to protect the country against the
wilful and perverse interruptions of its communica-
tions and intercourse consequent on such strikes, by
making engine-drivers the objects of exceptional
legislation.

At all events, the spectacle now to be seen on the
North Western Railway ia quite intolerable; it is •
disgrace to the intelligent* and to the sense of justice
of the British workman, and is not to be endured in
• commercial country. That line is, fur its work-
ing purposes, separated into two divisions : on the
northern division the engine-drivers threaten to
strike, not because of any reduction, either actual,
proposed, or intended, in their wages; not became* of
any new rule or regulation that affects the amourt
of labour they are required to give foe the sub-
stantial wages they receive or the extent of re-
laxation they enjoy ; not because their material
combos, conditions, or enjoyments are in the,
slightist degree touched ; but because their masters
seek to protect themselves from a constant repetition
of strikes by requiring • lengthener] notice to quit
from the drivers; which notice is and must be • posi-
tive pecuniary, la well as moral, advantage to the