The Express.
London, England, 1868-01-21 00:00:00

THE BISHOPRIC OF NATAL.

The following letter has been addressed by the
Bishop of London to the Bishop of Capetown :
" Fulham Palace, Jan. 20.
"My dear Lord,—l feel myself constrained b) a sense of
duty, much against my inclination, to address your lord-
Oily publicly on the subject of a letter which you sent to
the newspapers last week. You announce. as I under-
stand you, that it is your intention forthwith to conse-
crate a new Bishop for NataL Had parliament or convoca-
tion been sitting ,I should have asked in my place for an
answer to the following :
" 1. Whether, considering the words of the 2Gth of
George 111., cap. 84, and otber statutes, the law officers of I
the crown, having been consulted by the government, have
declared such consecration to be lawful?
2. If you are not • on the authority of the law
officers of the crown, has a opinion been taken justify-
ing the step you propose, by whom has it been given, and
what are its express terms?
" 3. When and where is it proposed that the consecra-
tion is to take place, and who are to be the officiating

bishops!
" But neither parliament nor convocation is in session,
and, as it seems there Is no time to lose, I take the only
means open to me for asking you, before you proceed fur-
ther in this matter, to give a public answer to these ques-
tions. It was only last week that I learnt accidentally,
but from the most undoubted authority, that you pro-
posed to hold the consecration on the 25th inst. and
in Scotland. A vigorous protest against this prOceed-
ing has been made by persons who are among the moot
attached members of the Scottish Episcopal Church.
The Scottish plan is, I now learn, abandoned, and it is silted
that on Saturday next you propoee to conseerate in England.
Meanwhile, your brother bishops in England may well
be thrown into great perplexity. We know not in which
of our dioceses an act, which, to my the least, is of most
doubtful legality, is to take place. We may read in the
newspapers any morning that the thing has been already
done, and we may be left in the disagreeable position of
being called upon by others, as well as moved by our
sense of public duty, to visit some of our clergy for taking
part in proceedings contrary to the law of the church and
realm ; when, had we been properly informed beforehand
and the matter formally investigated, we might have pre-
vented them from committing themselves. I am sure
you will see, my dear lord, that the church of England is
entitled to a plain and immediate answer to the ons
I have asked. You remember, from your recent questions
presence
I at the Lambeth conference,
" 1. That the assembled bishops, under the direction of
I the Archbishop of Canterbury, delllaerately abstained from
affirming that Bishop Colenso's deposition was valid, either
spiritually or in any other way.
" 2. That at the adjourned meeting of the conference
the report of the committee recommending the consecration
of a new bishop was, by the wish of the Archbishop of
Canterbury, as well as of the Bishops of Lincoln, Ely,
Chester, and myself, with others, deliberately, not ap-
proved, but only received.
" 3. That many of the English bishops, feeling strongly,
like myself, how dangerous is the teaching of Bishop
Colenso, still hold that his see is not vacant, since his de•
position has been pronounced null and void in law by the
• best courts of the realm.
' 4. That some also of our body, whose authority is very
great in such matters, believe that (quite independently of
questions of English law) the deposition is unoanonicaL
" You will remember also,
" 5. That, whereas the words of 26 George 111., cap. 84,
declare that by the laws of this realm no person can be
consecrated to the office of bishop without the royal autho-
rity—if any doubt exists as to the applicability of the
words to your case—that consecration service which alone
can be lawfully used within the church of England pre-
scribes that the royal mandate shall be produced before the
consecration is proceeded with ; and, moreover, the bishop
elect is called upon to declare in the face of the congrega-
tion that he is persuaded be is truly called to his ministra-
tion in the office of a bishop, not only according to the will
of our Lord Jesus Christ, but also according to the order
of this ream.' To many it seems inconceivable that any man
will be found to make this solemn declaration, in the midst
et all these doubts, before the legality of hie consecration
'has been publicly established by some competent authority.
Under these circumstances I venture to call upon you,
my dear lord, not to go further without the most perfect
openness and the most complete examination by the autho-
rities of church and state as to the legality and propriety
of what you are doing. You surely will allow that you
ought not otherwise to proceed to a step which must be
fraught with the gravest consequences for the church, both
at home and in the colonies, and for which certainly there
is no precedent since the schism of the non-jurors. Let
me remind you that what I ask implies no long delay as to
the authoritative settlement of whether or no you are
right in your view of your duty. Parliament and convo-
cation both meet early next month, and it surely would be
unbecoming, in the face of statutes and of ecclesiastical
precedent, to hurry on this step. before either authority
has had an opportunity of expressing its opinion.
" Believe me to be, my dear lord.
" Yours very faithfully,
" The Lord Bishop of Capetown." "A. C. LONDON.

Mr. John Francis Barnett announces that he will
give a grand orchestral and choral concert, at St. James's-
hall, on Tuesday evening, the 11th proximo, when will be
performed, for the Ant time in London, cantata if
" The Ancient Mariner," composed expressly for and pro-
duced at the Birmingham Musical Festival, 1867. There
will be a band and chorus of upwards of 310 performers,
conducted by the composer. The of
Doria (from the
Sen Carlo, of Naples) will make their first appearance in
England at this concert, and the solo pianist will he Ma-
dame Arabella Goddard.
Tax BorLs Lscrrour.stur The Rev. Stanley
Loathes, M.A., of Jesus Coll ge, Cambridge, Professor of
Hebrew in Xing's College, .04 who has been appointed
by the Duke of Devonshire. on the recommendation of the
Bishop of London. Boyle Lecturer for the ensuing year,
will 00111DADC• a scores of lectures in the Chapel Royal,
Whitehall, is Um mouth of May. The lecturer has to
" preach eight sensoss in the year for proving the
Christian religion agaiast notorious vh., atheists,
theists, pagans, Jews, aied Mehometana, not descending
buret to any costroversies that are amongst Christians
themselves."
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