The Sun.
London, England, 1844-12-02 00:00:00

'britillgrni

LONDON, MONDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1844.

According to the statement in the Herald of this
morning, the British Magazine—whose last Number
we have not yet seen—has become the resolute op-
ponent of the Tractarian tenets. For some years
this periodical was one of their staunchest advocates,
and not a few of Mr. I\TEWMAN'S subtlest works first
appeared in its pages. But a great change has come
over it of late. It now clearly sees—what it ought to
have foreseen long since—that the tendency of these
tenets is decidedly towards Romanism, and conse-
quently is subversive of the Protestant Establishment.
We quote the passage in which the British Maga-
zine announces its change of opinion, as it is some-
what curious :—" For a considerable period persons
whose charity led them to put the most hopeful
construction on the language and. conduct of
the Tractarians, did persuade themselves that what
Mr. NEWMAN and his friends called Church princi-
ples and Catholicity, differed in nothing substantial
from the old-fashioned orthodoxy of the Church of
England. Whether such close and jealous attention
as the importance of the movement demanded was
paid to the gradual development and disclosures by
which the movement has at last reached its present
form and attitude, are questions which do not come

within the scopo of the present inquiry. But, of the
fact itself, there can be no doubt whatever, that per-
sons utterly opposed to any Romeward tendencies did
think thus charitably and hopefully. Every ves-
tige of this hope, however, has long been at an
end." In the above passage the British Magazine
frankly intimates that it did not pay such "close and
jealous attention" to the doctrines and movements of the
Tractarians as the importance of the subject de-
manded, which is an act of negligence of no slight
order, for surely if there were one question of more
moment than another, and which should have been
discussed and investigated with the utmost keenness,
the question of Tractarianism was that one. As re-
gards the tendency of the tenets of this party, the
British Magazine has now only discovered what The
Sun discovered and proclaimed years since—namely,
that Tractarianism was nothing more than the wolf
in the sheep's clothing—that is to say, Popery in a
masquerade dress. We added that if those who pro-
fessed these tenets were but allowed rope enough,
they would infallibly hang themselves, and our pre-
diction has been fulfilled to the letter ;7 for they
have at length thrown off all disguise, and openly
avowed their sympathy with Rome, and the conse-
quence is, that a reaction has already set in against
them, and the moral influence which they once ex-
ercised is daily verging to its decline. 'We have said
that they have thrown off all disguise. Here is a
passage from one of their publications, which the
British Magazine quotes in justification of its newly-
roused hostility to them :—" He, WILFRID, mate-
rially aided in the blessed work of riveting more
tightly the happy chains which held England to ST.
PETER'S chair—chains never snapped, as sad expe-
rience tells us, without the loss of many precious
Christian things !" It is impossible to mistake
the animus of this remark, or to doubt for
an instant that he who penned it, and
those who approve it, are Catholics at heart, how-
ever outwardly they may conform to Protestantism.
Such men, therefore, have no right to continue mem-
bers of the Church of England, or to share in its
emoluments, and it is an impeachment of their ho-
nesty that they do not at once abandon it, and go over
to Rome. Here is another specimen of their peculiar
mode of thinking on divinity subjects :—" It would
be edifying to trace the spirit of the Roman Church
through all ages and in all departments, and see how
a most unworldly, dispassionate moderation has distin-
guished it. It is quite solemn and overawing."
If there be anything " solemn and overawing "
it is to be found in the astounding mendacity of
this passage. " Unworldly " applied to the tactics
of the Church of Rome ! Never was there a grosser
misapplication of terms. The most remarkable pecu-
liarity in this Church is, and has ever been, the ex-