The Sun.
London, England, 1841-04-02 00:00:00

PUSEYISM AT A DISCOUNT.

(From the Morning Post.)
We understand that in consequence of the late proceed-
ings at Oxford, and the somewhat painful degree of ex-
citement, rather of a party than of a theological character,
which would henceforward inevitably attend the publica-
tion of the " Tracts for the Times," a great deal of dis-
cusriou has taken place on the subject of their discontinu-
ance. Many of the most earnest friends of Anglo-Catholic
principles had come to the determination of recommending
that the publication of the Tracts should not be continued,
but their views have been anticipated by the conclusion of
Dr. Pusey and Mr. Newman to the same effect. It is not
to be inferred from this that No. 90 will close the series,
though that may possibly be the determination, but rather
that the series shall speedily be wound up, as having,
under the blessing of Providence, in a most extraordinary
degree, answered its original purpose, and being now
likely to lead to something beyond that original purpose
which it were better not to attempt at all, or, if at all, in
some other way.
There has not been any interference of authority in re-
spect to the publication of these Tracts, beyond that of the
heads of houses at Oxford which had special reference to
Tract No. 90. This resolution of the heads of houses is
very different from an authoritative declaration of the Uni-
versity of Oxford, which is expressed by the voice of con-
vocation. But, such as it is, it is the only formal or au-
thoritatise disapproval which Tract No. 90 by itself, or
the " Tracts for the Times" in general, have received.
Whatever the opinions of some of the Bishops may be
concerning these Tracts, it is certain that neither the
episcopal tench, nor the Primate individually, has deemed
it needful to pronounce or intimate any opinion against
their publication.
Should they be discontinued, it will be for the reasons
we have already stated.
The wonderful effects which have attended these pub-
lications, and other writings of a similar character, dur-
ing the last few years, are not likely to cease because
new tracts cease to come forth. Excitement in the or-
dinary sense of the word was not the object of them,
but rather a subduing of the religious mind of the
country to the ways of truth and soberness. There is no-
thing transient in the character of the impression which
they have made. They have attempted no appeal to what
may possibly be but the weaknesses and self-delusions of
dreamy minds, but they have given a taste for close rea-
soning and solid learning, and they have inculcated devo-
tional habits intelligible to all, and practicable by all.
They have given men's minds not only something to
work upon, but something to rest upon. They have given
intellect plenty to do, and yet have set up metes and
bounds for it that it may discern the accomplishment of
its task and then be at rest. In doing all this there have
no doubt been faults, and perhaps now and then grave
ones, but still the work has been great, and the effect
glorious.
New habits have been formed in the Church—habits
which have within them the principle of permanence.
Men have got hold of enduring reasons for doing what is
right. Method has been engrafted upon zeal, and a new
life given to sacred formalities, through a better under-
standing of their meaning. It is true that much more re-
mains to be done in this way, but the seed has been sown,
and is growing up vigorously, and bids fair to prosper more
and more. The fluctuations of popular fashion will not
affect this growth, for the revived principles and prac-
tices are to guide, and not to be guided—to lead and not
to follow—to teach with the mild earnestness of dignified
authority, and not to sue with flatteries of private judg-
ment or appeals to particular inspiration.
We therefore believe that though the " Tracts for the
Times " should be discontinued, or continued but for a
abort time longer, they would still live in their fruits—
in the production and reproduction of earnest theologians,
and dutiful as earnest—of men powerful in knowledge of
the Scriptures, from which all sound doctrine is to be
proved, and strictly obedient to the Church which furnishes
the doctrine that Sc,ipture is to prove.

A PAIR OF CARDINALS.—Abbe Grant told
us a comical story of Cardinal York and Cardinal de
BerniF. They were sitting together one day, when the
floor of the room gave way, and partly fell in. Fright-
ened to death, and thinkirg themselves on the verge of
eternity, they both called out with a loud voice, the one,
" Excellcoza 1 assoluzione in articulo mortis I" the other,
" Altezza reale! assoluzione in articulo mortis I" How-
ever, their fears were groundless—l do not mean to pun—
for the floor did not fail a great way, and they met with no
hurt.— Swinburne's Courts of Europe.
DRURY LANE.—At the Theatrical Fund din-
ter on Wednesday the following subscriptions were an.
nounced:—The Queen, 100 guineas ; the Duke of Cam-
bridge, 25/. ; the Marquis of Normanby, 101 ; the Duke
of D,vonshire, 25/. ; the Duke of Bedford, 501. ; Miss
Burdett Courts, 501. ; Lord Adolphus Fitzclarenee, 101. ;
13. B. Cabbell, Esq. (11th donation), 10/. 103. ; Bat.
field, Esq., 10/. ; and Charles Kean, 201. Altogether
the subscriptions amounted to between 8001. and 9001.

LONDON:
FRIDAY, APRIL 2, 1841.

In the House of Peers last night, the Marquis
of NORMANBY gave notice that after Easter he
would move for a Committee to inquire into
Sunday trading on canals. We hope that Minis-
ters do not intend still further to encourage that
class of men, whom Mr. MACAULAY so well de-
nounced in the House of Commons on Wednes-
day. The Noble Marquis laid on the table the
Report of the Drainage and Building Regulation
Bills. He proposed that they should go
through a Committee to-day, and not be fur-
ther proceeded with till after the holidays.
. .

Lord ASHBURTON recommended a clause to
prevent burying the dead where there is scarcely
room fcr the living.

The Jews' Declaration Bill was brought up
from the Commons, and read a first time. Who
is to oppose it in the House of Peers we are not
aware, except the Bishops have undertaken that
office. Lord LYNDHURST, with, we presume,
the Duke of WELLINGTON, is favourable to it,
and we shall probably see, as in the St. Sulpice
case, the most forward of the Bishops again
thrown overboard by his Tory friends.
Their Lordships examined Mr. ARMSTRONG
touching- the Clonmel Union case, ana the
Earl of GLENGALL gave notice that he would
call their Lordships' attention to the subject
after the Easter holidays.

Their Lordships then adjourned at an early
hour.

In the Commons the Report of the St. Albans'
Election Committee was laid on the table; it de-
clared Lord LISTOWELL duly elected. Mr. BLACK-
STONE, however, gave notice that he would move
that the minutes of the proceedings of the Com-
mittee be printed. _ _

Mr. HUME postponed his motion, relative to
the Caroline, till Tuesday.

On the motion of Colonel SIBTHORP some re-
turns relative to cruelties committed in the Poole
Union Workhouse, were ordered to be laid be-
fore the House.

The Newfoundland Committee was nominated.

Leave was obtained to bring in a Bill to en-
able.her MAJESTY to purchase some land on the
north bank of the Liffey, to be converted into a
place for the recreation of the inhabitants of
Dublin, and to exercise the troops.

The Ordnance Survey Bill went through a
Committee.

The House was engaged for the greater part of
the evening witli the Poor-law Bill in Committee,
and got as far as the 24th clause.
The House adjourned at Half-past Twelve.

The Morning Post, we see, agrees with us—and
it is not the first time of late that our Radical
sentiments have been echoed by that most Con-
servative of all Conservative Journals—that the
Puseyite heresy is not to be blown out by the
movement of one of the Archbishop of CANTER-
BURY'S lawn sleeves :

The wonderful effects (it says) which have attended these
publications ( the Tracts), and other writings of a similar cha-
racter, during the last few years, are, not likely to cease because
new Tracts cease to come forth. They have inculcated devo-
tional habits intelligible to all, awl practicable by all. They
have given men's minds not only something to work upon, but
something to rest upon. They have given intellect plenty to
do, and yet have set up metes and bounds for it that it may dis-
cern the accomplishment of its task and then be at rest.—We
therefore believe, that though the .‘ Tracts for the Times"
should be discontinued, or continued but for a short time longer,
they would still live in their fruits in the production and re-
production of earnest theologians, and dutiful as earnest—of
men powerful in knowledge of the Scriptures, from which all
sound doctrine is to be proved, and .strictly obedient to the
Church which furnishes the doctrine which Scripture is to
prove.

Our Contemporary, then, is quite convinced
that this " heresy," as the, Church of England
Review calls Puseyism, -that this " poisonous
stream," as the Standard designates it, and this
trouble, as all the anti-Pv tseyites in the Church
call it, is not to be and c•annot be put down by
any censure. Messrs. NE- WMAN, PUSEY, SEWELL,
HooKE, KEBBLE and Co., have tasted too much
of the sweets of popularity and power, they have
become too notorious, to pass the rest of their
days in slothful ease.. Though the cc Tracts"
may be suspended at present by their own free
will, and not in consequence of an injunction
from authority, as the Post says, these enthusi-
astic priests will and must continue their teach-
ing and preaching, and ti ie PUSEY heresy will
and must continue to spree Al amongst the priests
of the Establishment.

It is far too flattering :a. heresy, too soothing
to their pride, and too col ivenient for their con-
sciences, for them not to adopt it; and no ana-
themas of the University, or admonitions of the
Archbishop of CANTERBURY, will be able
to surmount the attachment to it of their cor-
rupt and sinful nature. The Post tells us that
the Church, that is, the priesthood, fur-

nishes the doctrine that Scripture is to prove. Ac-
cording to Puseyism, the eternal priesthood, not
the Bible, is the source ofreligion; and the Bible
is only, then, like a pair of scales, in the hands
of the priest, the accuracy of which no layman
must verify, or prove the doctrines which
the priesthood furnishes. The priesthood
makes the moral law for all men, and is a law to
itself. Such teaching is much too agreeable to our
fallen nature not to make continued and great
progress amongst Oxford divines.

The reader will readily remark, too, how lay-
men encourage this belief, and nourish the
pride of the priesthood. The Post, a lay politi-
cal Journal intended for the people at large, not
only ascribes to the priesthood the duty of fur-
nishing mankind with a creed, it assigns to the
Puseyites powers and faculties far surpassing
those hitherto possessed by all the reli-
gious teachel.s, and all the philosophers
that have ever appeared in the world. These
wonderful doctors, to whom the seraphic ST.
THOMAS AQUINAS was a ninney, have given the
" understanding something to rest upon." "THEY
(not Nature or Gon) have set up metes and
bounds for the intellect, that it may discern the
accomplishment of its task and be at rest." They
are to convert earth, therefore, into Heaven, and
bring men into a state of beatitude, when the
restless intellect is to be satisfied, and the sing-
ing of Hallelujahs to be the only work
of the human race. Such are the immense
powers ascribed by laymen to the priest-
hood. No ecclesiastical thunder will shake
a heresy which brings laymen to the feet of the
priesthood, and makes the Church, in fact and
truth, the object of worship.

It inculcates, moreover, a most convenient
latitude of interpretation, which enables the holy
men who embrace it to retain possession of all
the endowments that are supposed by the people
to be appropriated to a faith furnished by the
Bible not by the priests. The Post vaunts the
" dutifulness" and " obedience" of these theolo-
gians to the Church, which means, according to
Mr. MA c ULAY, " holding her endowments while
they teach the doctrines of Rome." They will
on no account separate from her, but they teach
confession and absolution, and maintain that the
Church of Rome alone is in possession of that
something on which the understanding can rest,
which at once excites, satisfies, and regulates the
intellect. A doctrine which enables the priest-
hood to hold fast by the wealth of the Church,
and teach self-glorification, is much too conve-
nient to be easily put down. It would be easier
to eradicate from the mind of the democracy the
soothing doctrine of the sovereignty of the peo-
ple than to root out the heresy of Puseyism from
the congenial minds of the priesthood. One way
there is of extinguishing it—namely, for laymen
to cease from flattering and paying this race of
usurping, arrogant pretenders; and when they can
no longer gain power, or ensure themselves a
rich reward, by their inventions, they will cease
to poison the Church, and plague the public with
their ingenious casuistry.
_ _ _

We feel extremely grateful to Mr. MACAULAY
for his brief but masterly exposure of the
Puseyites. From the House of Commons his
voice will spread over every part of the land,
and the Oxford Doctors will be set down, on
his high authority, as engaged in demonstrating
that the Church Articles, like Acts of Parliament,
may easily have a coach and six driven through
them; that the tests they frame and advise for
others have no binding power over them. Such
a character it is well known, from the debates in
the House of Lords provoked by Lord RADNOR,
the Oxford priesthood have long deserved. Their
Jesuitism is not of this day, though this day has
brought it prominently into notice. Mr. MA-
CAULAY has only described in his place in Par-
liament, in a few pithy sentences, the well-known
character of the Anglican priesthood.
How far that was prudent in Mr. MACAULAY,
a Minister of the Crown, is more for his consi-
deration than ours. He is one of those who rely
on the Anglican priesthood to teach the people
morality. For that he insists on appropriating
to their use a large part of the annual produce
of the national industry. For that he upholds
the law of Church-rates, and insists, with Lord
John RUSSELL, that it must be obeyed. The
priesthood are, in his estimation, and in the es-
timation of our rulers, " the salt of the earth ;"
and had he meant to maintain the doctrines for
which he in general contends; had he meant to
preserve for the priesthood their authority over
the minds of the people, he should not have stig-
matised their leaders as ingenious perjurers?
The sanctity which " doth hedge in" a priest,
was cruelly violated by Mr. MACAULAY, and we
know not on whose authority the Legislature can
henceforth rely to inculcate Church and State
nostrums on the public mind.
The class whom Mr. MACAULAY described as
exercising their ingenuity how they might most
conveniently practise perjury, have long been,
let us remind the public, at the head of all our
instruction. They have, in particular, formed the
minds of the ruling classes. Nearly all the
Peerage and the bulk of the great landowners
have been bought up by them. We cannot be sur-
prised, therefore, that these people should be so
like their instructors, and that in all public mat-
ters, however amiable and just they may be in
private life, they continually study how they
may hold the faith of despotism with the endow-
ment of freedom, how they may claim our reve-
rence as protectors while they are only intent on
enriching themselves. If Members of the two
Houses of Parliament do not verbally take an oath
to consult and act only for the public good, they
come, in reality and practically, under such an
obligation. Like theirleaehers, however, their
great study is how they may dispense with this
obligation and consult and act for their private
advantage. With them the casuistry taught at
Oxford has done its work. They are apt pupils
at that sort of learning, and, with a perfectly
clear conscience, to enrich themselves they starve
the people.

Grave philosophers have given it as their opi-
nion that there are certain questions, varying
according to the different tendencies of the hu-
man mind, upon which all mankind, taken indi-
vidually, exhibit insanity. If this be true of
every person, we can be at no loss to discover
the intellectual stumbling-block of Mr. DAVID
URQUHART. He takes leave of his wits as often
as he approaches, even in imagination, the
doors of the Foreign-office. So bent is he
on bringing about the impeachment of Lord
PALMERSTON, that he spares himself no dis-
play of extravagance to effect it. His career on
the Eastern question is well known—even the
people of France knew how to appreciate it at its
proper value. But past failures and. rebuffs
have only increased his malady. The case of Mr.
AURQUHART for a pretext
for preferring 4)Dserved
af Mr.
ireshndictment against Lord
PALMERSTON, occupying upwards of a hundred
pages of an octavo pamphlet. Mr. URQUHART
contends that the difficulties of the question have
arisen out of the treasonable apathy of the Noble
Foreign Secretary, who, not content with the
burning of the Caroline, should have insisted at
once upon reparation for the piracy of the Sym-
pathisers. Of course Mr. URQUHART is satified
that this apathy was the result of a secret un-
derstanding
with Russia on the part of the
Noble Lord. This he puts beyond a doubt,
by giving, in a postscript to his pamphlet,
the copy of a letter, which he addressed in Au-
gust last to Lord MELBOURNE and the Duke of
WELLINGTON, from which, for the satisfaction of
our readers, we quote an extract :
" By personal intercourse . with her Majesty's principal Se-
cretary for Foreign Affairs, in connection with public trans-
actions during eight years ; by an examination of published
diplomatic papers ; by the study of the speeches of that Mi-
nister in the House of Commons, and of the Acts of Great
Britain under his direction, I have come to the conclusion that
that Minister is, and has been, acting to further projects of
Russia hostile to Great Britain, using for that end the power
of Great Britain. I, therefore, believe him to be guilty
of High Treason."
As Mr. URQUHART is the only person known
to us in the United Kingdom holding such a be-
lief, we cannot help regarding. him as one of the
most unqualified for sitting in judgment upon the
case of Mr. M'LEoD. We will therefore not
take the trouble to examine and controvert in
detail those figments of his brain which appear
to him so conclusive of the guilt of Lord PAL-
MERSTON, whoM he accuses of uttering deliberate
falsehoods in the House of Commons. There is

the subtlety of hatred and the ingenuity of word -
catching in his pamphlet, but it is utterly defi-
cient in soundness, in accuracy, and even in the
semblance of impartiality.
It is with pain we make these observations.
Mr. URQUHART is a man from whom we once
expected better things. But the beauty and fra-
grance of the blossom is not always to be taken
as a certainty of the wholesomeness of the
ripened fruit.

The Paris Journals offiCu esday have all reached
us. On Monday the general debate on the For-
tifications Bill closed in the Chamber of Peers,
after which their Lordships proceeded to discuss
the Bill, article by article, after the manner of a
Bill in Committee in the British Houses of Lords
and Commons. When the debate closed the
names of several Peers were inscribed in the list
of speakers who had not been heard, but such
was the weariness of the Chamber after a six
days' debate, that none of them claimed a hear-
ing. In fact, out of the Chambers the Bill has
lost all interest. The works are too far advanced
to be either retarded or modified by any resolu-
tion to which the Chamber of Peers may now
come.

The National and the Constitutionnel state that a Reformist
dinner at the Barriere du Maine was put down by order of the
police, just as the Reformers were sitting down to dinner.
Some arrests took place, and the Republican print complains
of the rough conduct of the police.
M. Truy, Commissary of Police, accompanied by his agents,
searched the office and premises of Viscount Edward Walsh,
the editor of the Royalist print the Mode. Three portraits of
the Duke of Bordeaux were seized and carried off.
The Prefect of Police interru'ted a dinner, whi the Re-
formists were enjoying in the restaurant beyond the Bariere du
Maine. They in vain asked permission to finish their dinner;
and the National asserts, that some were maltreated by the
police, even after they separated.
The Paris Savings' Bank received on Sunday and Monday
last 618,431 f., and paid away 653,000 f. There were 4,270 per-
sons who pa'.d in the bank, of whom 647 were new.
We have stated the number of the sub-prefects whom it is
intended to dismiss or to remove to other departments at
eighteen or twenty; we have some reason to believe that the
changes in these functionaries would not be confined to this
number. M. Duchatel at any rate wishes to command the
election, and to direct them not only against the Cabinet of the
Ist of March, but also against Messrs. Dufaure and Passy, who
are the cause of great inquietude to the Ministry.
The failure of M. Lehon has been for some days past the ge-
neral subject of conversation in the Chamber and in the politi-
cal circles. It was asserted this evening in the best informed
quarters, that the Minister of Justice had resolved to propose
very great changes in the system by which the office of notary
is now regulated.—Le Temps.
The accounts brought by the Baron Eichhof steamer from
Constantinople, which are of the 7th of March, confirm the re-
ports of the illness of the Sultan, wbo has periodical attacks of
cramp, which cause some apprehension.
The Minister of Agriculture and Commerce has addressed
a letter to the Chamber of Commerce of Marseilles, in which
he announces, that in conformity with the wish of the Cham-
ber, that constant protection might be afforded to French mer-
chantmen on the west coast of Africa, by stationing a lager
number of ships of war on that coast, the Minister of Marine,
to whom he communicated this wish, has thought fit to accede
to it, and decided, that instead of three men of war, as hitherto,
there shall be five stationed on these coasts, and that Admiral
Duperre has given the command to M. Bonet, who has just
been raised to the rank of Captain of a corvette, and distin-
guished himself by his ability and zeal in the survey of that
coast in 1839.—Le Commerce.