The Sun.
London, England, 1869-11-12 00:00:00

THE BISHOP OF OXFORD'S CHARGE,

The Bishop of Oxford on Thursday delivered his farewell
charge to the clergy of his diocese, in the Cathedral Church of
Oxford. The attendance both of clergy and laity was very
large. His lordship said it had always appeared to him to
be the duty of a Bishop to throw himself heartily into the
labours of the clergy and laity in all the schools of thought
within the Church. When differences of faith did exist
he put in no plea, and asked for them no toleration; but
he maintained that, putting all questions of master truths
wholly aside, there was large room for difference of tone and
feeling. Instead of divergency in our Church being an evil, he
held that it was a sign of life, and he would no more make
every voice in a diocese speak in the same tone than he
would abolish the music of nature by requiring the same
note from every songster. There were, however, limits to
such differences. He had the blessing of seeing amongst
his warmest friends the representatives of every school of
thought. He could not endure to be the Bishop of a
party when God's providence had called him to be the
Bishop of a diocese. To a certain extent, the rule
of liberty as to thought must be extended to
the rule of observance. Feeling that strongly, few
things had grieved him more than the recent contro-
versy in the Church respecting dresses and externals.
With the mighty work we have to do—with the growing
masses on every side, it was heartbreaking to see the zeal
of earnest spirits diverted from their true mission, and see
it miserably wasted on unmeaning contests as to the cut
of a surplice or the colour of a stole. In such a strife both
sides appeared to him- to be in the wrong, because both
exalted things comparatively indifferent into an utterly
endue importance. It was hard to understand religion
which consisted on one side in refusing to wear a surplice,
and on the other in convulsing a parish by introducing
into its servicas the startling novelty of a gorgeous vest-
ment. He hail always held in these mere outward matters,
that provided the law was not infringed, nor a weak
brother offended, it would be wrong to force on others
his own disinclination to change. Therefore, when in
a rising town or parish there had been a correspond-
ing progress of ritual, he had always felt that
instead of discouraging it, it was better to guide and
moderate rather than oppose its development. He must
be allowed to say that there might be changes involving
great doctrinal questions. There was ono change which he
viewed with great apprehension, and that was the ten-
dency manifested in certain quarters to change the idea of
the Holy Eucharist from a communion of the faithful into
a function cf the celebrating priest. In his most
mature judgment, the adopqon of the views and
the practice of another Church was absolutely
subversive of that which had been received
amongst ourselves. The presence of the people and the
actual communion were bound indissolubly together. The
solitary Mass of Rome was so absolutely unwarranted a
deviation, that we wore not certain that it did not alto-
gether overthrow the very nature of the Sacrament. The
practice was most intimately connected, both as to cause
and consequence, with the greatest practical corruptions
of the Papal Communion. Whatever tended to its intro-
duction amongst ourselves appeared to him to threaten,
the existence of our own religious system. Such ten-
dencies were seen in the attempt to make the celebration
of the Holy Eucharist at our principal Sunday morning
services an impressive, if not gorgeous display, while the
congregation remained as mere spectators, and did not
partake of the Sacrament. It had always been and still
remained the special charge of the English Church to re-
sist these insidious assaults, and, Cod helping her, shy
would not resist in vain. They ought earnestly to resis-
all early movements towards item° as she now existed
first, because the accomplishment of such a movement would
mest certainly involve the loss of that blessed heri-
tage of the truth of God which cf His great mercy,
thee:ugh the fires of inertyrdc,m and the anguish of whole
generations of their fathers had been given to them ; and
nee-t, h( cause any degree or semblance of success in tha:
matter did more than anything besides to help on, by the
check which it gave to long-established habits of belief,
the progress of that flood of lawless infidelity which reve-
lation shelved them was to be the plague of the last day.
To his brethren of the clergy and his brethren of the laity
he bade them in Christ's name farewell in the Lord.

Canon Dale, preferring his canonry, worth £l,OOO
h year, to the Deanery of Ely, worth £950, many perscra
expect that the vacant deanery will be offered to ProfessuP

Maurice.

The Sheriff's warrant for the execution of the
convict Joseph Walsh, who was convicted of the Deptford
murder, was received at the county gaol at Maidstone on
Tuesday, and ICJ onday next has been fixed for the carrying
out of the sentence.

Mr. Alderman Blackburn was elected on Tuesday
mayor of Leeds, but he declined to serve and tendered s
cheque in payment of the £lOO penalty. The town clerk,
however, explained that his age exempted him without this
payment, and the alderman than banded over the amount to
the Infirmary.

A line in one of Moore's songs runs thus : "Our
couch shall be roses, bespangled with dew." To which a
sensible girl replied : " 'Twould give me the rheumatiz, and
so it would you."

MURDER OF A FARMER IN LANCASHIRE.—The
Warrington Guardian reports tho murder of Samuel
Greavo, a farmer, of Burton-wood, near Warrington, under
somewhat mysterious circumstances. He was shot dead in
his milk-cart on Thursday morning. The murder is sup-
posed to have been committed by poachers.
A certain mountebank announced to a large
audience that, at the next entertainment, ho would show
to every man present what was in his heart. The time
came, and the concourse was immense. All waited with
deathlike silence. He stood up, and in a single sentence
redeemed his pledge—" You all wish to buy cheap and to
sell dear."

MAKING A FORTUNE BY ANNOYING ONE'S
NEIGHBOUR.—There is a story told of a man who realised
a handsome independence by the simple expedient of
making himself a nuisance to his neighbours. "Eyesore
Jack," as he was called, used to buy houses in "genteel"
localities, and decorate the outsides, from chimney-pots to
area-railings, in the wildest and most fantastic manner.
Sometimes he would have broad black stripes and
white ground, and call his residence, so dis-
figured, " Zebra Villa ;" at others, he would cover
the whole front with rude sketches, bearing a remote
analogy to goats, scorpions, scales, and twin babies, in
which case largo straggling letters, of an eccentric pattern,
informed the world that " Zodiac Hall " was before them,
and that it would be necessary to "ring twice "to procure
an interview with the " O'Gemini " who lived within. Of
course the people round about generally began by thinking
him mad, and ended by inducing their respective landlords
to buy up John's little property ; it was found intolerable
to be for ever reminded that they lived so many doors from
" Eyesore Jack's place."
A CRUEL—A CRIMINAL—CASE OF C ARE LE SS-
NESS.—"James Monteith" writes to the Daily News:—
" Every family, and all people interested in children, will
read with great interest and with advantage the letter of
Dr. John Simon on "Precautions against Scarlatina,"
which appears in your journal of this morning;
cml I would beg to supplement that gentleman's
letter by reference to a most criminal neglect, if not
something worse, on the part of the parents of a child
roe cling within eight cs of London. The child was a day
scholar at an cs for young girls, where there
were about fifteen boarders and fifteen day ;Thelon. The
child wa3 kept at home for a week " with a sore throat end
a slight eruption on the skin." The parents, though in good
c:rcumstanecs, did not call in a physician, but got some
medie:ne from an apothecary, and after a week sent the
child back to school while " the flakes and grains of dry
A.in were shedding," without any further notice than that
`the child had had a cold and sore throat, but was now
quite well.' lue same night two of the little boarders
were seized with scarlatina, the establishment is broken
up, ono of the little ones died on Tuesday last within three
days of the attack; two more were in great danger on
Thursday, and I fear with little hope of their recovery,ami
we know not yet to what extent the criminal act of this
child's uarents may lead."