The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-04-25 00:00:00

CLERICAL INTELLIGENCE,

The Earl of Auckland, during the Easter recess, will
pay a visit to his brother, the Bishop of Sodor and Man,
at his lordship's palace, Isle of Man.
Petitions for the revision of an act of Henry VIII.,
lately made famous in the case of Dr. Hampden, and on
other matters of interest to the church, have been adopted
at Bristol.

The Bishop of Durham, in a letter to the Mayor of
Newcastle, has expressed his readiness to head a voluntary
" Easter Offering" to the Vicar of Newcastle, with a
subscription of £lOO.
The Bishop of Hereford's (Dr. Hampden) late parish-
ioners at Ewelme have presented him with a handsome
silver salver, "as a memorial of their high esteem of his
soundness of doctrine, purity of life, faithfulness and love
during the twelve years of his ministry among them."
THE IRISH CHURCH.—In the House of Commons, on
Wednesday, Mr. Bright asked " if government intended
to do anything to remedy the grievances of the Irish
church, which had been acknowledged some years ago, but
still remained unredressed." Lord J. Russell replied that
he had no measure to introduce on that subject.
ENTHRONIZATION OF THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTER-
BURY.—It is now definitely fixed that this ceremony shall
take place at Canterbury Cathedral, on Friday next. The
mayor and town council will form part of the procession,
and the day be one of general celebration, as many of the
nobility and gentry of the county, and of the extensive
province over which the Archbishop presides, will assem-
ble at Canterbury on the occasion. It is understood that
his grace will consecrate the chapel at St. Augustine's
College on the 29th, and preach a sermon at the Cathe-
dral on the 30th.

A PROPER REPLY.—The Rev. C. Thomas, lately per-
verted to Romanism, has addressed a letter to the Bishop
of Norwich, in which he attributes " the happiness" of
his belonging to " the one and undivided fold of Christ"
in some degree to the line of conduct pursued towards
him by his lordship. In his reply the Bishop says, he is
" not sorry to find that Mr. Thomas has seceded from
our national establishment, and should be glad to hear
that the many clergy holding similar opinions, or verging
towards them, would follow his example, as he thinks
their principles highly prejudicial to the advancement of
pure and spiritual religion and the real welfare of our
Church:" He also expresses his belief that " the time
will sooner or later arrive when, by being brought into
closer contact with the Romish faith, Mr. Thomas's mind
will shrink from an approval of those many monstrous
superstitions and practices sanctioned by the priesthood
of the Papal Church, so inconsistent with sound reason-
ing and so revolting to common sense."
THE REV. S. R. MAITLAND.—A week or two since, a
report was published in certain Tractarian papers to the
effect that the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury had " dis-
missed"—such was the offensive and false expression—
had " dismissed" the above-named reverend gentleman
from his situation of librarian at Lambeth, and had ap-
pointed, in the place of the reverend gentleman so " dis-
missed," one of his (the Archbishop's) own sons-in-law !
At the time this report was published we strongly sus-
pected that it had no foundation in truth, and our suspi-
cions have been happily confirmed. The Athenevum,
which paper takes up the subject only because it is con-
nected with literature, and whose authority in literary
matters and literary intelligence is indisputable, distinctly
states in its last number that Mr. Maitland " resigned
his situation of librarian at Lambeth." Our contempo-
rary further states, what we hope was not known to the
Tractarian papers when they declared that Mr. Maitland
had been " dismissed"—viz., that it was his wish to have
retired some time since ; but that, at the particular re-
quest of the late Archbishop, he was induced to retain an
appointment which his Grace appears to have thought, in
common with all literary men, could hardly be held by a
more competent person.—Church and State Gazette.

CHURCH OF ENGLAND HERESY.—We he;(.l,—with
much pleasure, the other day, that in the new clergy
discipline bill, which is about to be introduced into the
house of lords, there is likely to be a clause, defining,
safely, and with justice and propriety, the crime of
" heresy," to be that of contravening the doctrine of the
thirty-nine articles. It is perhaps difficult to conceive of
a more reasonable or just proposal. It is entirely in con-
formity with the royal declaration prefixed, which states
the object to be, the " settling of doubts, and shutting up
of debates." In fact, to leave the nature of " heresy"
undefined, and to allow accusers to allege that to be heresy
which they imagine to be at variance with something they
found in some of the church services, her rubrics, or her
canons, would expose the clergy to annoyance and perse-
cution without end. In the Church of England, the
thirty-nine articles are the written law. Let it suffice—
it is amply sufficient for all purposes. The articles are
eminently scriptural—simply dogmatic, and faithfully
Catholic : they have stood the test of generations—are
theologically profound, scripturally exact, and traditionally
pure. Let them continue to be respected, and held up as
the rule of law in the church ; and happy and prosperous
she will be, if the orthodoxy of all her sons will bear to
be tried by such a test ; and we sincerely hope and believe
that any attempt at innovation, in this respect, will be
firmly resisted by a great majority of the prelatical bench.
—Morning Herald.