The Sun.
London, England, 1869-10-16 00:00:00

lIPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNAL%

The Saturday Review remarks that Mr. Gladstone's
appointments to the episcopal bench have not met with
general approval. It were strange if they had. They exhibit
more of a mechanical and technical rule than of a moral,
which must be a personal, principle in the Bishop-maker.
The question then is : Given the greater schools of theolo-
gical thought, do the three bishops just appointed ade-
• quately represent them ? Lord Arthur Hervey is in
advance of his school, if the Evangelical party maybe credited
with anything so riaundane as a literature and a philosophy at
all. It is a fact that everybody asks who Mr. Mackarness
is ; and to have this question put is not the very
highest credential for one who succeeds Bishop Wilberforce.
But about Dr. Temple ? Assuming, as we certainly must
do, that all the religious schools, or parties, should be
represented on the Episcopal Bench, and that the safety
of the Church of England depends upon the interpenetra-
tion and elastic impact and rebound of counteracting
influences—in other words, that it is not so much a com-
promise as an armistice, which best describes the Church
of England as it is—even the extremest enemies of Free
Thought must admit that Dr. Temple is among the least
offensive (we mean in their eyes offensive) representative
of his school. Liberals ought to be satisfied that they have
got so fair a representative ; non-Liberals may, or might,
but we doubt if they will, satisfy themselves that things
are not worse. But what about the orthodox? They are,
or at least many of them are, furious ; and they have some
justification for their anger. Dr. Pusey expresses it with
unusually intense vehemence ; and he, not obscurely nor
for the first time, hints that the Church ought to rebel
against the tyranny of the State in episcopal appoint-
ments. But then this Church, with its free election of
bishops, would not be the Church of England, but an
ideal—a petite Eglise—a Zoar—a Church pure of the pre-
sent—and always casting off, not only its false brethren,
but dispensing with its halting, imperfect, and insufficient
brethren. The burden of Dr. Pusey's lamentations—and
he is never to be spoken of without sincere sympathy, as a
a man of the most crystalline integrity—is that Dr. Temple
is one of the Essayists and Reviewers. One would have
thought that to have enounced this fact was to deprive it
of that sting which it is intended to carry. Dr. Temple is
one of those seven writers ; that is, he did not write the
whole book. He expressly disavowed his responsibility for
or complicity with what the other writers said. The bonds
of union and identity of sentiment among the Essayists are
the two purple boards which bind their lucubrations toge-
ther, and the common publisher whose name is on the title-
page. We may be pardoned for saying that Dr. Temple's Essay
is not a remarkable publication at all. It is, we are
almost tempted to say, thin, and almost weak. It is cer-
tainly sketchy; and, had it been published separately, it
would 'not so much have fallen into oblivion as have
attracted no notice whatever. To speak plainly, the
objections against Dr. Temple which might be urged with
some force—we do not profess agreement with them, but
we acknowledge that they have some strength—are that
he is a strong and vehement politician, is only a successful
schoolmaster, and that he is not much of a theologian.
E contra, he possesses great powers of administration and
a special gift for organisation. Anyhow Mr. Gladstone
deserves some credit for his usual courage in doing, at
whatever hazard to his personal popularity, what he thinks
to be an act of justice ; and perhaps High Churchmen
would be wise—though like their neighbours they are not
always wise—not to pessimise the appointment. Mitiga-
tion is the better policy—but then we shall be told that
policy in such cases is a sin—than exaggeration, especially
in the presence of the unavoidable. Whilst we are writing,
Dean Goodwin's nomination to Carlisle is officially an-
nounced, and the appointment will generally be as likely
to conciliate, as Dr. Temple's is in so many quarters held
designed to provoke, public opinion.
The John Bull maintains that the Dean and Chapter of
Exeter have a simple duty to perform, namely, to decline
to elect as Chief Pastor one who has denied the inspiration
of Holy Scripture, and whose writings have been con-
demned by the Church. We are glad to know that the
Evangelical clergy and laity are determined on resisting this
gross outrage on decency and religious feeling alik.e The
Earl of Shaftesbury and many others are conferring the
greatest credit on themselves by their bold determination.
What is needed, is united action. With the Earl of
Shaftesbury and Dr. Pusey willing to act together there
should be no difficulty in forming at once a committee so
influential as to command a moral victory. The Dean and
Chapter are acting nobly, the clergy and laity of the diocese
(Mr. Ackland, M.P., and an insignificant following
alone excepted) are prepared to support them ; but on an
occasion so grave, and possibly fraught with consequences
so momentous, it seems to us that the whole Church
should be prepared to come forward. This we believe is
the case. The Dean is daily receiving, we understand,
promises of support, pecuniary as well as moral, from
representative members of the Evangelical party ; Mr.
Ryle and Archdeacon Denison are at one on this matter,
as much as Dr. Pusey and the Earl of Shaftesbury, and it
will be a signal honour conferred on the Dean and Chapter
if they have strength of mind, not only to make a protest,
or commence a fight, but, at whatever cost to refuse to have
any share in forcing on their own diocese, which above all
other needs a chief pastor who has the confidence of clergy
and laity alike, a Bishop who will not only fail to carry out
the Church's work, but, by his very presence on the epis-
sopal bench, will alienate thousands of the most attached
children of the Church of England.

The Spectator does not wonder at the keen interest
everywhere expressed in the r:orgLnisation of the Irish
Church. Not only do Englsh Churchmen see, or fancy
they see, in the proceedings of their Irish brethren peace-
ients which they may hereafter have to follow or to avoid,
but those proceedings appeal to the general historical
imagination. We seem to see how Church governments
were formed, to witness once more the conflicts of powers
Dut of which the English Establishment originally grew,
to behold the birth of a new thing, a representative
government for an Episcopalian Church. Tho Irish
Protestants have, as it were, to make a Parliament, to make
it deliberately, and are forced to consider the deepest pro-
blems of constitutional life and religious organisation, not
ss subjects for literary debate, but as actual difficulties to
be avoided. As yet, Irish Churchmen are only settling
principles, and at present they have settled two of the
highest importance—first, that the " laity " shall be recog-
nised as a governing power in the Church ; and secondly,
that they shall be in the Last resort the ultimate governing
power. These points have been decided after the manner
Df Englishmen in the most illogical style, but still they
have been effectually decided. The Lay Conference came
together, it is clear, absolutely resolved to give the laity a
predominance, and, in fact, to carry out a specific plan for
seeming it by giving the laity a distinct superiority of
numbers. Two to one was the most popular idea, and two
to one was accepted almost without opposition, and under
iircumstances which suggest that the lay mind is really
made up upon the subject. The clerical party, aware
that some such resolution would be passfld, put
forward the Duke of Abercorn to make a 32roposal that
the General Synod should consist of two Houses instead
A one, the clergy sitting in one and the laity in the
)ther. The Duke did his work with great tact. If
he had pleaded the religious argument that the clergy were
divinely appointed, and so on, ho would have been hope-
lessly beaten; but he confined himself to the old constitu-
tional theory that two Houses were better than one, that a
single House may be rash, and that it was better the
governing body should have opportunities of reconsidera-
tion ; and the members of the Conference did not know
what answer to make. They had been bred up in those
ideas all their lives, had been accustomed to think that
Parliaments were naturally two-headed, and never consi-
lered the question any more than they had considered why
tree should grow upwards, and they unanimously passed
the Duke of Abercorn's resolution. Still they had not sup-
rendered their own purpose, and to mark it, insist9d, in
spite of earnest remonstrances and in the teeth scf the
text resolution proposed, on the double represrliation of
the laity. They saw, of course—for Sir J. NaTiier, the ad-
vocate of equal. representation, was cool phough to make
that the ground of his argument--that 11,.:Vino• accepted the
vote by orders, the double representation was'' useless, that
they had virtually made a clerical House of Lords; but
they were determined to mark ttleir feeling in the matter,
and they marked it by a vote' of seven to one, and it will
prevail.

The Economist thinks_ iat the New York gold panic is,
to its incidents and rwilts one of the most remarkable '
which the history of/speculation contains. The autumn is
usually a difficult,' season in New York, owing to the
requirements of,the crops, which increase the demand for
currency and,tccommodation. The present season was not
exceptional/I'y difficult, an accidental circumstance, the
calling iWof some small denominations of currency, having:
even rel;:eved the banks a little, for the kind of currency
usuallvi run upon at this season did not exist, and the
banks were allowed to retain all they had for their New
Yc rk business ; but the difficulties were still such as to
incoduce a natural stringency, which speculators, as usual,
might artificially increase to produce a depression of secu-
rities. These facts would seem at first sight inconsistent
with an attempt to raise the price of gold, nor does it
appear how a rise in gold could react so as also to depress
securities and increase the demand for ordinary money.
As a commodity, it might be thought the price of gold
would tend to fall with other commodities when ordinary
money was dear. But gold not being a commodity merely,
but money for certain purposes, the effect is different.
The two demands for money—for ordinary money, and for
gold for special purposes—in short, aggravate each other.
Realisations are made to obtain both or either ; the depres-
sion of securities causes loans to be called in; and a panic
in the one money, when there is naturally a strong demand
for both, produces or aggravates a panic in the other. This
was the case in the present instance, and it was the cause
of the intensity of the panic. No doubt when the panic
was over, the rally was naturally as sudden, and there were
few bad after effects. A week after, on October 2, the
prices of stocks had almost wholly recovered, owing to
buying orders " from the country," and merchants
were congratulating themselves on an easier fall trade
through the temporary ruin of the conspirators. But a
great danger had still been run, and one to which it is
most unwise to expose commerce artificially. This last is
the lesson which the eventsought to have for the Americans.
They have got over this panic, and apparently fancy that
because some speculators arc hit they will not soon be at
their old tricks—that they will remember the lesson they
have got even when they are in a position to resumc:
their
tricks ; but we can ha:.dly understand how American mer-
chants and bankers should ever be free from apprehension.
The speculators have mainly been taught not to go too
far—that their greatest danger is that of overdoing the
thing—making too terrible a use of the powerful agencies
at their command. What is to prevent a succession of
more moderate combinations at almost any moment? The
Secretary to the Treasury could not be depended upon to
modify at least ordinary speculation, his late interference
though the occasion was so exceptional being far from
having met with unanimous approval ; and there are cir-
cumstances conceivable when his power of modifying would
be less. If the Treasury had happened to be so empty that
the Secretary was even desirous to fill it instead of having
a surplus to sell, the speculators would have had it all their
own way. This is not now very likely when gold accumu-
lates so fast for the reduction of the debt, but it is far
from impossible. But if there is little danger of a great
crash, the proved danger and mischief of smaller cembina-
Cons should make Americans most anxious to get rid of
Oeir inconvertible paper.