The Sun.
London, England, 1865-06-29 00:00:00

CLERICAL RELIEF.

Dr. LEIGHTON then brought forward the report of a com-
mittee of Convocation appointed to inquire into the ques-
tion of clerical relief as proposed in the Clergy Relief Bill,
and the considerations come to were, that "no legislation
would be satisfactory to the Church which did not fully
recognise the indelibility of holy orders," that "it would
be disastrous if candidates for holy orders were ever led to
look upon the ministry as an experimental profession," and
that "no legislation should finally shut the door against
a return to the exercise of the ministry."
While the rev. gentleman was proceeding with his
arguments on this matter, the apparitor of the Upper
House entered and summoned the Prolocutor to the Upper
Chamber.

PARENTS AS GODFATHERS AND GODMOTHERS IN BAPTISM.
___ _

The PROLOCUTOR, on entering, stated that he had re-
ceived from the TJpper House resolutions relative to the
29th canon. Four years since the house asked the Crown
to grant a license enabling Convocation to make such an
alteration in the 29th canon as would allow of parents
being sponsors for their children. The license was granted,
but Convocation went further than the license allowed,
and made various other alterations in the cannon. It was
now necessary that the house should go through the form
of amending the canon according to the terms of the
license.

A discussion followed by the Revs. Sir Henry Thomp-
son, Sir George Prevost, Archdeacon Denison, Dr. Jebb,
and Lord A. Compton, and, on the motion of the Rev. M.
W. Mayow, it was agreed that the resolution of the Upper
House should be assented to, an amendment by Sir Henry
Thompson, that a conference should be held with the
Upper Chamber, being lost on a show of hands.

ADDRESSES OF CONGRATULATION TO TILE QUEEN AND PRINCE

OF WALES.

The PROLOCUROR asked the assent of the house to an
address of congratulation to the Queen and the Prince and
Princess of Wales, on the birth of a second royal prince to
their royal highnesses.
These wore agreed to nem. con.
BISHOP COLENSO AND THE BISHOP OF CAPETOWN.

The PROLOCUTOR road the address sent down by the
Upper House, and passed by that chamber, for presenta-
tion to the Bishop of Capetown.

Archdeacon DENISON moved " That the address be con-
curred in on the part of this house."

The Rev. Mr. JOYCE seconded the motion.

The Rev. Sir HENRY THOMPSON expressed his grave
doubts as to the wisdom of entering upon the questions of
heresy. He knew that the Rev. Archdeacon Denison was
very fond of hunting down heresy; but, as had been re-
marked to him that morning by one of the judges, if they
made a new article for every book or new form of opinion,
the Church would have, instead of 39, something like 350
Articles. He (the rev. baronet) came there to do his duty,
and on this matter he had taken the bull by the horns,
risking at the same time the chances of being tossed. (A
laugh.)
The Dean of WESTMINSTER asked if the address had
been concurred in by the Upper House ?

The PROLOCUTOR answered in the affirmative.

The Dean of WESTMINSTER said he must complain at
that address, which involved questions of great importance
and legal questions of great intricacy, being brought forward
without notice at a very thin meeting of the house.
A time when a great many prominent members of the house
were absent should not have been chosen as an occasion to
bring forward an address of this character. The address
involved all the questions at issue, and which the members
of the house should have mastered before they concurred
in the address, which wont unreservedly in condemnation
of the Bishop of Natal and unreservedly in favour of the
Bishop of Capetown, while at the same time it also con-
demned, more or less, the recent judgment delivered in the
case of the colonial bishops. Now, it was very possible
that many in that house had not even read the Bishop of
Natal's "Pentateuch," and the "Book of Joshua Critically
Considered," or the judgment in the case. It would be un-
becoming in the house to pass a judgment in these matters
without having mastered the points in dispute. In the words
of one who has considered the subject, he would say, " It
is only by free, full, kindly, and researching investigations,
not by attacks on the person, that our wisest teachers will
persuade and be persuaded through the changeful course of
this momentous controversy. Our researches are ever solving
old difficulties and relieving new ones, and still the air of
inspiration clings to the blurred and obelised text of the old
man's Bible, just as it did to the unsullied pages when first
he opened them in early youth. There is no country
where the Bible may be more safely committed to free
investigation than in ours, because there is none in which
it rests more firmly on the faith and affection of the people."
The very rev. dean urged at length that the address should
not now be adopted.
Archdeacon DENISON said, that if the Convocation re-
fused to express an opinion with respect to Bishop Colenso's
" Pentateuch" and "Joshua Critically Considered," it
would have been better for the house not to have met. He
urged at considerable length that the house should adopt
the address.

Tho Doan of IVEsntivsTEß moved, as an amendment,
that an address should be presented to his grace requesting
that more time should be allowed for the consideration of
the address.
Dr. WILLIAms seconded the amendment.

After some remarks by Dr.Jebb and Archdeacon Thorpe,
he Rev. Mr. Mayow said that the spirit of inquiry might
bo carred too far, and the position of Bishop Colons() was
that of a soldier who had disputed in the hour of battle
with his own side, and even turned against his own army,
and yet expected to hold his command.
The Dean of WESTMINSTER then, in speaking upon the
amendment, entered upon the general merits of the case,
and contended that by adopting the address the house was
adopting, in the name of the Church of England, all the
views set forth by the Bishop of Capetown.
The amendment was withdrawn, and the address ac-
quiesced in, with five dissentients.

THE OATH OF SUPREMACY AND THE ORDINATION SERVICE.

On an address from the Upper House, it was agreed to
remit in the ordination service the oath of supremacy, that
oath being mere surplusage.
The house then adjourned.