The Sun.
London, England, 1868-10-30 00:00:00

EIELBIT OP, THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

Ole Time., comments upon the moderation and concilia-
tory. disposition of the late Primate, but says that it is not
the fashion of the age to admire exclusively that which is
nnpretontions. The position of the Church of England,
as a whole, is immobility, with a great amount of indi-
vidual restlessness, impatience, and eccentricity. The
life that should be one is many, various, and self-
conflicting. It seems but a silken thread or an unseen
spell. that holds it all together, but the thread once
parted, or the spell once broken, nothing remains of
one pf the grandest and most potent religious unities
in the civilised world. Of natural and spontaneous
adhesima there seems to be none. The parts once dis-
severed cannot be reunited. When such is the condition
of the Church of England, it cannot enter the conflict on
equal terms with antagonists each thoroughly united, each
with the momentum of an aggressive advance, and each
with nothing to lose and everything to gain. In such a
ease the Establishment must exist upon sufferance. The
Times draws attention to the late difficulties and move-
ments in the Church, and the result of them. A few years
ago it was open to doubt, or, at least, was largely doubted,
whether the Church could not in her own institutions and
by her own peculiar agencies do a great deal long claimed
exclusively by the Church of Rome —at least in
Western Christendom. It was thought the Church of
England might interpret her articles and formularies, and
impose her own interpretation, in the face of any purely
lay interpretation or decision to the contrary. It was
thought the Church of England might make new articles
of faith or communion, upon the basis of some interpre-
tation or some received opinion, and might proceed
upon those articles to exercise discipline over her mem-
bers, to the extent of deprivation, and even excommuni-
cation. It was thought the Church of England might
interpret rubrics, neglect Acts of Parliament, and set at
naught such acts of royal prerogative as the customary
orders of Privy Council, if there seemed to be wanting
'something worthy to be called an ecclesiastical authority.
It was thought that the Church of England might exer-
else a universal authority all over the world, establish and
enforce spiritual jurisdiction in the face of colonial or other
local constitutions, maintain an efficient spiritual unity
with bishops and churches out of British jurisdiction and
beyond the reach of our courts of law, and, in fact,
make decisions and decrees which should run through-
out the world. This dream has received a severe
check, and the late Primate has done his part to
bring about the salutary lesson of the Church's weakness.
There is other work to he done, and the world is not yet
ripe for the scandalous spectacle of Pope and Anti-Pope
launching anathemas against one another. The Pope has
had something to bear lately, and his cup of humiliation
is not yet full. The Patriarchs of the English Church con-
not complain if they share the dangers and disagreeables
of the See with which they betray a certain rivalry. Their
way to peace and quiet is easy enough ; it is to avoid,
rather than follow, the example of Rome.

The Post thinks the Church could have suffered no
greater loss than in the death of the Archbishop. The
times of conflict and agitation have arrived, and ecclesias-
tical institutions are upon their trial. The line that parts
the human from the divine, the natural from the super-
natural, is being drawn with increasing sharpness, and
hence all that in any way stand upon that distinc-
tion—holy orders, sacraments, dogma, Church autho-
rity—are necessarily involved in a like exhaustive
scrutiny. To this add the changes that have
begun to spring up in public opinion on the rela-
tions between Church and State, on the sacredness
of ecclesiastical property, the limits of the royal
supremacy, and the principles of public education : go
further, and include in the survey the opposite schools
that have arisen within the Church itself. The old distinc-
tion between orthodox and evangelical exists no longer.
The High Church party has resolved itself into two sections,
Whereof one claims the title of moderate, and the other
does not hesitate to own itself extreme. The Evan-
gelicals are similarly broken up. That admirable type,
of which Venn and Cecil, and old Bishop Wilson
were the exponents, is utterly gone. A bitter, cynical
ultra-Protestantism has taken its place, and we look in
vain amongst Low Churchmen for such preachers of truth
and charity as once adorned the then only active party in
the Church. It would be simply impossible to pick out
half a dozen scholars amongst them all. The rest are
divided into groups, and with little learning and less
influence are a dead weight to the Church.

The Standard says that in the appointment of a suc-
cessor to the Primate, Mr. Disraeli's task will be one of
no ordinary difficulty. The high character, the adminis-
trative abilities, and varied excellence of the late Primate
make it all the more arduous a task to find a worthy suc-
cessor. The times are past and gone when mere political
fidelity or bare intellectual attainments were sufficing
qualifications for a mitre. Something higher than family
interest or the editing of a Greek play are looked for in
those who aspire to the episcopate nowadays. Such appoint-
ments as those of Lord Russell, and not a few of Lord
Palmerston's, are impossible under present circumstances.
The disposition of the Crown patronage is a trust to be
discharged with a sole eye to the welfare of the Church.
The candidate for a position such as that vacated by the
death of Dr. Longley must be a man of conspicuous learn-
ing and piety, 'of high administrative capacity, of well-
balanced mind, and of large and catholic instincts.
He must possess firmness of character and impartiality
of judgment. He must be able to rule, and yet be capable
of winning rather than extorting obedience. He must
have the nerve and the courage to be inflexible at times,
and yet he must never assume the bearing of a tyrant.
Above all, he must not be a party man. The Premier's
choice will doubtless be a good one.

According to the Telegraph,a solemn and befitting question
now arises respecting the personage best qualified to wear
the chief mitre of the English Church. Mr. Disraeli's
recent addresses and policy give reason to hope that he
fully appreciates the social and religious importance of the
Established Church. The Premier who would subsidise
the Irish branch of it against reason, right, and the
peace of the United Kingdom, can need no invitation to be
careful in dealing with its real interests in England. If he
will risk his Cabinet for the church of the sister island
we can hardly doubt that he will forego party and
put aside partisans for the sacred sake of the English
Establishment. On the other hand, the manufacture of
Archbishops is a rare luxury for the most vetran Premier ;
and it must be so new and seducing an occupation for the
present First Minister, that he cannot be surprised if
anxious well-wishers of the national Church point out how
great an occasion is now afforded for doing something better
than " a friendly turn," or performing a piece of Patronage-
Office " pitchforking." It is to the interest of all parties
in the State, and of all religious opinions, that an era-
phaticrdly good and worthy man should be chosen to follow
Dr. Longley in the Primacy. The Telegraph recommends
the Bishop of London to the attention of the Premier.
The nomination of such a Prelate would satisfy the
public more than that of any other, because the work
which he has done for London is such as all recognise to
be holy and pious. Mr. Disraeli might himself look back
to such a use of his position with pride, in days when he
will marvel to find how well the Irish Church gets on
without an unjust subsidy ; and, in the appointment to
the vacated see of the metropolis, he would still have the
occasion to display his unfettered discretion, and to illus-
trate his zeal for the reformed faith.

The herald is very bitter with the Rev. Mr. Rogers for
his defection from the Tories. It can hardly be a matter
of indifference to find himself universally looked upon in
the light of a deserter ; and the reproaches of Churchmen
can Scarcely be more painful than the ostentatious cor-
diality which marks the Liberal reception of a recruit still
clad in the enemy's uniform. He must wish, sometimes,
that his political convictions did not accord so closely with
his personal interests ; that popularity and party favour
did not go closely follow on obedience to conscience
as to obscure the motive and conceal the merit; that
he had some chance, however small, of proving his
sincerity by sharing in the sacrifice he recommends to
others ; that, in short, he could find some means, however
costly, of distinguishing his own course of heroic self-devo-
tion from that simple baseness and vulgar treason to which
in all external circumstances it bears so awkward, but so
exact, a resemblance. But the thing cannot be. The very
grandeur of such an act as Mr. Rogers's lies in that sacrifice
of fair fame and wordly honour from which men shrink,
who are willing to sacrifice fortune, and prospects, and
power; and the whole merit of the self-immolation would
be destroyed if the victim were able to retrieve the chi-
racter which he has sacrified to principle.

The Daily Yews alludes to a report which has reached
it that a self-constituted working-man's candidate is
sending out appal on all sides, to Liberal members of
Parliammt a:ld others to whom he i 3 not personally
known, asking for sqbsci.iptions to enable him to main-
tain the position he has assumed. From what we
know of tiv of the working classes of

,j)rAitl

this cotntry, wo feel c,:tr:nced that they would not
countenance snch a precccdint:',' 1111(.1 that they are
wholly unaW:-.re of what the:r candidate is doing.
A member of Parliament ought to owe his scat to
the constituency he represents, and in nowise to
those with whom he is to sit, and whom it may be his
duty sometimes to oppose. The first requisite of a repre-
sentative is independence of character, which by no means
Involves the possession:of wealth , but which certainly cannot
coexist with the mendicant spirit of a begging-letter
writer. As the person to whom we refer is opposing two
good Liberals who were previously in the field, knowing
that it has in recent times been held by a Tory, we would
suggest to the local Liberal party to expose his Practices if
':at they aro poral.lted

ib 13 tot