The Sun.
London, England, 1867-10-14 00:00:00

THE QUEEN'S BISHOPS' ENGLISH.

An old Greek historian remarks, that as his
countrymen advanced in civilization, they used a

plainer and commoner mode of dress. The same
holds good of the style in which men clothe their
words. Costume and parlance obey the same law

of progress; tall talk goes out with laced waist-
coats and periwigs ; and society becomes more and
more intolerant of stilted phrase and of extrava-
gant attire.

Nor is it marked peculiarity alone, or show, or
gaudiness in dress or expression, which revolts the
public feeling or provokes public laughter. A
separate department is reserved in English dislike
for any serious assumption of the antiquated:
Serious, we say; because when a manifestation
owns a festive, or purely historical, or semi-jocose
character, as Lord Mayor's show, guild processions,

Christmas mummings, then antiquarianism comes
in well enough. We dress up and we talk up,

when we enact theatricals. But when we have
washed the cork from our faces, and laid aside our
buskins and armour of tin-foil, we return to our
ordinary attire and phraseology ; the King Cam-
byses' vein of a moment ago becomes a weariness
and an impertinence.
Further ; inasmuch as among other modes of
speech now laid aside with antient dresses, the
style of the Protestant version of Scriptures, as a
manner of expression, has become an archaism in
this our day, to write or speak like it would seem
to partake of both these vice. It is a peculiarity
and a mannerism ; for not the most diligent stu-
dent of the sacred volume consciously casts his
expressions in its mould. It is a conscious assump-
tion of the antique ; for it would revive the dead
English of three centuries ago. It is one thing to
quote, another to imitate. We speak, throughout,
of imitation, not of quotation. We say that to
address a public manifesto in a laboured imitation
of Scriptural phrase is a process as artificial as for
a barrister to plead with Bacon's quaintness, because
Bacon was Lord High Chancellor ; or for a rector
to write his sermons in the style of George Her-
bert, because Herbert was a " country parson."
Such thoughts are forced upon us by that quaint
production, the pastoral letter of the Pan-Anglican
Synod. We do not here profess to criticise the
matter of the document ; but its manner is so
marvellous, that we must be permitted to pause
on it in wonder. What may have induced the
Protestant bishops to meet in this Pan-Anglican
assembly, and exhibit to the whole world the
maximum of impotence by securing the minimum
of discord, is best known to themselves. But why,
having met, they should adopt such a mode of
speech for their utterances, and pronounce the
oracles from their adytum, through the mouthpiece
of old Miles Coverdale, and the rest who wore spade
beards, is a further mystery. It seems to our minds
a solecism in literature, and a blunder in taste.
The Anglican bench enjoys opportunities of the
highest education of mind and tongue. It is
regarded as an ornament around the steps of the
throne, not unworthy, for dignity and culture, of
the country which gives those bishops their
baronies. We feel, then, a kind of national right
to expect a specimen of at least simple, gentlemanly
English from their collective voice. In place of
which, we are here presented with an epistle
stilted, pretentious, unreal, and pseudo-Scriptural,
to a most distasteful degree. It has the snuffle of

the " Pilgrim Fathers," and the
smaouoinhaienegouoisa:well-
known voice nearer home. There is, to use a
word of Lord Westbury's, a „p
glib-
ness about it, which aims at being impressive and
even Apostolic, but fails of being anything but
." but by no means vul-
gar." with sacred lan-
frorfrom
incurred,
e
bombastic merely, utterly. "Be thou familiar,"
we think, precisely
astute old premier of
sgaayrs. ,
,P o
al ollniisu sa
stsomn hise d sfoanm,
th
Elsinore. Sham
tghuaatgne
owteouolfdblhaamvee
is never the language of grace,
in any of that word's meanings; it is as ungracious,
as ungracelike, as it is ungraceful. And we feel
this circular letter to have about it the smack of a
most pretentious and unmitigated sham.
It would take too long to analyse the rationale
of this strange exhibition of (we must say) profane
bombast ; and it would draw us from the only point
of our remarks, from the manner to the matter of
the Pan-Anglican utterances. Yet the two have
indeed a close connection ; even as the tones of a
man's voice are, to true interpreters, the index of
his mind. Many for whose best welfare we are
anxious, will be almost as much disquieted by the
tone of all this, as by what is said in it, or left
unsaid. For lofty platitudes neither gain nor
inspire additional confidence for being hidden
under a mass of Scripture phrases misapplied. The
words are heaven-taught, but collocation and ap-
plication alike are human. The voice is Jacob's
voice ; but the hands are the hands of Esau. Some
rcumeAµOr 'awn some Joab, has been here at work.
The stones of the sanctuary arc built into a tot-
tering wall, daubed with untempered mortar. We
repeat, the very pomp of this assumption of
Apostolic language will lead " men of good will"
to investigate more closely the Pan-Anglican
claims. In a world of pretence and rhetoric, we
arc apt to grow suspicious in proportion as men
grow suddenly eloquent on points beside the
mark. We trust men who speak simply, and who
evidence their trust in the intrinsic force and
unvarnished comeliness of truth. This high
cothurnus, this wide-mouthed tragic mask, may
lend elevation to a fictitious drama, but adds
neither authority nor persuasiveness to a supposed
father's voice.— Westminster Gazette.

The Pall Mall Gazette says :—Mr. Seward's
efforts at following up the acquisition of Walrussia seem
to have been far from successful. His attempts to pur-
chase Samana in the Island of St. Domingo, or to obtain
British Columbia by treaty, having failed, he instructed
Mr. Bancroft, the now Minister to Berlin, to take Madrid
on his way to his now post for the purpose of purchasing
Cuba. Mr. Bancroft having met with a rebuff, Sonatcr
Doolittle was ordered to take Copenhagen in the circuit of
his European tour, and there offer a goodly sum for the
island of St. Thomas. But Senator Doolittle did little to-
ward that object, and the United States can for the present
only look anxiously to see if anything will turn up in the
direction of Mexico.
The United States ship Lackawanna has taken
possesion of Brooke's Island in the Pacific, which will be
used as a d*Spot for steamers on the China Line.
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