The Sun.
London, England, 1861-03-13 00:00:00

At half-past eleven his Grace received the deputation.

Bishop TROWER stated he had been deputed to presem
the address of the clergy on the subject of the Essays and
Reviews to his Grace. The address contained upwards of
eight thousand signatures, being those of the clergy of all
shades of opinion. Out of that eight thousand gentlemen)
no doubt some better fitted than himself for the perform-
ance of the duty with which he had been entrusted
might have been found, but not one of the members
sympathised more than he did in the importance of
the subject. The essays and reviews, if their opera-
tion was not destroyed, were calculated to do away with
all authority in the things in which they had been in-
structed to believe. They were fully sensible of the im-
portance and worth of the declaration which had been made
by the bishops, and an expression of thankfulness to their
lordships for the steps they had taken would have been
concluded in their address had it not been proposed and
signed by many clergymen before the declaration by their
lordships appeared, and whilst they were deeply sensible
of the ;importance of the declaration to which he had re-
ferred, they had thought it desirable that the clergyman of
the Church of England throughout the length and breadth
of the land should also enter their protest against the doc-
trines promulgated by the Essayists.
Dr. M'CAULL then read the following address :
"To the Most Rev. Father in God, John Bird, Lord
Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of All England and
Metropolitan :—We, the undersigned clergy of the United
Church of England and Ireland, respectfully re-
quest your grave's attention to certain opinions
contained in a volume of Essaye and Reviews'
recently published, the tendency of which, as it appears
to us, is to annihilate the authority cf the Bible as the in-
spired word of God, to reject all miracles (not excepting
those of our Blessed Lord), as incapable of proof and re-
pugnant to reason, and, in one instance •t least, to under-
mine faith in God as the Creator. These opinions have
been promulgated, with one exception, by clergymen of our
Church, holding positions of great trust, and possessing op-
portunities favourable in no ordinary degree for the diffu-
sion of error. We therefore earnestly entreat your grace tb
take counsel with the other members of the episcopate, and
to devise such measures as may, with God's blessing banish
and drive away from our church all such erroneous and
strange doctrines. The opinions against which we protest
as being repugnant to the natural meaning of our formu-
laries, and inconsistent with the teaching of the Church of
England, are expressed in the accompanying extracts from
the Essays' to which we refer."

Dr. IRONS said it had been stated that they had intro-
duced the book to notice by the steps which they had
taken; but this was not so—for his own part he could say
that it had gone through three editions before he saw it,
and had, therefore, been widely circulated. They desired
not only to protest against the doctrine put forward, but
also to ask his Grace whether it was lawful for a clergy-
man of the Church of England to deny the atonement, to
state that there was no sufficient authentication of the
miracles of our Lord, and to declare that the prophecies in
the Old Testament was not fulfilled in the New. This had
been done, and the whole body of the clergy had thought it
desirable, whilst they believed that those errors would cor-
rect themselves, nevertheless to protest against them, and
to invite those in authority to take such steps in the matter
to remedy the evils which might result from the
publication of such views. It had been said by these per-
SOW; that they w plae6 *he, Church on a
firmer foundation ; but he desired no broader foun-
dation than the Holy Scriptures wherein to rest their
church. That was all sufficient, and nothing that
man could do would improve or strengthen that basis.
Something had been said of the charity they should dis-
play on this occasion, but whilst they pitied those 'who
had fallen into these gross errors, and hoped to see them
come to a sense of their error, they must recollect that
charity must first be extended to those in their charge
whom it was their duty to preserve as far as possible from
the injurious effects of such publications as these. They
came then to entreat his Grace to consider what was his
duty in the face of Christendom on this emergency,
whilst they did not undervalue the declaration of their lord-
ships on the literary efforts to correct these plain ordinances,
and whilst still less did they believe that the Church was
permanently endangered ; they entreated his Grace to con-
sider whether something could not be done at once, thought-
fully and prayerfully, it would be done, and might he add,
be worked energetically in this matter. Charity was broad
enough for those who entertained the views of Bishop An-
drews or Bishop Sanderson, but it is not broad enough for
those who denied the Holy Scriptures.
Archdeacon ATHERTON, whilst he deeply regretted the
unfortunate publication of these essays and reviews, trus-
ted that good might yet come out of evil. It would be
hoped by this means of bringing the clergy who had been
too much divided into unity, to protect the sacred
church. It was, nevertheless, very painful to have to
arraign as it were some of those connected with them, to
charge them with what he might almost stigmatise with a
stronger term than heresy. It was sufficiently lamentable
when those connected with the church were guilty of irre-
verence ; but it was worse, far worse, when they were found
denying its truths and expressing such opinions and views
as caused them to fear sending their children to the colleges
in which they might be induced to receive such erroneous
doctrines. The time had now arrived when it became abso-
lutely necessary that they should take steps to check these
evils. Some had objected to sign the address as they had not
read the whole of the work. He thought that a very insuffi-
cient reason, for it was not necessary to eat the whole joint
delays in those courts that if they once got into them they
never knew when they would get out again, and this diffi-
culty is increased on this occasion by the fact that the
book was the work of several persons instead of one indi-
vidual. It then proceeds in this way lo) had referred to,
the matter would be kept open, and for perhaps three or
four years, and an objectionable discussion would thus
be prolonged. For prudential reasons it might,
perhaps, be desirable to avoid the application to the Eccle-
siastical Court; but this, as well as every other part con-
nected with the case, would receive his and his brother
bishops' earnest consideration. He felt, he need not say,
more on the subject. He was greatly obliged to the depu-
tation for their company ; and, in the name of the Church,
he begged to thank them for the attention they had given
to this important subject.
His Grace having pronounced the benediction, the depu-
tation withdrew.