The Sun.
London, England, 1854-02-03 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 3, 1854,

moted ; Henry Byers Jeffries, Gent., to be Second Lieu-
tenant, vice Lewis, resigned.
Ist Regiment of the Royal Surrey Militia—To be Lieu-
tenant—Horace Devas, Esq., Jan. 24.

CONVOCATION OF THE CLERGY.

The Convocation of the Clergy of the province of
Canterbury met on Wednesday at Westminster, at
11 o'clock, pursuant to the terms of the last prorogation.
The Upper House sat in a large apartment, in Queen
Anne's Bounty Office. The Archbishop presided, and
13 of his suffragan bishops were present.
The report was received.
Petitions were presented by flit". Bishops of London,
Winchester, Peterborough, Salisbury, St. David's,
Worcester, Chichester, Oxford, St. Asaph, and Lincoln,
representing the frequent misuse of the church's offices
consequent upon conflicting laws and obligations, as
well as that general abeyance of godly discipline which
was irremediable without synodical deliberation ; also,
the insufficient spiritual provision for an increased popu-
lation, and the amount of irreligion abounding ; and
expressing an earnest hope that Convocation might ere
long be enabled to propose such measures as it might
judge best calculated to secure the harmonious and
beneficial action of the whole church, with a view to the
increase of her welfare and efficiency, the advancement
of true religion, and the promotion of the kingdom and
glory of Christ. The petitions were all in the same
terms.
The Bishop of LONDON moved the following resolu-
tion :—" That his Grace the President be moved to
appoint a committee of this House, and to desire the
Lower House to nominate seven of its members to
deliberate with such committee when summoned, to
consider and report to the Houses, with a view to ad-
dressinc, her Majesty thereon, whether any, and, if so,
what reforms in the constitution of the Convocation are
expedient to enable it to treat, with the full confidence
of the church, of such matters as her Majesty may be
pleased to submit to its deliberations."
The Bishop of ST. DAVID'S seconded the motion,
which, he observed, did not pledge them to any specific
opinion or vie iv upon the subject. To reject the motion
would be tantamount to pronouncing that, in their opi-
nion, Convocation must continue a mere dead and empty
form ; and, if so, he would wish the form abolished
altogether. (Hear, hear.) When he once saw that
there was no hope that this form could become a sub-
stance, he should feel it a matter of duty to abstain from
attending at meetings in which the aid, the inspiration,
and so the actual presence of the Holy Spirit was in-
voked to guide deliberations which were an avowed and
open mockery. (Hear, hear.)
The Bishop of WINCHESTER would not offer any op-
position to a motion put forward by the friends of the
Convocation ; it would be unfair for him to do so,
having avowed his strong apprehensions in reference to
the meetings of Convocation. But he must be under-
stood to be not at all pledged as to the course he should
take when the report should bs brought up.
The Bishop of OXFORD observed that a notion had got
abroad that those who were anxious to restore some
synodical action in the Houses, were snatching a chance
opportunity at these meetings to smuggle an expression
of what might be taken as the opinion and mind of
the church from a body which, from its peculiar
constitution, could in no way be fairly taken to repre-
sent the mind of the church. Nothing could be further
from them. Their principle had been that altera-
tions and adaptations of the church's system were
imperatively needed, that they could only lawfully be
obtained by some internal synodical action of herself, and
that there was no course open but to use the existing
synod, imperfect as it was, as the means of reaching to
a more perfect representation of the church. But he,
and others who thought with him, looked forward
to a plan being laid before the Crown and the
nation with a view to ascertain whether the ohurch
of England had the power of settling anything
for herself, or must make the humiliating confes-
sion that there was such a want of wisdom in her
community of such deep internal discords, that it was
impossibe for her to provde for emergent necessities by
new legislation. The increase of population and the
alteration of the laws and phases of society made some
internal action needful. They had very definite rubrics
for their ritual observances, and to carry them out lite-
rally in almost any populous district would give rise to
commotion and disturbance of the most frightful kind,
and yet the clergy were bound by solemn obligations
to observe those rubrics, and fulfil that ritual, and
no dispensing power was lodged anywhere ; and this was
a yoke that was becoming intolerable to consientious men.
Besides, it was the very condition of such a body as the
church that it should be continually inventing new me-
thods of meeting new evils—new hands of mercy to
stretch out to the multitudes. A rigid and unaltered
system might do for a time of the church's sleep, but
not for a time of wakefulness and vigour ; and if it
pleased God to give a revival of the church's zeal, and
there were provided no means of lawful adaptation of
the system to the requirements of the population, the
church must be torn by intestine throes, threatening its
organised existence.
The Bishop of LONDON was not sure whether he was
right in supposing the Bishop of Oxford to represet the
inconvenience of the want of any power to relax doctri-
nal formularies.
The Bishop of EXETER was rather startled at that ex-
pression, and should be sorry to see that put forward as
a matter upon which their action should be much em-
ployed, though they ought not to renounce the power.
The Bishop of OXFORD explained. His argument re-
ferred to the organization and rules of the church. He
considered that a living church must meet with new
forms of error, and must have the power, therefore, not of
settling any new doctrine, but of explaining how her
present declarations applied to these new forms of
emergent error. (Hear.)
The Archbishop of CANTERBURY had not the same ex-
pectation as some entertained of the great advantage
to the most important parts of the mission of their
church from the deliberations of any Convocation, how-
ever constituted. There were many parishes to be
pointed out, in which, whatever alteration was made in

the rubrics or doctrinal formularies, we could not expect
a greater amount of Christian truth to be promulgated,
or a greater degree of Christian practice to prevail ;
, and, therefore, it did not seem as if bhe ma-
chinery was in fault. At the same time alterations might
be advisable in many things connected with their
church ; there might be improvement even in some parts
of their excellent liturgy ; and he had lamented the ex-
isting divisions, because they tended to place improve-
ment and the amendment of inconsistencies and imper-
fections at a greater distance. But our whole constitu-
tion must be changed before the Church could have of
itself the power of settling and determining these things.
The matter must be determined by Parliament ; the
Act of Uniformity could only be abrogated by Parlia-
ment. Whether recommendations from such a body as
Convocation would be more likely to be well received
than in another form he would not say. The right rev.
prelate had spoken of persons differing on fundamental
truths s•ibscribing the same formularies ; he seemed to
argue that formularies relating to fundamental truths
might have to be altered. We might not all agree upon
what were fundamental truths ; he (the Archbish•p)
had :known some so considered that he did not hold
to be such, because he did not conceive that they wore
found in Scripture. He apprehended it would cause
great alarm if there was to be any idea that the formu-
laries were to be altered. His`own impression was that
a smaller body than Convocation—a commission selected

by her Majesty—of 10 or 20 persons, clergymen and
laymen, might better consider the matters requiring at-
tention. He doubted whether Convocation would have
the general feeling of the country in its favour. How-
ever, he thought it was proper, under the present cir-
cumstances, to appoint the committee.
The Bishop of OXFORD had no idea of the alteration
of fundamental formularies. He held that the Church
had not the power to alter them.
The motion was then put and agreed to, and the Bishops
of London. Oxford, Exeter, Salisbury, Chichester, St.
David's, and St. Asaph were appointed members of the
committee.

The Bishop of LLANDAPP then moved for a joint com-
mittee to consider and report whether the great increase
and present condition of the population did not make
some, and what, adaptation of the church's rules need-
ful to enable her, to meet her spiritual wants.
A long disciaision took place upon this motion. The
chief point discussed was the necessity of their being a
power to employ some missionary agency in order to
reach some classes of the population. The committee
was recommended as likely to be useful in collecting
materials ready to bo laid before a reformed Convocation
for its deliberation.
The motion was agreed to, the Bishop of Winchester i
alone voting against it. The Bishops of London, Ox-
ford, Lichfield, Worcester, Chichester, St. David's, and
Llandaff were appointed members of the committee.
The Lower House was then (at 3 o'clock) summoned,
and the Prolocutor and other members being come were
acquainted with these resolutions, and requested to
name members from their body to serve on the commit-
tees. They retired to consider the request.
In about an hour and a half the Prolocutor returned,
and handed in the names which had been agreed to.
The ARCHBISHOP, having expressed his approval of
the selection, prorogued the Convocation to the 30th of
June.

r which ho hoped to obtain its sanction. There was no de-
sire on his part t, interfere with the office of the bishop,
but so to deal with candidates that the onus might not
be thrown upon the bishop of rejecting or admitting
persons unqualified for admission into the service of
the church. He had to do for eight years with the
examination of candidates, and he could find no im-
provement in them. If they were to contrast the pro-
fessional training of the Church of England with that of
any other branch of the Church Catholic, they would
find it lamentably deficient. The last 10 years had seen
an alteration in the position of the schoolmasters of the
country which they could not shut their eyes to. He
'arned the clergy that, if they did not take care, the
schoolmasters, trained as they were, would take the
teaching of the people out of their hands. He believed
that the clergy were in a position of very great peril,
and that they were taking no adequate steps to meet it.
The ohurch should have a general system of professional
education carried out through the universities and cathe-
dral bodies. He hoped that any attempts for the refor-
mation of the cathedrals would have that prominently
in view, thus making them of real service to the church.
Archdeacon Denison was proceeding in support of his
resolutions, when a messenger, summoning the Lower
House to the Upper, cut short his observations.
The PROLOCUTOR, on his return, astonished the mem-
bers of Convocation present by announcing that they
were called upon by his Grace the President and the
Upper House to nominate two committees of seven, to
act with committees of the Upper House, in accordance
with the resolution just passed by that house.
Dr. RUSSELL moved the appointment of the commit-
tees as desired.

Archdeacon DENISON pointed out the great import-
ance of the position in which the house was placed by
the command of the Upper House.
Dr. WORDSWORTH said that the order was imperative,
and could not be discussed.

The Dean of BRISTOL thought it was in the power of
the Lower House to refuse acting on the dictation of the
Upper House. The voice of a proctor in that house was
quite as powerful as that of a bishop in the other. He
did not set himself in opposition to the spiritual autho-
rity of the bishops by saying this, for they did not sit by
virtue of their spiritual authority only, and could be re-
presented by proxies.
The Dean of BRISTOL proposed, as an amendment to
Dr. Russell's motion :—" That the Prolocutor be re-
quested to inform the President that the house will take
the resolution of the Upper House into its consideration
at the next meeting."
Lord SATE and SEALE seconded the amendment.
Strangers were then ordered to withdraw, and on a
division there appeared—

For the amendment ...
For the original motion

Present. By Proxies
15 28
44 45

Majority 29 17
The proceedings then terminated, and the house was
prorogued.

SPORTING NOTES.

HINTS ABOUT THE HANDICAPS.

Last evening the acceptances for the leading spring
handicaps were exclusively published in the Fourth
Edition of The Sun. They have therefore been now
nearly twenty-four hours before the public, and time
has been afforded for a careful examination and conside-
ration of them. They are numerically satisfactory ;
those for the Chester Cup and Great Northern Handicap
being in accordance with general expectation. Of the
two hundred and sixteen horses nominated for the first-
mentioned event, one hundred and eighteen " remain
in ;" whilst of the two hundred and ten entered for the
last-mentioned, eighty-seven have accepted. This state-
ment shows that the popularity of the Chester Cup
among owners of horses is unimpaired, and it also fully
attests the ability with which the weights for the Great
Northern Handicap have been adjusted. For the Me-
tropolitan Stakes there are sixty-three acceptances, for
the City and Suburban Handicap sixty-eight, for the
Northamptonshire Stakes, forty-eight, and for the New-
market Handicap forty-three. These " statistics " de-
termine the relative merit and comparative popularity
of those stakes snore forcibly than would the most
elaborate arguments.
The withdrawal of certain horses from the list of
nominations for the Chester Cup has occasioned some
surprise and not a little disappointment. In consequence
of the preposterously heavy impost which the handi-
capper awarded to Virago, the sometime leading favour-
ite, her non-acceptance was expected, but the "scratch-
ing" of Defiance, Typee, Mr. Sykes, and Heapy, ani-
mals that bad been frequently and heavily backed, was
scarcely calculated upon. The motive for striking them
out after all perhaps admits of a satisfactory explanation.
The Star of Surrey and Peggy now occupy the leading
positions in the betting. The former may be worthy of
the support which he receives, but the latter's preten-
sions,are, if public running be not a delusion and a snare,
of the very slenderest description. Should she be capable
of competing with even a shadow of a chance, her party
will doubtless obtain an unenviable reputation for,
shrewdness and tact. Notwithstanding the powerful
hostility still displayed in the turf market towards New-
minster, my belief in the formidableness of his chance is
scarcely shaken. A. reaction will yet take place in his
favour, and he may again recover his lost position in the
betting. The " coming" of Marc Antony, too, is not
improbable.
February 3. A FRESH MAN.