The Sun.
London, England, 1842-01-19 00:00:00

SPURTING.

The following correspondence respecting the claims
oh Mr. Gurney may be interesting to some of our
readers :

(Copy) " Harcourt House, Dec. 28.
" Sir—Mr. Dixon having publicly stated yesterday at
TatterSall's that Clarke had compromised matters with
you in regard to your claims on Gurney, by paving you
at the Hampton Races ten shillings in the pound in lieu
of your full and just claim, as bound to do by the joint
guarantee of the assignees, I will thank you to commu-
nicate to me, for the - information of other parties con-
cerned, and for the correct guidance of the public mind
upon this matter, the true and precise character of the
transaction, stating—
" Ist. The full amount of your winnings from Gurney.
" 2dly. The price at which Clarke bought up your claim.
" 3dly. The date of the transaction.
" 4thly. The statements and arguments by which,
being one of the guarantees, he induced you to forego
your ' full claim,' and to accept a compromise instead
t!iereof.—l have the honour to be, Sir, your obedient
servant, " G. BENTINCK.

" To Wm. M‘Donogh, Esq."
(Copy.) " January 3, 1842.
"My Lord—l only this evening received your letter,
and in reply beg to inform you that the amount of my
claim on Mr. Gurney was 3051.
" On the last day Of the Hampton Races I spoke
to Mr. Clarke, and expressed a wish that he would
purchase my claim. He replied by saying—' He
could not well do so, but he thought he could ar-
range it so that I should be able to dispose of
it to another person, whom he would speak to.'
In about a quarter of an hour after I spoke to Mr. Clarke,
Mr. Deshow came. to me, and finally agreed to give me
one hundred and ninety pounds for Mr. Gurney's debt,
if I should give him,,e, receipt for 3051, which I agreed
to do, and gave himtsariie the day after, on receiving a
cheque for one hundred and ninety pounds.--I have the
honour to remain, my Lord, your humble servant,
"Post-office, Birmingham. " WM. APDONOGII."

SOME ANS WER TO THE INQUIRY,
WHY ARE YOU BECOME A CATHOLIC ? IN
A LETTER TO A FRIEND, BY RICHARD
IVALDO SIBTHORP, 8.D., LATE MINISTER
ST. JAMES'S, RYDE, ISLE OF WIGHT.-
The Rev. R. W. Sibthorp, now more conspicuous in the
religious world than his brother of Lincoln in the politi-
cal, has since his conversion, had so many letters ad-
dressed to him, with the interrogatory, " Why are you
become aCatholic ?" that in order to save trouble, and
also, probably, with a view to make converts, he has pub-
lished an exposition of his belief, and his reasons for en-
tering into the Holy Catholic Church. The statement,
which is drawn up with considerable skill, breathes
throughout the warmest devotion in the cause of Divine
truth ; and, at the same time, exhibits the author in such
a favourable light, both as regards those who differ with
and the grounds for his conclusions, that we are
much mistaken if it fail to make many Puseyites alto-
gether Catholics. The primary cause of his conversion
may be traced to first love, not of carnal'woman, but of
-Mother Church; for at an early age he sought admission
into that Church, and but for the interference of the law,
being then under age, would have joinedher. First love,
it is said, is not easily forgotten, and the most trivial, nay,
sometimes irrelative circumstances, call it to mind, and.
only the more confirm the original impression. This was
the case with Mr. Sibthorp. , "About five years since,"
says he, "in the course of my ministry at Ryde, I was
led to review the Jewish Economy, or the Church under
the old dispensation. The subject came minutely under
my notice, while engaged in a series of leeturss on the
Levitical law and institutions. It is universally admitted
that these were typical of something better—` of good
things to come,' from Israel viewed as a nation, down to
the smallest ornaments of the tabernacle, respecting
which Jehovah had said, See that thou make all
things according to the pattern which was showed thee
in the Mount.' Where, then, was to be found this some-
thing better, thus accurately prefigured, thus largely
and minutely typified ? Where the autitype of this
typical dispensation ? I naturally sought it in a careful
comparison of the Christian Dispensation with these
types ; and I found one immediate answer to my
inquiry, and full of holy and consolatory instruction."
The Mosaic dispensation, therefore, led him to look for
a church characterised by oneness by the strictest re-
quired holiness by Catholicity, by a supreme spiritual rule,
by continual daily sacrifice, and by an impressive magni-
ficent and significant ritual.. He then inquires—‘ Was
the accomplishment of the glorious Levitical shadows
to be found in a patchwork combination of a multitude
of sects, as. opposed in their interests as in their belief
and Worship y Could the typified holy—separated as to
others, and as to themselves visibly united—nation, the
one body of Christ, consist of a mixture of Prussian
Linhereans, French Calvinists, and Swiss Socinians; of
Independents; Baptists, Quakers, Shakers, of Irvingites
and Plimonth .13yetluTn; of_llethodista of- the Old and
of the New Connection ; of. New Jernsalemites, and
Primitive Revivalists? Could such disorder be the de-
signed fulfilment• of a type of such holy order?—such
disunion be the rightful substance of a shadow marked
by an entire harmony of its parts, and perfect oneness
of outline? Ingenuity could not trace a resemblance.
But when I looked back to the primitive apostolic
Church of the first six centuries, I found an exact cor-
respondency with the type :—when I also looked back to
the ancient Church of England, as first firmed by St.
Augustine, I found the most entire ag-reement, and an
actual, visible, professed oneness, with that apostolic
Church, as it had existed for six centuries : it was a.
provincial limb of that vast Catholic body which was
then co-extensive with the knowledge of Christianity.
When I viewed it at any subsequent period clown to '11)(5
commencement of the sixteenth century, I met with the
same unaltered character ; and though the Catholic body
had been lopped of some of its limbs by the severing
strokes of heresy or schism, it still flourished a vigerons,
stately, wide-expanded tree, the same in every essential,
almost in every minute particular, which it had been;
when the English branch first grew from out its sustain-
ing, fostering trunk. The Catholic Church in commu-
nion with the see of Rome, stood forth, in my view,. the
close and perfect antitype of the Church under the Old
Testament."
He is further strengthened in his belief by reference
to the. New Testament, in which a remarkable promise
is given to Peter in these words—" Thou art Peter, and
upon this rock I will build my Church. And I will give
unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven." He
therefore regards this Apostle as the founder of the pure
Church on earth, and, when he died, another took his
position to occupy it ; another, and another, have suc-
cessively filled the Chair of St. Peter for eighteen hun-
dred years, on the same warrant, with the same design,
and the same darkness, as to the Lord's time of return,
" herein accomplishing the type of the continuous high
priesthood of the " Jeivs." The unity of the Anglican
Church with 'that of 'Rome, which many Episcopal
clergymen of the present day assert, he utterly denies.
Dr. Howley, he says, teaches doctrines entirely opposed
to those taught by the great Fathers of the Church, and
he therefore rejects his authority. "Am Ito be told," he
asks, "there is no occasion for you to be dissatisfied
.with the Anglican as not being a true portion
of the Catholic Church, and a loving sister of the
Roman Church, because she is identically the very same
Church under Dr. Howley, as she was under Dr. War-
ham, or St. Thomas, or St. Augustine ? I cannot be-
lieve what is so palpably untrue. And to test its'triith
a little farther, suppose myself, or any Presbyter otthe
Anglican Church, coining before these four prelates, and
submissively listening to receive Catholic verity, from
their coneordaiit confession, as knowing that the truth
of God cannot vary, and with a real attachment to Ca-
tholic unity? •It is undoubted, that while tlaree:of them
would enjoin me, on Pain of heavy spiritual penalties,
to offer up the sacrifice of the mass, the inculcation on
my flock of the doctrines, for example, of purgatory,
_of
invocation of the•B/eSsect • Virgin and of the saints,—the
.last-nazned, ;Dr. Howley, would as strongly forbid Inc
tb do the former, or to hold or ib teach either of the
latter. While St. Augustine, St. Thomas, and Arch,
bishop Warham, would requite me to profess an hearty
allegiance to. the See of Rome, in matters spiritual and
eclesiastical, as Divinely constituted to rule and con-
centrate the kingdom of Christ on earth, Archbishop
Howley would threaten me with heavy penalties, if I
held the- Bishop of Rome to have any jurisdiction at all
in England, or any supremacy beyond his own See. I
state no more than fact."
With another extract we shall close the notice of this
remarkable' letter and the statement it contains will
have some weight, as coming from a clergyman who has
studied the subject carefully, and knows the Puseyites
well :—" It is," lie says, " maintained by many, and that
publicly, of whose integrity and piety, no more than of
their learning and talents, can the least question be
raised by all who have the privilege to know them, that
the Anglican Church is truly Catholic as it respects
these doctrines, and that no one who subscribes the
Thirty-nine Articles is called on to reject purgatory,
transubstantiation, invocation of the B. Virgin Mary and
of the saints, the efficacy of the sacrifice of the mass, as
defined by the Council of Trent, &c. In other words, he
May be a Tridentine Catholic at heart, and an Anglican
clergyman by profession. This is a startling position,
and as might be supposed, has startled the Established
Church throughout her length and breadth, from Ber-
wick-upon-Tweed to the Land's-end. A sound has gone
forth from Oxford, which has troubled alike the Metro-
politan at Lambeth, and the humble Citrate in the Welsh
mountains. It has penetrated the British Senate ; (per-
' adventure it may not be unheard in another Council
Chamber); it certainly has not been unheard in the
Vatican."

CHiLTENHAM.—On Saturday a man, who
went by the name of Edward Keerser, and represented
himself to be a butler in the service of Captain Oakland,
came into this town and hired Gloucester Lodge, in, the
Promenade, in the name of his master, who, he said, was
a gentleman possessed of 35,0001. a-year. Ilis next step
was to dispense his orders on his master's account very
liberally among the various tradesmen, but the suspicions
of Mr. French, grocer, being excited, the scoundrel was
defeated in his designs, and made a precipitate retreat
from the town.

THE VACANT' JUDGESHIP.—The general
ppinion in Westminster Hall this morning is, that Mr.
Cresswell will succeed Mr. Justice Bosanquet as one of
the Judges of the Court of Common butat present
no uppoptmeut, has teen made. _
•