The Sun.
London, England, 1848-02-01 00:00:00

F 7, II I\-4

d

THE BISHOP OF EXEUR 'A__
HIS VICTIM.
(From the Western Times.)
Mr. Gorham, the clergyman who'd' the Bishop of J.::,:54,4*
Exeter refuses to institute to the livititz of Brampford
Speke, on the presentation of the Crovi
he has harassed by an examination oCteleral days, Fmt
one day continuing it eleven hours ana'ashalf), is a
clergyman of thirty- seven years' standing in the
ministry, and graduated with high honours at
Cambridge. He obtained all the prizes in his col-
lege whilst an under-graduate. In 1808 he gained •
the University medal for " The Morrisian Divinity
Essay," before he had taken his degrees; and a divinity
prize in his college soon after. In 1809 he was the
third wrangler, and divided the Smith's prize (the
highest mathematical honour the University has to
bestow on her Alumni) with the senior wrangler,
the present Judge Alderson. He was immediately
selected by the late Mr. Wilberforce and the
Dean of Carlisle as tutor to a distinguished
nobleman. In 1810 he was elected Fellow of Queen's
College, and he retained that preferment seventeen
years. In 1820 he was offered the senior tutorship, but
declined it, being engaged in ministerial work. He
was the only competitor with Professos Sedgwick for
the geological chair. His literary, scientific, and theo-
logical attainments, induced the late Lord Chancellor
Lyndhurst to give him the valuable living of St. Just,
in Cornwall, worth more than 5001. a year; but the
situation in some respects not being congenial, Mr. Gor-
ham gladly accepted, on the presentation of the Crown,
the living of Brampford Spoke, although the income is
nearly3oo/.per annum less. Mr. Gorham has always been
respected by, and on the most friendly terms with, the
four bishops in whose dioceses he has at different times
had ministerial duty—and this is the man whom the
Bishop of Exeter scruples to admit on the presenta-
tion of the Crown to the vicarage of Brampford
Speke. When the presentation was tendered to the
Bishop he said nothing about examination, allowed
Mr. Gorham to return into Cornwall, pack up his
furniture, and make all necessary arrangements
for the removal of his family, and when insti-
tution was demanded it was refused, until the
Bishop had examined Mr. Gorham. Mr. Gorham went
to Exeter for the purpose of being examined, but
the Bishop declined doing so, until after his return
from London, and appointed Mr. Gorham to wait on
him at Bishopstowe. The Bishop kept Mr. Gorham
waiting a whole month at Torquay for his threatened
examination, whilst he was " lingering in London,"
and endeavouring to check the Queen and her Minis-
ters in another diocese, neglecting this urgent
business in his own. The Bishop first tried to
poison the ear of the Lord Chancellor by inscrib-
ing on Mr. Gorham's testimonials an insinuation
of his doctrine not being pure, but Lord Cot-
tenham was too honourable a man to listen to
such aspersions, and presented the living to
11/r. Gorham, notwithstanding the Bishop's remon-
strance. Now the real offence committed by Mr.
Gorham was, that he successfully opposed the Bishop's
attempt to prevent his appointing a curate who did
not hold the Bishop's favourite dogma of baptismal
regeneration, and Mr. Gorham, then in correspond-
ence with the Bishop, declared, in respectful but firm
language, he would oppose Tractarian error in every
form and by every means in his power. The
Bishop denounced this independent Presbyter, who
dared to uphold the doctrines of the Reformation,
as a man of broken vows, and seized on the
earliest opportunity of reprisal, by summoning Mr.
Gorham to Bishopstowe for examination, which,
under protest, Mr. Gorham submitted to, and replied
at great length to seventy-eight questions, on the
alone subject of baptismal regeneration. The Bishop
was little aware of the firm Christian spirit, and the
intellectual superiority of the man whom he had
forced into conflict with him, and on the
third day of the examination the Bishop inti-
mated that if Mr. Gorham would not publish—the
examination should terminate favourably. But Mr.
Gorham felt that the interests of the Church were too
deeply involved in this proceeding to think of his
own welfare primarily, and, nothing daunted by the
Bishop, he declined making such a stipulation, and
the examination was continued with increased acri-
mony, until Mr. Gorham's physical strength failed,
and he was obliged to suspend examination at Bishop-
stowe, although it was continued in Torquay, for
the Bishop sent him eight questions of enormous length,
and " Cardall's Conferences " to read, and give his
opinion in writing. On Friday, the 7th, Alr.:Gorham
again applied for institution, which was refused until
further examination had taken place, and Mr. Gorham
was summoned to Bishopstowe on Monday, the 10th,
and peremptorily ordered to reply categorically to the
questions that might be proposed. Having already
been detained three months from his parish and
family on this business, and being convinced the
Bishop did not mean to institute, but to harass
hint still further, Mr. Gorham departed to London
on Monday, the 10th, to seek legal redress, and the
whole correspondence and examination will soon
be before the public, and it is hoped that the Noble
Lord at the head affairs will interpose some check
on this prelate, who relying on his own infallibility,
sets up his standard of doctrine in opposition to the
Thirty-nine Articles, and who would fain excommu-
nicate all the clergy from his diocese who do not view
the doctrine in the same light as he does himself.
Constant reader ! you recollect the gentle admoni-
tions which Bishop Phillpotts passed on that con-
victed and notorious drunkard, the Rev. Thomas
Jones Laden—contrast the mild sentence on the
drunkard, with the harassing and offensive conduct
towards the gentleman and the scholar—and, thank
Heaven, if you be not in holy orders, and bearing the
yoke of this diocese.