The Sun.
London, England, 1862-03-04 00:00:00

ESSAYS AND REVIEWS.

The arguments in the case of the Office of the
Judge Promoted by the Rev. I. Fendall v. the Rev.
H, B. Wilson, upon the admission of the articles of
the indictment, were resumed yesterday morning,
in the Arches Court, before Dr. Lushington,

Dr. Lushington having asked the counsel for the
prosecution why in their opinion, if criticism might
be applied to one passage of the Bible, should it not
be applied to the whole; where was the line to be
drawn ; and if one miracle might be construed alle-
gorically why might not all the miracles be so con-
strued,

Dr. Phillimore replied that there was a clear
difference between legitimate liberty of opinion
which the Church had always allowed, and that
which was claimed under the term ideology. To
question the verbal accuracy of a particular passage
might be no offence, but to interpret as allegorical
all the most prominent events recorded in the
Scriptures was certainly beyond the liberty which
the Church of England allowed to her clergy. With
regard to the other point, the Church had not sanc-
tioned at all the use of ideology in the interpretation
of miracles. Indivilual divines, in the supposed
difficulty of comprehending a particular miracle,
had treated it as allegorical; but no eminent divine
in the Church had ever claimed the right to place
an ideological construction upon all miracles when
the plain and literal meaning served for their com-
prehension. The prosecution objected to Mr. Wil-
son that he claimed for every clerk the liberty of
construing any miracle as each might please—a
claim which struck at the root of miracles as evi-
dence of a divine revelation.

Dr. Lushington—What you say, then, comes to
this, that the court must find the line of demarca-
tion for itself. You say that there is a line, but the
decision of the court must depend upon all the cir-
cumstances of the case.

Dr. Phillimore—That is so. I cannot carry the
definition further.'

Dr. Deane, on behalf of the defendant, then pro-
ceeded to reply to ,the arguments anvanced by Dr.
Phillimore and Dr. Swabey in support of the arti-
cles. He observed, in the first place, that his learned
friends had completely misunderstood what was
meant by ideology as used in the essay. Dr. Philli-
more had said that the essay contained the expres-
sion of a wish on the part of the writer that he and
all others should be free from all fetters in the in-
terpretation of the Scriptures. In order to sustain
the indictment against Mr. Wilson it must be shown
that each of the separate charges was one upon
which a conviction would lie ; it was not open to
the prosecution to contend that there were particu-
lar passages which, though not containing sepa.
rately sufficient upon which to found a conviction,
yet the court ought to convict, because, taken col-
lectively, they showad the animus of the writer.
There was ample authority in the Church, in the
writings of her most eminent divines, against any
notion of the inspiration of every word and line of
the canonical Scriptures, and in all fundamentals
and essentials inspiration was admitted by Mr.
Wilson to exist. With regard to the question of
the subscription of the Thirty-nine Articles, he was
willing to admit that if there had been found in the
defendant's writings any evasion of the great doc-
trine of Christianity, it was possible that Mr. Wil-
son might be brought within the terms of the in-
dictment. But so far from this being the case, the
essayist had distinctly inculcated the doctrine of
the incarnation in the words " so again the incar-
nification of the Divine Emmanuel remains ;" and
he had inculcated the doctrine of the resurrection
at page 162, where he said that the doctrine of the
resurrection was a doctrine taught by the Saviour.
The claim of the prosecution upon this matter of
subscrip was that the articles were to be
subscribed in the plain literal meaning of
the words and sentences, It would be
remembered that in the Gorham case the plain
literal meaning of the articles was in question, and
two great courts of judicature differed in opinion
upon it; so that even as to the literal meaning of
the articles there was a difficulty of construction
which must leave some liberty of opinion to the
clergy. In practice, the Act of Uniformity bound
the clergy, but in matters not of fact, and which
were not fundamental or essential principles, how
could they obtain that universal agreement of opi-
nion which they must establish, or the case for the
prosecution failed ? What the prosecution con-
tended was that clergymen must agree in matters
of opinion or quit the Church. Was it essential to
man's salvation that he should believe in angelic
appearances, or in the literal truth of the story of
Saul and the Witch of Endor ? The Church of
Rome had fixed the meaning which it attached to
certain doctrines, and had fallen into the error of
transubstantiation; and to avoid such dangers the
Church of England had in these matters wisely left
the door open. He was surprised that this prose-
cution was ever entered upon, because it seemed to
him that if the proceedings against the writers of
the volume of " Essays and Reviews" were wise at
all, it would have been well to have stopped for the
result of the first case before opening a second.
There were seven essays, and they were all said to
be very bad. One of the essayists was dead and
another was a layman ; but there were still three
other cases in which proceedings must be taken, or
the prosecutors must say, " The whole book is bad
—but we think the essays of Dr. Williams and Mr.
Wilson are the two worst." In that case it would
be said that the bishops and 9,000 of the clergy had
condemned the book throughout, but had only the
courage to venture against these two, and that they
were mistaken, therefore, in their original opinion
that all of the essays contained erroneous doctrines.
It would seem, however, if all that was said were
true, that there were greater errors and dangers in
others of the articles. He greatly regretted that
these prosecutions had been undertaken at all ; but
whatever might be the ultimate decision, he was
quite certain that the articles of indictment must
be reformed before the court could admit any of them.
Dr. Lushington—l shall not give judgment in the
case of Dr. Williams or in this until the case of
" Burder v. Heath" has been heard and decided
upon by the Privy Council. They are the same in
genus though very different in species, and it is my
hope and expectation that something may fall from
their lordships on that occasion that may tend to
throw some light upon the course which it will be
my duty to pursue in conformity with their decision.
But I hope very soon after that judgment has been
delivered to be able to pronounce my opinion it both
of these cases.
Dr. Phillimore—The 26th of March is fixed for
the hearing of " Burder v. Heath" by the Privy
Council.

Letters received at Chatham from her Majesty's
screw steamer Cadmus, 21, Capt. H. S. Hilly ar,
C. 8., announce that that vessel had been detained
Antigua to await the decision of the Prize Courts
relative to the slaver Lyra, which had been cap-
tured by the Cadmus. The latter vessel was, how-
ever, expected to leave for St. Thomas on the 12th
of February last.
Yesterday afternoon the Admiral's steam yacht
Wildfire, Mr. a Brockman masts r-commander,
steamed into Chatham harbour, having on board,
Vice-Admiral W.. Hope Johnstone, Commander-in-
Chief at the Nore. After landing at the dockyard
and transacting official business, the Admiral went
on board the training ship Wellesley, 72, Comman-
der R. Studdert, which he minutely inspected. After
spending nearly two hours on boat d, Admiral John-
stone re-embarked on board the Wildfire and re-
turned to the Formidable, 84, flagship at the Nore.
The hired screw steam trasport Mauritius. No. 6,
Capt. Donald Cruickshanks, belonging to Mr.
Bigby, of London, which arrived in Plymouth Sound
on Sunday, as already reported in The Sun, left
Halifax on the 14th of February, and from the 17th
„jog'
experienced very heavy weather. On the 20th, in
lat. 44 38 N. ...42 50
W., in' a gale from the
north-west, force 9, 10, and 11, she lost her jibboom,
foro topsail yard, sails, and starboard lifeboat, and
stove in three other boats. She was afterwards
compelled to lay to for two days. On departure,
the floating ice prevented the pilot's boat from ap-
proaching the ship, and he was obliged to come on
in her. Her Majesty's screw steam frigate Orlando,.
50, Capt. Francis Scott, C.B. ; the paddlewheel
steam sloop Hydra, 6, Commander Richard V.
Hamilton ; and the screw steam corvette Orpheus,
21, Capt. William F. Burnett, C. 13., were in harbour
at Halifax. The corvette was coaling, and was ap-
pointed to leave on the 19th of February for her
station, Australia. There was no indication of the
departure of the Orlando for Bermuda, as previously
reported. The hired steam transport Adriatic,
frozen in at Sidney, was likely to remain two
months longer in the ice. The day before the Mau-
ritius left, a steam transport had arrived with the
96th Regiment, which, with the Ist battalion of
the 15th, expected from England in the Adelaide,
Capt. Froude, will garrison St. John's. With the
exception of one field battery of Royal Artillery,
all the troops have been pushed up from St. John's
to Canada, and not one man has been lost on the
route,

The Revenge,steamshipra
Robert 89,
Smart, K.H., Capt. Charles
F e o e screw
w esflag
ofßearA d
and the screw steamship St. George, 84, Capt. the
Hon. Francis Egerton, from Queenstown, arrived
in Plymouth Sound yesterday morning.
On the 28th ult. Commodore Yelverton, C. 8.,
Controller-General of the Coastguard, inspected
Her Majesty's ship Edinburgh, ;
lying off Queens-
ferry, in the Firth of Forth. He 'was highly pleased
with the manner in which the men of the Naval
Reserve and those attached to the ship performed
the usual exercises. The reason for the inspection
was the termination of Capt. D'Eyncourt's period
of service. The departure of this officer is univer-
sally regretted. His successor is Capt. C. F.
Schomberg, who joined the ship the day after the
inspection.

In the Royal Naval Reserve the Lords Commis.
sinners of the Admiralty have appointed Charles
Henry Evans Judkins to be an hon. lieut., and
George Cornelius Carrew and Allen William Young
to be lieuts. A letter from the Secretary of the
Admiralty has been addressed to the Board of Trade
expressing his satisfaction in forwarding the com-
mission constituting Mr. Charles H. F.. Jue.kins an
hon. lieu't. in thb-itiTiil Naval Reserve, as a mark
of approbation of his conduct while in command of
the contract packet Persia, employed in conveying
troops to North America.

They are about to have another State trial at
Armagh. The Attorney and Solicitor General have
gone down there to prosecute the parties charged
with riot and assaults at Derrymacash. Mr. Justice
Fitzgerald, in his charge to the Grand Jury on
Saturday, said that the very name of Derrymacash
almost made him shudder. A period of 20 months
had elapsed since that unhappy conflict,- and one
might suppose that it would have been forgotten
before this time. Trials relating to it had taken
place at the two assizes in 1861. At the last the
Protestants had the great good sense to plead guilty.
Now the subject was revived again by the prose-
cution of the Roman Catholics who took part in the
rioting. It was very desirable that it should be
known in the county that if Orange processions
did take place the Roman Catholics had no right
to interfere. They might apply to the constituted
authorities, might give information to the police,
and adopt measures for making the processionists
responsible for their violation of the law; but
they had no right to take the law into their own
hands. The fact that Mr. Justice Fitzgerald
is a Roman Catholic increases the importance
of the following emphatic testimony to the unrival-
led advantages of the British Constitution, which
may serve as a set-off against the ravings of the
Ultramontanists :—" You will deprecate, as I do,
that this country is subject to a system
which makes other nations believe that we are
not yet removed from a state of comparative bar-
barism. If we read history we ought to do it with-
out allowing it to sway our feelings and passions.
We ought to be content to know its results, and not
to make those results the cause of offence to others.
One of these results which we enjoy in this country
under the sway of our present Queen is that liberty
which is the envy and happiness of other nations,
not of that continent only, but of the world; that
we have a degree of freedom—freedom of thought,
freedom of action, freedom to do and speak what we
please within the bounds of the law, and the great
freedom, too, to believe and follow any religious
opinion which we may please—in truth, that we
have that degree of freedom which is founded on
reason and justice to all ; and we ought to be con-
tent with it, and not subject ourselves to the loss of
that freedom by crime." _ _

At the opening of the Cork Assizes, on Saturday,
Mr. Justice Keogh, who presided in the County
Court, complimented the grand jury on the state of
the county, which he pronounced most creditable."
The calendar contained but 29 cases, half of which
were larcenies, and the others of the most ordinary
character. The city of Cork is also remarkably free
from crime. The calendar contains but six oases,
only one of which—a charge of manslaughter—is
of a serious nature. Baron Hughes, addressing the
city grand jury, said he had ascertained that dur-
ing the last six months the convictions amounted
only to 97, which bore but a very small proportion
to the population of the city—about 86,000 per-
sons. His lordship said he considered this state of
things most satisfactory, and attributed it to the
excellent management and vigilance of the magis-
trates and police, not less than to the good conduct
of the people.
The _Longford Journal makes an announcement,
which, if true, removes all doubt as to the issue of
the contest in that county. It was reported that
Lord Longford, owing to some family difference,
had resolved to support Major O'Reilly, and that
gentleman boasted of the circumstance at the
hustings. But it seems that the revolutionary cha-
racter of the Major's address, his determination to
use his influence in Parliament for the destruction
of the Established Church, and the unmitigated sec-
tarianism of his policy, convinced him that it would
be a monstrous inconsistency to expect his tenants
to vote for such a candidate against a gentleman of
the county like Colonel White.
The Nation complains bitterly that " a number
of Catholic placeholders, or place-expectants have
ordered their tenants to vote against the Catholic
candidate, and in favor of Colonel White. It has
learned that Baron Hughes wishes his tenants to
vote for Colonel White."