The Sun.
London, England, 1869-12-03 00:00:00

JUDGMENT AGAINST MR. VOYSEY.

Mr. Granville Vernon Harcourt, the Chancellor of the
diocese of York, in giving judgment in the matter of the
prosecution of Mr. Voysey for heresy, said he had simply
to determine whether the charges alleged against Mr.
Voysey were sufficient to put him upon his trial, and
whether the whole or any part of them ought to be re-
jected. The character of the defendant and his con-
scientious views entitled him to respect, but he (the
Chancellor), sitting there as a judge, had no option and
no right to permit any such personal motive to intrude on
the execution of what was to him an imperious duty. He
felt this, on the other hand, that the congregations of
every parish in that province had a claim upon him, as the
appointed guardian of their rights. They might well say
to him, "We have been provided by our ancestors with
a church wherein to worship, and a minister to serve in it
subjected to limitations established by law. We have
under the auspices of such a minister, and in con-
sonance with these regulations, been educated in a cate-
chism of stated religious doctrines. We have possessed a
Prayer-book prescribed for our edification, and a Bible
for our solace and instruction, and as an aid and guide in
his ministrations." They might well add :—"Better
were it to live -ender no law at all than by the aid of an
irreligious indifference to conform ourselves as best we
can to the arbitrary rule of our pastor, and fancy
we have a law on which we can rely, and still find at
last that that exposes us to listen to principles
unheard of until the very moment of their propagation.,
It could not be otherwise than offensive to the
sentiments of a Christian audience to hear broached from
a pulpit spiritual theories which might seem to have ema-
nated from the school of Arius, placing the doctrine of
revelation at the mercy of every private judgment, and
substituting a Pantheistic creed for the symbols provided
for the Church. Mr. Voysey had grafted some German
metaphysics on the heresy of Arius, or the theology of the
Neo-Platonians, and it might be inferred from some pas-
sages in his defence that he did not intend, in the
views he had promulgated, to assail the Articles ; but even
in the case of "Burder v. Heath," where the word "ad
visedly" had been used, it was contended on behalf of
Heath that as he had not published what he had pub-
lished with a view to impugn the Articles, he might not
come under the censure of, the law. It was decided, how-
ever, by the Court that as he had acted deliberately in
the matter, it must be assumed that he had done that
with the purpose which his language had in fact effected,
and that it was immaterial whether he had intended
to impugn the Articles if he had done so in effect. He
(the Chancellor) would not unnecessarily occupy time
by going elaborately through all the different points, either
of the prosecution or the defence ; but he would just give
a summary analysis of the principal points on which the
prosecution relied, and which his view of the articles
might have sufficiently explained and made appear. Mr.
Voysey had maintained, as was apparent from the
document submitted to him (the Chancellor), that Christ
has not made an atonement or any reconciliation for sin ;
that He has not been made a sacrifice; that there is no
need for any such sacrifice ; that Christ did not suffer
in our stead ; and that to suppose He did so suffer
was a revolting popular belief. It was quite clear, as far
as it was possible to understand the English language,
that in the Second Article of the Church ;Christ was made
to be the medium of reconciliation with God, and that He
is made to be a sacrifice not only for original sin but for
the actual sins of men. It was quite clear that in the
Third Article it was stated that Christ died for us ; in
the Seventh (and both in the Old and New Testaments)
everlasting life was offered to men through Christ, who
is the only mediator; in the Fifteenth, that by the
sacrifice of Himself He shall take away the sins
of the whole world ; and in the Thirty-third article,
the words "redemption," "propitiation," and "satisfac-
tion " for sin were also distinctly stated. The Prayer
Book and its collects, and the various collateral
services intimated the same doctrine. Mr. Voysey
had also maintained that man is not by nature
born in sin, that there was no curse to remove by the
shedding of the innocent blood of Christ, and that the fall
of man was contrary to Christ's teaching. In contradis-
tinction to this, the Second Article stated that Christ truly
suffered to reconcile God and man. In the Ninth Article
original sin is minutely and elaborately explained, and in
the Eleventh Article we are accounted righteous for the
merits of the Saviour alone. With regard to the statement
that Christ was no more very God than other men, the
Chancellor intimated that Mr. Voysey had derived this
notion through some school of German theology. His state-
ment that the worship of the Son and the Holy Ghost
was idolatry was a direct impugning of the Nicene Creed,
which he was bound to read to the congregation.
The First, Second, Fourth, and Fifth Articles enjoined
the acknowledgment of the Holy Trinity. The remaining
objections of Mr. Voysey to the ordinary teaching of the
Church of England had reference to the authenticity of
tbe. Bible, either wholly or in pars. the wliule more
might be considered to be subjected to his criticism,
because he considerCd that a revelation by any book was
impossible, and that'all true knowledge of God must be in
men's hearts. The Chancellor, after commenting further
on this point, referred to other assertions of the defendant
as being contrary to the teaching of the Church.
He then observed that, having had every disposition to
expunge or remove anything he could find—(acting on
behalf of Mr. Voysey, who was without legal advice
there) —as not being relevant, or not sufficiently
made out, he was bound to say that he thought
on the face of them all the assertions which were
there made, and all the deductions from those assertions,
were sufficiently clear, and not unfairly pressed
on the defendant. The document containing his
defence had caused him to arrive at the conclusion that the
pulpit of the Church of England was not the fit place
from which his views ought to be promulgated. His (the
Chancellor's) judgment would imply that all the allega-
tions against Mr. Voysey were a ground for excluding him
from the Church of England. It was plain that con-
sistently with his own view, from the moment the official
decision was arrived at which was sought by the present
prosecutors, he would be content to retire from that
position which he could hardly understand he could, with
the conscientious and amiable character he had, have
retained so long. At present he must content himself
with saying that the articles must be admitted to proof.
Costs were granted, and notice of appeal was given by
the defendant's proctor, who stated that his client would
prefer that the case should be finally determined in the
Court of Appeal.

RAILWAY SANDWICHES.—The thinness of Vaux-
hall sandwiches has passed into a proverb, but railway
sandwiches are even lighter and more transparent. One of
our correspondents purchased three sandwiches in the re-
freshment room at the Bristol station, and was so much
struck by their appearance that he had the curiosity
to have the thickest of them weighed at a neighbouring
chemist's, shaking the crumbs out of the paper over it, so
that it might have every advantage. The weight of the
sandwich was thus ascertained to be as follows :—Beef, 2i
drachms ; bread, 3 drachms ; that is to say, the whole
article was # drachm less than oz. Some day or other
directors will perhaps relent and supervise the refreshment
rooms along their lines. A refreshment car attached to each
train travelling a long distance, from which passengers
could obtain a cup of tea or coffee, glass of beer, sandwich,
or cold fowl at one station, returning cups, glasses, and
dishes at the next, is one of those simple practical concep-
tions at once convenient to travellers and profitable to the
company, for the realisation of which it would be absurd to
hope.—Pall Mall Gazette.

ENGLISH TIOSPITALITY.—If you wish to be civil
to a stranger in London. you ask him to dinner; and if
you wish to be doubly civil you ask him twice ; in other
words, you spend about four hours in his company and
give him, say, two guineas' worth of meat and drink. In
the country you may go further, and make him, for a few
days, a member of your family circle. But your utmost
efforts fall very far short of the practice in primitive
countries, where the merest stranger is made at home, and
has the fatted calf slain in his honour, and has no delicate
hints thrown out as to the conveniences offered by the
neighbouring railway. Undoubtedly the degree of hopistality
is measured by the general dulness of life. We welcome a man
gladly when we are thoroughly tired of ourselves and our
family circle ; and thus the charge is brought under our
general principle, that life is made up of a series of petty
and rapidly-changing excitements rather than of simple
and powerful emotions. Perhaps, however, this is all a
little too sentimental. I am approximating too nearly to
lamentations over the fine old English gentleman, whose
disappearance, to say the trrth, I can bear with very con-
siderable equanimity. He was too often a brutal, beer-
drinking, port-wino-swilling, illiterate animal, and his
rough vigour was very capable of judicious refinement.
Baronial halls and yule logs, and the general hospitality
which is celebrated in Christmas Annuals, seem to me to
be a lumbering and pretentious form of joviality, whose
extinction is a matter fcr sincere congratulation.—" The
Decay of Murder," in the Cornhill Magazine.

TIIE AUSTRALIAN RABBITS.—Owners of runs con-
tinue to spend large sums of money in order to prevent
the increase of the wild rabbits, which, in some districts,
appear to have become a nuisance. Mr. Robertson's run at
Colac is enclosed with stone walling, and a man with a
pack of dogs is engaged in keeping the rabbits outside the
boundary, while the run has been already cleared by the
work of the rabbiters, at an expenditure, up to the present
date, of £9,000. Dr. Stodart has expended £1,300 in endea
'touring to got rid of the bunnies,—llicaourne Argus.