The Sun.
London, England, 1869-10-27 00:00:00

(FROM A CORRESPONDENT.

THREE representative Churchmen have written to
the Times simultaneously with respect to the nomi-
nation of Dr. TEMPLE to the see of Exeter. Dr.
PUSEY reiterates, though in much more moderate
language, the charges which he made against the
Bishop Designate in the Guardian of a fortnight
back. : Dean M'\ FILE, while holding very
much the same opinion of Dr. TEMPLE as
the Regius Professor of Hebrew holds, states
the reasons why he cannot join the pro-
posed alliance against the new Bishop. Earl
NELSON, one of the most distinguished and influen-
tial of living laymen, gives his reasons why he cannot
oppose Dr. TEMPLE at all. In these three letters are
a history and a prophecy. They tell us what the
career of the English Church has been up to the
present time, and they tell us what in all probability
will be the fate of the Church hereafter. The two first
writers are the representatives of two schools
so utterly opposed to each other that it is wonderful
to think how they can be members of the same
Church. Save that they both believe in the Divinity
and the work of our Lord, there is not one point
in common between them. They differ about the
sacraments toto calo, and as much as Rome differs
from Geneva. They differ about the priesthood to
an equal extent. They differ about a matter of such
immense practical importance as confession in so great
a degree that Dr. APNEILE has declared from the
pulpit that the clergyman ought to be hanged
who does the very thing which Dr. PUSEY does
habitually, and which he is using all his influence to
make other clergymen do. They differ absolutely
and entirely in the relations which they assume
towards the Papacy. Dr. PUSEY has published a
work in which he expresses his yearnings for recon-
ciliation with Rome, and details the concessions he
is willing to make in order to secure that '
blessed consummation, Dean 11.1±NEILE has
incessantly denounced the Papacy as the
mother of harlots, the mystery of abomination,
the accursed thing, between whom and England there
can be "no peace." So'strong is the power of theo-
logical hatred, however, that it is possible these two
divines and their followers might have united in a corn-
mon warfare against Dr. TEMPLE, had it not been '
for the extreme indiscretion of Dr. PUSEY in proclaim-
ing at the outset that he was prepared to raise the '
cry of separation of Church and State if this appoint-
ment was persisted in. All chance of a High and
Low Church Alliance was lost from that moment. The
" Evangelical " party are prepared to make great
sacrifices in order to keep out a heretic, but they are
not prepared to sacrifice the social position which is
secured to them by the union of Church and State.
True, they have not given Dr. PUSEY'S threat of
separation as their reason for refusing to co-operate
with him. They have preferred to summon the
Levitical law to their aid as a justification for holding
aloof ; or (as Mr. HOBART SEYMOUR, of Bath,
has done, in a letter which is surely a masterpiece of
theological arrogance), to affect equal contempt for
those " potsherds of the earth," the Rationalists and
the Ritualists. Nevertheless, seeing that the Low
Church party united with Dr. PUSEY in a former
attack upon the Essayists, it is at least conceivable that
they might have united with one of the " potsherds "
on the present occasion, but for the threat which was
blurted out with such indiscreet frankness by Dr.
PUSEY.

It is a relief to turn to Earl NELSON'S letter.
accuse Nino one will
willbeing lukewarm
the Church himhurchof
or indifferent about
the faith. He has always been reckoned as
a High Churchman and as prominent among the lay
peers in defence of what he believes to be the rights
of the Church. Nevertheless he considers the present
agitation against Dr. TEMPLE unwise and unfair.
" A combination in defence of any article of the faith
(he says) is a noble thing ; but to come together
against a man for anything short of heresy, im-
morality, or well-established incompetence, is a
hateful thing, because very like persecution; and
it must not be forgotten that all who cannot
see the heretical teaching will assuredly believe
that it is mainly a feeling against one party in the
Church which has caused for a time the proposed
amalgamation of the other two." He points out that
Dr. TEMPLE'S essay was written some time before,
and apart from, the others, and that he is not respon-
sible for the deductions which other persons have
drawn from his premisses. The chivalrous feeling
which prevented him from forsaking the other
Essayists when they were prosecuted, may have
been an error of judgment ; but " surely it cannot
be contended that this is a sufficient ground upon
which to brand a man as aheretic, and on nothing short
of such a branding can we have any right seriously to
oppose the appointment of the Crown's nominee to the
see of Exeter."

We have said that these letters contain a history
and a prophecy. They shew how the compromise
which was effected at the Reformation has become
almost impossible of longer continuance, and that the
disruption of the Church is inevitable if professional
theologians are allowed to have their own course. Dr.
PusEy has committed himself to a disestablishment
agitation. Lord SHAFTESBURY and Dean 111'NEILE
have expressed their unconquerable and equal aver-
sion to the views of Dr. PUSEY and the Essayists.
how can union be maintained among such discordant
and hostile parties? In only one way :by the active
interposition of the laity. Their ',calmer judgment
may arrest the result which heated theologians are
hastening. Will the English Church learn from the
example set by her sister in Ireland ? Will she, as
the Irish Church has just done, admit the laity into
her counsels, give thorn a seat in her representative
body ? It is only in this way that she can prevent
the disastrous "falsehood of extremes" and save
herself,

MARKE7 S-2llls D. 4 Y.

LIVERPOOL COTTON MARKET.
Oct. 27.—Salon probably 10,000 balos. The market
firm,

A MUNIFICENT G 'FT.—A donor, under the initials
T. W. D., has sent to the National Lifeboat Institution
the munificent sum of £l,OOO, is aid of its general objects