The Sun.
London, England, 1861-12-06 00:00:00

THE SUN, FLONDoI.„

interest of political tranquillity, ' to sprinkle a
little dust.' But does he think it likely that they

will be induced to regard their own opinions with
indifference, and to sacrifice them, as things of
secondary value, on the altar of political conve-
nience ? What object can be held out to the mass
of men constituting these several parties, for the
sake of which they could consent to renounce what
they believe to be religious truth? Statesmen, in

spite of their knowledge of the world, or perhaps,
I should rather say, because of their knowledge of
the world, are apt to overlook or underrate the

force of the simple motives which actuate common
men. Yet these motives, and not any subtler con-
siderations, ultimately determine the course of the

world."

Professor SMITH gives the following graphic
picture of the division of his church :—" There is
now, besides the High Church party and the
Evangelicals, with their various subdivisions,
the third party of liberals or broad churchmen,

who are, at bottom, against all authoritative creeds,
and, by necessary consequence, against all esta-
blishments. This party is at present trying the
expedient, which the Romanizing party tried not
long ago, of straining the formularies by non-natural

interpretations: But before long, I apprehend,
they, like the ablest and most honest members of
the Romanising party, will find out to what con-
clusion their opinions really lead; and instead of
labouring ley curious interpretations and question-
able theories of compliance to make loopholes for
the less scrupulous, they will join in the nobler
effort to throw wide the portals of truth for all "
Of their temper towards each other he thus
writes :—" The cause of their mutual fury is to be
found in their unnatural union. They are like two

dogs coupled together against their will, wrenching
and tugging each other because they want to go
different ways. Cast off the coupling ; set them free
to go each which way he will, and they will go on

their different ways in peace• Nay, they will then
probably soon meet again in amity, if not in agree-
ment, which now, while they are yoked together
in a state of daily strife, becomes more hopeless

every day.'
The Professor does not, however, think the in-
ternal danger the only one. He thinks that the
nation having embraced the doctrine of protection
in regard to commerce, is prepared to embrace it in
regard to religion also, and to prefer the principles of

" For I

free trade in one as well as in the other.
am convinced," he says, " that the English nation
is now being urged by necessity, and is at the same
time mustering courage to advance towards that

perfect religious freedom which it has been so
industriously taught to dread as the extinction
of religion." And again—" It is true that

on this, as on some other:subjects, Englishmen
have been sedulously and too successfully trained
to believe that if they fairly embrace rea-
son, and discard what is irrational, they will fall
into some terrible and immeasurable abyss. But
in the case of free trade they have fathomed this
abyss; and perhaps they will now shrink less from
fathoming it in the case of free thought.
Another great danger, Mr. SMITE says, " is the
desertion of the Church by the higher order of
intellects. " But lot Lord STANLEY and other
ecclesiastical quietists mark this. Bishop after
bishop, clerical journal after clerical journal, com-
plaints with perfect truth, that men of intellect are
ceasing to present themselves as candidates for
orders. The reason is pretty obvious. It is not
that the spiritual profession has ceased to have
attractions for highly gifted and highly cultivated
minds, but that such minds, when combined with
sensitive consciences, refuse to bind themselves to a
mass of heterogenous Tudor dogmas, which, after
the discussions we have had on the subject, no
human being can believe to be even self-consistent,
much less to be absolute and final truth. The con-
sequence is a gradual deterioration in the intellect
1 of the clergy, the established guides and instructors
of the people, which cannot fail to produce a
`corresponding effect on those under their influence,
and to render their agency in the long run
injurious rather than beneficial to civilization.
I (need ;hardly say to what sources of power a
clergy, which has lost its claims to intellectual
allegiance, is usually driven to resort."
But surely a pretty pass indeed things must be

come to when, of the Right Rev. Fathers, an Oxford
professor can write thus :—" Who are your state
bishops ? Are they, or is it possible that
they should be, the honest, fearless leaders

of religious thought, the real spiritual flowers

of the nation? Are not such men more
likely to be prosecuted for heresy than to be
made Ibishops ? Is not the first qualification
of a state bishop caution, the twin sister of cunning?
And what effect upon the religious character do you
expeat from a system which makes caution and
cunning cardinal virtues, and fearless honesty a
disqualification, not to say a crime ?"
Lord STANLEY himself, though he thinks the
English Church, if it will but keep the peace with
itself, will last his time, suggests that the Irish and
Scotch establishments cannot last long. Of course
the professor thinks so too, but he adds, "When they
are gone, does Lord STANLEY think that the people
of England will consent to remain alone deprived
of religious freedom, in a perpetual state of intel-
lectual non-age, and hopeless wards of a beneficent
' state ?' What will our distinguished ally say to
the following—" Lord STANLEY points to the
revival of the French establishment after

its destruction at the Revolution as

a proof of the vitality of established
churches. The reply is simple. The revival of the
French establishment by BONAPARTE was not the
expression of a religious feeling such as religious
institutions must ultimately rest on in a country
like ours. It was the most perfect expression of
the political atheism of which the two BONA-
PARTES have been the worthy chiefs." The professsor
seems to think that all State establishments are
likely to receive a fatal shock from the fall of Papacy.
" This is not merely an English question. The
English establishment is a relic of that great Euro-
pean establishment of the Middle Ages of which
the Papacy was the centre and the life. The
Papacy now rests only on French bayonets, and we
know METTERNICH'S saying about bayonets as a
permanent support. If the fall of the Papacy
does not shake the whole system of establish-
ments in Europe, the sympathetic connection
between the derivative institutions and that from
which they are derived must have been more
completely cut off than is commonly the case.
Depend upon it, too, that as the end of the Pa-
pacy comes in view, the hope and the desire of
reunion are beginning to show themselves at widely
distant points of divided Christendom, If that
hope and that desire grow, they must sweep State
establishmentsr
boiudt of h d
j.ng,t
aesi r t
h path.eg For
t:Se
under
pt e taa
iens o-
ejection, any departure from the established dogma.
or approximation to the opinions of other churches
are standing organizations of hopeles sschism."
We make no comments. Our readers have now
had the opinions of three eminent public men, and
their sum is this:—" The Church in danger, there-
fore unite," says Mr. DISRAELI. "The English
Church is in no danger, but then she must not
quarrel, or she may be," says Lord STANLEY.
"The Church of England will quarrel implacably,