The Sun.
London, England, 1845-09-02 00:00:00

soLiciTons,

and Ilanbury,Leamington and Warwick
W.O.r Messrs.H Pu
la,
ttit eEr ssoqn.
~
and
No.—,
ll) Whitehall,
London
YClnhei:r'les Stevens, Esq.,
Messrs. Clay and Swift, Liverpool.
In congratulating the skarehidders on the issue of the late contest
in Parliament, the Committee of Management beg to announce that
active meastr:es are be'ng adopted to forward the surveys and plans,
and prepare for the ensuing session. The success of the Oxford and
Rugby Railway has confirmed the Directors in the view they enter-
tained wlen they first brought to the notice of the public the merits
of a line direct front Birmingham to Oxford, and leaves little room
to doubt that Parliament will grant this Important continuation, thus
connewing the whole north of the kingdom and Birmingham with
the south-western districts.
It is intendel to make the most convenient stations for the various
towns on the line that circumstances will admit, connecting the line
at Birmingham with that of the Grand Junction Company. By this
means an uninterrupted transit will be effected from Birmingham
through Oxford to every part of the south and to London.
Looking to the very peculiar position of this line, the cheapness
of its construct on. and the great traffic that must inevitably flow to
it from its connecting and central situation, the Provisional Directors
have every confidence
that the undertaking will be one of more than
ordinary profit to the pri.prietors.
By order of the Board.
449, West Strand, Aug. 13, 1845,

THE SHOOTING SEASON.
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Adapted for &hooting' with pleasure!
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You get " ready made" or to " measure !"
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Isis " prices" require no allusion!
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The Sportsman his Wardrobe renews, Sir!
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Such Durable Garments to view, Sir'. !
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10,000 BLOUSES, front 3s. 6d. each !!!
L. I.IYAM, Tailoring and Outfitting Establishment, 36, Graeschurch-
. . _ _

utreet, London.
I.lsT OF PRICES.
ZESPOKE DEPARTMENT.
Triglionl or Chesterfield Coat f 0 15 6

Glenlyon or Waterford Riding ditto....
_ _ _

The Parisian Envelope ......

1 5 0

Albert NValking 1 10 0
Boys' and Youths' Taglionis and Chesterfields 0 12 0
Men's Dress Coats, any colour ..... ..... ................ 1 10 0
Ditto Surtouts, ditto .1 15 0
Ditto Doeskin Trousers, any pattern ...........• •••• • • • • 0 15
Ditto Black Dress Trousers
Ditto Fashionable Vests, in endless variety 0 7 0
IH,ADY•MADE I)EPARTMENT.
Taglionl or Chesterfletd Coats.... ..... ............. from £0 9 6
Oienlyox or Watet ford Biding ditto ...............0 12 0
The Parisian Envelope ...........
Albert Walking Coat ....................... ...... 1 0 0
Boys' and Youths' Taglionis or ..... 0 8 0
Men's Dress Coats, ally colour „, 1 0 0
Ditto Surtout-, ditto ........ „ „ „. ,„ „ 15 0
Men' Black Trousers .
Ditto Ditto Vosts.• ...... •• •• 0 4 6
Ditto Tweed ..... ....... •.• • • ••• • • • 0 7 G
Ditto llueliskin Trousers .
Ditto Fane. Vests
Tunic Suit . .
Hussar ditto
Moleskin Trousers . .. • ...... .
Ditto ditto, very best, with rule pockets 0 6 6
Otllce Coats . .
•

- -
A New Boob:, entitled he Triumph of Art," ~.ontaining a List
prices of th, most Fa,hlonah'e ...ancients for the Spring Season. ran
be had on applying to L. 111*.-134, Pantechnetheca, 36, Grxetchureh-
treet, London ; or scut post free to Any part of the United Kingdom

on general notice, that, being now on the point of formally
submitting myself to. what I believe to be the One Catholic
Church, I of you the favour to make public the enclosed
letter to a friend, copies of which I have circulated among my
acquaintance for the last week or two. I shall, also, with your
permission, append some notice of various objections which I
have heard msde against my proposed step; not as if I were
writing a treatise, but merely so far as to mark the general im-
pression which those objections have made on my mind.
Rose Hill, Oxford, August 13. 1845.
My Dear —, I proceed to execute the design I mentioned
to you in my last, of putting on paper the considerations which
have induced me to resolve on seeking admission to the Com-
munion of the Roman Catholic Church, notwithstanding some
passages in the " Ideal," which seem to express strongly an
opposite intention. Any one who will take the trouble to read
carefully what I have said on the subject, especially in the last
chapter of my work, will see plainly that I have grounded the
(alleged) duty of remaining in the English Church on two
principal circumstances :—First, That there is nothing to
hinder any one in our Church, who may please, from holding
all Roman doctrine ; and second, that all these, without ex-
ception, who, being in doubt of the English Church's claims,
have resolved on livi• g a stricter life in her communion, have
found an ever increasing confidence in their position. (See
especially from pp. 567-570.)
Now, it is plain that both these circumstances have ceased to
exist. That the latter has ceased to exist, no one, of course,
who knows what is so generally known at present will question.
That the former also has ceased to exist is no less certain. If

the bishops, speaking authoritatively, es cathedra, be the Official
exponents of the mind of the Church of England, the point
has been ruled against the Romanisers' long ago ;if (as I
myself have always thought) the Ecclesiastical Courts hold that
function, the doctrines I hold have been equally condemned.
Not to lay stress here on the decision in Mr. Oakley's case
( though I must for myself consider that decision final, notwith-
standing the ab?ence of defence on Mr. Oakley's part, if no
one takes up the ganntlet, and challenges a fresh decision, with
the intention of making a formal defence ; but not to lay stress
on this decision), in the stone altar' case, a case most ener-
getically argued on both sides and most deliberately decided,
the doctrine of the Mass was expressly condemned; and if that
doctrine be not a mast essential and vital part of Roman doc:
trine, what can be so considered?

It will be urged in reply, that laymen are not ordinarily
obliged to sign the Articles ; and that, taking these decisions
at their worst, they in no way interfere with a person holding
all Roman doctrine in our Church's communion, so only be
hold no preferment or ecclesiastical station.
the utter futility, however, of this reply will be made
obvious, by reciting the grounds on which it appeared to me
so important that the holding of Roman doctrine should be
pe,mitted in our Church ; and that my grounds were such as
I shall pr•ireed to mention, will be very evident on a perusal
of my work.
It appeared to me, on the one hand, that all the argu-
ments which, so far as I knew, were adduced in disproof of
Roman doctrine, proceeded on an assumption, which, if
valid at all, is equally valid in disproof of Theism itself.
( See s. R. pp. 482-505.) On the other hand, I hail been
placed by God in our own communion, and iii that commu-
nion Lad received instruction in great Christian principles;
as, first of all, through the agency of Dr. Ai nt,ld, so afterwards
in a very tar greater degree, and with a very far less admixture
of error cn the one side and perplexity on the other, from Mi.
Newman I knew co where of the recognition of a higher
idea of Christian sanctity than I found recognised in our own
Church ; and all those whom I so deeply revered, so far as I
then knew, found (as I just now observed) our ordinances the
mot's) trustworthy in proportion as they led a stricter life. On
such grounds as these, to remain in our communion seemed the
plain unmistakeable dictate of modesty and sobriety ; while, on
the other hand. I stlould have been so absolutely puzzled at
being called upon to view the Roman Church as authoritatively
teaching error, that had I obliged myself to do so, it would
have been necessary by main force to divert my mind from spe-
culating on theelog!eal subjects at all.
In such circumstances it was natural, or rather inevitable,
to fall back on the sort of theory contained in my work. I was
led. I say, naturally to such considerations as the following
" The progress from truth to error cannot be made in one leap;
persons cannot, on the mere word of an external authority,
embrace at, once a whole class of new doctrines, foreign, and at
first even repugnant, to their moral nature. The doctrines,
again, to which I allude, are but accessories to the central
verities of the Gospel—not those verities themselves ; and will
follow in due time, in proportion as those verities are rightly
believed, heartily embraced, and fed on by prayer and contem-
plation The grglish Church, then, at present, witnessing as
it does those truths in its formularies, but silent, to say the
least, on these accessories, does seem a providential ordinance
adapted to prepare minds by degrees for the doctrine and corn
munion of Rome " Almost every page of my work, I might
say. will show that this is the view 1 there advocated.
That such a course of conduct, if avowed, wss a course con-
sistent with perfect honesty and integrity, cannot, I conceive
be questioned. As to su scription to the Articles, I have no
with to enter again into a worn-out controversy ; but I believe
as firmly as ever that no consis.ent person, of whatever
opinions, can subscribe all our formularies without offering the
greatest violence to the natural meaning of language ; and,
considering that the existing church, in some shape or other,
is necessarily the "imp-pens," however grievous a burden
such formularies must be to any community, I do not think
any one need scruple in offering that violence, whether with
the view- of reconciling the Articles to Roma:, or the Prayer
Book to Lutheran opinions, so long as he says plainly, in the
face of day, what sense he does attach to the words, and re
mains without interference from constituted authorities. But
in my ease my opinions were not only avowed, they were
mrst conspicuously (many say with even an ostentatious pa-
rade) put forward. I called on " High Churchmen" of various
grades to combine in the objects of impressing more deeply on
the minds of our people the great truths to which 1 just al-
luded, and which they all profess, and willingly staked the truth
of my own further opinions upon the resu:t. I was, and am,
most undoubtingly confident that nothing more is necessary to
dispose people fully for the reception of all Roman doctrine,
when brought before them, than a hearty, unsuspicious, arid
laborious appropriation of that portion of truth plainly wit-
nessed by our Church. I might here, then, allude to the addi-
tional reason for giving up the hopes I entertained when I
wrote my work, which arises from the undeniable fact, that
" anti-Roman High Churchmen" have shown no sort of wil-
lingness (quite the reverse) to unite with what are called " ex-
treme" persons on any such terms. But my resent purpose is
merely to point out how completely the decision of the Eccle-
siastical Courts has destroyed whatever there might otherwise
have been of plausibility in the theory I maintained as to the
office of our Church.

I say, then, that however plausible such a theory might have
appeared so long as the holding of the Roman doctrine was
allowed to be an open question among our clergy, not a word
more need be said to prove how utterly extravagant it became
from the moment that all the instructors of our people were
bound to renounce same part of that doctrine. It requires
certainly a very enthusiastic hoper to imagine that our Church
could really be made extensively available for the object sup-
posed, when every one who entered on her ministry, or received
a degree at either university, was called upon to renounce that
object as inconsistent with the claims of religious truth.
I have made it, I trust, sufficiently plain, that supposing me
still to agree in every sentiment I expressed in my work, nothing
which 1 have said constitutes my defence for remaining in
sup-
ports present position. My defence was grounded on two main
; both these suppor:s have given way.
Bet I am bound to add, that in-st firm,
tuf.Tntohvee(niitaairnd (as
ass ens incidentali'rin•
opinion, of considerable importance
I h lieve)t immoveable as is my
ciples advocated in the " Ideal,'
c,onvict
ttohtehree present question, on
which my views have undergone a change. To show that this
change is rather in the application of
fprinciples than prin-
ciples, allow me to quote a passage rom thelast chapter in
my work.
" He who is thus disciplined, who feels de, ply his exceed-
ing blindness. helplessness, and ignorance, and the existence
without him of an unknown and unspeakably precious reality,
w ill eagerly believe and apptopriate wl,atever is placed before
him in the ccaree of nature, professing to be a voice from,
or an economical representation cf that reality. Aea.n
be will have fully learnt, &c From all this it
,ill follow, as a primary axiom, than should
his pa• en's have hrimg,lit him into connexion with s,,rne
hotly professing to teach with authority, so long as he is able
to repose uocha.,.ged confidence in that body, it is that
very oracle for the conveyance to him cf eternal truths before
witch duty requires him to bow. Should 'he case be other-
wise, in a heathen country, he will he :dile to discriminate
with prettision between the right and the wrong in traditionary
superstitions, and tell thus elicit confirmation of his faith,' and
acct s,ions to it even out of corruptions of the truth.' But
rather would he anticipate, that there is some home in which
this moral reality may have a secure rest arid lodgment. that it
may be dispensed to men according to their need=; or at least
he would be di awn wit:t a most eager and spontaneous longing
towards any body which would profess to be that home, And
those marks, in any society, would especially attract his view,

Now it is some coosiderible time since Mr. Newman's
writings and teaching ( tow ever edify ing I found it in all (rher
respects), altogether lath d to ci mmetid itself to me as being
he least ex' oneritial of any teas hit. g of the English
Church. Indeed, during that time, I might have ieen that
I was deer iv ing Myself in thinking that I did simply follow
his teaching ; for, whet, as lie strenuously disr.vowed any
authority except as interpretative of the spice of the English
Church, when I was urable to accord to him that claim I was
unatile to follies his tiachiitg, in that very partieu!ar %Lich be
himself represented as con, tituting hi; only right to teach.
I should add, too, that add tonal thought and experience
has much increased my sense (which before indeed was very
great) of the extreme importance of a living and energising
dogmatic system. If the claims of such a system long re-
matn unrecognised omor g us, I hardly know how to express,
without appearing to agitate, how great are my fears a' to the
miserable error into which even very well-intentinned and
right-minded persons may be led, in the course of inquiry mad
speculation. Nor need I say how serious an addition this con•
stitutes to the many other grave phenomena which teem cla-
morously to enforce on us all the duty of renewing very care-
fully, and weighing very accurately, the reasons adducible in
defence of our present position.
Nothing, indeed, can be more pregnant with mischief than
any step rashly and lightly undertaken, however good it. itself.
Fur my own part, though my present convictions are not con-
sciously owing to any sudden external impulse, but arc the ;lit-
toral result of my own thought and observation, it seems never-
theless a duty to make plain to others, as well as to myself, that
they are s'aple and genuine convictions, by refraining from any
irrevocable step, until there may be time for my intentions to
become known wherever they would be really cared for, and
for any a guments or remonstrances to be duly weighed. At
the same time, 1 should be hypocritical if I affected to think it
likely that my determination will be altered by anything I shall
hear said against it.
I remain, my dear
Most sincerely yours,
W. G. WARD.
In the present copy of this letter I have made one or two
verbal alterations ; and have, moreover, marked with an as-
terisk two pasniges which I find to have been misunderstood in
more than one quarter, and which were in fact inaccurately
expressed. In order to explain these passages, I will state
briefly (for in a letter such as this tl ere is no room for amplifi-
cation) what now appears to me the truth, on a subject which
I regard myse f as having treated erroneously in my work.
In proportion as any one realises the extreme importance,
sacredness, and necessary mysteriousness of religious truth, his
own exceeding blindness and helplessness, and the awfully se-
rious 'errors into which uncontrolled or misoirected speculation
may lead him, he will be unwilling, I conceive, to follow as an
ultimate guide on matters of doctrine any authority which is
not directly entrusted by God with the office of dispensing re-
ligious truth. No teacher, then, who does not possess a direct
Divine authority, much less one who distinctly disclaims it,
will ever exerci-e despotic idluessce over his belief;
and if Providence has subjected him to some religious
body which does claim Divine authority to teach, from
the moment that he is deliberately unable to recognise
that authority, he will consider himself fully justified,
or rather bound, to look elsewhere, if haply he may
meet with some other body, to whose communion he may
attach himself, and to whose teaching he may submit himself.
What will be the duty of such a one in case he should dis-
cern no authority which preients to Lis conscience tokens of a
Divine commission, I am not considering ; but merely what
is his duty if he do discern such an one. n that case, I say
he is bound, when he is sufficiently sure of himself that it is a
real matter of conviction, to submit himself to that authority
without reserve ; and I retract the contrary opinion, which is
contained in my work, as savouring of latitudinarianism, and
of indifference to religious truth. I think that one especial
dispensation by means of whiah God leads humble souls to his
true Church, is the circumstance, that other religious bodies,
the more trustingly they are believed and obeyed, the more
cruelly pierce him who leans on them : but that his Church
cony, ys to her children an ever-increasing sense of his Divine
authority, in proportion as they humbly trust her and lovingly
obey Ler.
Those who care to know my reasons for thinking that the
English Church, whether her voice be livened for in her for-
mularies, or in her practical teaching, is no trustworthy guide
(and, I may add, for thinking that neither the 13ible nor an-
tiquity, interpreted by private judgment, are any trustworthy
guides either), I must refer to my large work, and to my
" Address to Members of Convocation," where they will find
these questions treated of at length.
An objection haA been lately made to me in private, against
what has just been said, as follows : —lt has been objected
that the English Church does teach with Divine authority the
Creeds ; because, so far es they are concerned, she speaks,
" not as the English Church, but as convey ing to us the faith
of the Catholic Church, such as it was from the beginning."
But let me ask—how do we know that these Creeds contain
the faith of the Catholic Church such as it was from the
beginning? If by our own private researches into antlquity„
then our rule of faith i 3 not the English .Chuteb,
hut antiquity interpreted by private judgment whit Is is
altogether a different matter. The objector, indeed, to
whom I refer, altogether disclaims such a view 'as this, in
his own name and in that of " High Churchmen" in general.
Taking then the other alternative—let any one consider the
pasages so commonly quoted in controversy from the Ante.
Nicene Fathers (passages at fist sight so directly in contra-
diction with important portions of the Creed), and let him
sly, it he is able to trust the English Church on so difficult
and historically doubtful a matter as the question whether the
Creeds really express the Church's faith from the srst, in
what must he not trust the English Church? In a word,
(speaking of external authority only), if we receive this fact
(of the apostolicity of the Creeds) on the authority of the
English Church, so far we do not believe the Creeds to be in-
fallibly true.
The way is now clear to explain the passages in nay letter
which are marked with an asterisk. I have been sstppnsed
to acknowledge in those passages, that the English Church
witnesses these doctrines in the same sense in Which the
Rooian Catholic Church witnesses them : that is, that sho
furnishes Ler members with good reasons for thoroughly re-
ceiving thent. Nothing, it will be seen, was further front
my intention than so to speak ; I meant merely to say that,
whereas the English Church professes belief in these creeds,
there was a very good ground afforded me for calling on Eng-
lish Churchmen to aim at realising and appropriating the
verities contained in them. But I slid not conceal my belief,
that in proportion as they did so, they would learn to be dissa-
tisfied with their Church's formularies as a whole, a: d diss
tt ustaul of her authority. Nor should it be forgotten, that I
maintained in my work that the true doctrine on " justifica-
tion" is in one sense more at the foundation of orthodoxy than
any other whatever; and, moreover, that the most formally
dogmatic statement on that subject put forth by the English
Church, unless under a very t' non-natural " interpretation,
asserts the contradictory of that doctrine.
In thus disparaging the authority of the English Church,
am not at all forgetting, that in arightly disciplined mind there
will be an inward response, which tends more and more, if
exercised, to afford conviction on certain doctrines, irrespec-
tive of the authority on which the, were originally received ;
and a Christian would indeed be pursuing a mad course if he
were to allow his faith in these doctrines to waver, even though
for a time (from whatever cause) he were unable to see his
way, to bow before some other external authority. But it would
be foreign to my purpose to pursue this subject further.
But by far the most prevailing argument of which I hare
heard, in opposition to the views maintained in my letter, is
grounded on the notes of life and sanciiy within the English
Church. "We who are in that Church," it is said, "have
the plainest proof before us that the sudden revival of
strictness and orthodoxy has Veen from within, not by the in-
fluence of an external body; and the communion wherein God
so visibly works, must lie a home of His in which it is safe for
us to abide." Nay, many seem to have thought that I myself
advocated this view in the" Ideal," and that my own arguments
might be employed against myself
1 trus' that, in what I have already said, I have shown my-
self to be not unwilling to retract an opinion, merely be-
cause I have once expressed it. But I really have never
myself seen the sufficiency of ibis argument. Surely it is
quite conceivable that God should stir, from within, a schis-
modall body, in order to reinforce His Church ; He may
work mightily, in such a body, not in order to establish it,
but in order gradually to dissolve it. And whether of these
two be His will, must be gatheted from further consideration.
The arguments on which 1 formerly based the (supposed)
duty of adhesion to the English Church (arguments, as I base
said, which I do not now ihink valid), were as follows :—We
cannot doubt of the vitality of the English Church, not only
when we observe the sanctity which has been the witnessed
fruit of her ordinances, but also when we think of the re-
markable manner in which doctrines handed down for two
or three hundred years, has now germinated, and is so
abundantly germinating, into " the whole cycle of Roman
doctrine." First, So long as we are allowed free scope in
our Church so to develop the doctrines we have learned
from that Church, she is surely our natural and legitimate
home, the doctrines, which might be considered
eaa rcaed from
herself,
cause for
leaving her, are the offspring of what we have learned
herself, and are permitted, without authoritative check,
within her pale : and second, in proportion as those who were
molested with doubts, have lived a stricter life, said rested a
greater weight on the ordinances of their Churcti, their confi-
dence in their position has been increased. ;how,
the
,as
Englishl sayin
my letter, both tin se reasons for remaining in
Church have now ceased to exist : Ist, tho free spread of Roman
doctrine in our Church has been authoritatively checked ; and,
2d, it is no longer trite, as is now very generally known, that a
stricter life in our communion has lessened doubts in the quar-
ter where doubts have been acutely telt. Those, then, who
thought the arguments adduced in my work in defence of our
position satisfactory (as I do not think them), cannot any
longer rest upon them ; for whatever force they once had is
cone to an end.
sty pi eseet intention, then, implies no denial, nor could I
honestly attempt any denial, of the undoubted fact that there
has been of late years a remarkable gush of life from within
the English Church. Nor, indeed, considering the great be-
nefit 1 humbly hope to have derived from agencies at work
within her, could I bring myself to separate from her commu-
nion without careful thought and deliberation. But such
thought and deliberation haze not, I hope, been wanting.
Even now I trust I may never forget how much I owe of
those very convictions, which have caused my present resolu-
tion, to teaching adrainistered in the name of the English
Church : and I most earnestly hope to site the time when I
may again be united in the same communion with, and be
enabled to profit by, the closer example of those many admir-
able persons, wham I am quite unt.ble to follow in regarding
the English Church as a safe home fur the Catholic-minded
Christian.-1 remain, Sir, ysur faithful servant,
Rose-hill, Oxford, Aug. 26, 1845.

W. AED.

SKATING WITHOUT ICE.—.\ c•rowd N, in on Fricily
evening collected in the 1 bee Vendome to vcilness the evolu•

Lions of a het.ch gentleman upon slimes. Each skate, as far
as could be observed, for be was rather chary of showing his
ii,vention, instead of the usual !late of steel was furnished with
two small wheel., pl,ced abou, 2i inches apart. His pe•r-
formancea certainly were surprising. fie cut the out.ide and
inside edge, the spread eagle, and a number of other manoeuvres
well known to skaters, and apparently with the greatest Cu*
and security.

-t-4.

~.
~.,;

THEATRE ROYAL, HAYMARKET.
LESSEE, MR. B. WEBSTER.
THIS EVENING

i; Will be performed the Comedy of A CURE FOR THE HEART-
AcilE. Old Rapid, Mr. W. Farren ; Young Rapid, Mr. Hudson ;
Frank Oatland, Mr. Blackstone ; Jessy Oatland, Mi3s Julia Bennett.
In the comae of the Evening, Mr. John Parry will sing hi New
Song of " Young England."

To .e followed by the admired Drama of GRANDFATHER
' Will"rEllEAD. Grandfather Whitehead, Mr. W. Farren; Dray-
- ', 'On, Mr. Tilbury; Langley, Mr. Stuart; Louisa Drayton, Mrs. E.
Yinonad ; Susan, Mrs. Stanley.
TfAffilielnde with the Comedy of BORN TO GOOD LUCK ; or, an
Irislint.M,Pertune. Pandeen O'Ratlert,, Mr. Hudson ; Nina, Miss
I'. Horton • • ;
11"e9;411/44'irenitheata Fhl One Guinea and a-Halt each.
LiCesl to he 'll*f or'lltrl. T. Archer at the Box-office,
f oto t.ii Five o'clock.