The Sun.
London, England, 1864-11-26 00:00:00

INOVEMBER 26, 1864.

the reverse. The precise creed and the strict article are
the title deeds of the laity to the religion which has des
scended to them. (Hear, hear.) And whenever these ques-
tions have been brought before Parliament, I have always
opposed alterations of creeds, articles, and subscriptions on
this broad principle—that the security and certainty which
they furnish are the special privileges of the laity, and that
you cannot tell in what position the laity will be if that
security is withdrawn. (Cheers.) I must apologise for
having touched upon this subject; but it appears to me—l
know it from my own experience--to be one vitally con-
nected with the subject that has called us here to-day,
because the opinions of the new school are paralysing the
efforts of many who ought to be our friends. Before I con-
clude I cannot but ask myself this question. Will these
opinions succeed ? Is there a possibility of their success?
My conviction is that they will fail. (Cheers.) Ido per-
fect justice to the great talent, the great knowledge, and the
considerable information which the new party command;
but I believe they will fail—for two reasons. In the first
place, having examined all their writings—l believe with-
out any exception—whether they consist of fascinating
eloquence, diversified learning, or picturesque sensibility—
(laughter)—l speak seriously what 1 feel—and that too
exercised by one honoured in this University, and whom to
know is to admire and regard ; or whether you find them
in the etude conclusions of prelates who appear to me to
have commenced their theological studies after they grasped
the crozier—(loud cheers and laughter)—and who intro-
duce to society their absolcte discoveries with the startling
wonder and the frank ingeniousness of their own savages
—(great laughter and cheers)—or whether I read the lucu-
brations of nebulous professors—(laughter)—who appear in
their style to have revived chaos—(loud cheers)—and who,
if they could only succeed in obtaining a perpetual study of
their writings, would go far to realise that eternal punish-
ment to which they object. (Cheers.) Lastly, whether it
bo the provincial arrogance and precipitate self-compla-
cency which lash and glare in an essay or review—(cheers,
laughter, and a hiss)—l find that the common charac-
teristic in all their writings is this, that their learn-
ing is always second-hand. (Cheers, laughter,
and slight hisses, followed by immense cheering.) I do not
say that because learning is second-hand it may not be
sound, or that knowledge because it is second-hand may
not be true. But this I do say, without any fear of denial
from any man competent to give an opinion upon the sub-
ject—(laughter)—that there is something in original re-
search so invigorating to the intellect, and which so braces
and disciplines the human mind, that those who have un-
dergone the process arrive at their conclusions with great
caution and with great circumspection ; but when a man of
brilliant imagination has to deal with a vast quantity of facts
which have been furnished by the labours of others, he is
taunted too often to generalise with a fatal facility, and often
arrives at conclusions which in time he not only repudiates
but often has to refute. (Cheers.) la the second place, when
I examine those who have been the masters of the new
school in this learning, men who undoubtedly have gone
through the process of original research, and have not
found their e quals for learning and perseverance and erudite
assiduity for many generations—the great scholars of Ger-
many —I find this in their labours. Doing full justice to
their qualities I find this in their labours, that there is really
nothing new. (Laughter and cheers.) I will admit their
great qualities; as Hebraists they are equal to the great
scholars who flourished at the end of the 17th century. In
their knowledge of the comic semftie dialect they are infi-
nitely superior. In the new theory, or science of language,
as it is justly called, they have of course an advantage which
the old scholars have not shared with them, because it is
a science that has only been developed in our own time.
But this I do say, that in all important conclusions from the
alleged materials of the Book of Genesis down to the forma.
tion of the canon, and in every important event, historical,
literary, and spiritual, that occurred in that long interval,
they have been anticipated by the great Hebrew scholars
who ft mrished in the 18th century. (Cheers,) I know it
may be said, and they have said it, that the suggestions of
Astruc or the investigations of Father Simon were known
only to those who like them lived in their cells and their col-
leges ; but this is a vulgar and delusive error. The discovo
ries of those men, unrivalled for learning in the age in which
they flourished, formed the mind and inspired the labours
of the two greatest bodies of intellectual beings that have
existed certainly since the Greek philosophers, and who
were superior to the schoolmen—the freethinkers of Eng-
land and the philosophers of France. Therefore, the con-
clusions of these great men—these great scholars—were
placed before the public mind. All that inexorable logic, all
that irresistible rhetoric, all that the most bewildering wits
could avail themselves of to popularise those views, were
placed before the minds of the two leading nations of Europe
—the people of England and the people of France. And
they produced their effect. The greatest of revolutions was,
I will not say, occasioned by these opinions, but no one can
deny that the promulgation of those opinions largely con-
tributed to that great revolution popularly called the French
Revolution, which has not yet ended, and which is certainly
the greatest event that ever happened in the history of man.
Only the fall of the Roman empire can be compared to it;
but that was going on for centuries, and so gradually, that
it cannot for one moment be held to have powerfully or
injuriously influenced the opinion of the world. Now, what
happened ? Look at the ago in which we live, and the time
when these opinions wero successfully promulgated by men
who, .I am sure, with no intention to disparage the now
party, I may venture to say were not unequal to them.
Look at the Europe of the present day and the Europe of
100 years ago. It is not the same Europe. Its very form is
changed. Whole nations and great nations which then
flour is eed are no longer felled, There is not a political constie
tution in Europe existing at the present time which then
existed. The leading community of the continent of Europe
has changed all its landmarks, altered its boundaries, erased
its local names---the whole jurisprudence of Europe has been
altered—even the tenure of land, which of all human institu-
tions most affects the character of man, has been altered—the
feudal system has been abolished. Nut merely laws have
been changed, not merely manners have been changed, but
customs have been changed. And what happened ? When
the turbulence was over—when the shout of triumph and
the wail of agOny were alike stilled—when, as it were, the
waters had disappeared, the sacred heights of Sinai and of
Calvary were again revealed, and amid the wreck of thrones
and tribunals, of extinct nat:ons and abolished laws, man-
kind bowed again before the Divine truth that had been by
the omnipotent power of His ineffable wisdom entrusted to
the custody of and promulgation by a chosen people. (Loud
cheers.) Well then, because all their views are second hand
and nct new; because they have been already placed before
the mind of man with a power and spirit that it is in vain to
expect will be again equalled ; because, after so many sor-
rows and purified by so much suffering, mankind have re-
jected this new learning which is bolstered up for our edifi-
cation. I believe that the effects of this new school, power-
ful as they are and influential at this moment, and most
injurious in these diocesan societies, will fail. (Cheers.)
Before sitting down there is only one other point I will touch
upon in reference to them. We are told every day that all I
may have feebly expressed to you may be true; but at the
same limo there is a characteristic of the present age which
never existed in preceding ages, and which must be ruinous
and destructive to the Church and to all religious establish-
ments, and that is the progress of science. the teachings
of science and its discoveries are not, we are told, consistent
with the teachings of the Church. Now lam sure there is
not one in this theatre who is not prepared to do full justice
to the merits of scientific men, and who does not fully ap-
preciate those discoveries of science which have added so
much to the convenience of life and the comfort of man.
But it is of great importance when this tattle about science
is mentioned that we should annex to it precise ideas.
I hold that the highest function of the service is the inter-
pretation of nature, and the interpretation of the highest
nature is the highest science. What is the highest nature ?
Man is the highest nature. But I must say that when you
compare the interpretation of the highest nature with the
most advanced, the most fashionable and modish school of
modern science—compare that with some other teachings
with which we aro familiar—l am not prepared to say that
a lecture room is more scientific than the Church. (Cheers.)
What is the question now placed before the society with a
glib assurance the most astounding ? The question is this
—is a man an ape or an angel ? (Loud laughter,) My
lord, lam on the side of the angel. (Laughter and cheers.)
I repudiate with indignation and abhorrence those views.
(Cheers.) I believe they are foreign to the conscience of
humanity, and I will say more, that even in the strictest
intellectual point of view, I believe the severest metaphysi-
cal analysis is opposed to that conclusion. But, on the
other hand, what does the Church teach us ? What is its
interpretation of this highest nature ? It teaches us that
man is made in the image of his Creator— a sourse of in-
spiration, of solace; a source from which can flow only and
only every right principle of morals and every Divine truth.
(Cheers.) I say therefore that when we are told that the
teachings of the Church are not consistent with the disco
veries of science, and that in that sense the inferiority of the
Church is shown, I totally deny the proposition. (Cheers.)
I say that the scientific teaching of the Church upon the
most important of all subjects is, in fact, infinitely superior
to anything that has been brought forward by any of those
new discoveries. (Cheers.) In fact, it is between those
two principles that society will have to decide. Upon our
acceptance of that Divine truth of which the Church is the
guardian all sound and coherent and sensible legislation
depends. It is the only security for civilisation. It is the
only guarantee of real progress. (Hear, hear.) Now, it is
to promote, to foster, and to extend in this country, but
mainly, of course, to pay in this diocese, the teaching of the
Church that we are assembled here. Let us, if we can,
carry out in spioit the resolution which has been moved by
my right hon. friend. Let us act at least with united
energy, with that cordial co-operation a hich, if Churchmen
share, they will carry everything before them ; and the dis-
carding, as we have successfully discarded, all the attempts
which for some time appeared to paralyse our efforts and
circulate distrust amongst us from those who are the oppo-
nents of the Church and the Church principles. Let us
equally discard those new-fangled ideas of this new party
in the Church, which have extended only because persons
are always captivated with a novelty, but which I think, as
I have shown, is not extremely new; and let us by our
united efforts support those measures to which I adverted at
the commencement of my observations, and especially the
actions or these diocesan institutions. (The right hon.
gentleman here resumed his seat amidst vehement and
protracted cheers.)
The resolution was then put and agreed to.

The subscription to the fund amounted to upwards of

£5OO, and included £lOO from Mr Hubbard, M.P., £5O from
Mr Cardwell, £2O from the Vice-Chancellor of the Univer-
sity, £lOO (in four yearly instalments) from Mrs White,
£2O from Mr Walter, and numerous other sums of various
amcunts.

Railway and other Companies.

GREAT NORTHERN.

This company has given notice of intended appli-
cation to Parliament in the ensuing session for a line
from the Wood-green station, passing through
Southgate, Winchmore-hill, Enfield, Berkhampo
stead, Cheshunt, Bishop's Hatfield, Bayford, to the
Hertford, Luton, and Dunstable Railway at Hert-
ford, and a short spur in Hertingfordbury ; also a
line from the Hornsey station to the new line near
the boundary between the parishes of Edmonton
and Tottenham, and a line to Digswell at a point
one furlong south of the Welwyn viaduct. Another
notice to apply for power to vest in the Great
Northern and Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincoln,.
shire Companies the undertakings of the Stockport
and Woodley Junction, and the Stockport, Tim-
perly, and Altrincham Junction, the Cheshire Mid-
land, and the West Cheshire Railway Companies to
construct a line from the Cheshire Midland at Great
Bud worth to the rock pits at Marston, a lino wholly
in the parish of Great Budworth to the salt works,
and also a branch. Another notice of intended ap-
plication for power to make junction lines at
Newark, Spalding, Essendine, and Barkstone, and
a branch near Bradford. It is further proposed that
the Great Northern Company on the one hand, and
the Leeds, Bradford, and Halifax, and the Lanca-
shire and Yorkshire on the other hand, should be
enabled from time to time to enter into agreements
for the working, use, managements, &c., of the
Bradford branches ; to authorise the company to
contribute towards the cost of the Liverpool central
station ; and to authorise the amalgamation of the
company with the Leeds, Bradford, and Halifax
Junction ; also to make a line from the Sleaford
station to the Bourn and Essendine, at Bourn.