The Sun.
London, England, 1844-11-05 00:00:00

Ant

LONDON, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1844.

We have received the following communication
from Oxford :—" The Reverend WILLIAM Goo
NOCGR PENNY, M.A., Student of Christ Church
and Perpetual Curate of Ashendon, Bucks, has re-
eigned his studentship on conforming to the Roman
Catholic faith. It is also annyunced, and the intelli-
gence has produced a deep sensation, that the Re-
verend JOHN HENRI NEWMAN has intimated to the I
Reverend Mr. WILLIAMS, the late candidate for the
Poetry Professorship, the impossibility of his con-
tinuing a member of the Anglican Church." An
evening Contemporary of Saturday, who is strongly
opposed to the Tractarian heresy, gives a dif-
ferent version of Mr. PENNY'S case, and ob-
serves that the Dean of Christ Church, having
been informed that this gentleman had joined
the Church of-Rome, ordered inquiries to be insti-
tuted, when it " appeared that he had been a Ro-
manist for some months past, retaining his student-
ship and livings. A Chapter," adds our Contempo-
rary, " was held on Wednesday last, at which the
Dean and Canons, after commenting in terms of due
reprobation upon this shocking affair, struck off Mr.
PENNY'S name from the books of the college." If
this last version be correct, we do not wonder at
the indignation manifested by the Christ Church
authorities ; but in the absence of more authentic
testimony we are willing to adopt the most
favourable view of Mr. PENNY'S case, and to believe
that he resigned his studentship the instant he found
that he could no longer conscientiously conform to the
Established Church. But how completely does this
circumstance of his conversion to the Catholic faith
confirm what we stated more than once at an early
period of the Oxford controversy—namely, that the
doctrines of the Tractarians lead, as a necessary
consequence, to Popery ! More than one advocate
of these doctrines has already abandoned the faith
of his fathers—the faith in which he himself was born
and bred—in favour of Catholicism, and now we find
Messrs. PENNY and NEWMAN following the same
example. *As regards the latter gentleman, we
cannot but express our regret and :surprise that
he has not seen fit, long before this, to announce
" the impossibility of his continuing a member
of the Anglican Church," for, from the very first rise
of the Tractarian heresy, he was conspicuous above
all others by his zeal in its favour. His was no mode-
?ate, qualified approbation, but downright enthu-
°lam; he carried out its doctrines to the utmost
'Possible extent, and left even Dr. PUSEY far behind
him in his advocacy of Puseyism. He was, in fact,
an ultra-PuseYite, and opposition, so far from
checking his zeal, served only to give an additional
stimulus to it. Surely it was his duty, holding
such views—views so utterly opposed to those
of the Established Church—to have renouncedon
Ibis connexion with the Establishment l
this, and to have frankly and boldly thrown
Off Off the mask, and exhibited himself in his
true °lours! But, despite its high pretensions
Ind somewhat maginative character, there is a
decided. taint of Jesuitry lurking in the constitution
of Tractarianism ; it is specious and showy, abounds
in clap-trap appeals to the external senses, and is fond
of the picturesque in religion; lvt it is deficient in

simplicity and straightforwardness, and while it is
Well calculated to lead captive the susceptible fancy
of youth, it makes not the slightest impression oti tht
heart. Though we do not deny that Tractarianisra has
done some good by rousing the sluggish feelings of
Mother Church, and making her more active—
from the pressure of necessity—in the perform-
ance of her duties, as little can we deny
that it has been the means of doing a
world of mischief, by unsettling men's minds, con-
founding the true with the false in religion, and sub-
stituting—or attempting to substitute—mere showy
ceremonial observances for pure, heartfelt, unso-
phisticated worship. Our main objection to Tracts-
rianisrn is, that it has nothing substantial—nothing
sterling in its character. We believe that it is per-
fectly sincere in its wish to do good, but it sets about
the task in a wrong spirit. It exhibits's fondness for
theatrical display that is wholly at variance with the
meek, modest, unobtrusive spirit of Christianity ; and
puts forth such exalted pretensions, and justifies those
pretensions in so imperious a fashion, that it is im-
possible for any one to acquiesce in them who is not
prepared to surrender up all freedom of opinion, and
turn a deaf ear to the calm, grave remonstrances of
reason. We hope, in justice to his sense of right,
that every clergyman who holds Tractarian doctrines,
will immediately follow the example of Messrs. NEw-
MAN and PENNY, and openly ~renounce his connexion
with a Church of which it is impossible he can be a
conscientious or efficient minister.

The whole range of the British proverbs—those
axioms of the concentrated wisdom of a nation—does

not include one more profoundly true than this—
" What should be everybody's business•is nobody's."

We have never heard or read the frequent complaints
that are made of the discouragement and gradual

decline of our shipping trade, without being strongly
reminded of the practical truth of this adage. - We
are, essentially, a maritime nation. That we should
be so is as indispensable a condition of our political

existence as it is an incident of our geographical
position. But upon the same fact: is based the
peculiar fabric of our social system, with its large

command of all the habits, and its enormous con-

sumption of all the products, of those regions of the
civilised world that trade with us. And it may be

fairly contended, that to the moral
_operation of the
. .

same cause are attributable many of those tendencies
of our manners, tastes, pursuits, prejudices, and.pre-
possessions which, be their combined effect what it
may in other particulars, imbue at least two-thirds
of the entire population of the empire with what we
must call, for want of a more significant designation,
" the spirit of. seamanship." An Englishman gene-
rally carries about him some sort of vague irnpres-
iion, that in reality his " march is o'er the ocean
wave," and that, in very truth*, his " home is on the
deep." Nay, this spirit is of so overmastering a cha-
racter, that it is the culminating ambition of even his
proverbial love of sport. An old sea captain, or a
weather-beaten admiral, does not so-tire of his pro-
fessional career as to take to the turf for want of ex-

citement ; but nothing is more common than for a
veteran of the betting ring—an owner of running
horses, or a master of fox-hounds—to subside into a
bold and active member of the Royal Yacht Club.
How, then, can the public at large look on, and,
year after year, witness, apathetically, the decay or
disparagement of that invaluable interest whose capi-
tal, talent, energy, and enterprise, are devoted to the
noble occupation of ship-building, or the various and
important dealings connected with the shipping
trade ? How can the other great classes of the com-
munity look on without the most serious •apprehen-

sion at the growing deterioration of this immense
proportion of the floating capital (not to play upon
the phrase) of the empire ? How can the statesman,
the politician, or the economist, bring himself to
regard, with indifference, the downhill progress of a
depreciation which has attacked the present material
value, and impaired the future prospects, of that com-
mercial marine in whose prosperity or decline is in-
volved the ultimate fate of-all the governing princi-
ples that now give to the British character its
peculiar force, constancy, and power ? Simply—
because " what should be everybody's business is
nobody's."
The Report from the " Select Committee on British
Shipping," appointed by the House of Commons,
and which Report (ordered to be printed on the 25th
of July last) has just been issued from the Vote•
office, is a document well calculated to awaken a
wholesome and a very active curiosity throughout a
most extensive body of readers; as: to details con-
nected with • this interesting subject. We ought
rather to have spoken, indeed, of the " Minutes of
Evidence;" and the documentary tables and papers
attached to them, than of the " Report" itself,
which is a mere declaratory statement of seven
lines, suggesting no-remedies for the evils deposed to
by the witnesses, and offering no opinions upon the
effect of those depositions. Owing to that baneful
practice of postponing important public_ business,
which we have so often deprecated as signal defect
in the adthinistrative management- of business before
1 the House of Commons—" the late period of the

session" at which " their appointment took place,
this Committee " have not found it possible to com-
plete their investigation, so as to enable them to
come to a satisfactory report." They therefore lay
before the House what "evidence they have already
received, and trust that the reappointment of the
Committee may take place at an early period of the
next session." So do we ; for to a more important
end their labours could not be addressed. N everthe-
'ess, we have but little faith in such prospects, whilst
the present habits of conducting business in House of
Commons' Committees are to continue. The enor-
:nous value- of British commercial shipping engaged
'n the trade between "foreign countries" and Great
Britain may be appreciated from certain papers given
in by Mr. G. F. Your, the eminent ship-builder and
owner, formerly Member for Tynemouth. In 1624,
the Aggregate was 609,164—the foreign tonnage en-
tered inwards, for the same year, being 308,951. In
1841, the British tonnage had increased to 1,134,560
tons; the foreign to 530,161. But from a State-
inent of British Tonnage entered inwards in the
United Kingdom from the "British Possessions and
Colonies," in the years 1824 to 1841 respectively,
we find that the enormous aggregate of
tonnage, including the entire British colonial trade,
coasting ditto, fisheries and steamers, was 3,361 211
tons ! Of this vast amount, 319,546 should be put
down as " unemployed tonnage." The result would
he, that in 1841 we had actually afloat and employed
3,041,665 tons in our own commercial marine ; 'a
tonnage utterly without parallel in the history of any
other State in the world, and representing a capital
'is afloat, which, taking a very low figure between the
extreme ones for the cost of building an inferior.
American craft at 61. a ton,' and a first class Thames-
built vessel at 201. a ton, we suppose we may safely
estimate it, say at 91.—at 27,374,9851.—exc1u5ive of
the 319,546 tons unemployed. But we fear that the
year 1841 must be regarded as the last term (it was
Also the highest) of prosperity attained by our ship-
ping trade. Mr. G. F. YOUNG (and no more compe-
,ent or respectable authority can be quoted) is of opi-
nion that during the last three years the shipping
interest has been in a greater, and longer continued
Alte of depression, than he can remember it to have
suffered under at any former period. Mr. Swam,
the eminent shipowner, of London, concurs in this
opinion, and so does Mr. SHALES, of Whitby. Mr.
TANNER, of Sunderland, confirms it, with the pleasing
qualification
that in the present year the trade is ex-
hihiting strong indications of improvement, as com-
pared with the last. Mr. ANDERSON, of South
Shields, considers its depression at this moment to be
greater than it has experienced during the last forty
years ; and Mr. S. HuLL, of London, thinks that de-
pression has been progressive since the year 1815,
and that what little improvement may just now have
shown itself is local only, and attributable to the new
trade in guano. The same witnesses speak to the
amount of this depression in shipping property and
the rate of freights, as having reached, within
these few years, from 25 to 50 per cent. As may be
imagined, the witnesses assign various grounds for
this depression. Some attribute it to the general de-
pression which they consider as pervading trade in
general. Others refer it to the over-building of ships
in 1839, 1840, and 1841, especially of inferior de-
scriptions, whilst the quality and building of foreign
shipping has been carefully improved. Mr. Husus-
e
SON'S reciprocity treaties
depression,
largely challenged as a
main cause of the d
owing to the very great
disadvantages under which British shipping enter
the ports of certain foreign Powers, as compared with

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