The Sun.
London, England, 1861-06-19 00:00:00

THE 29TH CANON.

Archdeacon ALLEN presented a gravamen to the effect
that, " it seems undesirable that the clergy should be sum-
moned to London without an understanding whether or
not the usual time will be allowed for discussion." The
Ven. Archdeacon said he presented this as his own indi-
vidual gravamen.
The PROLOCUTOR thought the President did everything
in his power to assist the deliberations of the Lower House.
They had made such large advances in the last few years,
and they had such a considerable extension allowed to them
in the time for sitting that he thought it might be undesir-
able to send up the gravamen.
Archdeacon ALLEN expressed his desire that it should be
carried up, and that course was taken accordingly.
"ESSAYS AND REVIEWS."—REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE.

The Yen. Archdeacon DENISON rose and said,—ln dis-
charge of my duty as chairman of the committee appointed
in the early part of this year, by direction of his Grace the
President and the Bishops of the Upper House, to examine
a book called " Essays and Reviews," I beg to read the
repo' t agreed to by the committee :
_

" The Committee of the Lower House of Convocation of
the province of Canterbury appointed by his Grace the Pre-
sident and their Lordships of the Upper House, to examine
a book entitled' Essays and Reviews,' and to report thereon
to the Lower House in order that the Lower House may
communicate to the Upper House whether there are suffi-
cient grounds for proceeding to a synodical judgment upon
the book,' report as follows :
" The book committed to our examination consists of seven
',Essays and Reviews,' sixof which were written by clergy-
men of the United Church of England and Ireland.
" We have carefully examined the book and we con-
sider the following to be its leading principles :
" 1. That the present advanced knowledge possessed by
the world in its ' manhood' is the standard whereby the
educated intellect of the individual man, governed and
guided by conscience, is to measure and determine the truth
of the Bible.
" 2. That where the Bible is assumed to be at Variance with
the conclusions of such educated intellect, the Bible must
be taken in such cases to have no divine authority, but to be
only human utterance.'
" 3. That the principles of interpretation of the Bible
hitherto universally received in the Christian Church are
untenable, and that new principles of interpretation must
now be substituted if the credit and authority of the Holy
Scriptures are to be maintained.
" We find that,
" 1. In many parts of the volume statements and doc-
trines of the Holy Scriptures are denied, called into ques-
tion, or disparaged ; for example :
" (a) "rhe Reality of Miracles,' including the idea of
Creation as presented to us in the Bible.
" (b) Predictive Prophecy,' especially predictions con-
cerning the Incarnation, person, and offices of our Lord.
" (c) ' The descent of all mankind from Adam.'
" (d) ' The Fall of Man and Original Sin.'
" (a) The Divine Command to sacrifice Isaac.'
" (f) 'The Incarnation of Our Lord.'
" (g) Salvation through the blood of Christ.'
" (h) 'The Personalty of the Holy Spirit.'
" (i) Special or Supernatural Inspiration.'
" (k) Historical facts of the Old Testament, including
some referred to by our blessed Lord himself.'
"2. It is urged that many passages of the Holy Scrip-
tures may be understood and explained on the principle of
ideology ;' by which is meant that the reader is at liberty
to accept the idea of characters and facts described in the
Holy Scriptures, instead of believing in the reality of those
characters and facts. _ _

" 3. It is maintained that the creeds of the Church, whe-
ther regarded as confessions of faith or as instruments for
the interpretation of Scripture,' may now be put aside as no
longer suitable to the present advanced intellectual condi-
tion of the world. _ . _

" 4. Liberty is claimed for the clergy and candidates for
holy orders to subscribe Articles of religion and to use for-
mularies in public worship without believing them according
to their plain and natural meaning.
"5. Attempts are made to separate Christian holiness of
life from Christian doctrine.
_ _ _

" We notice in many parts of the volume the absence of
that spirit of humility and reverence with which human
reason ought over to approach the study of Divine truth ;
we notice also a confusion of the dictates of the natural con.
science with Divine grace, and in some places a substitution
of those dictates for Divine grace.
" It appears to us that, while the professed intention of
the volume is the free handling in a becoming spirit' of
religious subjects, the general tendency and effect of the
volume is unduly to exalt the authority of human reason,
to lower the authority of Revelation in regard to things
Divine and spiritual, to unsettle faith, and to consign thg
reader to a hopeless scepticism.
" We have appended two schedules, A and B—Schedule
A containing the advertisement' To the Reader,' as pre-
fixed to all the editions of the book, and referred to in the
preceding paragraph of our report; Schedule B containing
passages denying, calling in question, or disparaging state-
ments and doctrines of the Holy Scriptures, with citations
from and references to those parts of the Holy Scriptures
and of the Formularies and Articles of the united Church
of England and Ireland to which such passages are con-
trariant.
" Signed on behalf of the Committee,
" GEORGE ANTHONY DENISON,
" Archdeacon of Taunton, Chairman."

(The schedules giving extracts from the seven " Essays"
occupy many closely printed pages, the Scripture refe-
rences and extracts from the formularies of the Church
being in parallel columns.
Atehdeacon DENISON said—l do not think it necessary
that I should road the schedules which we have appended,
and I beg to move that the report, ag printed, bo distri-
buted to all the members of the Lower house of this Con-
vocation.

The Rev. J. 11. RANDOLPH seconded the motion, which
was carried.
Archdeacon DENISON then said—l believe in a matter of
such importance as this I shall not be travelling out of my
province if I state to the house that which, perhaps, might
be taken without my assurance, that the committee have
bestowed the utmost pains and labour upon the matter sub-
mitted for their consideration, We have sat for 12 days in
committee, and we have been assembled something like 70
hours, to say nothing about a vast deal of labour done by
sub-committees and private hands ; and I wish this to go
forth to the public, that the public may be perfectly assured
that we have not dealt with a matter of this grave import-
ance lightly. I will say nothing of the pains bestowed on
the discharge of this duty by the committee, but will pro-
ceed at once to what appears to me the course which
naturally ensues. We have to call upon this house,
according to the terms of the reference, to come to a
conclusion upon this report. The committee was
appointed by the direction of the Upper House to
examine the book in order that the Lower House may com-
municate to the Upper House its opinion whether there are
sufficient grounds for proceeding to a synodical judgment
upon the book. We have, therefore, to come to a conclusion
upon the matter. In order to do so it is necessary that
some person should make a motion to the house upon the
subject, and I conceive that the person who was naturally
and legitimately the one to make the motion was he who,
by the circumstances of the case, had become chairman of
the committee. I shall therefore be prepared to give notice

of— such motion. On the other hand, the particular form in
which the matter now comes before the house is in some
measure novel. There are two points that wo have to deal
with—first, the coming to. some conclusion on the report;
and secondly, the giving a sufficient time for members who
now have the report placed in their hands for the first time
to consider the statements and grounds in that report. To
meet the first of these requirements I give notice that I shall
ask the assent of the house to the following resolution :
"That in the opinion of this house there are sufficient
the
grounds for proceeding to synodical judgment upon
beok entitled Essays and Reviews,' and that the above re-
solution be communicated to the Upper nollse, together
with a copy of the report of the committee.„
To meet the second point, that is a question of time, I have
now to ask the assent of the house to an address to his Grace
the President to declare the adjournment of this 133 AM with.

out entering upon any further business until to-morrow
morning. That is the exact substance of what I have to
lay before the house, and I will not take up your time or
trouble you at present with any comment upon the matter
which I have the honour to present to your notice.
The Rev. Sir 11. TnomrsoN, with great pain, rose to
give notice of the following amendment, when the notice o
Archdeacon Denison upon the report should come on forf

discussion :
"That the Prolocutor be requested to carry to the Upper
House a copy of the report, together with the following
mesage :—' That in obedience to the direction of his Grace,
the president, and the Bishops of the Upper House, a com-
mittee of the Lower House was appointed to examine the
book, entitled Essays and Reviews,' and to report thereon
to the Lower House, in order that the Lower House might
communicate to the Upper House its opinion whether there
was sufficient grounds for proceeding to a synodical judg-
ment on the book. The Lower House now send up to the
Upper House a copy of the report of that committee. The
Lower House are not prepared to recommend the passing of
a synodical judgment on the book, but they desire to assure
the Upper House that they will give their most respectful
attention to any communication which may be sent down to
them grounded upon the report."
- - '

To every point of the report he gave his most hearty con-
currence, and was quite satisfied that when the house came
to look into the schedules appended, they would find suffi •
cient ground for every statement they contained. 'With re-
gard to the conduct of the chairman of the committee, it
was impossible to speak in adequate terms of the feeling of
gratitude which every member of the committee must feel
towards him for the patience, perseverance, zeal, ability
and untiring industry which he had manifested throughout'
the inquiry, and which was beyond all praise ; but he (Sir
H. Thompson) regretted that he could not agree with the
Von. Archdeacon in the notice he had given.
Archdeacon HONEY gave notice that he should move,
when Archdeacon Denison's motion should be brought for-
ward, as an amendment, "That it is not expedient, under
any circumstances, to revive the power of synodical judg-
ment as regards authors or books."
Archdeacon ALLEN did not see the object of adjourning
the house. If they were not prepared to enter into the con-
sideration of the report of the Committee upon "Essays and
Reviews," there was no reason why they should not pro-
ceed with other business.
The PROLOCUTOR said the difficulty was this. They were
under instructions from the Upper House in reference to the
" Essays and Reviews," and such instructions, as a rule, had
precedene's of all ether business. But as the Archdeacon of
Taunton did not desire that the report of the committee
should be discussed at once, he did not know that that
should prevent other business being taken.
The Dean of ELY deprecated very much the condemna-
tion of a book by extracts, from which in other cases the
most lamentable results had followed. Casting his eye cur-
sorily over the report, he could at once see some conclusions
to which ho thought it would be most deplorable if they
committed themselves, and to which they would be com-
mitted if they adopted the report—conclusions which ap-
peared to him false and very unfair to form from the work.
He thought it would be consistent neither with propriety
nor the dignity of the house if, after having the report
placed in their hands that morning, they professed to be
prepared to enter at once upon its consideration.
Archdeacon DENISON said the extracts had only been
appended as indications, and not for the house to come to
any conclusions upon.
Dr. M'CAuL said there was not a member of the house
who was not prepared to discuss the merits or demerits of
the book at the present moment. It would be a very cul-
pable neglect on the part of any clergyman of the Church of
England not to have read the book.
Archdeacon MooRE believed that the book was dying
away day by day out of public estimation, and he thought
that everything they did to keep it under public notice was
mischievous.
Canon WonnswoßTH contended that on grounds of Chris-
tian charity the authors themselves should have an oppor-
tunity of defending themselves. Some of them no doubt
had come to the knowledge that their arguments were so-
phistical, and that their new light, so to speak, was only
ancient darkness.
Archdeacon DENISON then moved that the Upper House
should be informed of the presentation of the report, accom-
panied by a request that the Lower House should proceed
to its consideration.
Sir 11. THOMPSON seconded the motion, which was
agreed to, and the fact was represented to the Archbishop
and Bishops.
The house, after the transaction of some further business,
adjourned.

LAW LIV TELLIGEN CE.—Jane 18.

COURT OF PROBATE AND DIVORCE.

COMPTON V. COMPTON AND BARING.—MISS WYND-
HAM, THE CELEBRATED ACTRESS.
This was a suit instituted by William Henry
Compton, a clerk in the Emigration Office, for a dis-
solution of marriage on the ground of his wife's
adultery with the co respondent, who is a captain in
the Guards. The petitioner laid damages at £5,000,
and both the respondents pleaded, merely denying
the adultery.
Mr. Macaulay, Q.C., Dr. Spinks and Mr. Gadsden,
were counsel for the petitioner ; Mr. Hawkins, Q.C.,
and Mr. Mundel, for the respondent ; and Mr. J.
Lewis and Mr. Joyce for the co-respondent.
Mr. Macaulay stated the case for the petitioner.
He stated that his client was ahighly respectable per-
son, who in addition to his present situation had
been engaged at Mr. Gurney's as a shorthand WriCr,
and had supported himself in a creditable manner
for several years. The respondent was the daughter
of a gentleman named Turner, who had been a cap-
tain in the Royal Navy, and an artist of some cele-
brity. But the lady was better known by the name
she had assumed of Miss Wyndham, and had long
been a favourite with the public from the ability she
displayed as an actress. She had a sister also who
had appeared on the stage, and who, he was sorry to
say, had been in some degree instrumental in pro-
moting the intimacy between Mrs. Compton and
Captain Baring. The marriage was solemnised in
1843, and Mr. and Mrs. Compton lived together till
last year, when he discovered his wife's infidelity.
About the end of 1848, or the beginning of 1849, Mrs;
Compton became attached towards the stage, and she
obtained an engagement as a ballet. dancer at the
Italian Opera, but being possessed of considerable
theatrical ability, she shortly obtained a higher po-
sition, and was engaged as an actress at different
metropolitan theatres. By her professional exei tions
she accumulated money, and last year became lessee
of St. James's Theatre. At the end of the season
she was engaged at Liverpool, and there, as
well as in other places, it would be proved that
acts of adultery were committed between
her and Capt. Baring, Mr. Compton was in the
habit of bringing her home from the theatre, and
attended to her accounts, but in no way interfered
with the money she earned by her professional
abilities. As Mrs. Compton had considerable per.
sonal attractions it was not a matter of surprise she
drew towards her those persons who had an entree
behind the scenes, and about four years ago she
formed an intimacy with Capt. Baring, who possessed
that privilege. It was the practice of that gentleman
afterwards to visit at her house, ostensibly with the
view of seeing her sister, with whom he had been
previously acquainted, and who was residing with
her, and ultimately the connexion which led to these
proceedings was formed between him and Mrs.
Compton about three years ago. Mr. Compton had
no suspicion whatever of his wife's misconduct until
he accidentally discovered in her clothing a paper
with the words, " My dear Harry, will you kindly,"
and a direction to Capt. Baring, at the Travellers'
Club. A most painful scene ensued, and she left
her husband in September, since which time she
and Capt. Baring have lived as man and wife at his
residence, Victoria-road, Kensington. The learned
counsel concluded by stating that he did not impute
any breach of duty towards the petitioner, with
whom he was not acquainted, and to whom he
owed no obligations, and the object of his client
in damages was to protect himself, and not to in-
filet excessive pecuniary loss on Capt. Baring.
Mr. E. Garwood, managing clerk at Messrs.
Beacham's, solicitors, was the first witness called,
and stated that he and Mr. Compton had been fellow
clerks at a solicitor's in 1836. He lost sight of him
until 1843, when he called on him (witness) at the
office, where he was then employed, and told him
he was going to be married, and that he wished him
to give the bride away. He consented, and on the
21st of September, 1843, he attended at St. James's
Church, where he found Mr. Compton and two
young ladies, Mrs. Compton, and her sister, The
latter was older than Mrs. Compton, who was several
years younger than her husband. There were no
other persons present at the marriage. He had no
intimacy with the parties after the marriage.
Mr. Mark Lemon was next examined. He said
he was a dramatic author, and professionally ac-
quainted with Mr. and Mrs. Compton, and he after-
wards was a visitor at their house, where he supped
on two occasicalp. His acquaintance with them
commenced about five years ago, and he first met
Mr. Compton at the stage door of the theatre where
Mrs. Compton was then engaged. In his position
as dramatic writer be had been frequently behind
the scenes at the theatres where Mrs. Compton was
performing, and he saw her leave the theatre with
her husband on several occasions. Mrs. Compton's
conduct behind the scenes was quite correct, and he
never witnessed any impropriety on her part. lie
might have seen them about fifty times altogether ;
the last time was about nine months ago. Miss
Turner was living at their house in Piccadilly under
the protection of a gentleman. Mr. Compton was
very courteous and well-conducted towards his wife,
and he never saw anything disagreeable between
them. On one occasion, however, Mrs. Compton
told him that she had a disagreement with her
husband, who was a fortnight without speaking
domestic quarrel, and didto
her, and that she had left him. He supposed that
it was a merenotsuspect
there was anything more serious.
Caroline Marshall said that she was at Mr.
Compton's at 209, Piccadilly, for about seven years.
1 Captain Baring frequently called at the house, at

first she believed about five years ago, and he askei
for Miss Turner, who occupied the first floor. For
the last three years Mr. and Mrs. Compton occupied
different bed-rooms, and he used for days to remain
without speaking to her. She had heard Mrs.
Compton say, within the last three or four years,
that she did not like Mr. Compton. She used to take
notes from her to Mr. Baring. She first gave in-
formation of what she knew to Mr. Compton after
his wife left home. Mrs. Compton had some hand-
some jewellery, but she generally used her sister's.
She bad known Mr. Compton to be very sulky, and
on these occasions Mrs. Compton used to say, " Do
you think he has found anything out ?" (Laughter.)
Mary Kirby stated that she was in care of a
house, No. 1, St. George's-terrace, Herne Bay, and
she remembered in March, 1858, a gentleman
taking some apartments in the house, and she
found oat that it was Captain Baring. Two ladies
and a servant occupied the apartments, and there
was a room for Captain Baring to sleep in, but the
bed was not used, and was tumbled merely to give
it the appearance of having been slept in. The bed
in the room which was occupied by one of the ladies
(Mrs. Compton) appeared as if two persons had
been steeping in it. The parties came to the same
house again in the following September.
This evidence closed the petitioner's case.
Mr. Hawkins then addressed the jury, and said
that, though he could not deny the adultery, he
would be able to show such misconduct on the part
of the petitioner to his wife as would disentitle
him to any excessive damages. He called attention
to the extraordinary circumstances under which a.
marriage had been solemnised between a young
girl and a mnn much older than herself, without
the knowledge or consent of her family, he having
at the time no occupation, and having just been
insolvent. When they after wards got into diffi-
culties she went upon the stage, with her husband's
entire approval, and, instead of making her appear-
ance under her real name, assumed, by his desire,
the name of Miss Wyndham, so that no one knew
she had a husband whose duty it was to protect her.
After she was upon the stage what was his con-
duct? e allowed her to go to and from the theatre
alone, and for weeks together she was absent from
his house. When they were together he did nothing
whatever to make her home happy. He threw her
into the greatest peril into which a beautiful young
woman could be thrown in London. He saw her
wear expensive dresses and jewellery which could
never have been bought by a ballet-girl out of
her salary, and he never made the slightest
inquiry into her conduct, or took any step
whatever for her protection. The jury would
hear from her sister, Miss Turner, the whole his-
tory of their married life, asd it would be proved
that he had slighted her, and treated her with so
much neglect and unkindness that it was not sur-
prising that she had sought elsewhere the affection
which he denied her. Before 1854 she was living
very much under the protection of an officer in the
army, whose name it was needless to mention. That
gentleman made her frequent presents, and she was
in the constant habit of accompanying him to boat-
ing parties, to dinners at Richmond, and to other
amusements of a similar character. Mr. Compton
appeared to be utterly regardless of her character,.
or of the manner in which she spent time. Captain
Baring first made her acquaintance at a dinner
party at the Piazza Coffee-house, Covent-garden, in
company with the officer he had mentioned. He
had no idea that she was a married woman, having
met her in such an equivocal position, and after
the officer had gone to the Crimea, and the connec-
tion with him had been broken off, he made the
lady's acquaintance; they became attached to one
another, and it could not be denied that they were
now living together. But he contended that the
conduct of the petitioner himself had been the chief
cause of this result, and that under the circum-
stances he was only entitled to nominal damages.
The trial was then adjourned till Thursday
morning.

;ked.

COUNTRY MARKETS.

BRISTOL-JUNE 18.

At our market to-day there was a thin attendance, and
factors seemed unwilling to buy except at a reduction upon
last week's prices of is to 2s per qr on wheat, 6d on oats,
and 6d on barley.