The Sun.
London, England, 1864-10-12 00:00:00

WELSH PROJECTS.

The promoters of railway projects inlSonth Wales
are making preparations to complete the requisite
surveys and other preliminary arrangements for
next session. The proposed new undertakings in.
elude a line from the east aide of the Usk at New,-
port, via Ctterleon an cl Pontnewydd, to a junction
with the Great Wes tern at Pontypool-road, thus
giving an independent narrow gauge access to the
p'irt of Newport ; also a branch to connect the West
Usk Docks with the old Itumney line. It is in con-
templation as t o apply for powers for a line of

railway commencing at Milford Haven, and thence
passing along the Pt mbrokeshire and Cardiganshire
coasts, passing Fisbguird and Newport, to a junc.
Owl with the Cardiganshire lines. This will be on
the narrow gauge, and it will bring Milford into
direct communication with the narrow gauge lines
of the country. The Vale of Ayron is another pro-
ject, the object being to connect the port of Aberey-
ron with the Manchester and Milford line. The
London and South Wales direct line, by which the
distance from the South Wales coalfield to the me-
tropolis is proposed to be reduced 25 miles, is also
likely to be proceeded with next session.

The Archbishop of Canterbury s Primary
Visitation,

CANTERBURY, Tuesday.
his Graco the Archbishop of Canterbury commenced his
primary visitation at the Cathedral this day. lie was at-
tended by his chaplain, the Rev, J. R. Ilall; Mr Dunney,
secretary; and Mr W. 11. Cullen, registrar. The attend-
ance was very numerous.

The ARCHBISHOP commenced his charge by paying a
high tribute of respect to the memory of his predecessor,
Archbishop Sumner. He then proceeded to set forth the
present condition of the diocese, and expressed his grateful
sense of the obligations which the diocess owed to the Doan
for having undertaken the provision of a Sunday afternoon
service. Cathedral bodies, generally speaking, were exert-
ing themselves to provide additional spiritual instruction for
the inhabitants of their respective cities, and he should
have felt extremely sorry if Canterbury had been backward
in such a movement. He was well acquainted with some
signal instances of the results which had arisen from local
exertion, and could not refrain from pointing out what
might be accomplished by the cordial co-operation of the
clergy and the laity. In the deanery of Southwark, con-
taining a population of nearly half a million, there were
63 benefices, many of them so poorly endowed that there
were ten incomes averaging no more than £lOB. Some time
ago an association was formed for augmenting the incomes
of small livings. It raised £5,000 by donation and annual
subscriptions, the incumbents by preaching sermons raised
£5,000 more, and the grant from the Ecclesiastical Com-
missioners doubled those sums, realising a total of £20,000.
In Cambridge a similar effort had been made, with like suc-
cess. There could be no doubt that the increase of the en-
dowments of the poorer benefices was one of the most crying
wants of the times. In this diocess there were 21 benefices
the incomes of which were under £lOO, and 102 which were
under £200; and as the grants made by the Ecclesiastical
Commissioners were open to all, he hoped that seasonable
aid would be sought for and obtained. That end .vould be
promoted if there existed a society to aid in the increase of
church accommodation by the building of now churches and
the enlargement of old ones, by increasing the endowments
of small benefices, and aiding in the erection of parsonage-
houses, and it was his intention, with the assistance of the
clergy of the diocese, to make a strong effort to establish a
society for the accomplishment of those three objects. The
reports of the inspectors of schools showed that the state
of education in the diocess was satisfactory, and that the
discipline was remarkably good. He regretted the removal
of the children from some of the schools at so early an age,
and thought the evil might to some extent be removed by
the extension of night schools. He was glad to find that a
Book Hawking Association existed in the diocese, and he
wished to sea its operations commensurate with the diocese,
He had to tender his thanks to the clergy for the manner
in which they had responded to his inquiries relative to the
condition of their respective parishes. There were still 65
churches in which the Hely Communion was administered
less than six times a year, but he trusted that efforts would
be speedily made to introduce something approaching more
nearly to a monthly communion. There were 46 churches
having only one service on a Sunday. In some cases there
might be a sufficient reason for such a state of things, but
wherever it was possible he hoped that strenuous efforts
would be made to establish a second service. His return
did not show any case in which there was no annual ap-
peal on behalf of Church missions, but still he was afraid
there were several such instances. He trusted, however,
that the pastoral letter of the four Archbishops would pro-
duce a good effect, and that in every parish an attempt
would bo made to assist in the augmentation and multipli-
cation of Church Missions. Ho found on looking at the
returns, that there were 126 churches in which
the sacrament of baptism was not administered at
the time when the congregation were present.
He was aware of the difficulty of restoring the
order of the Church in this particular, after a long
desuetude, but would urge his rev, brethren to use their
best endeavours.to return to the regular service. Much un-
easiness had been caused by the frequently repeated asser-
tion that the number of candidates for Holy Orders had
within the last few years considerably diminished, and that
the proportion of candidates from the universities had de-
creased ; but there were some facts which seemed to contra-
dict that statement.. Between the yearlBso and the year 1831
the number of clergy in England and Wales had risen from
17,621 to 19,195, showing an addition of 1,574; and of the
285 candidates ordained at Christmas, 1863, 203 were from
Oxford and Cambridge, 22 from Durham and Dublin, and
the remainder from the smaller colleges. It was obvious,
however, that the number of small benefices, and the op-
portunities afforded by competitive examination for more
lucrative employments, was calculated to influence unfairly
the supply of candidates for the ministry; and the vast in-
crease of new churches and the additional staff of curates
employed in some of the old churches might account for
the difficulty of procurinz sufficient assistance. In spite of
the increase of the clergy between 1850 and 1851, it was
quite clear that the number of candidates ordained had
diminished on an average about 65 per year. The fact of a
large increase in the number of the clergy, together with
the vast annual addition to the population, forced strongly
upon attention the necessity of an increase in the Episco-
pate. That some of the dioceses were much too largo for
ecclesiastical supervision hail been long felt. Deere were two
ways of supplying this acknowledged want—the subdivi-
sion of dioceses, or the appointment of suffragan bishops.
At the present moment the diocess of Exeter demanded
such relief, both on account of its extent and population.
He regretted that the hopes which had been entertained of
the formation of a see of Cornwall had been frustrated for
the present, The question of the appointment of a suffra-
gan bishop for the diocess of Exeter was still under consi-
deration. As a means of facilitating the attendance of
the public at places of worship, there had recently been
established an institution entitled the National Society
for Promoting Freedom of Worship in the Church. He
had not yet felt himself at liberty to give any countenance
to that society. He fully recognised the importance of hav-
ing the churches open to the poor without calling upon them
to pay for the teat?, but he believed that the movement to
which ho alluded transgressed the ancient rules of the
Church, which imposed upon the churchwardens the duty
of assigning seats to the parishioners. No doubt that pri-
leges given by law had in many instances been abused, and
illegal claims bad been set up by persons of their right to
dispose of these seats. It was most important that all per-
sons should have their minds disabused of that erroneous
impression, for as soon as a person ceased to reside in a parish
he had no claim to any seat in the church. This new society
proposed to deprive the churchwardens of the function which
they now exercised, and to throw open every seat to the
whole community. If the society would confine its efforts to
the establishment of freedom of public worship, the aboli-
tion of all payments for seats, and the provision of adequate
stipends for the clergy, it should have his willing counte-
nance. The issue of a Royal Commission to consider and
revise the various forms of subscription and declaration made
by the clergy had naturally attracted the attention of Church-
men to its proceedings. The idea of abolishing all clerical
subscriptions had met with little favour from either the
clergy or the laity; but there could be no doubt that the
existing forms of subscription were too numerous, and that
some of them might be modified without lessening the moral
obligation of the subscribers to maintain the tenets of the
Church inviolate. The labours of the commission had been
brought nearly to a close, and ho confilently anticipated
that the result would prove satisfactory to the members
of the Church in general. 11e would now pass to that
much agitated question—the revision of the burial service.
Some years since a considerable body of the clergy—about
4,ooo—petitioned the Legislature for relief from the
grievance of reading the burial service over every corpse,
excepting those who had died unbaptised, or who had
been excommunicated, or laid violent hands on them-
selves. The petitioners sought a remedy not in the alter-
ation of the service, but in a change of the law. He con-
fessed that ho entertained a strong objection to the changes
proposed to be introduced. That there were inconveniences
and evils connected with the burial service it would be vain
to deny, but he looked upon the proposed mode of mitigat-
ing those evils as worse than the disease. The change pro-
posed was repugnant to the feelings of the great body of the
clergy, and in opposition to their deliberate opinion. He did
not think it would be wise to proceed. Certain remedial
alternatives had been suggested, but he did not think they
would commend themselves to the Church. The question
of the revision of a single office in the Liturgy would lead to
the consideration of its general revision, and any such pro-
posal would be met by the strenuous opposition of the great
majority of the clergy of the Church, whatever might be
their peculiar bias on theological questions. He did not think
it necessary to enter further into the discussion of the ques-
tion,and would merely say that having expressed his willing-
ness to consent to the appointment of a Royal Commission
for a revision of the table of Lessons and some other matters,
it wee probable that on the reassembling of Parliament such
a commission would be appointed. There wore other topics
engrossing the attention of Churchmen which could not be
so soon dismissed, There had existed within the pale of
the Church during the last two generations disciples of two
distinct schools of thought. The basis of one section had
been rather an exercise of individual liberty in the interpre-
tation of the sacred writings, with less reference to the
principles laid down by Church authority; while the other
looked to that authority for direction and aid in ascertain-
ing the meaning of Holy Scripture. Both were equally
anxious to retain the scripture as God's Word. Recently,
however, a third party had arisen, small indeed, in num-
ber, who claimed the right of maintaining that although
the Holy Bible contains the Word of God, the Word of Qod

is not cc-extensive with the sacred volume, and t hat it is left
to each individual to decide which is the Divine element
and which is the human, and to reject that which does not
approve itself to a man's verifying faculty. This new prin-
ciple struck at the root of all fixed doctr ne as deducible
from Holy Scripture, for each minister and each lay member
would feel at liberty to eliminate all such passages as were
repugnant to his own views, feelings, and convictions. It
might well be asked what would become of Christianity if it
was to be surrendered to the caprice of every mind. It
might be urged that the Articles of the Church would act
as a check on these dangerous innovations—but how
long would that be suffered to exist when the basis had been
sapped to its foundation P Each distinctive doctrine of
Christianity would disappear in turn from the formularies
of the Church, and the result would be simple deism—that
deism which reared its Lead towards the close of the 17th
century. But the friends of the Church need not feel any
misgivings,for as she had outlived other assaults, she would
outlive the present. Another error to be combated at the
present moment was that which had been raised with re-
spect to the inspiration of Holy Scripture. It might have
pleased Almighty Gad to have communicated His word and
will in some such supernatural manner as to have conveyed
it in every case to the ear and heart of men without the in-
tervention of any subordinate agency. There would then
have been no question of the Divine and the human ele-
ment. But it seemed good to him that men should be the
instrument and channel by which the revelations of Him-
self and His counsels towards men should be imparted, and
in intrusting the prophets and apostles with that commis-
sion he did not divest each individual of his peculiarities of
temperament and talent. Thus far we must be prepared
to allow the human element, and to acknowledge that those
who were the appointed channels of communication were
not mere machines. There was a wide difference between
the authority which teaches the very heart of an inspired
writer and the absolute dictation of every word by the
Holy Spirit. All we ought to maintain was the absolute
and universal authority of every portion of Scripture as
written under the Divine superintendence which
guarded the writer from error—the exact words
in some cases being dictated, as in the case of the De-
calogue. The theory of complete verbal inspiration
was not necessary to the maintenance of the position held
by the Church, that the canon of Scripture not only contains
God's Word, but God's Word written ; nor were the teachers
of the Church called upon to lay down any new theory of
inspiration, but rather to invite her sons to adopt the decla-
ration of unfeigned belief in all the canonical Scriptures of
the Old end New Testament as the written Word of God,
and to teach the people from it as having that Divine au•
thority. It was satisfactory to him to find that this view of
inspiration was in accordance with the opinion expressed by
his predecessor severe years ago, It might be asked, "If
these be your views of the authority of Scripture, how will
you reconcile some of its statements with the more recent
discoveries of science?" He thought that too much alarm
had been felt in some quarters on that point. The Word of
God did not profess to teach us science. The object of re-
velation was not to teach us the secrets of nature, but to
make us wise unto salvation. The Word of God might in-
cidentally touch on subjects bearing on physical science,
but it never introduced them with the view of affirming
scientific truth. Unless the Word of God distinctly initiated
a proposition to be received as revealed truth we need not
allow ourselves to be perplexed by any apparent discrepancy
between the two. Let science pursue her own course, and
let us not be ever imagining thatshe ever entertains designs
hostile to the truth of God's Word, Let us devote ourselves
to our holy calling, in full assurance that our faith rests on
a foundation which it is impossible for any human efforts to
subvert. It was moat satisfactory to find that so many able
replies had been published to the attacks which had been
made on the authority of the Holy Scriptures, and particu-
larly to the critical examination of the Pentateuch and the
book of Joshua, It was his firm belief that if the negative
school of theology pursued its course in the same direction
and in the same spirit, it must before long work out its own
condemnation. It must soon exhibit the consequence to which
the principle leads—the negation of all that is distinctive
in Christianity—and then would follow what had been wit-
nessed in Germany, a yearning after a definite system of
religious belief, to meet the want and cravings of fallen
nature, and a return to that belief which alone can satisfy
it. Considerable alarm had been felt as to the recent deci-
sion of the Privy Council, but ho thought that no general
conclusion as to any future decisions could be drawn from
the tenor of that decision, and much of the apprehension
which prevailed was, he thought, quite groundless. His
desire:was to abate the alarm which was not unnaturally
felt when the decision was supposed to have had a much
wider scope, and to dissuade his zev. brethren from com-
mitting themselves to any particular line of conduct in con-
sequence of apprehensions which might have less founda-
tion than many persons imagined.