The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-06-27 00:00:00

UNIVERSITY AND_ CLERICAL NEWS.

On Saturday week, the Bishop of Manchester conse-
crated Christ Church, Ashton-under-Lyne.
The Rev. Herbert Jones, incumbent of St. Augustine's
Church, in this town, has been elected a Lay Fellow of
Jesus College, Cambridge.
The Rev. Richard Loxham, M.A., of University Col-
lege, Durham, licentiate in theology, has been appointed
to the curacy of Rufford, near Ormskirk.
The Archbishop of Canterbury has appointed Thursday
next for the consecration of the chapel of the new College
of St. Augustine, Canterbury.
The Cambridge Prize for English verse has been awarded
to Mr. G. J. Cayley, of Trinity College, son of E. S.
Cayley, M.P. The subject was "the death of Balder"
(son of Odin.)

On Thursday last, the Bishop of Manchester consecra-
ted two churches near Bolton,—St. Paul's, in the town-
ship of Halliwell, and Astley Bridge church, in the village
of Astley Bridge, Sharples.
One hundred and eight clergymen in the diocese of
Hereford have presented to the zealous and right rev.
bishop thereof a congratulatory address upon his lordship's
elevation to the ancient see over which he now so exem-
plarily presides.

. .
The Professorship of Modern Languages at Oxford has
been offered to a distinguished foreigner. The circum-
stances under which this selection has been made are of a
nature so peculiar, that we must for the present abstain
from any remarks.—Morning Chronicle.—ls it M. Guizot ?
There is a strong probability of Kenyon House, in the
parish of Winwick, being purchased for the Bishop of
Manchester's Palace. The mansion cost the present
owner, H. K. Lacy, Esq., M.P., £17,000; and it is now
offered for £lO,OOO, and will probably be obtained for
something less.
DURHAM CATHEDRAL .—A number of exquisitely
carved stalls have recently been erected in the choir,
during which operation the slab of Bishop Beaumont has
been discovered. As a specimen of brass work, it must
have been the largest tombstone of its kind in the king-
dom ; but every vestige of the plates is gone, only the
matrices remain.
The Dublin Mail says that the Bishop of Killaloe, Lord
Riversdale, is to be translated to Cork, that the Provost,
Dr. Sadleir, will probably accept the united see of Killaloe
and Clonfert, and that the vacant provostship will be con-
ferred on Dr. Elrington.—[Our contemporary is, in this
instance, misinformed, though he is usually correct. The
appointment has been given to Dr. Wilson, Precentor of
St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin.]
The Rev. Ernest Hawkins, 8.D., Secretary of the So-
ciety for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts,
has just issued a circular to the members, with reference
to its condition :—" During the last four years, it appears,
the annual expenditure has been reduced from £BO,OOO to
little more than £60,000. This reduction has been
effected without recalling or diminishing the salary of a
single missionary. First, by the cessation of payments
which had been guaranteed for a limited time ; second, by
the discontinuance of grants towards the building of
churches and schools ; .third, by withdrawing from the
support of schools and schoolmasters, more especially in
the West Indies."

ORDINATIONS.—On Sunday week ordinations were
held by the Archbishop of Canterbury and by several
other bishops. The following are the numbers ordained :
by the Archbishop of Canterbury, 6 priests, 11 deacons ;
by the Bishop of London, 9 priests, 19 deacons ; by the
Bishop of Worcester, 25 priests, 15 deacons ; by the
Bishop of Gloucester, 9 priests, 4 deacons ; by the Bishop
of Manchester, 11 priests, 11 deacons ; by the Archbishop
of York, 13 priests, 13 deacons ; by the bishop of Oxford,
18 priests, 19 deacons ; by the Bishop of Exeter, 17 priests,
13 deacons ; by the Bishop of Peterborough, 11 priests, 5
deacons ; by the Bishop of Chichester, 8 priests, 5 dea-
cons ; by the Bishop of Ely, 12 priests, 5 deacons ; by the
Bishop of Hereford, S priests, 6 deacons ; by the Bishop
of St. David's, 2 priests, 6 deacons ; by the Bishop of
Lichfield, 21 priests, 26 deacons ; by the Bishop of Lin-
coln, 3 priests, 4 peacons • by the Bishop of Rochester,
10 priests, 8 deacons ; by the Bishop of Ripon, 6 priests,
13 deacons : making a total, by seventeen bishops, of 189
priests and 183 deacons.
CHARGE OF THE BISHOP OF EXETER.—The Lord
Bishop of Exeter commenced his triennial visitation on
Monday last, in the cathedral of Exeter. In his charge
his lordship adverted to the postponement of the Clergy
Offences Bill, and to the proposed insertion in it of a
clause making " the Thirty-nine Articles to be the sole
test of heresy, or false or unsound doctrine, on any points
treated of therein." The articles, his lordship observed,
were designed "for the avoiding of diversities of opinions,
and for establishing consent touching true religion."
They were chiefly employed in declaring the judgment of
the Church of England on the matters then in controversy
with the Church of Rome; together with a disclaimer of
certain unsound tenets, which were maintained by some
ultra Protestants of the day, and with the odium of which
the advocates of Rome were eager to load all her oppo-
nents. Any particular which was not the subject of such
controversy was not set forth in much of detail. At the
time when the articles were drawn up the point on which,
of all others, there was the least of difference, either be-
tween us, or even the German Protestants, and Rome, was
the doctrine of Baptism. The formularies ,set forth in
this country during the reign of Henry the Eighth, the
early confessions of faith of foreign Protestants, on this
great particular all agreed, not only with each other, but
with Rome itself. Of Baptism, every one of them asserted
the cardinal doctrine of its being the blessed instrument in
God's hands of conferring spiritual regeneration. Our
27th article, therefore, having little to controvert, ex-
pressed the same doetrine briefly. The 25th had already
asserted generally of the Sacraments, " that they are sure
witnesses, and effectual signs of grace and God's will to-
wards us, by which He doth work invisibly on us." The
27th said of Baptism, in particular, that it was such an
effectual sign—a sign effecting that of which it is a sign,
namely, " regeneration or new birth." For these and
other reasons, which his lordship stated at great length,
he maintained that, even if the articles were our sole test
of doctrine, they did not afford any real support to the
denial of spiritual regeneration in Baptism. But he must
resist the claim of their being our sole test • he must insist
on the Book of Common Prayer and administration of
Sacraments being at least as authoritative as the articles
themselves. _

THE BISHOP OF MANCHESTER ON EDUCATION.-A
deputation from the dissenters of Manchester waited last
week on the Bishop of Manchester, no doubt with the ex-
pectation of finding his lordship an advocate of merely se-
cular education, but were sadly disappointed. His lord-
ship said that " he could not consent to the exclusion of
all instruction in peculiar religious doctrines. He be-
lieved it was perfectly impossible that any teacher could
gain any living influence over the hearts and minds of his
pupils, if he was interdicted from communicating with them
on the most important subjects. He spoke himself (his
lordship said) from an experience of sixteen years as an
educator ; and he reminded the deputation of the influ-
ence which the late Dr. Arnold gained over his pupils by
his constant appeals to their religious principles. Ad-
mitting that many of the children would elsewhere re-
ceive instruction in the doctrines of the denomination to
which they belonged, were the deputation and their
friends, he asked, prepared to sanction the constant asso-
ciation of young people thus carefully trained, with those
who are under no religious influences whatever ? These
objections his lordship considered fatal to any such scheme
of education as that now proposed. Having thus stated
his views on the plan of the association, the bishop went
on to explain his own opinions on the best mode of
effectively providing for the existing educational destitu-
tion. His lordship observed that in King Edward's School
at Birmingham, with which he had been recently con-
nected, instruction in the doctrines of the Church of Eng-
land was given at fixed periods of the week ; but from at-
tendance on such occasions, the children of dissenting
parents were excused. At the same time, his lordship re-
marked, he had always distinctly stated that he would
never permit himself to be precluded, by the presence of
dissenters, from alluding to any religious matter which
might present itself in the course of a lesson ; he would
never intrude such a remark, but, at the same time, he
would never go out of his way to avoid it. During the
eight years of his residence at Birmingham, he had pupils
of almost every sect, and he never received a complaint
respecting the nature of the religious instruction given in
the school. Now this was a practical proof of the possi-
bility of having a system of education which would be re-
ligious without being exclusive. He would provide
schools in which instruction should be given on the prin-
ciples of the Church of England, while dissenters should
be excused from attendance at the doctrinal lessons ; and
in places where dissenters were numerous, he would also
afford them the means of giving an education in accord-
ance with their own views."