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

THE EXPRESS, THURSDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 12, 1850.

RESIGNATION OF MR. BENNETT, OF
ST. PAUL'S, KNIGHTSBRIDGE.

The following correspondence hes been published :
Be. Barsabas, Pimlico, Doc. 4, 1860.

My Lord,—On reviewing the eotrespondesee wilds Dr
been serried as between your lordship sad myeslf Ones July
1, I lad that In my letter I. you, dated July 16, I wrote es
fellows:

"Oa t►e one hand, r I hope it will be closely under-
stood that, conicientiously, I cannot Lugo any of the pia-
elpise whirs In this letter I sot forth end advocate, sad, U
I remain in the ear of souls, by thou principles I mast be
permitted to abide; so, on the other hand, as I consider
myself morally sad spiritually bo■ndd sot to oppose your
lordship is roes matters which, as diessesn, you have •
tight and • daty to regulate, I am reedy to withdraw hors
• position in which the possibility of such an event 'night
arr."

And agala la my latter of Nisbet 70,1 wrote so follows :
" My maelasies is is this dialealty as it was in my pre-
vious letter of July 16, that I ought, it apes, to maga
my lavkag. . . . . I would then put it to your lordship
is this way :—if year lordship should be of twatbseed
esoiag Ise and keowang me u sow you do, that I em
guilty of aniaithhilasse to the shuck of Borland, and if
your lordship will *pm that dignify your lodgment as
p that it would be for the prate and better ordering of
that portion of the chetah which is under your episcopal
charge that I should ao longer serve in the living of St.
Paul's, I will then the vary watt day mad you my tosigta.
Use."

litare now to acknowledge the rieselpt of your lordship's
letter, dated 27,1 w which you say :
" Upon the whole, if you are not prepared to comply
aimplicgter and es maim. with Um requisition emulated in
my letter of the UM init., I least cell upon yea to fulfil
your offer ef retiring from a charge which I deliberately
think you scald net in that case continue to hold without
greet injury to the shuck."
My lord, seeing that I am usable easseisatiously to plass
myself under the former clause of this sentence, s.. , to
" comply simeiciter and es animo with your requisition of
the 16th inst., it follows that I mug submit to tite " all "
made upon me in the lama.
Bat this " call " elfin to an " offer " made by me in my
letter of October 30.
. . . .

I conclude, therefore, that in making this call upon mo
yes wish to express all that was involved or contained la
that offer—namely, that you are " of continued opinion that
I am guilty of untaithfelness to the church MEl:gland," and
that you therein "signify your judgment as bishop that it is
for the poems and bettor ordering of that portion ol the church
which is under your episcopal thugs that 1 should no longer
serve in the liviog of St. Peal's."
To this judgment of my bishop, deliberately given, and the
coil thereupon deliberately mid., I consider it to be my doty
to submit. . . .

"Yes tell me that you sweet soaseleatiouly forego say
et the prineiploo est lurk In. your letter. bly roommate's.
to yont wits di reeled egulast certain protein—portion is
behalf of whisk you oat no valid detenee, and whieh you
swat* easiest exciter of vita imperious. If I restrain
yea firm thou promises—which I feel myself boned to de as
fee to I easi—l mum think that your epee:donee will be
serkotely aggrieved. or that snakiest cans will have arises
far your leans( the ministry, to which you have hitherto
hem so zealously derottd."
la pour mores to this Wu, dated October 30, you ay:
"I nosh less lured the imp lotion of Roman
than I longed for mop ty of whittle' Bark C=
of ma to the miens stasdards of faith, of demise sad
elsosetity, which I Mud the catholic shuck bete la MO
'set sad is the west, imoriably melds; sad professing. I
mid sot permit 'motile ackaowlodp that the obsrek of
Ragland could be out off from soak mimosa semisoft I
unmet sus hew It Is that she us be seporated and ohm ft
my miter. What le universal must be true. What ell
egos has loud and veneratedshos ought sot to be permits.
to kote. harden, se I 'said boot have oppertanhy (oar
'Moat with ebediesee to thew pante strictly forbidden or
commanded by thekei gunk to whisk °bedlam. is due is
lan pbm). I. have always made my Welds( mad ritual
positheamitmed with suck eatkolis lima. I feel very great
maillelosee *at whatever is catholic Oa the aseledeetioal
emu) suet be ; what is merely loos!, not ammearlly
to; and modal, not so miles made to be useistent with
mad la hansom with what ill catholic.
It remain. for se to seasider whether I can, spec your
lordship's repeated piquet, set aside thug priaciples, and
with than, as they oppose to ma combined, the potation to
which year lordship obis.
"It gringo me mare than I can say, bums. I foresee
that it will probably ead, moor or later, in the Ices of all
that I hue ever lived for and done in Oils parih—it eaves
ate to say that I am amble to withdraw or to alter anything
that I have said or done. The principles themselves, meatus
described, I fad that you would not ask me to alseaftm; gad
I also fed that by not abandoning the principles, and yet
abandoning the motion founded upon them, I should be a
mere hypocrite la God's sight. There would be wok • less
of consistency ad etedfastnees of plumes in the epos of my
patiitionen as would emu ate deservedly to lees their imme
fidesa and support, and utterly destroy my usefulness fa the
paten/ office. Os the other hand, I have very great
raincoat* to disturb the panes of the church (it so it must
be). I dread blooming_ the occasion of any prows-
tions, or minim the risk of earlesiastioU proeegs, and I i
think it 'my bdundea duty to sacrifice all that belongs to
myself rather than place your lordship ander Go necessity of
appealing to any such mesas for correcting what, in your
opinios, uwrong. Tturtfore, my cam:loom is in Ws diffi-
culty, as it was inny preoionslattar of Jaly 16, that I ought,
U called upon, to resign my Hying.
.1 would then put it to your lordship in this way—l
would say, if your lordship should be of continued opiniu,
seeing and knowing me as you now do, that I am guilty of
anhithfulaus to the church of England; and if pour lord.
ship will upon that signify your judgment se bishop thot It
would be for the puce and better ordering of the Musa
which is ander youreptsemod charge, that I should no Imam
serve in this lioft of St. Paul's, I would then, the very next
day, send you my formal resignation "
To this letter, dated October 80, I replied on the 16th of
November, haying been prounted by the business of my viol-
ation ion returning an earlier answer.
Being still desirous of brinesgg you, if possible, to • right
view of your duty to the oho:At and of inducing you to
obey rather than to retire, I expriesed myself. follows:
I cannot for a moment admit the soundness of these
principle., upon the strength of which you consider yourself
to be puha din doing that which is contrary to the order
alba church of which you us • minister, to the spirit of
all its roles and formularies, sad to the judgment of your
lam midst the neesesity of stating my deckled opinion
that • continuance of the practice. against which I have in
vela revonetretal, sad of any °then which au not rase.
demi by the laws or cutouts of °orchards, as well u of any
poeuliarilles of dress or manner which are unusual in cur
Munch, but are 'opted from that of Earns, le inconsistent
with your duty u • minister et the English Much ; and I
mow again call upon you to relinquish them."
Is answer 'o this, you wrote me on the 23rd of November,
a letter, in which you abandon the principle Against which
I untended, and take entirely new ground. Ten say :
.1 would take the following rules as sty guide in the
relent difficultiss:
"1. 1 have ascertained from Mr. Dodswerth, Mr.
Richards, and Mr. Murray, all the points of ritual and car.-
loony which hue been in use in their churches tor many
users, knows to and permitted by your lordship.
It is ay intention to adhere to any or all of thee. filial
and ceremonial oburunces.
2. Your lordship will remember all that was done in
ritual and ceremony in your own presume at the COnemera-
tree of St. Itarnalim
It is my intention to adhere to any or all of that ritual
and ceremony.
"3. I hao collected together from various cathedrals of
the church of England the form of ritual observance pries-
thood in t hem.
"It I. my intentioa to odious to or to adopt any or all
each points as I may fiad authorised therein.
" Whatsoever is sot found or authorised by tither ono of
the above rules, and whatsoever is not found, or eaneot he
legitimately &dowel from the Book. of COMMIX Prayer or
the .arose of oar church, it is my intention, is obedience to
your lordship's episcopal requisition to abandon."
In rt ply to this letter, wherein your deal) gave up the
principle insisted upon in your former letters, I wrote on the
27th of November as follows :
I cannot for a moment admit that any one of the
criteria which you propose is binding upon me.
1. Supposing even that I had not objected (which, how-
ever, I bays done In the strongest manner) to some prat-
tices in the churches to which you allude, there must be
many things dons there which I cannot be minima of, and
there may be many lint things not prohibited by me, the
somata of which would be very offensive and objeetioaable.
Your plan, it sums, will be to pick out from wrens churches
everything unusual, and to combine them into a complete
system in your own.
2. There was more form and display at the consecration
of St. Borneo. thus I liked; but I saw nothing decidedly
sestray to On rubric—certainly none of thou forms which
I have sines heard of as being oberred by you, and to which
I have objected. It was not likely that I should take that
opportunity of stating my objec:ions to minor points; but I
'peke very plainly in lay serum° of tbe danger of emit, and
in Les than one mouth from that dm I wrote you a strong
letter of reesonsuence. There may have bees things done
at the croseeraVoa which did not fall under my eye; end,
from what km Moe happened I think It likely that such
was the we. Bat, eves if it were not, I cannot content to
be bound to tolerate now what I did not taka that oppor-
tunity of osouring.
3. Been watt I to admit that the diocesan cathedral was
to be e rule and standard for all the parochial Marches in
I the diocese, it is clear that I could not congest to ovoid
this privilege to all other cathedrels ; for if that were done,
then, if any one dun and chapter were to adopt extravagant
and Rananizing practices, I should be bound to tolerate
than.
" I hue no ream to supreme that there is any custom
observed in any of our cathedrals of which I should dism-
pub; but I cannot be bound by their usages.
pork the whole, if you are not prepared to somplye
sionpticiter and ex anima, with the requisition oputained in
my letter of the 16th inst., must call upon you ss fulfil your
offer of retiring from • chugs which I deliberately think
you could not in that case continue to hold without greet
iojury to the church."
In your recently published letter to Lord Johu
you declare that what your intention and mine was at the
time of the commeration of St. Ihrelebee, " in otritensim sad
rituals that it shall be pow, please God, for ever the sassu,
onchaosed, unnhangeahle." It te ea unavoidable interims
from the .lain intention, that the novelties of which I
complained, and which I called upon you to lay aside,
will nor be gins up, although I have forbidden them
as being coatrary to the church's order end (steatites.
The loaves me no choice em to the coarse to be par-
sed. It ie impossible for me not to think that
" the goalie sad good order at the clunk whisk is
under my episcopal chugs" would be seriously latorrapeed,
sad occasion of triumph give* te the March's enemies,
if you were to eautistiee In your present post, dell-
herately and avowedly disobeying the ealmailleas at you
Whit), and settle, up your own lodgment of the shank'.
intention in oppositios to hie. The evils sumully remit
tog from sue, a state of things would greatly outweigh the
good which might be derived from your seal, ability, and
&Foetidness, supposing the innovation complained of to
have so conieetion with to erroneous opinion Ia °Maio
points of doctrine which they are totassonly supposed to
express or indicate.
It is with very great pain, but with no limitation mato the
necessity which binds me to this conclusion, that I now
signify my oeceptancie of your renewed offer to resign the
imembency of St. Paul's, and, with it, the cape! of St.
Borsabes'.
Proyiag that the Divine Head of the Chun* may guide
you to • right judgment is the Wags whisk coment its
polar, I remain, rev. and dear sir,
Your faithful servant in Carle,

Ai:wordingly, I now redeem the pledge given in my letter
of Oat. 30; and, in answer to your "call' now mode upon
me, 1 hereby send you my Nilsson= ot the perpetual
curacy of Bt. Peel's, Knightsbridge.
The precise time when I shall cease to have further charge
of the parish, and the future arrangements secen.ary for the
performance of the various services of the shores, perhaps
your lordship will have the kindness to strange with the
obarchwardens, whoa I will desire to wait upon you as soon
ae possible for that purpose.
In concluding this corretpondente, as I feel that in ell
probability I may have made use of expressions or ►rought
forward arguments which may have given offense to your
lordship personally, I desire toe all suer cooseiuns of offence
to express my mincers regret, and to assure your lordship
th►t they have been partly inadvertent.
Fon any Whams so inadvertent I hope I may safely ask
year lordship's obesity sod forgiveness, and remain
Yost lordship'. faithful servant,
W. B. BENNATT.
The Lord Bishop of Loudon.

FaHum, Dro. fr.

Um sad dear sire—l have to acknowledge the receipt of
your letter of the 4th inst., in which you tender your resig-
nation of the perpetual curacy o! St. P•ul's, Knightbridge.

That resignation, under the eircitiostanoes of the case, I
think I am bound to accept; sad in doing eo I deem it right
briefly to recapitolete those circumstances.
During the last four years I have WWII times cautioned
you on the eubject of the enemies ritualism which you were
inclined to practise, as approaching too nearly to that of the
church of Rome. Writing to you co the 7th January,lB47,
on the sulijoet of intoning the prayen, I said," I really tsar
you are innying things tin tar." Tau eautioa referred, as
I afterwards explained it, not no mach to any deviations
from the nitric, as tow certain peculiarities of roman, which
are net amens, to a correct observance of the fabric, and
which afford • handle to objectors."
In February, 1849, I merited a letter from one of your
parishioners, onsplaidog of curtain psouliarities in your
mods of celebrating dieing •erfoa. Oa the 10,4 of that month
you waited upon me, accompaoied by your two church.
wardens, sod, in their (mimeo' dehod most of the state-
ment. contained in that fetter. Bath you and they assured
me that you had made no change since the day of the con.
secra.ion, and that the congregation at large were lot di,.
satisfied. I told you, that 1 did not approve of so much form,
especially of the proonsion with the elimeats, nor of the
choristers receiving the communion before the other commu-
nicants. In a letter which I wrote on the 16th of the acme
month to the gentleman who had made the complaint
aboremasatioaed 1 gave him an account of what had
passed at my interview with you end the church-
werdeas ; sad, after stating that your mode of performing
&vise service, which was not dhapproved of by the congre-
gation in general, was, es tar as I could collect, "in con-
terrain with We practice followed in cathedral thatcher," I
added :

" 1 ein bound to acknowledge that I greedy question lb.
ezpodiency of introducing that mode of celebrating divine
service into our parochial churches; but it an ineumbeat
thinks it right to do so, wing that ha has the rubric in his
favour, 1 doubt whether I have authority to prohibit it;
although, it 1 were made aware of a general toiling ot die-
m/aisles:4as in the congregation, I might iatertere In the way
of advice and ressonatraisoe."

No ex sense of any such general feeling with respect to
St. Peal's ever reached me. la a latter which I wrote to
you on the Bth of March, 1849, were these words :—" I ter-
tainly understood at that time (of the consecration of St.
Paul's) that the pupr were to be reed, and not intoned.
Since Um consecration of St. 13arnahes you have carried your
ritual innovations to such en *moans, that I have found
myself obliged to remenstrate with you more strongly and
more particularly than I had dons with reference to the
services is St. Pa.'s. And this lends me to complete of an
auertion made by you in your published letter to Lard John
Russell as being utterly unfounded. Yoe my. in page 20 : '
"My views and principles is the vegetation of tne Denies '
—intending to do, teach, and pursue my way, in the very
way 1 am now pursuing lt—all this was kaoon to the bebop."
This 1 emphmorilly deny. I knew, gerwrally, poor mods
of celebrating divine service in St. Paul's, and I had more
than ones signified to you my disapproval of some features of .
it; but 1 had no seem of what you intended to do in St.
Hameln& in the way of additional noveldw. As soon u
' I beard of them, within three weeks from the day of the
consecration, I wrote to you in the following words:
" The accounts which have ruched me of what is taking
place at St. Barnabas' leer, me no clioioe but to inserter*.
You are aware that some of the practices which you have
st different times adopted is the mods of celebrating divine
terries in St. Paul's chinch amend to me to &proseh too
nearly to those of the church of Rome, and to be con-
trary to the spirit and naiades' of the rubric of our
church, if not to its expreseed litter. I have more
than one expressed to you my fear that you were
suiting sr enitionging in the member of your
a taste fee forms d neername which would
="llBwrittre and
seek for Is hider gretilestios is the church of
Rena That this has bun the actual result, in some in-
itiate., then'a be no doubt. Whether others have via
moved, of perms retained in our oommunioa by the partial
ciameittes made to • meshed appetite, may well be quo-
lieeeL
.Dot I an Mimed, open authority which I can hardly
ihmht, that la Mot isivires at Statarnahas you are introduo-
lig still itarther divletious from the ordinary forms of our
church, sad that poetises ars adopud and encouraged there
whisk have sot yet nand their way into St. Paul's, ud
width give jam gasmen even to time who have hitherto
gene with ye* is year observes's*"
' I non proceeded to specify the particular forms alluded to
—via., you paten, and that of your cornice, is ulabratiag
the holy enimunies; the sot 'May the cup into the hands.
the commanudeaste, and the patting the bread into their
mouths instead of delivering it into their heads ; the form of
words wed before the sermon instead of a oiliest and the
Lord's Prayer, and the grassiag of themselves by the clergy
preesst.
In your answer to that letter yin attempted to justify the
use, not only atheist forms, but also of any other which you
might from time to time adopt from the supplesd prude, of
the church before the Reformatios, except Owe which are
in terms prohibited; it the " primiple—that winnow as
prohibition wars—there the wheat usages of tie catholic
church were meant to prevail ;"nad you said in goosissios:
. Oa the one head I hope it will be clearly *admen&
that conscientiously I moan forego any of the principles
which in this letter I set teeth sad educate, mad if I resins
in the cure of souls, by those prier*. I must be permitted
to abide ; on the other head, as I onside: gem& moray
, and spiritually based sot to oppose year lordship le then
i matters which as dtoessan you have a right mad a duty to
, regalia, so lam ready to withdraw from a patinas is whisk
the possibility of sunk an might arise. I therefore
I plies myself Is your lordship' ,es the right sad lawful
• judge In this meter meet the sheath's guardian."
r I remind net letter at a time when I woe toe sown' tf
I **lead to asp hosisets of isaportases fortnight helm. 1
t crest abroad fee the recovery of my health. After my re'
l turn home I wrote to you at considerable length ea the lath'
i of October, sgmbstiag the rennin white you had sinned
. in defence of your pnetioss, and stating, with reopen MON
I of those pregnant . - ---- - —I
mi.
The great *erica to ai•pnelk• 'sag w siliml
iii,"dun iamb thoOtWter looyiess try a nom el 1
6- tbiAlsaift
galin. 411 Minn mid insting the et a
I gents Mnos. Sae scraping yam youself that it 1
f leaessesary teßionder, neer* in washer pilings el way
inter yea ermild geti=terZtlein Teo overtook
I the ion, that whin ' egnicesimi ie Ike Morbid ay-.
1=7411 emir too is.. " sites
oft* 91
_sslins.•
isassassmo4 MOM aillitladied 10 es,
musk samlimiliso is • EMU smug r

C. J. LONDON.

THE LONDON FAlUtiffe CLUB. —The usual
mashly meeting of the club took glade yesterday mains,
as the Mb-rooms, Blackfriars the eabjeat for diestesise
• " The quahtlee of differeat kinds of feed, sad the
bait 'embeds of fames* stock." The chair teas takes by
Mr. J. Payee, sf ldaenkam. lir. J. C. Nesbitt, ef Ks&
eieghts lane, fetridesed the gaieties at scasiderable leagtlL
Name. Om Ismrisr, NNW, Pswiett, sad IL Smith
wok Ind le tie disguiser end -''matey se the mainseildr. Elmer, esentlerika W. Newt; it was resolved,
That the Wadi'. laid dews by Kr. Nesbitt
le Ms valuable ant g lecture, so far as th.f sae
with• tes:red.birskthe expertise, of this emoting, sre
ith

BalirtoL AdipOO4ITILSL SOCHITY.—At the annual
of this ssoloty, held yesterday at Bristol, Mr. W.
rilStis,ll P., diddled the following malts of experiments
ha had sod. with different kinds of Lawns : 13 teas of
weer* predated 20 tons 16 cwt. of turnips ; 3 wt. 'mu°,
iens 17 ewe. ditto • 3 out. London maws, 13 toes 9 cwt.
0101 3 awn nail, 13 leas 1 cwt. He ikon tried
imatity et entladel enteare, wltk the following resnit ii
less et susware predated 20 tens 16 own et tussles; 2 eat.
rime, 14 teas 44 out ditto ; 2 own Lanka mann
7 Ism 14 cwt. ; I eat Fletalsis ; se thee
Ewa, held tee awed plate la bolt. He mei es, lie had
feimbespeelmeeer,lol be ant be Jlll4 less
*wilds .0681•1616-4bst, el WM AM
=ir lersseaseietties inn ;boas, end ifiple-