The Sun.
London, England, 1844-09-04 00:00:00

Lord Brougham and two or three Tory Peers (lay
Lords) said " Not Content."
The LORD CHANCELLOR was about to put the ques-
tion again, in the usual form, previous to taking tie
numbers or dividing, when_
Lord WHARNCLIFFE rose, but on the suggestion of
the Lord Chancellor, he sat down, put on his
hat, and addressed the House from his seat.
He said that he did not think it desirable that their
lordships should divide, as there was a majority of the
law lords in the House in favour of the appeal. He
humbly recommended those of their Lordships who
were not law lords—and who, not having heard the
whole case, were not so well qualified to judge of the
question—to abstain from voting. It was far better
that the character of the House, as a court of appeal,
should be maintained, and that their decision should
be against the opinion of the majority of the judges—
even though in this case it should produce great
inconvenience—than that those Lords who had not
heard the case should, by their interference, reverse
the judgment of those members to whom the deci-
sion of such cases was usually committed by the prac-
tice of the House. _ _

Lord BROUGHAM entirely concurred in the opinion
of the majority of the judges in Ireland and England.
But he also agreed with the Noble Lord who had just
spoken that it was more advisable that those cf their
Lordships who had not heard the case, should not
vote. He deeply lamented the division to which the
House would come; but he would now only say, that
when he differed from the majority of the judges on
the question of Presbyterian Marriages in Ireland, he
did so upon the authority of Lord Stowell and other
eminent persons.
Lord CAMPBELL had voted with his Noble Friend
on the question of Presbyterian Marriages, and for the
same reason. He would now only say that the dis-
tinction between lay Lords and law Lords was not
known to the Constitution, but that it was the rule of
all courts of law that no judge should decide a case
which he had not heard.

The Duke of CLEVELAND was understood to say
that he had paid great attention to the case, and that
he thought he had a right to vote upon it.
The Marquis of CLANRICARDE said that if any
other lay Peer voted, he would vote also, although
he thought it would be calamitous for the character
of the House, as a Judicial Body, if the established
rule in such cases were departed from.
After a few words from Lord VERULAM, the whole
of the lay Peers withdrew.
The question was again put, and Lords Cottenham,
Denman, and Campbell having voted for the reversal
of the judgment, and Lord Broligham against it,
The LORD CHANCELLOR said—My Lords, TIIE
JUDGMENT IS REVERSED.

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.
GLOBE.—If we are later than some of our Con-
temporaries in noticing Mr. Ward's " Ideal of a
Christian Church," we derive this advantage from
delay—that three months having now elapsed
since its publication, we are entitled to express
surprise that an open plea far Popery, and protest
against the Reformation, by a clergyman of the Church
of England and resident fellow of Baliol College,
Oxford, has yet evoked no remonstrance from
the University, or censure from his diocesan. Mr.
Ward's work is a long one ; but a very few passages,
or even sentences, are sufficient to enable our readers
to judge whether we have fairly described it as an
open plea for Popery, and protest against the Reforma-
tion. Protestantism," says Mr. Ward, "is intellectu-
ally the subtlest and most extensively poisonous of
heresies, just as Lutheranism is morally?' (p. 41.)
Mr. Ward is speaking of the English Reformation,
when he expresses, in page 44, " the deep and burning
hatred with which some members of the Church (in-
cluding myself) regard that miserable event." And
in a note in the same page, determined that there shall
be no mistake about his feelings, he adds, "I cannot
agree with those who prefer the English Reformation
to the foreign ; so far from it, I know of no single
movement in the Church, except Arianism, in the
fourth century, so destitute of all claims on our
sympathy and regard." Mr. Ward charges against
the Reformation that it has violated two great prin-
ciples—the sacredness of hereditary religion, and the
supremacy of the moral conscience. A clergyman
of the Church of England, holding such opinions
as we have already quoted, is a funny champion
of " the supremacy of the moral conscience."
The meaning of this phrase we do not profess
to understand; it may be a misprint for " supre-
macy cf the Roman pontiff;" for Mr. Ward tells us,
in page 480, that he takes the oath of supremacy,
" which would naturally be understood as denying
spiritual authority to the Pope," in a " non-natural
sense." In the same "non-natural " way he sub-
scribes the eleventh article, which enunciates justifi-
cation by faith only; for Mr. Ward thinks
this (4 a most atrocious and immoral senti-
ment," and stigmatises it as invented by Luther
for his heresy. The Romish Church, as it is,
if it is not itself, Mr. Ward's
, to,
For my own part, I think it would not
rightielda comese lldeal."
nearest
to ,
conceal—indeed, I am anxious openly to
express my most firm and undoubted conviction, that
were we, as a Church, to pursue such a line of conduct
as has been sketched in this work, in proportion as we
did so, we should be taught from above to discern and
appreciate the:plain marks of Divine wisdom and autho-
rity in the Roman Church, to repent in sorrow and
bitterness of heart, our great sin in deserting his com-
munion, and to sue humbly at his feet for pardon and
restoration. . . . In these two necessary and
fundamental duties of a Church (moral and religious
discipline and orthodox faith), never in any period
has the Roman Catholic Church shone with brighter
lustre than since the Reformation." (P. 472.) There
can be no mistake about the sentiments of the author
of the above passages, and no chance of his being
unjustly judged by them. Mr. Ward does not con-
sider that he Subscribes the twenty-second article of
the Church, on Purgatory, in " a non-natural sense,"
but looks upon the common understanding of that
article as " non-natural." He thinks that the twenty-
second article "cannot, without distortion, be ap-
plied to abstract Roman doctrine at all ;" and
that so to apply it is to force the natural mean-
ing of the article as much as he himself forces the
eleventh article, in order to sign it. (p. 480.) This
is Mr. Ward's view of the present state of the
Church. "In a word, lam perfectly convinced that
no one clergyman of our Church would be able to
subscribe all such formularies of our Church in a
natural and straightforward sense; and I attribute
this fact to the utter want of fixed religious principles
displayed by the leading Reformers." (p. 481). And
Mr. Ward is a clergymen of a Church based on Arti-
cles, some of which he avows that he subscribes in " a
non-natural sense," and having its distinctive birth in
the Reformation, for which he feels " deep and burning
hatred," which he calls " a miserable event," and to
whose promoters he ascribes " utter want of fixed
religious principles.". Where is the Bishop of Oxford?
Mr. Ward is also a resident Fellow of a College in
a University which makes the Articles of the Church
of England the test of membership, and will not part
with that test, to allow avowed Roman Catholics and
Protestant Dissenters to share in its advantages.
Where are the orthodox zealots who raised the in-
sulting clamour against Mr. Everett's degree—where
the lusty champion of purity of doctrine who hounded
on Dr. Pusey, and Mr. Newman, and Mr. Sewell, to
e ,
prosecute Dr. Hampden, that they have been silent
all this while on the subject of Mr. Ward's extraor- ,
dinary production ? Do they who strained at Dr.
Hampden's gnat, bolt Mr. Ward's camel ?
STANDARD.—The Morning Chronicle will not
await, or permit us to await silently, the decision
of the House of Lords upon the writ of error
in Mr. O'Connell's case. Our Contemporary
has, this day, a long article upon the subject,
in which, however, it does not make the
slightest allusion to what we said yesterday of the
complete finding upon the unobjectionable eleventh
count, which count, fully found and free from all