The Sun.
London, England, 1840-11-10 00:00:00

BAPTISM AND BURIAL.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

Sitc,--fiumerous are the persons concerned7arid still
larger are the number who regard with great interest, the
refusal of the clergyman near Dover to bury a child, be-
cause baptised by a Wesleyan minister, especially as a
case of precisely the same nature was tried at the Arches
Court, before Sir H. Jenner, last Monday, who has de-
ferred giving judgment, consequently they naturally wish
to know what further proceedings have taken place, and,
at the same time, look to you or your Correspondent to
watch with fidelity, and report faithfully the same in your
columns.
I. The clergy by thus acting indirectly signify that the
bodies over which they read the burial service are by that
deed securely ushered to the felicity of heaven; and there-
fore,
2. In effect interpret that expression in the burial ser-
vice (on which so much has been said and written) in the
most unfavourable and anti_christian sense.
3. Does not this denial of burial look like revenge? Be-
cause the baptism of the child could not be obtained, bu-
rial shall be denied.
4. By this conduct the clergy condemn their forefathers
and their more liberal brethren, charging them with the
commission of grievous crimes and misdemeanours.
5. It cuts off and arrogantly rejects the Presbyterian
clergy at one fell swoop, whether they be of the Church
of Scotland, or any other like Church on the face of the
earth, howsoever Christianly they may act, from what is
thought to be Christian burial.

6.-It bestows a premium on character of the worst dye;
for as much as it does not consider that as a test of minis-
terial capability, but deems a mere external action as the
only true and undoubted qualification.
7. It ceps in question the right of George 111., George
IV., probabiy William IV., sad most likely other Kings,
to have reigned over these realms ; and why? because they
were not baptised by a person who was episcopally bap-.
tisrd, therefore they should not have been considered
Christians, which would have rendered them incapable of
swaying the regal sceptre; nor ought the burial service,
equally with those children near Dover and Hereford, have
been read over them.
8. It divests the Established Church of that Protestant
character which caused it to be endowed by the State, in-
asmuch as these principles obligate their supporters to re-
gard the Romish Church with a child-like affection, and
actuate them to imitate its superstitious example.
9. Is it not greatly weakening the Church, which as
clergy and laity report, is going through an ordeal of suf-
fering? And will not this increase that suffering tenfold,
and perhaps be one of the main causes of its overthrow ?
10. This method of procedure: must necessarily induce
a vast amount of labour, which, if followed out to its full
extent, will swallow up some of their other ministerial
duties—namely, the searching out of who and how many
of their parishioners have been baptised episcopally or non-
episcopally.
11. Will it not greatly lessen the incomes of the clergy,
especially where non.episcopalians reside, as they will
thus be compelled to purchase land (if they have not) to
bury their dead ? Thus become independent of the Church,
the opposition to Church-rates may be expected to increase.
12. Although Episcopal is so much and so foolishly ex-
alted above Presbyterian ordination, in reality they are
the same. The former, to be valid, must be per-
formed by the Bishop, with the assistance of Priests;
the latter is likewise effected by Priests, all equal in de-
gree, but dissimilar from age, and experience. Let those
more aged and experienced men be called Bishops, and you
have the scriptural meaning of the word. Hence the or-
dinations resemble each other.
13. Modern notions of the office of a Bishop have blinded
the minds of men to its true import. Scripturally, Pres-
byter and Bishop are the same ; they are described as hav-
ing the same qualifications, the same duties, ordination,
and power. Thus speaks the primitive Church, and con-
sonant with this were the opinions of the English Re-
formers.

14. This High Church dogma, the alone efficiency of
Episcopal baptism, nullifies Christ's given rule, " By their
fruits shall ye know them," and sets aside the apostolic in-
junction, " Try the spirits whether they are of God," and
places a mere act, it may be, of wicked and unchristian
mcn, in the stead of these scriptural precepts, which com-
mand men to use their reason and judgment ; but the
clergy say no ; and endeavour to gag men and smother
those faculties by which they arc distinguished from the
beasts of the field.

15. The high and haughty assumption of the Divine
right of modern Episcopacy, consequently of all its ordi-
nations, is built chiefly on the passage where Jesus Christ
told his disciples that he would be " with ►hem always, even
unto the end of the world." Then it is supposed that as
he was with the first Apostles, and their immediate succes-
sors, who ordained their successors, and they theirs, the
present Bishops are thought to be the legitimate and cer-
tain successors of these in a direct and unbroken line, ergo,
-Christ is alone with them, according to his promise, and
they are the only lawfully appointed Ministers of his re-
ligion. How soon can prejudice thus jump to a conclu-
sion, favourable to its own opinions, and throw aside all
the established rules of common sense and reason. This
obvious consideration will show the folly of these opiniated
notions. Christ's promise rests on this condition, that they
teach mankind to observe whatsoever he had commanded
them." How long was this done? Ecclesiastical history from
the fourth to the sixteenth century will sufficiently declare in
what way the Bishops in the intermediate centuries taught
the doctrines and practised the precepts of their professed
Master. Ask the same history for the manner in which
the professors of the Established Church have done this

same duty. Have they as a body performed this? The

answer is easy, and irrefutably attested—No. Conse-
quently, as the condition has not b, en observed, so if there
ever was any Divine power attached to the succession, it is
irremediably lost. Grant that it had a peculiar sanctity,
this has departed, for the line cannot be traced. What
then becomes of the efficacy of Episcopal baptism or ordi-
nation? It is reduced to nothing, and worse than nothing.
A mere figment of the brain formed and lodged in the
lazy intellect of the worldly ecclesiastic, as a cunning de-
vice to preserve his power and authority.
16. Two several Acts of Parliaments were framed in
Elizabeth and Charles ll.'s reigns to confirm clergymen
in their livings as ministers of the Church of England who
had only received Presbyterian ordination. Did those or-
dained by Bishops refuse to bury the bodies of persons
baptized by these clergy ? I trove not ; they had too
much sense to introduce such a schism into the Church.
As the subject is of importance, I trust that you will
give t'is a place in your widely-spread paper (although ?o
lergthy), which will net only oblige the writer, but others.
Your's truly,
INVESTIGATOR.

Noy. 7, 1840.

NEGLIGENCE OF RAILWAY

COMPANIES:

An action involving an important principle was decided
in the Sheriff Small Debt Court, Glasgow, on the 14th
ultimo. The circumstances of the case are these :—On
the sth of September last, a person took out a ticket at the
office of the Glasgow, Paisley, Kilmarnock, and Ayr Rail-
way Company here, to be conveyed to Ardrossan by the
train which left Glasgow at four o'clock on that day.
From Ardrossan it was his intention to have proceeded to
Arran by a steam-boat, which left that place at s:x o'clock.
He had calculated that he would be enabled to reach Ar-
drossan in sufficient time to be put on board a steamer for
Arran, from advertisements which had been issued by the
Railway Company, holding out to passengers that they
might reckon upon being conveyed at the rate of a mile
in three minutes, stoppages included. At this rate he
would have reached Androssan twenty minutes before six
o'clock. From some cause or other, however, the train
only reached Ailwinning at five minutes to six o'clock ;
and this delay, it was sworn by the pursuer's witnesses,
arose from no accident, but, as they understood, and were
informed by persons in the Company's employment, from
a want of proper fuel—common coal being used in place
of coke:

The average rate at which they travelled was about 12
miles an hour. On arriving at Kilwinniug, the carriages
containing
the passengers for Ardrossan were detached
front the principal train, which then proceeded on to Ayr.
By this time, however, the branch train for Ardrossan had
left, and
the passengers in the detached waggons, as was
sworn to by the witnesses, were left standing out on the
line,
no notice whatever being taken of them by the Com-
pany or their servants.
In
these
circumstances the pursuer and some others
hired a car, in which they proceeded to Ardrossan, but the
steamer.llc had sailed before their arrival. The pursuer was
in detained in Ardrossan till the next Monday
~. morning, and he brought his action against the Railway
Company—.lst, for the proportion of the hire of the car r
2d, for the expanses of his living in Ardrossan till the
.Mon-
day •for , 3d, remuneration for the loss of time, occasioned
by his being kept from his business on Monday ; and 4th,
for the •
price of some perishable articles, which had been
spoiled by being kept.
It was proved that the pursuer had made application
to the Secretary of the Company for an extrajudical set-
tlement before having recourse to an action, and that the
Company had declined to recognise his claim. The de-
fenders led no eviderice, but concluded that they were only
liable at the utmost for the ex moos which the pursuer
had been put to in completing his journey, namely, the
hire of the car; that these were the only direct damages
he had suffered, and that to award any farther sum would
be to give consequential damages, to which there would be
no end. In illustration of this argument it was argued that,
according to the principle contended for by the pursuer, if
his destination had been North America instead of Arran,
and if be had lost his passage in consequence of the delay,
still the Railway Company would be liable to make good
the loss.
The Sheriff considered the point to be new, and attended
with some difficulty. He accordingly requested. the agents
for the parties to give in a note of those decisions which
they conceived to have a bearing on the point. This was
done, and his Lordship, on re-considering the case, ex•
pressed his opinion very fully. He held that gross care-
lessness on the part of the Company had been proved, and
he found the pursuer entitled, first, to the hire of the car;
and, second, to the expenses to which lie was put in living
at Ardrossan till the Monday morning; but as to the lo,s
of time, for that the pursuer was not entitled to compensa-
tion, seeing that bad he succeeded in reaching Arran on
the Saturday night, as he intended, Monday would have
been a lost day at any rate.
No evidence having been adduced in support of the
other item of charge, the Sheriff did not sustain it.

Baron Rothschild's hounds met on Monday
last, when a very fine stag was uncarted in a field near
Aylesbury. A large number of sportsmen had assembled,
when, the word being given, away he went towards Bed-
grove turn, from thence to Bishopstone and Aylesbury,
and from Aylesbury to Weedon Lodge and Noldock, then
up to Little-cut,;below Stowkly, and taking a circuit lie
came back to the latter place and ran into a small cottage,
the owner of which, an old lady, on perceiving the noblo
animal, mistook him for the king of beasts, and exclaimed,
" Here's a lion, here's a lion," and immediately fainted ;
but the huntsmen coming up, the old lady recovered and
the stag was secured, after a chase of two hours and tv;eray
miuutes' bard running..—Bucks Gazette.