The Sun.
London, England, 1839-08-28 00:00:00

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LONDON :
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 28, 1839.

The long Session, of which we believe every
i,ody was tired, is at an end. Her MAJESTY, per-
lorming on this, as on other occasions, a work of
grace, released the wearied Senators from their at-
tendance, and her people from the irksome task of
daily looking to the Parliament for bread, and ever
receiving a stone. The Tories are delighted that
their presence is no longer necessary to save the
tate, and the Ministers are delighted that they
lave got rid of such troublesome opponents.
There was a general hope when the Session com
nienced, and general joy now that it is over, and
nothing worse has come of it.
The Speech is, we believe, quite equal and even
superior to what was expected. Lord PALMER-
STON'S foreign policy has in truth done more for it
than any other part of the Administration ; and the
peace between Holland and Belgium, the prospect
of a satisfactory settlement of the affairs of the
East, the reconciliation effected by our means be-
tween France and Mexico, the Convention for set-
tling the dispute with France as to the fisheries,
the attempts to fora: a general league for the sup-
pression of the Slave Trade, the diplomatic relations
with Teheran, and the passage of our army across
the Indus, occupy three-fifths of the speech.
The measures to improve the police, the reduction
of the Postage di/6es, and the conversion of un-
funded debt into stock, with a few words about the
Chartists, complei;e the document.
Though the grace is trifling, we are glad that her
MAJESTY was advised to say that it was " with
great, pain that I have found myself compelled to
enfotce the laws against the Chartists." We de-
mur, indeed, to tl to assertion that " they no longer
concealed the design of resisting by force the law-
ful authorities," ibr we have not seen any evidence
of any such intension, except in so slight a degree
as not to merit notice in her MAJESTY'S speech.
When they were beaten, indeed, they turned again;
and if the people displayed that kind of
spirit oftener, and cartied it syste-
inAticany out, it would be more to their ad-
vantage. A few boasting persons have talked very
broadly, but the instances of resisting lawful au-
thority were few and far between. Probably the
Ministers had more information on this subject than
has reached the public, and a Committee to inquire
into the Chartist riots, might reveal as formi-
dable a conspiracy as that of the Ribbonmen
in Ireland, with these differences that there
are no secret oaths in England, and the Go-
vernment has properly laughed at the tales
of the Orangemen. But whether the Minis-
ters had any secret information of the designs of
the Chartists or not, we are pleased to see that
they do not, like some Journalists, mock at the
misguided efforts of the people to get rid of misery,
the existence of which no man can doubt, while
the laws being a continual subject of dispute, the
Chartists are no more to blame for not knowing
them than Lord LYNDHURST or Colonel SIB-
THORP.

With the close of the Session, too, the Cabinet
has undergone a considerable modification. Sir
GEORGE GREY and Mr. LABOUCHERE, who
probably expressed an inclination to retire that he
might fix himself in a higher place, are to be mem-
bers of the Cabinet. Mr. SHIEL also seems to
have gone back that he might jump the further,
and gave up his place of Commissioner of Green-
wich Hospital to become Vice-President of the
Board of Trade. We have never heard that Mr.
SHIEL has attended to commerce, but his genius
may make him equal to every thing, and we certainly
wish that he may be more assiduous than old
GEORGE RosE, and more a master of his business
than Mr. HuslcissoN. To the new as well as the
old Ministers the prorogation of Parliament leaves
a clear stage. Their opponents are not now facing
them, and we should rejoice to see them surpassing
the hopes of their friends, and disproving the ca-
lumnies of their enemies.

The Gazette of last night announces that Mr.
SPRING Rice is at length elevated to the British
Peerage by the title of Baron MONTEAGLE Of
Brandon, in the county of Sligo. It also an-
nounces that the °ince of Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer has been conferred on Mr. F. BARING,
who has been sworn a member of the Privy
Council. By our Parliamentary Report, it ap-
pear; that new writs were yesterday issued for Tip-
perary, in the place of Mr. SIIIEL, whose accept-
ance of the office of Vice-President of the Board
of Trade we have elsewhere mentioned ; and for
Manchester, in place of Mr. PouLETT
TIIOMSON, who is going out as Governor-General
to Canada. His place in the Cabinet is to be filled
by M. LABOUCHERE, and Mr. LABOUCHERE
iS to be followed as Under-Secretary of the Colo-
"ILI Ivy Mr. VERNON SMITH. It is also reported
that Mr. C. WOOD is to succeed Mr. BARING at
the
Treasury, and that Mr. MORE O'FERRAL is
to succeed Mr. C. WooD at the Admiralty.
Several of these changes were announced in the
Morning Chronicle on the sth 0 f Au nist as fol-
lows :—,x
.‘ The following changes are confidently spoken of as
likely to take place at the
lctt Thomson, the President 0; theof the Session. Mr. You-
,,f Board of Trade, to be appointed Governor-General
eers
Rice to be called to the flouseExoef:Panada.
andMtro.
be
s u Springc.
eceded as Chancellor of the
Sec cp
oi sf
Suit
tiutber
Baring. Mr. Charles Wood to
the Admiralty for a higher appointmenet._and to
be
suc-
ceeded by Mr. E. J. Stanley, Secretaryof the ireasury.,,
Mr. STANLEY has not been removed from the
Treasury, and we know not if Mr. `Noon's erim
vaf to the Treasury, supposing it to be true,
can be
regarded as a higher appointment. With these
exceptions, our Contemporary's information was
correct, and the contradiction which we, in common
with some other Journals, were instructed to give to
it at the time, we are bound to admit was incor-
rect. The fact, we believe, was, and we see no
reason for mystifying or concealing it, that the ar-
rangements, though then contemplated and talked
about, were not completed, and it is very generally
desired that such arrangements should not be made
the topic of public discussion till they are finally
settled. Hence the assertions of the Chronicle
were contradicted. Our Contemporary claimed no
authority for his assertions ; he said the appoint-
nic;)ts were conedently spoken of, and
the :contradiction mighthave
been given
Ifffrent terms. U nthe in very
goestionably lano.n.,oe used
1
n The Sun was not what we think it ought to have

been, but the ChrOnicle is totally mistaken in fancy-
ing that there was in any quarter a design to ob-
tain an advantage over it, or that any weapon
was directed against it. There was, undoubt-
edly, a desire to keep the public, if possible,
ignorant of arrangements: which were then
not finally settled ; and of: which the Chronicle
had published an account. But there was no desire
to deceive or delude, or still less betray any
parties or persons. We certainly, in common
with two Evening Contemporaries, inserted the
contradiction, which we received from autho-
rity, as no doubt the Chronicle knows, and
believed to be accurate. Looking back at the
whole transaction, while we regret it, we can-
not think it of the vast importance the
" truthful" Chronicle wishes to make it appear,
whose excellent and virtuous indignation might
sometimes find (perhaps in its own columns) mat-
ter equally worthy of its exercise. It is not only
in what may be called diplomatic points, or to keep
the public in ignorance of changes not yet finally
decided on, that the Press is tampered with, and
made knowingly and unknowingly to send abroad
statements that are not strictly true.

The quarrel between the Bishop of EXETER and
Mr. HEAD is a very pretty quarrel, as Sir Lucius
O'TRIGGER says in the play, and if we interfere in
it, it is not for the purpose of preventing the com-
batants from fighting it out, but to let the public know
exactly how it stands. We cannot say that we are
sorry to see such disputes. On the contrary, we
believe they augur well for religious rreedom, indi-
cating, as they seem to us to do, the inroads which
the great Protestant principle of private judgment
is making upon that Popish spirit which is the
actuating principle of all established or state sys-
tems of religion. The fact is, that the seeds of
Dissent are widely sown in. the Church. The party
which claims the title of evangelical, par excellence,
is not only already very numerous, but is daily on
the increase. They are a generation of zealots—some
people call them fanatic;;—who do not rest satis-
fied with the beggarly elements of doctrine to be
found in rituals. They are for going to the foun-
tain head and drinking the s./ream pure as it issues
from the rock, and before it has passed through
the corrupting channels into which it has been
diverted by selfish system-mmigers. They are con-
stantly giving wings to their imagination, too, and
do not readily submit to :have those members
clipped by which they range through regions where
they fancy that important clivcoveries are still to be
made. Thus there is a continually increasing
pressure against the barriers fixed by ecclesiastical
authority, which will eventually burst them, and
give the human mind in this corner of Christendom
something like a fair chanc e for emancipation from
priestly thraldom.
We have already stated, that one of the knotty
points at issue between the Bishop and the Rector
of Feniton is, whether the'rite of baptism produces,
in the person baptized, that instantaneous and total
change of nature from sinfulness to righteousness
commonly called " regeneration," or the new birth.
The Bishop maintains the affirmative of the pro-
position, the Rector, the negative. The one ap-
peals to the book of Common Prayer, the other to
the word of GOD. Mr. HEAD, in performing the
baptismal service, omits two or three words which
he holds to convey a doctrine -unwarranted by, and
contradictory to, Scripture. PHILLPOTTS gives
him to understand that if he persists in this course
he will first suspend, next excommunicate, and
then depose him from the ministry.
We regret it is not in our power, for want
of room, to give the charge and the counter-
charge at full length ; it would, however, be cruel
to our readers not to give them a taste
of these singular documents. We shall therefore
make a few extracts for their especial edification.
'The Right Reverend Father in GOD, full to over-
flowing of the milk of human kindness, purified and
sanctified by the spirit of the Gospel of CHRIST,
alludes to the backsliding of his brother in the
Lord after the following meek and humble
fashion :

That any one, after having engaged that he would use
the form of words, and continue to enforce them, could yet
deny that regeneration was given in baptism, might appear
incredible; and although the experience.of the last 200
years proved the contrary, still he lamented to say that
these errors not only continued to our times, but were to
be found in this diocese. There were persons who erro-
neously took upon themselves to garble and omit expres-
sions in administering the sacrament, which they
were too tender to use, but not too tender to promise to
use. He would recommend to 'uch to read attentively the
injunction contained in the third canon of our Church. 1
any such person persisted in this error, he was in the first
instance to be suspended ; and should he after a month
persist, he was then to be excommunicated. If after an-
other month he still persisted, he was then to be deposed
from the ministry, That was the law, and if any acts
of the kind were proved, however painful it might be, he
should enforce it.

The pugnacious Rector of Feniton, nothing
daunted by this " commination," takes pen in hand
and vindicates what he has done in the most spi-
rited manner, showing, first, that his interpretation
of the meaning of baptismal regeneration is sup-
ported by the Scriptures ; and secondly, that
he is justified, in an ecclesiastical view, in omitting
expressions conveying an unscriptural doctrine.
After informing the Bishop that were he to tell a
Jew what he tells the Clergy of , the Diocese
of Exeter, that the sacraments" are not mere signs,
but effectual means of receiving the grace of rege-
neration," the said Jew would be perfectly justi-
fied in replying, " I cannot find this doctrine in
MOSES and the Prophets, therefore I reject it ;"
and that a Gentile is justified in rejecting it for
the self-same reason, 'Mr. HEAD proceeds to quote
largely, from the Old and New Testaments in corro-
boration of his views of the nature of baptism. He
comes to the following conclusion :
Baptism, in short, as a general institution, is to be
considered with especial reference to the abrogation of
Jewish exclusiveness, and as operating as a constant me.
morial that every political, ceremonial, and outward ob-
stacle to Gentile worship is taken away. To believers in
the promises, indeed, it testifies moreover that their personal
guilt is put away for ever; that they are buried with or
separated unto Christ; that they are washed by regenera-
tion, and watered by the Holy Ghost ; and that the Triune
God of Israel is their God for ever and ever, according to
the tenor of the covenant of grace. And to the Gentile
world it testifies that God has " cleansed" them. How
did he cleanse them? Not by taking away their original
sin, as has been absurdly represented ; not by altering their
nature ( which both before and after baptism remains enmity
itself with God, Romans viii.) but by the removal of the
ceremonial obstacles which had been cast in their way.
And when did he " cleanse" them thus ? Doubtless when
he gave the commandment, "go and baptize all nations."

Of the remedy which Mr. HEAD recommends
for the evil of this unsound doctrine we are afraid
the Bishop will not approve, any more than he will
of the syllogism with which the rebellious Rector
clenches his proposition.

With reference (says he) to the laudatory manner in
which your Lordship speaks of the baptismal service, and
to the efficacy which your Lordship seems to attribute to it
in giving understanding to the simple and light to the
ignorant; I beg leave to repeat what I have already pub-
licly and respectfully submitted to your Lordship, that it
would be advisable to call a convocation to expunge the
errors from that service, for this reason :—Whatsoever ob-
scures the boundless grace of the great covenant is clearly
forbidden iii Scripture—Acts xxvi. 22. Gal. iii. 15. Rev.
xxii. 18, 19. The doctrine contained in the baptismal ser-
vice, that infants are regenerated by outward baptism, ob-
scures the grace of the great covenant :—Therefore the
doctrine contained in the baptismal service, that infants are
regenerated by outward baptism, is clearly forbidden in
Scripture.
. _ _

The impugner of the orthodoxy of the Prayer
Book then passes on to the second head of his dis-
course, which we like much better than the first.
It contains some home truths, and as these are
things which Bishops and Clergymen seldom hear,
and seldomer speak, we shall make our extracts as
copious as possible :-
1"ho clergy are justified in omitting parts of the Baptis-
mal Service in an ecclesiastical point of view, on this prin.
L; le. " Nothing is required of any man" (according to
ip.
the sixth article of the Protestant Church of England),
"that it should he believed as an article of faith, or be
thought requisite or necessary to salvation," which is not
" read in holy Scripture or proved thereby." The doc-
trine abovementioned is not " read in holy Scripture, or
proved thereby :" therefore the doctrine aboverrentioned is
:tit required of any man that it should be believed, &rt.
To which might be added—" All erroneous and strange
doctrines contrary to God's word" are, according to the or-
dination vows of Church Ministers, to be " banished and
driven away" by them: The doctrine abovementioned is an
erroneous and strange doctrine, contrary to God's word :
Therefore the doctrine abovementioned is to be " banished
and
So much, mybyChurch Ministers.
my Lord, for the justifiableness of our pro-
ceeding
an
ot.iew. in ecclesiastical as well as in a Scriptural point
that
I pass to some more
eloquence cantina:ter
the Church." Thereforethat I
is not true, my Lord, of your Lordship's observations. It
your Lordship's elorselsaenndte slandered or
sufficiently
ffir
eviiel
ni vilified
"baseness ," which even
strong colours, must belong to somebody else, I never
" slandered the Church," or an
in it ; and I wish I
could say that nobody in ity had
svee.rems to insinuate,
slandered me.
Moreover, I never, as your Lordship
asserted the human, or denied thedo I
den
divine institutions
of the Christian Ministry. Ivo r
" evil servants" may, by concession, and by that eve
rirtueon
f
.

an outward office, be called " Servants of Christ,'
Matt: xxiv. 48, 49. What I said was to the effect, that
any men, even poor uneducated men, preaching in the
obscurest dissenting chapels, if they be taught of God to
preach the true Gospel, belong as much to the Christian
ministry, as any Churchman or diocesan Bishop in the
empire: and this Ido not allow to be wicked error,' but.
maintain it to be an obvious truth. As the churches of
Christ are continually in the New Testament spoken of in
the plural number—so there are undoubtedly true and
apostolic churches of Christ in this empire, which have no
connection with the Established Episcopacy. The doctrine,
whether it be asserted or insinuated, that our Church is
the only apostolic Church in the empire, is an indication
of a national approximation to Popery."
Mr. HEAD follows up this onslaught upon the
apostolical pretensions of Mother Church by point-
ing out some highly instructive instances of contra-
diction between the Articles and the Canons :
I beg leave to pass to another subject. If your Lord-
ship means to assert that I am in the receipt of emoluments
which do not belong to me, it is an unsupported assertion.
Those who understand the Thirty-nine Articles (which hap-
pen to be sounder than many a Churchman wishes them to
oc) may easily find that they fully bear me out in the
principles which lam supporting. Tnese principles are,
that our rituals require reformation ; for which reforma-
tion the 6th, 19th, 20th, 21st, and 34th articles make abun-
dant provision.
Wbich deserves " excommunication" the most—he who
cordially and strictly adheres to the whole doctrinal system
of the Thirty-nine Articles, rejecting a few phrases in the
rituals which cannot be reconciled with that system ; or
those who adhere to the latter, and reject, and even preach
against the former? This question I ssould suggest to such
of my brethren as disapprove the principles which I have
avowed ; whom I would also affectionately- remind of the
impossibility of reconciling the doctrine, that we are " re-
generate by means of outward baptism" with the eleventh
article, which teaches that we are "justified by faith only."
Evil," as the Stith article foreboded, is ever -"mingled
with good" in the visible Church. Suffer me to observe
that much " evil " may be found in those Canons to which
your Lordship alludes.

The most superficial observer can hardly fail to ob-
serve, that the Canons contradict the Articles in a very
material point.
Let us hear the Articles. "It is not lawful for the
Church to ordain anything that is contrary to God's word
written, neither may it so expound one place of Scripture,
that it be repugnant to another As it ought not to
decree anything against the same (holy writ,) so besides
the same ought it not to enforce anything to be believed
for necessity of salvation. "—Article 20.

" General Councils . . . . (forasmuch as they be an
assembly of men whereof all be not governed with the
spirit and word of God) may err, and sometimes have
erred even in things pertaining to God. Wherefore things
ordained by them as necessary to salvation have neither
strength nor authority, unless it may be declared that they
be taken out of Holy Scripture."—Article 21.
" Every particular or national Church bath power to
ordain, change, and abolish ceremonies or rites of the
Church ordained only by man's authority, so that all things
be dour to edifying."—Article 34.
Let us bear, on the control.), the Canons. " Whoso-
ever shall hereafter affirm that the form of . . . Common
Prayer and the administration of the Sacraments . . con-
taineth anything in it that is repugnant to the Scrip-
tures, let him be excommunicated ipso facto, and not re-
stored, but by the Bishop of the place, or Archbishop,
after his repentance, and public revocation of such his
wicked errors."—Canon xi.

Here is a manifest contradiction. "We have done our
best," sayS the spirit of the Articles, "to produce a
Prayer Book free from error. We do not pretend to be
quite infallible. We admit that in Churches in general,
and in ours in particular, something may remain, through
human infirmity, which may require alteration. If so, let
it be corrected. At ail events let it not be bound upon
the consciences of men."

No," says the spirit of the Canons ! " Whoever shall
presume to affirm that our Prayer Baok contains " ANY-
THING" that demands alteration—there is but one word
fur him. Let him be excommunicated ipso facto. What
do I care for reasoning ? What do I care for texts ? My
mode of convincing the minds of men, is, first to suspend
—secondly, to excommunicate—thirdly, to thrust you out
of the ministry. Don't tell me of the sufficiency of Bcrip-
tore, or of the sufficiency of covenant grace. Excom-
munications and anathemas are the proper arguments to
support true religion and liberty of conscience."
Let it be distinctly borne in mind that the Articles are
of more ancient date and higher authority as to matters
of faith, than the Canons, as the sth Canon itself acknow-
ledges. Therefore, though it may be said of the Canon
which your Lordship quotes, "this is the law" of King
James and his Bishops in 1603, yet " this is not the law "
contemplated by the reformers who set forth the Articles
in the preceding ceritury,.to which Articles the sth Canon
itself appeals, as to an adequate authority.
The elsk,rate attempts, the interminable struggles
which individuals in the Church have made, from time to
time, to explain away the force of the Articles, have not
been sufficient to make their wish pass into a "law."
They have however availed to give a just handle to reason-
ing nice to observe, that the honour and supremacy which
in the 6th Article we ascribe to the Bible, is only a pre-
tence to enable us the better to enforce human traditions
contradictory to the Bible.

We quite agree with Mr..IIEA D in thinking
that something should be done without delay to
reconcile the discrepancies which he has ao vigor-
ously exposed in these important matters. We
are, however, apprehensive that in the struggle
which an attempt at reformation would give rise to,
the " Articles" would find themselves no match fo:
the " Canons." Canons, as the Rector of Feniton
may find to his sad experience, are formidable
engines, charged, as it appears they are, with the
sharp-shot of " suspension," " excommunication,"
and " deposition."
The Rev. Gentleman winds up the whole with
an attempt to defend his continuing within the pale
of the Establishment, and receiving the emoluments
of his office, while differing from her doctrines,
and refusing to comply with her ceremonies, ac-
cording to the appointed methods.
For my own part, I do not coincide in opinion with your
Lordship as to the nature of the pledge which I made to
the ecclesiastical authorities at my ordination. I neither
discerned nor suspected the artifice and iniquity of the
declaration of conformity in Charles the Second's Act, that
antichristian snare, intended to make us pledge ourselves
to exalt the vain traditions which are to be found here and
there in the Prayer Book above the Bible, in spite of our
previous declaration to the contrary. Having previously,
by subscription to the Articles, promised to make Scrip-
ture my paramount guide, I am justified in throwing off,
what I never intentionally took upon myself, the intoler.
able yoke of a declaration which militates against that
promise. In short, I consider my ordination as
a more honest, liberal, consistent, Protestant, and holy
engagement than the Parliament of a libertine and popish
King wished it to be. On taking orders, I felt perfectly
justified in believiag that the ecclesiastical authority did
not require me to make any declaration inconsistent with
my subscription to the 6th Article; nor was I at that time
aware of the unscriptural expressions in the Baptismal
Service which I since have been compelled to perceive.
If I rightly understand your Lordship, you signify to me,
that having made this discovery, it now becomes my
duty (in your opinion), voluntarily to leave the minis-
try. I, on the contrary, not perceiving any solid foun-
dation for this suggestion, and conceiving the evil com-
plained of to be not irremediable, humbly suggest to your
Lordship (in perfect accordance with my ordination vows,
and with the Articles which I have quoted), that a coup
cil of the Clergy should be called to rectify or expunge
what is unscriptural in our services ; and that the Legisla-
ture should be petitioned (for what an Act of Parliament
has done an Act of Parliament can undo) to modify the
rigour of the declaration of conformity, which rigour was
prompted by an evil motive, was directed to an evil end,
and produces, to this day, evil results.
I affectionately commit you, my Lord, to the bound-
less grim of God. I fervently pray for the welfare of
your immortal soul; and that it may please the Almighty
to illuminate you with true knowledge and understanding
of his word; that both in your preaching and living you
may set it forth and show it accordingly."
In the closing prayer of the Rev. Rector we
cordially concur. Sure we are there is no man
who stands more in need of the prayers of the
Clergy than the Bishop of EXETER ; but as to the
argument which precedes it we are bound to say
that, so far from satisfying us, it is, in our opinion,
utterly untenable. The world will suspect that
Mr. HEAD values his benefice more than truth—
that he is trying hard, to serve Gov and MAM-
MON at the same time. He ought to know
that this is impossible. The high tone which he
assumes, the lofty principles which he professes,
ought to have elevated his mind far above all consi-
derations of a worldly nature. The question is not,
as he would fain put it, what the Church has power
to do in the way of alteration and accommodation
to his views, but what the'Tule of the Church,
which he has sworn to obey, equally is. His way
is clear—his path straight. If he cannot conform,
he must, as a conscientious man, withdraw.

The accounts from the Spanish trontier continue
to represent the condition of the Carlists as in the
last degree desperate. On the evening of the 20th
inst. General ELIO abandoned all his positions at
Esteban, where he was endeavouring to bring the
Anti-Marotists to terms, in order to defend Estella,
threatened by the unexpected approach of General
Dolt DIEGO LEON. The report of the defeat of
CABRERA, and the capture of Tales by General
O'DONNELL is likewise confirmed by the follow-
ing telegraphic despatch received by the French
Government on Sunday :
General O'Donnell defeated Cabrera en the 13th with
considerable loss. On the 14th he made himself master
of the fort of Tales, after which he returned to Valence.
The Carlist Chief Arevalo has made an excursion from
Chelva into the plain of Beuol, which he has pillaged.
The operations of Valdez in the mountains are paralysed
by the drought. The population is suffering greatly for
want of water.
The prevailing impression among French officers
on the Spanish frontier is, that were the Govern-
ments of France and England now to come forward,
and guarantee to the Carlist officers their present
rank in the army, and to the Basque population
such a portion of their freros as would not inter-
fere with the establishment of a national sytem of )