The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1850-04-16 00:00:00

MISS SELLON AND LORD CAMPBELL.

A correspondence has just been published which has passed
between Miss Sellon—who somewhat affectedly styles herself
" Ye mother supr of the Orphan Home, Plymouth"—and
Lord Campbell, Chief Justice of the Queen's Bench. The lady
requests that his lordship's name may be withdrawn from the
committee of the " Home," as it is "connected most painfully
with a decision (the Gorham case) which for the present brands
the Church of England with uncatholic teaching." His lard-
ship, in reply, dated " Midland Circuit, Warwick, March
31st," acknowledges his correspondent's piety and benevolence,
and considers that she misunderstands the judgment, as the
Council gave no opinion on any doctrinal question, and stu-
diously abstained from doing so—having merely decided that
the articles and formularies of the church are not so framed
as to condemn Mr. Gorham's opinions. His lordship expresses
a hope that the decision may heal the wounds of the church,
and asks Miss Sellon to re-consider the matter before she un-
dertakes to pronounce excommunication on the Archbishops
of Canterbury and York, and all who approve of the decision.
Miss Sellon replies that she differs from his lordship as to the
probable effect of the decision on the church, and asks " How
can it heal her wounds to tell us that her articles admit of a
heresy which her creed rejects?" She writes at some :ength
in this strain, but continues to wish that Lord Campbell's
name may oe withdrawn. His lordship replies in the following
beautiful terms :

"Stratheden.house, April JO.
"Madam,—l deeply griave that (although in very courteous
language) you adhere to the stern resolution of excluding me
from the gratification of being upon the list of your committee,
and of contributing my mite to the excellent charities which
you so laudably superintend. I must confess that you do not
seem to me to have made any way to prove that my concurrence
in the decision of the Judicial Committee in the Gorham case
should disqualify me humbly to assist you in taking care of
orphans, in providing a Christian education for the children of
worthless pnrents, and in mitigating the physical sufferings
of our fellow-creatures. I cannot think that I am callea upon
to answer your observations respecting the merits of the deci-
sion or its probable effects upon the church, or I could easily
show that you beg the question entirely by assuming that the
doctrine to which you object has been condemned by her
articles and formularies as a heresy, and I might demonstrate
that whether the decision be wrong or right, it can afford no
plausible pretext for leaving the church, as no reproach can be
brought upon her by a misconstruction of her articles and for-
mularies, and it must be a very slight reproach to her if she
has omitted to denounce one false doctrine as heretical, consi-
dering that no Christian Church has professed to settle dog-
matically all points of doctrine, and that the church in which
those who complain most bitterly seem disposed to take refuge
has studiously left open various questions, considered by the
members of that church to be of high importance. I have only
now to submit to your sentence. Though expelled from your
committee, and forbidden to have any communion with you in
your charitable deeds, I may, perhaps, be allowed in parting
to remind you of the peril you incur by implicitly giving way
to a religious impulse. Some of the darkest and most dan-
gerous prejudices of men,' said Lord Erskine, arise from the
most honourable principles. When prejudices arecaught up from
bad passions, the worst men feel intervals of remorse to soften
and disperse them ; but when they arise from a generous
though mistaken source, they are hugged closer to the bosom.
and the kindest and most compassionate natures feel a pleasure
in fostering a blind and unjust resentment.' If at any time
hereafter you should be induced to relent, I shall joyfully avail
myself of the opportunity of again trying to further your
benevolent schemes."