The Sun.
London, England, 1868-07-29 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVEN

711 E " CHURCH TIMES" ON SECESSION.

The Church Times, in an article on " Church
and State," says " that there are only two pos-
sible theories of Church and State in a country
where the Church is many centuries older than
the State. Either the State must accept the
Church as its ruler in all definitely spiiitual
questions, as the body has to obey the soul,
and must do what it can to further the prose-
lytism of its theological guide, or, if it abandon
this view, as England has done now, it must
resign all claim to exercise any power over one
religious denomination which it does not exer-
cise over another. The " omnipotence " of
Parliament is much exaggerated. It may pass
any number of laws, of the most foolish and
arbitrary kind, but it cannot enforce them.
Force was tried in vain on Scotland in Charles
ll.'s days, and in our own time in the matter
of Crown patronage. Three hundred years
of penal laws did not Protestantize Ireland.
It must be remembered, that all Establishment
means now is that thirty clergymen sit in the
Upper House of Parliament, that a fraction of
Church property which the State did not give
has not yet been forcibly confiscated, and that
clergymen who are disloyal to every rule of
social or religious honour are kept by the
lawyers from the expulsion they merit, and
would suffer as officers, barristers, or physi-
cians. There can be no true union of Church
and State save where the latter, waiving all
attempt to regulate doctrine or worship, inde-
pendently of the orders of the former, is con-
tent to sit at the feet of her mistress to learn
the secrets of wisdom from her. Any other
view may lead to the overthrow of either
Church or State, as the case may be, for a State
without Christianity must sooner or later be a.
prey to anarchy, and a Church without free-
dom must sink to the level of those unhappy
nursery governesses whose orders are never to
contradict, much less punish, little master or
miss, and to teach them only what and when
the ill-conditioned little tyrants please."
Is such a union, as the Church Times speaks
of, possible between the Anglican Church and
the State? Can we conceive the State of Eng-
land being " content to sit at the feet " of
such a body as the Anglican Church ? In fact
the positions are reversed. The Royal Supre-
macy proclaims the servitude of the Anglican
Church, and its only likely escape from such
a thraldom is disestablishment. This is the
end which sincere and clear-sighted Ritualists
must devoutly wish for. If what the Church
Times maintains to be the only true theory in
the relations between the Church and State is
repudiated with scorn by the people and by
Parliament, are the Ritualists prepared, sooner
than sacrifice essential independence in spiri-
tual matters and such dogmatic truths as they
are now legally entitled to profess, to secede
from the Establishment ? We think they are,
or soon will be. The increasing boldness and
outspokenness both on the side of Rationalism
and of the Ritualists, the public discussion of
questions touching the very foundation of
Christianity, cannot but lead to a disruption
of an Establishment, whose characteristic
strength has been in its capacity of holding
together believers in what really amounts to
a variety of creeds. But even for the elastic
faith of the Anglican Establishment, the ten-
sion is now becoming too severe. Perhaps the
Bishop of Oxford way possess the gift of elas-
ticity to such a degree as to enable him to
lengthen out in his own person this wonderful
capacity to a still greater extent than now
exists in the Church of England ; but the
Bishop of Oxford, as in so many other re-
spects, so in this, is, we believe, an exception
to the rule. At any rate, the Church Times is
prepared for the emergency. It says that the
" Catholic party" have nothing to gain by their
position within the Establishment, they will
not leave the Church of England, " because
they feel it their duty to remain by her in her
troubles, but to them " secession—if it were
only lawful—would be the greatest possible
gain."
It seems to us that it would not only be a
gain, but that it is a duty for the Ritualists,
without waiting to be ejected, to leave a Church
which denies by its living and ruling authori-
ties, and by common consent, dogmas which
th 6 Ritualists hold to be of divine faith. Seces-
sion,, then, is not merely a gain, but a duty,
and a duty of the highest character and of the
most immediate necessity. To threaten seces-
sion as a means of obtaining such latitude in
the Church as would tolerate the presence alike
of infidelity and of Catholic dogmas is merely
an attempt to prolong an evil existence, which
would too certainly end in obliterating from
the minds of the people all sense of dogmatic
truth. But if, as we believe, the Ritualists
are in earnest not to submit to the " fresh
legislation " which the Bishop of London and
the Times invoke for the effectual suppression
of the obnoxious belief and practices of Ritual-
ism, then the result is not difficult to foresee.
Men who make sacrifices, and remove in obe-
dience to a sense of duty obstacles from their
path, will not long remain in error. " More-
over," as the Church Times says, whether by
way of threat or in earnest, is not very clear,
" a body like the Anglo-Catholics, who are
sighing for reunion, would not long remain
in isolation ; and if they effected a fusion with
Rome, the result would be to make the Roman
Catholics the most numerous and powerful
religious party in the United Kingdom." The
fusion with Rome would, in reality, we take
it, but be the submission, one by one—or in
numbers, not as a body—of these seekers after
truth and unity, to the infallible teaching and
visible unity of the Catholic Church.—West-
vvinster Gazette.

STATE-OMNIPOTENCE.

In a thoughtful article on the law of mar-
riage, which we reprint in another column; the
Pall _Mall
j Gazette discusses the question—
which it justly calls the greatest question of
the day—of the relations between the Church
and the State. Everywhere, it says, the
Church and State are separating and confront-
ing each otherin an attitude which is, and
must be, essentially hostile, since they embody
diametrically different views of life, and claim
the loyalty of mankind upon different and in-
consistent principles.
The Pall Mall Gazette has long discarded
the impossible theory that the State, separated
from the Church, should concern itself only
with material Government, and regard moral
ideas as entirely out of its sphere. But the
mind of man is too important an empire for
the State to leave uncontrolled, or committed
to the guidance of a rival power like the
Church. Hence it follows, on the theory of
the Pall Mall Gazette, though not enunciated
in the particular article we are alluding to,
that, on the separation of Church and State,
the State must occupy the ground of the
Church as well as its own. It must subjugate
men's minds, and take their moral or spiritual
welfare under its own charge. To neglect
such an opportunity of governing and direct-
ing the growth or course of ideas would be, on
this theory, for the State to neglect a primary
duty. To be carefal aboutthe construction of
roads, or the building of harbours, and to over-
look the formation and guidance of moral
ideas, is to exchange a lofty work of almost
illimitable range for a local and circumscribed
task. That the Civil Power is called to this
nobler work of civilization we readily grant to
the Pall Mall Gazette, but that it must pro-
ceed in its appointed task under the direction
and with the co-operation of the Supernatural
Power is a fact still more certain. The theory
of the Pall Mall Gazette is bftsed upon the
omnipotence of the State, and, consequently,
when at every important turn in man's life,
the Church,. with her tribunals, her system of
laws, "independent of, and often conflicting
with the law of the land," confronts the State
intruding upon a province not its own, what
other result can be expected, than a conflict,
which will end, as the Pall Mall Gazette
observes, " either in subjugating the State to.
the Church, or in breaking up and destroying

the power of the clergy over men's minds, and
reducing all Churches to the position of philo-
sophical schools ?"
The triumph of State-omnipotence would
inevitably lead the world back to the position
it was in when Christianity first broke the
power of the Pagan State and emancipated the
minds of men from almost intolerable thral-
dom. By likening the Churches to philoso-
phical schools, the Pall Mall Gazette completes
the picture. But the (Ecumenical Council
will prove to the Rationalistic admirers of
Pagan State-omnipotence that Christianity is
not a philosophical school, but a wide-spread
kingdom, with tribunals of its own, and vast
systems of laws affecting the spiritual and
moral interests of every baptized man at every
turn of his life, from the cradle to the grave ;
and finally, that the empire over men's minds
belongs not the State, with its limited know-
ledge and erroneous judgment, but to the
supernatural power of the infallible Church.—
Westminster Gazette.

THE RUSSIANS IN CENTRAL ASIA.

(From the Anglo-American 2 imes.)

The Fortnightly Review has a paper on Central
Asia and the Russian advance towards India, worthy
of careful reading. We differ from the writer's con-
clusions which point to an advance of the British
into Affghanistan, and there is nothing in his argu-
ment to change our views. We lately gave some
sketches of the country on the Indian side of the
Hindoo Kooch, which carries its barrier of snowy
ranges around the frontier, leaving the only passage
for an army into India through the Khyber Pass.
Mr. Griffin puts the distance from Attock to Herat
at 750 miles, and from Herat it is less than 500
miles by road to Samarcand. The Russian advance
towards Bokhara will shorten the way to Herat,
and if the Oxus becomes a Russian river, there are
points to which it is navigable distant from Cabul
only 440 miles by road, and about 640 from Pesha-
wur. The mountains which the British troops in
Peshawur see towering up to the north-east give
birth to the Indus, flowing to the sea on their side,
and the Jaxartes and the Oxus which flow to the
.sea of Aral on the Russian side. Granted the dis-
tances are great, the features of the country being
stupendous, still these ranges of the Ilindoo Kooch
alone separate the British frontier from the country
in which the Russians are now operating. Mr.
Griffin says—" Central Asia is a very indefinite
term, usually including Affghanistan, which bounds
India on the north-west, and the north-eastern
part of Persia which lies between Affghaufs-
tan and the Caspian. But these two dis-
tricts are the southern boundary of a wide
but clearly defined area, to which the name
is often restricted ; the western boundary
of that area being the Caspian Sea and the river
'Ural ; the eastern the lofty table land of the Bolar,
the mountains which bound to the west the Chinese
Turkestan and Dryungaria, and the river Irtisch ;
and the northern boundary of Western Siberia.
The northern half of this area consists of the
Kirghiz desert, mountainous and rugged on the
east, and full of saline steppes on the west ; in the
midst of the southern half lies the Sea of Aral, on
the western side of which stands a broad desert to
the Caspian, while to the eastern side is a fertile
oasis region, watered by the two great rivers, the
Jaxartes and the Oxus. It is this last oasis, the
furthest from Russia, the nearest to India, which is
the scene of the conquest which now makes some
noise. Before, the work of Russia was confined to
the desert between the Caspian and the Sea of Aral
and the mountains and steppes of the Kirghiz de-
sert, a progress of which little heed was taken, till,
in 1864, the south east corner of the fertile district
was entered. From it to the River -Ural and South-
ern Siberia the shortest routes were from one to
two thousand miles over a barren track, and unless
secure highways had been formed no army could
have been maiutained across it. The progress since
1864 is easily marked. In that year three for-
tresses or fortified towns belonging to Kokand
were carried by assault—Aoulietta, Turkestan,
and Chenkeud, and these with the country around
formed the first of the present series of annexations.
Their possession gave Russia the right hank of the
Jaxartes as high up as the town of Turkestan, and
from that point the frontier line to Lake Issyk-
koul, among the mountains bordering Chins, could
be easily traced by the fortresses. In the spring of
1865 a battle was fought in defence of the newly-
acquired district, ending in the defeat of the Kokan-
diens and the death of their chief, and in June fol-
lowing the important city of Tashkend, about 60
miles south of Chenkend, and still high .r up, was
stormed. So far the conquest had only been on
the right bank of the Jaxartes, and in the princi-
pality of Kokand, but the operations of 1866
brought Russia across the river. A great battle
was fought on the 20th May at Irdjar, close by the
left bank ; this time with the army of Bukhara,
and the victory gave the Russians various fortresses
tinewnof Khojand, which
the beginning of June.
ownast h
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db a nbky
anstdortmhe
Advancing South the Russians captured the strong
fort of Oratepe, on the road from Kokand into Bok-
hara, and a month or two later the equally strong
fortress of Juzak on the same road, but within 40
miles of Samarcand, which thenceforth became ex-
posed to attack. Another important engagement on
13th May by General Kaufmann under the walls of
Samarcand was followed next day by the surrender
of the town to the Russians." The late victory and
the capture of Samarcand merely repeat the
story of the British in India. The Russians
are impelled to conquest and annexation, whether it
be their desire or not, as it seems to be impossible
for .a civilized' power to establish itself in the neigh-
bourhood of one comparatively uncivilized, and
continue to maintain its boundery-.
Asiatic poten-
tates are more moved by impulse than policy, and
even were they not they cannot so control their
subjects as to prevent grave causes of luarrel. If
the civilized power submits to inroads and insults,
it will quickly fall into contempt, which would be
instantly followed by invasion. To judge from the
telegram of General Kryjanovski, Governor-Ge-
neral of Orenburgh, after the capture of Juzak, it
is clear he did not desire to recommence the conflict.
He said, "The war with Bokhara, as far as we are
concerned, is over, I hope for long, if only the Ameer
will not himself renew it." Judging, too, from
the storm of Juzak, the last of the King of Bokha-
ra's strongholds in the Valley of the Jaxartes,
which, though defended by the Ameer's best troops,
was taken by assault after five days' siege, and
nearly all its garrison captured or killed—it might
fairly be supposed that the Ameer would long wait
before he renewed the war, but we find the next
year both armies again in the field, and Samar-
cand captured. The total strength of the Rus-
sians in the Valley is said to be but 40,000
men ; the fleet on the Sea of Aral, and the Jaxartes,
numbers 4 steamers, 7 steam launches, 3 transports,
and 1 tug. The line of Russia is then across the
desert to the Sea of Aral, and up the Oxus, when
that river passes into her possession to a point
within 440 miles of Cabul, or 640 from Peshawur, a
position she may be said to have attained. We
grant the nearness, and might consider it a cause
of danger but for a weighty reason. Not only is
the oasis wherein Russia has established herself
separated by a mighty barrier from India, but it is
divided from Russia by barriers still more difficult.
She has there a handful of troops more isolated from
the mother country than the British are in India. If
Russia swayed a vast population in Turkestan, and
was connected with the Empire by rail, there would
be obvious danger, and some day, long distant,
this may be the case ; but the Muscovite has much
to do within his own proper boundaries before he
directs railroads of huodreds and hundreds of miles
through deserts. To give the sense of nearness the
reviewer, alluding to Cabul, Balkh, and Herat,
towns within the sphere of ancient and modern
Indian history, which Russia now touches, says, one
of them has been occupied by English troops, and ano-
ther has been the post of no little Indian diplomacy ;
an English regiment has also been within ten days'
march of the Oxus, now becoming a Russian stream,
having surmounted the most difficult part of the march
which lies between it and the Indus. The dangers
of invading Affghanistan are strangely underrated
by So acute a writer as Mr. Griffin, who notices the