The Express.
London, England, 1850-08-26 00:00:00

latter to the churchwardens of Brampford Speke. If
it do not, it certainly ought. For It is the climax of
intolerance and uncharitableness; it *sorsa the
bible ; substitutes the Prayer Book fur the Holy
Scripture ; elevates the Catechise! over the Articles
up a question of dogmatic teaching; confers ea the
biahcfs own interpretation el selected pampa the
authority of inr..llilOlity I and torislgne to the rains and
penalties of 514 ,-,:hilat all who dare to dispute
the word ofhlrp.rgeTate who was ii;Stelitived on his oath
by a jury of his own episcopal city.
It is not only, however, offensive twine the spirit
of true religion, by its substitution of a human insti-
tution for divine revelation, and by its attempt to
proselytise by the terrors of the criminal law ; bat
it is also repulsive of those elements which, when
brought into oombinatioo, develop society and
advance civilisation. For it denies to Mr. GORHAM
that sincerity and devotion to truth which it so
loudly claims for its author; it presents him to his
pardoners as a orsecious culprit, as a reprobate,
who, knowing his errors, refuses to reform his vises,
as a wolf coming amongst them to devour their
lambs, as a clergyman resolved to teach them damns-
tion. Regarded from this point of view, the tone,
the spirit, and the tendency of the letter are quite
shocking, almost demoniacal. Not one charitable
thought is bestowed on Mr. GORHAM; all is denun-
ciation, insinuation, malicious suggestion, slanderous
hopes, and libellous prayers. Throughout, Mr. Goa-
nag is treated as an ecclesiastical outlaw; a priest
to be baited by his own flock, and to be degraded by
his bishop. Were such principles of judgment in
differences of opinion generally to regulate human
conduct; were such modes of discussion usually to
prevail in human controversy ; were such habits of
intolerance to gain predominance in human debates
and discussions; and were such sets of persecution to
be aimed at by disputants, society might con-
thine to exist, but it would become the so-
ciety of wild beasts, not of men conscious of
the fallibility of their own judgments, and conse-
quently charitable and tolerant to each other.
However, then, persons may dissent from Mr.
GORHAM'S opinions, or assent to the super-naturalism
now claimed for the church by his opponents, every
one has an interest—deep, direct, and immediate—in
suppressirg the anti-social and inhuman tendencies
of such a letter as has been addressed, in the sacred
name of our Blessed itedeemer, to the churchwardens
of Brampford Speke, by their " father in God," who
himself offered to institute Mr. GORHAM to that
benefice provided he would supine.? the publication
of his examination. _

Without offering any judgment on the point in
dispute, it can hardly, we submit, be denied by Mr.
GORHAM'S bitterest opponent, that his conduct and
bearing throughout this unhappy and mischievous
controversy have been altogether worthy of a Chrstian
clergyman ; and as such afford a very favourable con-
trast to the brhaviour of his disorderly, contentions,
and disputatious ordinary. In the first in-
stance, Mr. GORHAM submitted unrepiningly and
without a murmur or remonstrance to exa-
minations such as no other clergyman in the
church has ever been subjected to; examinations
offensively conducted, inconveniently appointed, and
inquisitorially seeking for the means of rejecting the
QUERN'S presentation. When rejected he sought re-
dress from the tribunals of his country in a spirit
respectful to his diocesan and to himself. Disap-
appointed in obtaining redress in I)octors' Commons,
he appealed to the Judicial Committee of the Privy
Council ; and there, with assent of the two arch-
. .

bishops, found what '
he taught. But neither before
nor since that judgment has Mr. GORIIAM appeared
personally before the public : neither b, fore nor since
has he complained of the long, costly, and anueetsary
litigation into which he was plunged; not one harsh,
ungenerous, or unkind word against his persecutor
has he been betrayed into; though irritered and
sorely tempted, he has refrained from controversy or
publication; satisfied with vindicating his own
I,gal rights and his own conscientious opinions.
he has maintained his temper, his dignity,
and reputation ; and he now quits. far ever
let it be hoped, a discussion which will
preserve his name to history, without having given
just cause of personal offence to cne human being,
without having[soiled hie character by a single scandal
—a credit to thoie who suppoi tee' him and a contrast
to his bishop. To Dr. Vitamin,' intolerance Mr.
GonuaM has opposed modesty ; to the bishop's abuse
he has replied by silence ; and unappalled by the
bishop'. three'. be will justify the past by the purity
and devotion of the future. _ . .

Still irreligious in the best, and anti-social in the
strictest sense of those words, as the Bishop of
EXETER'S last letter is, it has its uses. It teaches us
what we hart. to expect if his party ever become
dominant in the church ac.d powerful in the state. In
that event the comprebensioa f r which the church of
England has hitherto been so distin{tuished would be
de taro} ed ; and in its place the spirit of perreoution
of restiiction, and of exclusion would arise. The
bishop himself knows no agency of proselytism
but ecclesiastical censures ; pr.:sccutions for what
he calls heresy, and deprivations for what
he deems schism. Others of his party,
taking a lesson out of Cardinal FRANIONI'S book,
are even now complaining that they aro compelled to
give Christian burial to the remains of these whose
lives they arrogate to themselves the power to judge.
Already in Lancashire has a youthful devotee of this
ecclesiastical faction declined to marry parties who
had not been confirmed, and forced them into a life of
sin. By Dr. Fusee the QUEENN supremacy in
ecclesiastical affairs is so qualified and restriced as
to be practically denied. By Bishop BLoMFIKLD a
spiritual curt of heresy is demanded. And by Mr.
SEWELL, Mr. BENNETT, and Mr. laostt, the power of
legislation sad of administratio . is adrecated for the
church.

The practical tendency and the legitimate object of
cal these manifestations and &signs is made arparent
by the GORIIAM case. What is wanted is the power
and the opportunity to narrow and rt strict the Church
of England; to deprive her of her national and to
give her a sectarian character ; to bestow upon her
supernaturalism by driving cu• cf her fold ore half
of her clergy, a-41 probably tvm-:birds of her laity.
Contrast the Bishop of I.xxital*!, persecution even
to imprisonment of Mr. Si:tmE and his crusade
against Mr. GORRAM, with his patronage of Dr.
I'usEY when silt need by the University of Oxford,
with his laudation of the saintly character of the
Tractarian nunnery at Devonport, with his refusal to
interfere for the restoration of peace and de c :ncy when
d sturbed by novelties in worship in one of the
churches of Exeter, with his denunciation of a charity
ball to raise Nude for the allevia,ion of human suffer-
ing,with his entreaty to the churchwardens of Braun-
ford Speke to play the part of spies over their
minister ; and then we shall have some, though a
very inadequate, notion of ti.e changes in our church
system aimed at by VA> party cow to quasi rebellion
against the law of the land.

BEFORE the repeal of the corn laws, August was
en anxious month. Its rain or drought, clouds or
outshine, heat or cold, were to determine the prospe-
rity or adversity of all cleans and interests throughout
the country. Up to that month all might be prospe-
rity and premier; the grain fields heavy laden, food
cheap, trade good, employment ebundant, gold plenty
in the coffers of the Bank, comm roial confidence and
credit firm, education spreading, and pauperism
and crime declining amongst the people. A few days
of storm, a week or two of cold cloudy weather were
sufficient to change the whole aspect of affairs. In
view of damaged fields, farmers held their corn and,
brought less and less to market, gr,:in rose rapidly,
dealers speculating on the barometer and eliding scale
gambled in foreign corn—the Hidden demand must
be suddenly paid fir in gold—the bank must put the
screw on, raise its interest, icemen its facilities —week
by week workmen paying more for bread must spend
less on clothes, and Its, on ten, sugar, coffee,
and all other imported end revenue paying
articles. With shortened demand for foreign pro-
ducts the demand abroad for cur goods declined, and
the excheq ter felt the forced frugality and spread of
poverty amongst the people.
There is no:need we should tell over the mhery, the
staying of the hand of industry,' he breaking down into
pauperism, the giving way of education and walking
abroad of disease and crime in years posed, years of
high priced food ; not all ur willtrgnese to work,
, our gathered skill, our wonders of machinery, our
ships on all seas, our custom re spread far
and wide throughout the world, our utmost foresight
could ensure us from actual want by virtue of the
corn laws: even in this wnretn use and workshep of
the world, we were pined at the mercy of a low
hours of cloud or eunshine. We had explored the
universe, planted colonies at the antipodes, opened