The Sun.
London, England, 1869-10-20 00:00:00

DR. TEMPLE.

Archdeacon Denison wants to know what the arch
bishops and bishops are about. How is it that not
ono of them has written to Mr. Gladstone to toll him
of the horrible scandal and the ruin which he is
bringing upon the Church of England by the nomina-
tion of Dr. Temple ? And if any of thorn has written
why is not the fact made known ? Probably the
archbishoPs and bishops will be disposed to answer
that th.. can find more seemly employment; but the
Archdeacon is gravely impressed with the importance
of this issue.

To make the Church of England a " Broad Church " is
to steal away her life. It is not, indeed, to destroy her
apostolical succession. If an Archbishop and Bishops can
be found to consecrate Dr. Temple, he will be a Bishop of
the Church Catholic. But it is to tempt to unfaithfulness
so great that, if the temptation prevail, I do not know
what defence can still be made for the Church of England,
"as by law established."

Mr. Gladstone, the Archdeacon adds, in this as in
other parts of his career, has shewn that his
moral sense is the slave of his intellect. Dress any
proposition, however monstrous, in imagination and
intellect, and Mr. Gladstone "will rise at it like a
trout." A similar charge certainly could not be made
out against Archdeacon Denison. He is not troubled
with such a preponderance of intellect as to over-
weight his moral sense.
The Rev. Dr. Benson contributes a letter of a very
different kind to this Temple controversy. He
declares that there has never been quoted one
unorthodox dictum of Dr. Temple's ; he is incapable
of uttering or holding one ;.but if he did hold one, he
would certainly express it. Dr. Benson himself
thinks the " Essays and Reviews " a mistake, both
in conception and treatment. But the choice of the
phraseology, to which so much exception has been
taken, is, at any rate, matter of opinion.

And sure I am that in undertaking to do all that time
allowed him to do for the projected volume of "Essays and
Reviews," viz.,to revise for publication in it a sermon which
had been delivered without offence, and with some ap-
plause, before his university, Dr. Temple had no thought
beyond what was announced as the sole object of that
scheme, " freely to handle, in a becoming spirit, subjects
peculiarly liable to suffer by the repetition of conventional
language and from traditional methods of treatment."
There can be no doubt, Dr. Benson thinks, that the
Bishop Designate of Exeter was astonished at the
contents of the book to which his own general views
were prefixed as an introduction. But it is another
question whether he was at liberty to proclaim at
once the extent of his divergency from each author.
For one word from him, with his reputation and his
broad views, would have meant nothing short of this:
" The views of you, my late co-mates, are not
within the circle of the Church." Repudiation from
him would have been a decision on this point, which
was in more than one instance a question for the judi-
cature to decide. The immediate publication of the
sermons delivered by Dr. Temple at Rugby was a
sufficient answer to the inquiry whether he sym-
pathised with the book as a whole :

They who censure this cange cl' dire do not know the
man. They know not the singleness and truth and
patience—they know not the courage, tho manliness, the
life, which they would divert from the service of the
Church. They know not, what is more, the power of
inspiration not short of genius which he has for
others ; the energy with which contact with him sets
other men to work ; how many a shadow springs
before him into reality. For least of all do they know
his sympathetic charity, and the might of his Christian
faith. We have yet to learn how we are to give our great
institutes their true vitality—how wo are to make ourselves
worthy once more to be the Church of the masses--masses,
which it is my firm belief he will have helped powerfully
to penetrato with the love of the Cross, the love of the
Church, when "Essays and Reviews " are forgotten.

THE PROTESTANTISM OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.
Archdeacon Denison said at Liverpool that the
Church of England was not Protestant. He was
vigorously assailed at the time. Since then ono Mr.
Brown has written to him, demanding, "in no carping
spirit," an explanation. The Archdeacon replied,
rather curtly, that no good would flow from the cor-
respondence, and, therefore, he declined it. "I teach,"
he said, " those who will be taught. I argue these
things with nobody." A second letter from Mr. Brown,
while declininr, to accept the Vicar of Brent's
dogmatic teaching, was yet cordial, and expressed
sympathy with the Archdeacon in his opposition to
Dr. Temple. This epistle seems to have changed the
whole feeling of the venerable recipient :
The heart must leap kindly back to kindness,
and the reply to it brims over with charitable recogni-
tion. Archdeacon Denison explains that he thinks a
letter controversy always unsatisfactory, and adds, "God
help us both, and us all, to know and hold the truth.
Meantime let me say how thankful I am for all your
courtesy and genuine kindness." Would that all con-
troversy in the Church were thus happily settled.
Another Liverpudlian has been grieved by the
Romanism of the Bishop of Oxford. The Bishop
has been defending a college in which boys were
invited to confess before taking the Communion.
His lordship has been requested to explain his opinion
on the subject. Dr. Wilberforce, in reply, refers his
correspondent to the passage in the Communion Ser-
vice in which those who are in doubt are asked to
take ghostly counsel and advice of their ministers,
and are promised absolution.
THE FENIAN PRISONERS.
Mr. J. T. M'Donnell, " Hon. Secretary of the English
Amnesty Movement," makes a statement 'which is
highly important if true. He has every reason to
believe that "a majority of Ministers are in favour of
an amnesty, and that before Christmas-Day every
incarcerated patriot will be restored to his native land
and to the bosom of his family." It is doubtless a
gratifying sign of the times to find the secretary of the
English Amnesty movement taken into Ministerial
confidence; but the cautious reader will await the con-
firmation of this "official" statement. Mr. M'Donnell
adds that the demonstration intended to be held in
Hyde Park next Sunday is not designed either to
threaten or embarrass the Liberal Ministry. The
sole object is to obtain the unconditional release of
the patriots, and this aim will be striven for by
constitutional means. It is to be hoped, then, that
the men of Hyde Park will observe ordinary decency
in their speeches.
1100ILE AGAINST THE &DONOGHUE.
The O'Donoghue, M.P., is unquestionably the pos-
sessor of considerable moral courage. Regarded
hitherto as the leader of the most extreme of his
countrymen, looked upon as the hope of the party
whose joy is their nationality, he has yet had the
strength of mind to denounce the " heartless
spouters"—as he himself calls them—who are
continually threatening the Government, and
thus preventing it from even considering
measures which the braggadocio is meant to
press upon its attention. There could be no doubt as
to the special agitator against whom the member for
Tralee meant to warn the people. Mr. George
Moore has, we notice, taken the challenge to him-
self ; and removing his attention for the nonce from
vile England, he rushes full tilt at his one-time friend.
He was at Navan on Sunday ; and at an amnesty
meeting there he read the O'Donoghue's letter with
such emphasis that his audience was convulsed with
laughter. He told his hearers that the letter was
from "an Irish representative." Then in answer to
cries of "Name, name," Mr. Moore spoke of him as
"A gentleman who condoned the atrocious fabrica-
tions of Mr. Solicitor-General Barry," and who
calumniated those who tried to procure the release of
his "dear fellow countrymen?' Here Mr. Moore rose
to the height of his eloquence :
The sorry ribaldry which he intends for invective is
beneath criticism, and I pass it by ; but I cannot permit
to pass unchastised the fatuous impudence that would
seek to palm off upon the public, as still marketable, the
worn-out political credentials which I first helped him to
obtain, and which have since been disposed of, and paid
for, and wasted away, time out of mind.
The shouts of "Name I" became at length so over-
powering. that Mr. Moore had to proclaim it.
"Name 1" he exclaimed ; " well, I hardly know what
is his name. He calls himself Tho O'Donoghue, just
as he might call himself the Rajah of Seringapatam,
and I do not care to call him any other."