The Express.
London, England, 1868-05-12 00:00:00

IS PUPLISHID

EVERY EVENING.

LONDoN, TUESDA Y,

_3/.1 Y 12.

THE EARL oh' $ll.-IFTE4BURY ON TILE
(lit:Rill op ENGLAND.

THE Ear! of SHAFTESBURY is a man whom those
who do not like must Mill respect. His views are
often narrow, and the language which he sometimes
employs with respect to his opponen+P, whom he is
too apt to regard as the enemies of G.', and man,
because they are not the adherents of Lord
SH A rrENtx PA, would often justify remon-
strance and censure. A year or two at
he described the work called " E,:ce Homo,"
a volume in which men :,s reli, ions and
ra-thodo as himself here ion, and
which Mr. (.; LAllsroN has thought worthy of
elaborate and deferentiai astaly,4is and warns eulogy,
hi.vii; been vomited 07.: of the
.laws of hell.
It pleased Lord g 1 AI I r•411.1:11. to assume that,
than g% the ini!.rint of M. mu ttN and co.
on the t ‘ollllfle,
tr.IC Wen: SATAN The
a+ss:: led author might pos.:lid:. i.e ready to ex-
claim, with the heretic at Prague, who saw the
3,0111:tu painfully carrying the fagg , a which
was to hcl:t to burn him to de nth. tr, Niolrfa

-,,.t•G..t0,. The merits or demerits of the
wore, of %%hie!' we have spoken are not a topic fur
these columns. We have referred to the subject
simply to illustrate the perfervid temper by which
Lord sIIAFTP..I:I:RY is moved, and which, while
impelling him to some questionable savings, has
iuul.•uhtedly animated hiiii to many noble and
I.seful acts. In his regard for men's souls
he has not forgotten their bodies. He has united
a supreme concern for their spiritual interests, with
a lively regard for their material well-being. The
short-time principle, which has made a new and
more vigorous race of the artisans of our ntanufac-
urring counties, and which has left its marks on
their physicel condition, showing itself :n the more
erect stature, the 'stronger frame, the firmer step,
the more open and healthy countenance of the
operative classes, was mainly his work. It is but one
of many good deeds which will 14:ye to the name
of Seat-resistive a reputation as lasting as that
which it derives from the great, though un-
scrupulous, politician who first bore it, the
'• daring pilot" of DI:II,EN's verse, and from
the celebrated author of the " Char ictiristics."
Lord SnArritaat:RY has added moral and
Christian dignity to the honours of a lino of
illustrious intellectual, as well as of emven-
timally noble, origin. He has not been ashamed
to der..ite himself to labours on which " society "
and cultivation sometimes look askance. lyti
must take the best gifts, subject to tV4,
conditions ittl-r which they are offered to
us. I bori 6dAFTIPABURY ba,i more breadth of
view, he might have had lees energy of action. A
certain degtiee of narrowness semis indispensable
to intensity,_ 1f.!..e were able more thoroughly
5o approve of all that Lor I S/141 FTESitt
has said, the records of his a.:ts might
be a record less worthy of admiration and
applause. Such a man as he has a right to be
judged by his deeds and not by his words. still

lie deeds give his words importuner and maink
their extravagance or errors misleading to thou-
sands, who justly venerate the scares whence they
oome.

What has preceded will show the motive which
leads us to comment on and the spirit in which
w• dasire to criticise some opinions to which Lord
F FSZSBURY has lately given expression with re-
spect to the condition of the Church of England.
The Record of last night reports a speech delivered
by him at a meeting of the Church Pastoral Aid
Society held at St. James's-hall. Lord SuarressußY
there gave utterance to the most gloomy views with
respect to the future of the Church of England.
On a former occasion he had declared that its
disestablishment—(a topic which is perfectly irre-
levant, since it is not seriously contemplated
by any considerable number of persons)—would
surely lead to the triumph of the Roman Catholic
Church in this country. At St. James's-hall,
however, Lord SuirrEssuity did not present
in a very favourable light the effects of the
system which he is desirous of maintain-
ing. " The Church of England," he said,
"is in a state of the greatest peril. She is in
" danger of crumbling into the dust, and that
" not through the vigour of external attack, but
" through the corruption of her internal con-
" dition." If this be so, what, we are constrained
to ask, has union with the State done for her ? Could
she be worse if disestablished than she is, accord-
ing to Lord SHAFTESBURY'S description, when
established I " I firmly believe," his lordship
goes on to say, "that if the Church of England had
" been true to herself she might have stood like the
" rock of Gibraltar against every effort of man, and
" against all the beating of the waves and of the ele-
" ments." By "true to herself," Lord SHA ETES-
BU R Y probably means, restricted to the Evangelical
party, for he proceeds to attribute the danger which
besets her to the fact that she is divided against
" herself, " and that the co-existence within
her pale of Neology and Ritualism has
produced a general indifference to her fate.
So far from " indifferentists," as Lord SILO-M-
-EI:RV calls them, or the advocates of comprehension
as they would call themselves, being the enemies
of the Establishment, and desiring "to get
" rid of the thing altogether," they are
Itg sirohgil.t rfttdtca oie. Dean .STANLEY
is a conspicuous example. The Establishment is
defended by men of this school, because it includes
every phase of Christian belief, from the confines
of Romanism to the bordersof Germanism. Mr. DIS-
RAELI, who eulogises in the same breath the great
services of the High Church party and the equal
services of the Low Church party, in doing so
only reflects the general mind of politicians. He
approves of ecclesiastical parties, and advocates the
principle of Church Establishments on the ground,
among others, that it enables them to
exist together in the same communion. Ac-
cording to Lord Suseressuitv, the evil has struck
deep roots. " I venture to say that thousands and
" tens of thousands of persons in this country
" who, a few years ago, would have hazarded
"everything for the Church of England, or done
"anything in their power to serve her, would
" not now walk across this room to save
" her from the peril that surrounds her. I
" am not speaking now without authority. A short
" time ago I received a letter from a man,
•' who, above all others, knows the feelings of
the people of Yorkshire—a sturdy, determined
. " race of men, who are, with many others, now
" about to be admitted, at all events a large portion
"of them, to the exercise of the franchise. This
letter, which was written only a few days since, is
" to this effect Ten years ago I could in this
•' ' populous district have pointed to thousands
" ' and tens of thousands who would have sacri-
" freed their lives for the maintenance of the
" Established Church ; but now, owing to the
• prevalence of Ritualism on the one hand,
•' and of Neology on the other '—and let
me here say that I endorse his remarks,
and the connivance of many of the bishops at
" those two abominations, such an effect hasbeen
" produced on the minds of the people of this
" district that Ido not believe fifty persons could
" be brought together for the purpose of main-
" ' taining the rights and privileges of the Estab-
" fished Church.' "

This fearful state of things has happened while
the Church of England has been in the enjoyment
of her rights and privileges ; it has happened in
spite of SHAFTESBURY Bishops and of the bestowal
of preferment on the confuters of Bishop
Cott:Ns() and of the Essayists and Reviewers. We
believe that Lord SHAFTESBURY very much exagge-
rates the state of things which he pourtrays ; and
that it springs not from the spread of indifference,
but from the growth of zeal. High Church, Low
Church, and Broad Church are all in earnest, and
earnestness manifests itself in diversity of opinion
and in conflict. In proportion as men are eager
for the essence, they will not care for the acci-
dence. If they attach secondary importance
to the secular rights and privileges of
the Church, it is because, in many cases,
they attach primary importance to its spiritual
functions. We believe that establishment has not
produced the evils which Lord SHA FTESBURY pour-
tra) s; and that disestablishment would not produce
those which he sometimes predicts. The question
of the relations of the Church to the State is not
religious but political. It is not fur divines but for
statesmen. The union between the two suits the
social conditions of England, and is in harmony
with popular feeling. So long as it continues to do
so, the Church Establishment will remain. When
it ceases to do so, if that should ever happen, the
connexion will be broken. But in either
case the Church will discharge its spiritual office
as we believe, in spite of detractors within its own
border, it is now doing, with a zeal and a success
which need not fear comparison •cith those of any
other Christian communion.