The Sun.
London, England, 1868-02-06 00:00:00

THE BISHOP OF CAPETOWN.

The Bishop of Capetown has circulated, in print, the
correspondence which has taken place between himself
and the archbishops and bishops on the subject of the con-
secration of a new bishop for Natal. To the Bishop of
London, addressing him as " My dear lord," ho says—
" Your letter of Jan. 20 reached me a day after its first
appearance in the Times, with a leading article in support
of it." Having argued the question at great length, he
concludes as follows :

" I cannot close this letter without one word concerning
yourself personally. I must express my pain at the con
duct of one whose wry different lot has sheltered Lim from
the very severe trials to which the maintainers of the faith
in South Africa have for these last few years been exposed;
and from whom they might have expected brotherly sym-
pathy and support. 1. Because, while you have felt it
your duty to reiterate your disclaimers of sympathy with
the views of Dr. Colenso, you have, whenever the subject
has been in discussion, adopted the course and employed
the language which his most skilful advocate would
have used, and that often with a vehemence of expression
which seemed to betray an eager partisan. 2. Because it
is impossible for me not to note the marked difference of
your whole conduct and language towards myself, who
under circumstances of the greatest difficulty, have been
simply endeavouring to discharge conscientiously my
bounden duty, often at the cost of much suffering and
loss."

In reply to the Archbishop of York he says :

" You have interposed in a matter which did not cot
tern your jurisdiction, and that not without, as it seems
to me, unseemly insinuations. You insinuate, first, that
the South African bishops contemplated an invasion of
your province. What ground, I must ask, have you for
such an imputation ? You insinuate that we were acting
upon a policy of concealment. What ground, I ask again,
have you for this imputation ? We have never contem-
plated acting in any province without the full consent of
its metropolitan, and have concealed nothing on which we
had resolved, and from the first have opened freely our
whole case to thb Church at home. Being in full commu-
nication with the Archbishop of Canterbury, I know of
no reason why I should have made any special communi-
cation to the Archbishop of York."

He then proceeds to reply to the several points raised in
his Grace's letter seriatim. The following are the principal
portions of the Bishop of Capetown's final letter to the
Archbishop of Canterbury :--
" I submit my proceedings as to the consecration of an
3rthodox Bishop of Natal at this time, whether in England
or Scotland, to your grace's judgment, feeling that I ought
not in this country to act without the hearty consent and
support of the Primate of All England. So long as your
Grace had no objection to offer to our consecrating within
your province or diocese, or in Scotland, I was prepared
to proceed, without hesitation, to the consecration. But
as your Grace, upon fuller information, deems it to be
the course of Christian wisdom to postpone the act, I ac-
quiesce. Your Grace, I am fully persuaded, feels thegravity
of the present crisis. The opposition of those bishops to
whose objections your Grace has thought it right to yield
seems to me to remove the responsibility of delaying this
consecration from the South African to the Home Episco-
pate. Upon the course which the bishops of the mother
Church shall now take must depend the unity of the
Church:of England herself and her own standing in Christ's
kingdoin. It is that Church which is now really on its
trial at the bar of Christendom. Her greatest synod has
declared that Dr. Colenso's teaching contains ' errors or
the greatest and most dangerous character, subversive o
faith in the Bible as the Word of God.' At her call, and
by the urgent counsel of her whole episcopate assembled
in Westminster five years ago, he has for these errors
been tried and deposed by the bishops of South Africa,
and separated from the communion of the whole Church.
I do not myself understand what further action is con-
templated by those bishops, who, your Grace informs me,
have counselled this delay, since the Convocation of Canter-
bury has already, in delivering its judgment on this matter,
ruled ' that the acceptance of a new bishop by the Church
in Natal would not involve any loss of communion between
it and the mother Church,'. ' would not impair the con-
nection, or alter the relations existing between the mem-
bers of the Church in the province of Natal and the
Church of England, provided the bishop be canonicaliy
consecrated,' and certain other conditions observed. It
was upon this judgment of Convocation that the South
African Church has acted, The conditions have been ful-
filled, the bishop chosen and presented to your Grace' as
desired, and accepted by you. The bishophas been before.
hand recognised by the Church of England's highest synod.
He has been recognised in spirit, if not in express words,
by the great Anglican Conference lately assembled in your
Grace's palace at Lambeth. I shall wait with trembling
in common with tens of thousands of its most devoted
members, for some synodal decision which may rescue the
Church of England from the false position in which some
of its bishops have placed it. Should no further action
be taken, it would, I fear, leave the Church of England
burdened with the alliance of heresy, by the et durance of
the deposed heretic as a bishop in communion with itself.
Whatever the decision of the bishops of the Church of
England may be, the duty of the Church in South Africa is
clear. It is bound, if it can, to provide a faithful pastor
for the souls of the people entrusted to-its care, and, God
helping, I trust on my return to my pi ovince, with the
aid of my co-provincials to be able to consecrate there.
We hold that the maintenance of the faith is the first and
highest duty of every Church ; that that duty must be pre.
ferred before any other consideration, and that nothing can
release us from the obligation to discharge that duty at the
Present crisis."

FIRE IN THE BOROUGH.--At about half-put one
o'clock this morning a fire broke out in Union-street, and
spread so rapidly as to endanger several private houses.
It seemed likely that the houses would be entirely de-
stroyed.