The Express.
London, England, 1868-03-03 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS,

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LONDON, TUESDAY, MARCH 3.

THE NEW OXFORD MARTYRS.

IT has seldom been our lot to read a more candid
composition than the memorial of the new Oxford
Martyrs to the Archbishop of Csxrzusuitv, urzing
his CRACE, as " the chief guardian in Parliament
"of the religious interests of the realm," to resist
the " threatened legislation "which proposes to thro w
open the University to the nation. This address is
a cry of anguish and alarm worthy of an age of
faith and persecution. . .

The good men who sign it are sincerely to be
pitied for having fallen upon an age of acomenve
dating beliefs and comprehensive principles, in
which their accents of woe and lamentation tickle
the ears of a dilettante public like a Misercre at the
Opera. That chorus of Trappists, who look so
solemn under the stage moonlight as they dig their
graves to the accompaniment of the eioloirelti,
makes us all feel very penitential, but the honest
fellows who are harrowing a sentimental public are
sot.a bit distressed. They have sung the dirge a
hundred times before, and keep time and tune
with admirable cue. The appeal of these " forty-
" two and other" members of Convocation is a
tolerably well got up piece of orthodox lamentation,
and we must confess we have found it pleasant
madiiig. It is so simple in its artfulness, so artful
as its simplicity. As the last confession of the re-
actionary clerical party it deserves, indeed,
the most respectful attention. It has the true
ecolesitustical savour in every line and is
garnished with all the dogmatic fallacies of
the theological schools. To begin with, it
identifies the Archbishop of CsrirtnialtY shoo-
lutely and exclusively with the religious interests
of this realm ; the religious interests of thin realm
with a single church established by law in one part
of the realm (or rather with one sect or party in
that church); and the exclusion of all but members
of this one church from the government and
fellowships of the University with the maintenance
" of the Christian character of our system of edh-
" cation." These, it should seem, are pretty large
assumptions. But large assumptions are essential
to a document conceived in the true ecclesiastical
spirit, and so are judicious reticences. The Me-
morialists abstain troll' arguing before his OR ser
" the right of Churchmen to the endowments of
" the Colleges ;" that is, their exclusive right.
They hold it, nevertheless, and are care-
ful to note that it was " NI!) re..lagnietal
in the Oxford University Act of 1854. By "I,llly
" recognised" they mean. not disputed for the per-
poses
of the Act or, not dealt with. An argn-
mead on behalf of the rights of " Church-
" men" to the endowments of the Colleges might,
perhaps, if pushed to its logic& conclusions,
result in handing the greater part th them lock
to the "churchmen" of that I,Biler 11/11VItlin
00111111UniOn to which their founders belonged, or in
doing what " certain propeals in Parliament in-
" volving organic changes" now propose to du— he
terpreting the wills of Founders in the spirit e! the
present age, and treating the University us a
nat. 1 institution. The Memorialists glad!y take
credit to themselves for that legislation of lfifie,
whilst they stoutly resisted at the period of its
enactment with complacency, if not with pride,
the effect of that legislation in throwing open the
University of Oxford to all Non-conformists withont
distinction, and opening to them the degree of E.A.
The admission of Non-conforming studeuts to the
colhges was left to the discretion of the several
societies, and the government of the University and
the tenure of the Fellowships was secured by
the declaration of assent to the Thirty-sine
Articles, and by the operation of the Act of
Uniformity "to persons conforming to the United
" Church of England and Ireland, while the ad-
" vantages of an Oxford education were placed
" within roach of all." The Bill before Parliameht,
which the Memorialists cannot contemplate with-
out dismay, proposes to allow the Colleges to elect
nun,-conforming graduates to filowehips
tutorship', and to make them members
of Convocation. And this is what, ace, eding to
nine Heads of Houses, tire ecclesiastical and
five secular professors. and some sixty other tietho-
rities of more or less obscure distinction. will cote-
" pletely destroying the existing connexion of the
" University and the Colleges with the Church."
It will lead, they confidently predict, to the eerie-
blishmont of a purely secular system of education
in Oxford. Although the University will retain its
cousiderable church preferment ; although the
liturgy of the Established Church will be per-
formed twice in the college chapel daily ; although
the Head of the Established Church will retain the
right of appointment to the Professorships of
Pas-
toral Theology, of Divinity, of Hebrew, of Eccle-
siastical History ; although the Colleges will con-
time to exercise their discretion in the choice of
fellows—the Memorialists have so weak a
faith in the hold of the ihtional chhrch
upon the University that, by way of emphasising
their fears, they resort to the : i:e old fallacy
of the Vatican, and treat the e :elusive teach-
ing of the "national church," " teligioas eahha-
h tion," "the very bans of a Chrthil:-n edncati
"Christian faith and Christian in.ha's," as conver-
tible terms. How they will lass_' :a Rome at this
identification of Christianity hn establish-
ment to which the founders of re. fh 1 University
did not belong, and which, if :hey were now
living, those founders would reehhi 38 beyond the
pale of the Church And if they laugh at Home,
bow will our Nonconformist friends nearer home

enjoy the appeal to the Archbishop (,f eA Eit•ErRY is
• • - -

bohilf of "the Christian parentt4 of our English
" youth throughout the land, wl•Rtover be their
" religious profession !" Yeq, it is on bela.lf of
the great body of Christians in this country who

do not belong [to theriaticnal *arch that
Archbishop of Csarsr.scur is entessitoiLbY
rep-asentatives of Convocatit nto oppose the rel
of non-conforming graduates from the illisabilities
which at present shut them out from Convocation
=3 from :college fellowships. Naming can ND
clearer to the non-conforming mind than that
" this is not a question between the Church
" and Dissent." Graduates who do not hap-
pen to belong to the National Church will
be very much obliged for this assurance.
Another exquisitely ecclesiastical characteristic of
this memorial is the facility with which its authors
shut their eyes to notorious facts. They look for-
ward with horror to "unity of faith" and worship
being inevitably destroyed inthe University and the
colleges—that unity of faith which contains so many
varieties, from Dr. PrACY to Dean BOYD. Some
names conspicuous in the list of Memorialists make
this talk of unity of faith sufficiently remarkable ;
but what diversity in unity do not some names
conspicuously absent from the list by the
side of Dr. BURET, Dr. SCOTT, DT. MANsEL,
Dr. Jets, Professor WALL, and the Rev.
Enwnv Patsies suggest ! The3e terrified peti-.
tioners, who show a lively sense of humour and
of the fitness of things, by appealing to the safest
and mildest of all possible Prelates to rescue the
souls of " this hitherto Christian nation "
from "a bitter conflict on first principles,"
or " a lax and careless indifferentism," are de-
lightfully unconscious of the widely varying intel-
lectual results of the Oxford ecclesiastical reaction
of five-and-twenty years ago, of the " conflicts on
" first principles" which it has created in
a few earnest minds, of the " indifferentism,"
to say the least, in the majority of that troubled
generation. They. may console themselves
with the reflection that the French Encyclopedists
were the pupils of Jesuit seminaries. But while
they find it easy to forget that " the principles of
" Christian education which have been handed
" down to them through so many centuries, and if
" once destroyed it will be impossible to re-
" store,"iwere destroyed some three centuries ago,
when they separated themselves from that unity
of faith which they are now pretending to
maintain, and followed the fortunes of the
Church of the State, they will discover a greater
difficulty in combining " truly liberal and compre-
" hensive principles" in the present day, with the
exclusion of half the nation front the government
and fellowships of a national university.

A DITFUSZ laxity is too often the characteristic
of British charity. The benevolent public are
appealed to by they do not know whom, and send
their contributions they scarcely know where
directly a cry of distress is heard. The money
once sent, the donor neither hears nor cares to
bear the details of its distribution, but is comfort-
ably satisfied with the knowledge that he hes
given to the poor. A regular system of adver-
tising has sprung up to meet this weakness,
and the concoction of advertisements to the
charitable has become an organised and pro-
fitable trade. We are farkfrom denying that
much good is wrought and real help given
by voluntary almoners, but it is impossible
to deny that even the best of these are placed in
circumstances of considerable temptation, and that
the love of proselytising, of awarding premiums to
seeming piety, and of depriving a poor neighbour-
hood of self-respect are dangers against which it is
necessary for them to guard. Many clergymen
at the east end of London complain bitterly
of the disadvantage they labour under, not so
much from the poverty of their districts, as
from the indiscreet efforts which have been made
to relieve it, and protest that the wholesale alms-
giving of late years has done less goof than harm.
It is now proposed to establish a voluntary audit-
board, which shall undertake to examine charity
accounts gratuitously, as well as to settle all
charity disputes. It is more than hinted
that much of the money remitted to advertising
almoners—and the clergy are not exempted from
the implied charge—is expended in a widely dif-
ferent way to that intended by its senders. Aug-
mented stipends ; houses which are subsequently
let, their proprietors preferring to live else-
where; and personal fees and perquisites are
I freely spoken of as the result of appealing
boldly on behalf of the poor. Amounts are
rarely kept, and a really formal statement
of disbursement and receipt is in many cases un-
known. It is thought that with a voluntary audit-
board this unsatisfactory condition of affairs would
be remedied, and that the really deserving
charities would court investigation.

Tue American press in one sense reminds us of
Mr. Hartz's representative scheme. It supplies
every party, however violent, with an organ, and
every opinion, however abnormal, with a voice.
It is as varied as the face of the country,
or the character of the people. Thus an
English writer, who desires to play upon the
blankness of information which, according to Mr.
BRIGHI, distinguishes the English mind on
American affairs, or to prop up a pet
theory of his own in an international
controversy, can easily find in American journalism
the particular illustration he wants. Every popular
delusion could be aided in a similar way.
" Hurrotfcrs," this morning, publishes with pride,
and just a little pomposity, au extract from the
Nero York World, which is useful to him in a certain
dispute. He even professes to set so much store upon
it as to remark :—" It would be a little odd if any
"one in this country should think it expedient to
" insist upon claims which the Americans them-
" selves see the propriety of abandoning. It is
" surely unnecessary that we should persist in being
" mace American than the Americans." The New
York World becomes in this way the mouth-
piece of the United States. To describe the paper
I which Hiwroxicrs" affects so kindly would hardly
be an agreeable task. Setting aside the objections
that to no American journal could the sig-
nificance be attached which our vacillating public
instructor gives to the World, and that its place
I in this argument is rendered specially dubious by
its long advocacy of Southern interests and
Southern civilisation, perhaps an appreciation
of its general merits may be assisted by comparing
it with something else—with one of its contempo-
traries, called by " Hunrcoucra" " the Rowdy
" Journal." The New York Herald is known in
! this country by more than its name. Now the
Nor York Wool,/ is the Fie,„,ki in its
early days, when manners were " freer" and New
York was leas influenced by European ideas. It is
as Mr. TRAIN (its English representative, by the
bye) to Mr. SEWAR n. "HI iTORITI:s" is not to be
congratulated upon his last autlo ray. He is even
better alone.

DEr.thITRE or ORINADIZE GC —Thu
morning a biattalroa of Ormurlier left the Welling-
ton Barracks, Birdasiemalk. en route far Delain, where
um
are to relieve the Ooldstmems, who haft been for
seam months past stationed there.

OUR CONTEMPOI

,
-GM lmr
Mri eniPSZteenlidik
alum of tEI Reborn abolishing

pounding in parliamentary
wide-epread distress the full
'named of the reduced rate, sad tamale who
formerly paid by weekly instalments in the rent hays
hese stirmassed to pay the rate in • lump sum in advance.
In Shoreditch 15,000 summonses have been issued ; is
Hackney 6,0(0. The complaint of the poor people is that
they are asked to pay both the furl rate and the com-
pounded rate, for in most mess landlords refuse to reduce
the rent which they asked when they themselves com-
pounded for the ram, and which therefore included them.
All this has been ceased to meet Mr. Disraeli's con-
venience as • party leader, and to supply him with
facilities for what be calls educating, and what
vrthers all hoodwinking, biz followers—the phrase

"the principle of persona rating " being that which be
employed for the purpose. In actual fact, a voter can
pay bin rates now, precisely as before, through his land-
lord ; but it must be t►e full, not the reduced rate. The
abolition of compounding Mr. Disraeli confuses with the
abolition of indirect payment. The confusion has served
his purpose ; and it is now bringing about results which he
never contemplated. It is promoting distress, discontent,
and tumult in London and throughout the country. Mr.
Disraeli will do well to yield gracefully, to be beforehand
with agitation and violence, and to concede, as if volun-
tarily, what he cannot withhold and has not even a pre-
text for ref uaing.