The Sun.
London, England, 1847-11-16 00:00:00

Air ARCHBISHOP OF YORK.

(From the Times.)
We believe we may set at rest the speculations
which have been raised by the vacancy in the see of
York, by announcing that Dr. Musgrave, the Bishop
if Hereford, is to be the new Archbishop, and that he
's to be replaced in his present see by Dr. Hampden,
little to remareilialoi ;:sgpteboirh,
roil leoyatroeitkm,l
Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford.
On the former of these appointments we have hut
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at'
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is not very favourable. Dr. Musgrave may, for aught
are sorry to say,
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demandsghstaherdefadratettoehtieeftoccupant.rmotumoira ere pxe oTxtr nriatat
example
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Englanselection,dhumilityand
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may still be an object to preserve our nobles from another
Wolsey, and our Hovvleys from another Williams.
But there is a clerical gift not at all formidable to
statesmen, though otherwise exceedingly useful in days
when everybody, in or out of office, is thrown on his
own intrinsic resources. Preaching, though apt to
be schismatic, is not often rebellious. Dr. Musgrave
can write a sensible discourse; but he has neither the
physical nor the intellectual powers requisite for the
most ordinary degree of oratorical effect. The Whit-
fields and Wesleys of -Yorkshire have no reason to
tremble for their reign.
The other appointment ***far More, serious affair.
We cannot imagine on what princiPie or motive it
has been adventured, and should certainly have
thought that the' maxim Quieta non movere applied
to the embers of that melancholy quarrel. Dr.
Hampden is now a purely historical character. Se-
veral years since a very great battle was fought over
his body, and very great bitterness excited. His
appointment to the Regius Professorship could not
be disturbed, but the University pronounced, or
rather enacted, upon him a very clumsy and irregular
sort of censure, which it has not, indeed, removed,
but which it has incidentally and partially qualified
in a recent professorial statute. The same statute,
however, which recognizes Dr. Hampden's authority
also swamps him with a crowd of theological rivals ;
and the young divines of Oxford may now choose
their several favourites from some half-dozen pro-
fessors. Dr. Hampden is not an attractive teacher,
and he never would have set the Isis on fire if his
own natural flint had not come in collision with the
well-tempered steel of a far higher mind. As matters
now stand he is very well housed and shelved. He
is Regius Professor of Divinity, Canon of Christ
Church, Rector of Ewelme, and Principal of St.
Mary Hall. He possesses little influence, and excites
few alarms. The University has protested, and with
that protest is now perfectly content. We should
have thought, therefore, that the present state of
affairs is satisfactory to all the parties concerned ;
and nothing certainly can be more unnecessary than
to disturb it.
It is now some years since the Clcurch of England
presented itself to the State in a jealous and anta-
gonistic character ; and whatever the results of
theological warfare, we cannot but think the country
has derived great benefit from the truce we at present
enjoy. Whatever differences may occasionally arise
between Church and State, nothing is more evident
than that they should act conjointly, and as one, in the
government and social improvement of the country.
o:ate:nil"
employment,et we
For some time there has been a considerable degree
of co-operation between the two powers. We have
recently seen them making mutual concessions in the
cause of education. Much yet remains to be done
In bodies and souls, habits and habitations, there is
still room for improvement. Fifteen thousand
educated persons, generally with time and talents to
spare, posted at geographical intervals over the whole
country, and under one system of management, are
a corps of auxiliaries not to be despised. A distin-
guished savant recently proposed that they should all
be compelled to make and contribute atmospheric and
other physical observations. A statesman will take
much the same view of their moral and statistical
opportunities. Their cordiality, as well as their con-
sent, is required. Everything, therefore, likely to
make a breach with ever so inconsiderable a party in
the Church ought to be avoided.
On the other hand, there is no party whatever, at
least none worth taking into account, to whom the
new appointment to the see of Hereford can
possibly be agreeable. It is not a question be
tween High and Low Church, or between the
Church and Dissenters. Dr. Hampden may have
been ready to receive consolation from all who were
ready to offer it; but if we ask what is the original
ground he represents in the field of theology, we shall
find very few parties willing to share it unreservedly
with him. Dr. Hampden, being neither a graceful
writer, nor an original thinker, nor a clear-headed
man, procured an appointment which demanded at
least one of these qualifications. By canvassing a
limited board of electors he became Bampton Lec-
turer. Haply at the moment he fell in with persons
who were both willing to suggest a topic, and able to
develop it. Under questionable auspices he com-
posed a very dull compilation from French and other
writers of indifferent repute, and whom it would
have contributed as little to his theological as to his
literary credit to acknowledge. The fact is, that
' Dr. Hampden had not the least notion what he was
writing about, or what he was driving at, or where it
would end. He had just the sense to stop short
where he did, and as he afterwards became still more
sensible, lie took care for the future to stop still
shorter. He has not, however, honesty and openly,
recanted a system which turns into a mere mist of
words, or rather into nothing at all, not merely this
or that doctrine, but everything Christianity pro-
fesses to teach and reveal. He continues an offender,
only against Anglican orthodoxy, but
not against
Presbyterian, Wesleyan, Independent, Baptist; and
every other orthodoxy whatever.
Lord John may depend upon it that in selecting
Dr. Hampden he has committed a political error. He
has roused the slumbering antipathy of a considerable,
though a beaten and discountenanced party. It is not safe
for a popular chief to neglect any element of influ-
ence. For some time he has been reaping the benefit
of a growing belief that he is a better friend to the
Church than Sir Robert. The clergy, accordingly,
are beginning to look with favour on liberal measures.
It is something to silence a battery which merely
annoys. The clergy, however, can do more than
annoy. In their separate capacity they have an im-
mense negative power. They can refuse to do almost
anything, and if they are sulky will be very likely to
make a virtue of idleness. Bishops and Parliaments
can make a clergyman reside on his living as easily as
you can bring a horse to the pond, but they can nc
more make a clergyman do an atom of good than you
can make a horse drink. Now, such an appointment
as that we announce is just the very thing to
drive half the clergy to disgust and despair. Forth-
with, instead of heading and tailing old sermons,
they will set to work writing new ones, discussing
Church and State, and intimating very plainly that a
certain person, who should not, guides the counsels
of Downing-street. They will represent themselves
as persecuted, insulted, and betrayed. They will
publish sermons and circulate tracts. The booksellers
will get a harvest, for which the families of some five
hundred reckless and needy pamphleteers will pay
with reduced allowances of bread and butter, and a
protracted wear of last year's new clothes. Mean-
while,
atriimsheesanwdiltlemhpeerruwinileldb.e lost l ;thpiastimenace,hpeusrsilleys.,
but a statesman is bound to prevent it if he can. A
wise shepherd has no respect for the intellect of his
University, will be
sheep, but he nevertheless takes most carefully into
account all that they are likely to do.
u Rs gerga
Regius
(From the Post.)
tms aenngt
from
otm enough
the
It has been publicly announced tHhaatmDpar.e:l,
now Bishop of Hereford, will be elevated to the
Arch-
diocese
prufesserofefYpoirvki,nitayndin tohaxtforDdr.
the new Bishop of Hereford. The first of these no-
minations will disappoint, and the second
udinisegust, all
friendsttuhoseexpeet r
eaosfortmhbelyChguorcohd who are
Whigs. There seemed to be nothing to rer
as the Church was concerned, in the removal 'ofe farSi Robert Peel from power; but Lord John Russell
as if he were desirous of proving that connexaio s
of the Church with the State is even a greater evil,
under his Administration, than under that of thevi Right
Hon. Member for Tamworth.
The Right Rev. Personage said to be chosen for the
Archdiocese of York is by no means eminent as a
divine. He has abilities of a certain kind, which it is
understood were found useful to the Whigs in the
electioneering affairs of the West Riding of Yorkshire.
Hence his promotion to the Episcopal Bench. But
Hereford not being enough, he now gets York! Does
Lord J. Russell expect that such promotion will serve
the cause of religion, or make the Church more effi-
cient for its great work ?
And yet the appointment to York is almost com-
mendable in comparison with that to Hereford. Dr.
Musgrave is not eminent for sound divinity, but
Dr. Hampden is notorious for unsound divinity.
True, he is Professor of Divinity in Oxford Uni-
versity, but it was not from the University he re-
ceive that appointment. He is the Regius Professor,

" Nine years back a similar fate attended another
ship upon the same spot, the Lady Flora Hastings,
we believe ; and on that occasion every soul on board
perished."

The Rev. George Urquhart, M.A., Fellow of Mag-
dalen College, Cambridge, has been licensed by the
Bishop of Ripon to the district living of Meanwood,
near Leeds, on the nomination of Mrs. Mary Beckett
and Miss Elizabeth Beckett, of Meanwood-park, the
founders,