The Sun.
London, England, 1861-03-14 00:00:00

THE " ESSAY S AND REVIR WS."

PRESENTATION OF AN ADDRESS TO THE
ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY.

Th• following appeared in a portion of our impression of
yesterday evening :

His Grace the ArcLbishop of Canterbury having appointed
this morning 't receive the address on the subject of
" Essays and Reviews," a number of clergymen ..2L
waited on his Grace at Lambeth Palace shortly after 11
o'clock. Among those present we observed Bishop Trower,
Archdeacon Hone, Archdeacon Utterton, Dr. Ironp,
Dr. M'Caul, Rev. C. Kemble, Rev. J. M'Connell Hussey,
the Hon. and Rev. H. Legg, Rev. T. Jackson, Rev.
Armtek Thomas, Rev. E. Bayley, Rev. E. Auril, and Rev.
E. Bickersteth.

At half-past eleven his Grace received the deputation.
Bishop TROWER stated he had been deputed to present
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 beentund, 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 tlair
lordships for the steps they had taken would have been
included 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 clergymen 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'CAun 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 grace's attention to certain opinions
contained in a volume of Essays and Reviews'
recently published, the tendency of which, as it appears
to us, is to annihilate the authority of 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 at 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 to
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, aid 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 doctrines 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, anG to declare that the prophecies of
the Old Testament were 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 oor-
' reet 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-
sons that they desired. to place the Church on a
firmer foundation ; but he desired no broader foun-
dation than the Holy Scriptures whereon to rest their
church. That was all sufficient, and nothing that
man could do would improve or strengthen that basis.
Something hal 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 suck publications as these. They
came then to entreat his Grace to consider what was his
duty in the face of Christendom in this emergency;
whilst they did not undervalue the declaration of their lord-
ships or the literary efforts to correct these false doctrines,
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. Charity
was broad enough for those who entertained the views of

Bishop Andrews or l'ishop Sanderson, but it is not broad
enough for those who denied the Holy Scriptures.
Archdeacon UrrznzoN, whilst he deeply regretted the
unfortunate publication of these Essays and Reviews,
trusted that good might yet come out of evil. It would he
hoped be the 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
to test its quality; a slice out of it was sufficient. Although
they knew that the gates of hell would never open for the
destruction of the Church, still it was necessary to protect
their branch of the Church by repelling such attacks as
these. . .

The Archbishop of CANTERBURY said it was with great
pleasure that he received the deputation on this important
subject. Nothing had been said on this subject to-day of
which he did not fully approve. He could not be surprised
at the great sensation that these Essays had occasioned
amongst his brethren in the clergy; he could not be sur-
prised that they should have risen as one man in a body to
protest against the scandal which had been brought, he
might almost say, on themselves. Such opinions as those
put forth in the " Essays and Reviews," he agreed, were
calculated to undermine, if unanswered, the very founda-
tions of Christianity. The sentiments of his brother
bishops on the matter could not be doubted. They had
given a strong testimony to what those opinions were, and
he was quite sure the step taken by them would not have
been adopted but under a strong conviction of duty. Hav-
ing referred to a statement in the Saturday Review imput-
ing to his grace that he used the signatures of his brother
bishops in a way he was not entitled to do, and having
denied the accuracy of the statement, his grace proceeded
to observe that the only way of proceeding against the
Essayists was under the Church Discipline Act in the
Ecclesiastical Courts. This was always a difficult pro-
cess, and there were so many technicalities and
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. If they proceeded in the way ht had referred to,
the matter would be kept open 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 Courts ; 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 tho Church,
depu-
tation for their company ; and, in the name of the
hbeggiemdpteorttehnatnekubt
jheee.mt for the attention they had given
to this
Hisiel lh wGirtacdw.
Grace having pronounced the benediction, the depu-
tation

ATTEMPT TO UPSET A RAILWAY TRAIN.—A
dastardly attempt was made last evening to get a train
thrown off the line between Tring and Berkhampstead, on
the London and North-Western Railway, by placing an
iron rail across the metals. Providentially the cowardly
mischief was frustrated, by an accidental discovery made
by some platelayers returning from work, who removed the
rail only a few minutes before the arrival of the 7.15 p.m.
up train from Liverpool. The police are making every effort
to discover the perpetrator of the atrocious act.
THE WISBEACH MURDER.—Sinoe the committal
of the prisoner Augustus Hilton, who is charged with the
murder of his wife at Parsondrove, near Wisbeach, under
circumstances already reported, he has laboured under
violent excitement, and two turnkeys have remained con-
stantly with him in his call in Cambridge Gaol. Within
the last day or two, however, he has become more tranquil.
It is expected that the defence set up on his trial, which
will take place on Friday or Saturday, will be insanity.