The Sun.
London, England, 1867-10-07 00:00:00

MATCII•

Pericles
Pantaloon

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Courtmantle
Queen of Beauty

PROGRAMME OF THE LIBERAL PARTY.

Mr. Baxter, M.P. for the Montrose district of
Burghs, addressed his constituents on Thursday
night in the Public Hall, Arbroath. In the course
of his speech the hon. gentleman gave a sketch of
the programme likely, in his estimation, to be
adopted by the Liberal party during the coming
session. Ile referred to the fact that he had con-
stantly upheld the necessity of admitting the working
men of this country to a share of political power.
Ile rejoiced so much at the passing of the Reform
measure that he was content to let the means
adopted to bring it about sink into oblivion.
He did not, however, question for a moment
the sincerity of the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer in promoting a great enfranchisement
of the people. He was much deceived if there
was a greater Radical in the House of Commons
than Mr. Disraeli. He was persuaded that that
right hon. gentleman believes that he had done a
great and good thing for the country. He hoped
the rumour was true that Government was about
to grapple with the question of the Irish Church in
a manner that will give the liveliest satisfaction to
all Reformers. He (Mr. Baxter) advocated the
disestablishment of the Irish Church and the ap-
propriation of its revenues to secular purposes ;
he condemned the proposal to endow the Roman
Catholic priesthood out of its revenues. It
might, however, be possible, though not wise,
to delay doing justice to Ireland, but we could
not without absolute danger refuse to provide,
and that immediately, for the education of
England. The various sects had attempted to
educate the masses, and they had signally failed ;
his trust was that the very first act of a reformed
Parliament will be to sweep away the existing edu-
cational department altogether, and begin the work
ab initio, on the basis that secular education should
be provided for every child in the country by the
localities, who should be compelled to tax them-
selves for this purpose, and who should manage their
own schools. There were many who thought that edu-
cation, in order to be rendered universal in this coun-
try, must be made compulsory on parents. Before
endorsing that opinion he should like to try the effect
of compelling ratepayers to erect schools, to be
managed and supported by themselves. It was
high time that Oxford and Cambridge should be
opened up to all classes of her Majesty's subjects,
without distinction either of creed or social rank.
The laws of entail or primogeniture are relics of the
middle ages, which we must get rid of very soon,
and he looked upon the continued aggregation of
vast properties in the hands of one man as a most
serious evil. Such, in his humble opinion, was the
programme likely to be adopted by the Liberal party;
and who was to be the leader? As to who ought to be
there was little doubt. In point both of intellect and
oratorical power Mr. Gladstone was head and
shoulders above every one on our side except Mr.
Bright; but there should beno misunderstanding, and
he hoped that thcse who took the same view of
future policy as had then been indicated would
make it clear to the right hon. gentleman that those
were their terms ; that no temporising measures
would do ; and that if be intended to lead on the
party to Liberal victories he must throw himself
heart and soul into the cause, cut himself loose
from all ecclesiastical trammels, and regard the
Oxford of his youth as a mere house of bondage.
Mr. Baxter also expressed his belief that we shall
be driven to adopt the ballot, not so much as a
means of preventing bribery and intimidation, but
in order to facilitate the process of voting.
Tories as well as Liberals entertained this view.
He disapproved of the proposal to increase
the number of members in the House in order to
provide for the necessary additional representation
of Scotland. To gain the needed seats the second
member should be taken from every borough in the
United Kingdom having less than 12,000 inhabi-
tants at present returning two members to Parlia-
ment. He was, he confessed, notwithstanding his
former declarations to the contrary, gradually in-
clining to the adoption of the American system of
equal electoral districts.
Mr. GRANT DUFF, M.P., also addressed his con-
stituents at Elgin on Thursday. After alluding to
the figure made by Mr. Disraeli and the Conser-
vative party during last session, to Mr. Glad-
stone's leadership, and generally to the political
history of the session, he made a 'Articular
reference to trades unions. He observed that these
so3ieties should be amply protected by law, so far
as their objects, even when economically unwise,
were not morally wrong, but severely punished
when they interfered with that liberty in others
which they looked for themselves. As to educa-
tion he favoured a compulsory system, and ho
pointed out the need for amendment in our
secondary education. Reforms in our military
system, the codification of the English law, Mr.
Locke King's bill dealing with the landed property
of intestates, and the ballot were among the other
topics of Mr. Grant Duff's speech.

THE PAN-ANGLICAN SYNOD.

If there be one subject which agitates to its
depths the religious mind in England, it is the
denial of the essential doctrine of Protestantism—
that the Bible is in all its parts and in all its
records the Word of God. Dr. Colenso has rudely
attacked this belief. Seventy-seven bishops of the
Protestant Church, speaking the English language
and reading the English Bible, have met in Synod
and have not ventured to condemn the doctrines of
Dr. Colenso, nor to vindicate the inspiration of the
Sacred Scriptures. Not to have come forward in
defence of the essential doctrines of Christianity,
not to have defined dogmas of faith which are
exposed to incessant attacks from the more edu-
cated portion of the nation, is a confession on the
part of the Pan-Anglican Synod of failure, is itself
a condemnation stronger than any which the in-
tellectual leaders of public opinion have already
pronounced on the Lambeth Conference. The
only points of doctrine which they touch upon ;
in a definite manner are the universal sovereignty
of the Holy See, and the place which Catholic
teaching assigns to the Mother of God in the Chris-
tian scheme. On these doctrines if on no other the
Protestant bishops can speak with a united voice,
and true to the origin of their creed they protest
once more, not against the Rationalism which is
making such ravages in the Church of England
and in the country, which is explaining away
creeds, dogmas, the very principle of faith itself,
but as of old against the Catholic Church. Seventy-
seven Protestant bishops can in these stirring and
dangerous times, do nothing more effective for the
preservation of Christianity than protest against
Rome. They have missed a great opportunity ;
there is still a deep innate reverence in the country
for at least certain of the great dogmas of revela-
tion ; and by defining in clear, intelligible, and
definite language truths now so openly attacked in
England, the Pan-Anglican Synod, bad its bishops
in reality been animated by one faith, might have
moved the heart of the nation and regained some
of the vast influence which the Anglican Church
has lost in England. Misgivings, which are so
generally felt as to the stability of the old beliefs
of the Christian world, an instinctive shrinking
in many minds at the coming of what is feared to
be a crisis in religious faith seem never to have
entered the minds of the Anglican bishops ; or, if
the knowledge of such misgiving has occupied
their attention, the only visible effect it appears to
have exerted is to paralyze their utterance. In the
midst of deep divisions which are dividing the
minds of men, for the Anglican Church to take no
Bile is to pronounce its own doom.
The assembly of 500 bishops in Rome was a
unanimous adhesion to the See of Peter, a declara-
tion of faith iu the infallibility of the Church, and
a public profession of concurrence in the reproba-
tion of the errors of the day condemned in the
Encyclical and Syllabus of Pope Pins IX. The
Catholic Church has taken up the cause of Divine
truth with a distinctness which is made the more
marked by the contrast it presents to the prevailing
indecision and doubt'.

The Pall Mull Gazette, always keenly alive to
theological difficulties, was not slow in detecting
the impotent conclusion of the Pan-Anglican
Synod. Considering, our able contemporary argued,
how very much there is to be said on every point

in the creed which educated Englishmen are not
unwilling to accept, if it be supported by fair
argument and intelligible explanation, and how,
much this reasonable and limited creed even
requires explanation, defence, and detailed ap-
plication to the present state of the world, con-
sidering all this, the conclusion arrived at by the
Synod appears to the Pall Mall Gazette, as it says,
" lamentable enough ; but it is something more, it
is ominous—and of what is it ominous ? Of nothing
less than the downfall and degradation of a body
which in its day has been—at least in its plan—
one of the most high-minded and magnificent
institutions in the world—the Church of England.
Neither institutions nor nations ever live up to their
ideal. It is not only possible but necessary to
pardon great shortcomings to all things human ;
but if we look at the general organization of the
Church of England and at the work which it still
might do if those who hold office in it were in
any moderate degree what they ought to be, it is
impossible not to feel, in all its force, that deep
mortification which falls upon those who see a good
cause to which they heartily wish success utterly
thrown away by the weakness of those who manage
it." While regretting its great shortcomings, the
Pall Mall Gazette sees in the Church of England
only a human institution—high-minded and mag-
nificent, indeed, but still only human. Indeed,
we are not surprised that the Pan-Anglican Synod
should have failed to impress upon the Pall Mall
Gazette the fact that the Church of England claims
to be a Divine institution—a branch of the Catho-
lic Church. If regarded as a mere human institu-
tion the Anglican Church and its Synod has failed
to see or to meet the spiritual darkness which is
overshadowing the national intellects what would
the Pall Mall Gazette say if it knew the Church of
England's claim to be considered a divine institu-
tion ? For ourselves, the commission on Ritualism
has left a far higher impression on our minds of
the aspirations of Anglicanism than the Pan-Angli-
can Synod.— Westminster Gazette.