The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1850-02-19 00:00:00

TUE LIVERPOOL STANDAIth.

wedding ring upon her finger, and that a portion of the
clothing, though still in excellent condition, was slightly
worn in several places, added that he had been subject to
great expense, trouble, and annoyance from the unplea-
sant position in which he had been placed, and had been
compelled to come up expressly to town, leaving his
patients in the country wholly unattended to, that he
might be put in the way of adopting some measure by
which this, to him, harassing affair, might be brought to
a satisfactory conclusion.

Mr. Hammitt said it was certainly a very singular and
unusual application, and he regretted exceedingly that he
could not render the gentleman any effectual assistance,
but he would suggest that the best course for the appli-
cant to pursue would be to place the infant in the hands
of the officers of the parish in whose district it had been
abandoned, and they, he had no doubt, would take such
steps as would release him from all further responsibility,
and very probably lead to the discovery of the person
who had abandoned the child to the care of strangers in
such an unnatural manner.

The applicant thanked the magistrate for his advice,
and retired.

THE ARTICLES

AND LITURGY OF THE

CHURCH

A remarkable and very important document has just
been brought to light, which, had it sooner appeared, must
have had some influence on the decision of the Judicial
Committee of the Privy Council, in the case of Mr.
Gorham v. the Bishop of Exeter. And we feel the less
difficulty in alluding to it now, inasmuch as it tends to
confirm, and not to shake, that which is believed to have
been already decided.
The document to which we allude is a hitherto unpub-
lished letter written by Peter Martyr, Regius Divinity
Professor at Oxford, to Bullinger, the Reformer, at
Zurich, and bearing date " June 14, 1552." By some
fresh researches in the Zurich collection it has been dis-
covered, and is now given to the public under the editor-
ship of the Rev. W. Goode, rector of Allhallows, London.
The question on which this fetter bears, and on which
its testimony is invaluable, is this—whether the Liturgy
of the Church of England is to be interpreted by the
Articles, or the Articles by the Liturgy ? The position
taken by the advocates of the Bishop of Exeter, in the late
pleadings, was, that the statements of the Thirty-nine
Articles were to be modified and interpreted by the
expressions on kindred subjects found in the Prayer Book.
Now the testimony of Peter Martyr, as an eye-witness
to the construction of both the Liturgy and the Articles,
is of the highest value. He was placed by Archbishop
Crammer in the elevated position of Regius Professor of
Divinity at Oxford, and thus enjoyed the best opportunity
of observing the real state of parties in the church at that
critical period. _

Now, the letter before us was written just after the
publication of the Second Prayer Book of Edward VI.,
which passed through parliament in April, 1552, while
this letter bears date June 14. And accordingly it states,
" that the Book or Order of Ecclesiastical Rites and the
Administration of the Sacraments is reformed, for all
things are removed from it which could nourish super-
stition."

But the Articles were not yet settled or made public.
Delays were interposed, disputes about this very matter
of baptism were rife, and it was not till May, 1553, nearly
one year after the letter now before us was written, that
the Articles came forth. The Prayer Book, then, was
first published' and afterwards the Articles. The first
publication, then, could not be meant as an interpreter of
the second, which had not yet any existence. So far we
have already reached.

But Peter Martyr, in the letter before us, shows us
more than this. He shows us that a controversy was then
raging in the bosom of the Church, exactly similar to that
which rages now. And he shows us, too, by the plainest
inferences, what was the judgment of those with whom he
acted, and whose confidence he enjoyed—the Cranmers
and Ridleys—who constructed both our Articles and our
Prayer Book. His letter gives us the following details.
He had first told us that the Prayer Book had been set-
tled, " all things being removed from it which could
nourish superstition." Such was the hope and belief of
its authors, or rather editors. But questions still arose..
For we are told :

" That the subject of the Sacraments stood in the way ; not
truly as far as regards transubstantiation, or the real presence
(so to speak) either in the bread or in the wine, since, thanks'
be to God, concerning these things there seems to be now no
controversy as it regards those who profess the Gospel ;• but
whether grace is conferred by virtue of the Sacraments is a
point about which many are in doubt. And there have been
some who have altogether held' the affirmative, and were desi-
rous that this doctrine should be established by public autho-
rity. But when others clearly saw how many superst;tions
such a determination would bringwith it they made it a pri-
mary point to endeavour in all ways to show that nothing more
is to be granted to the Sacraments than to the external word of
God ; for by both these kinds of word is signified and shown
to us the salvation obtained for us through Christ, which as
many are made partakers of as believe these words and .signs,
not, mdeed, by the virtue of the words or of the Sacraments,
but by the efficacy of faith. Moreover, it was added that it
was impossible that the Sacraments should beworthily received,
unless those who receive them have beforehand that which is
signified by them ; for unless faith' is present they are always
received unworthily ; but if they who come to the Sacraments
are endued with faith they. have already received through faith
the grace which is proclaimed' to us in the Sacraments, and
then the reception and use of the Sacraments is the seal and
obsignation of the promise already apprehended. And as the
external words of God avail to the quickening and exciting our
faith which is often torpid, and'in a manner laid asleep in us,
this same thing also the Sacraments can effect by the power of
the Holy Spirit, and their use is of no little benefit to confirm
our minds, otherwise weak, concerning the promises and the
grace of God. But in the case of children, when they are
baptised, since, on account of their age, they cannot have that
assent to the Divine promises which is faith, in them the Sacra-
ment effects this, that pardon of original sin, reconciliation
with God, and the grace of the Holy Spirit, bestowedon them
through Christ, is sEALEmin them, and that those belonging
already to the Church are-also visibly implanted in it."
We thus find the very same controversy existing in the
Church in 1550, which exists equally in 1850: But we
find also, that the Oxford Regius Professor, possessing
the full confidence of the heads of the Church, declares
against that ultra view which was then, and is now, endea-
voured to be foisted into the Church,—of the ear opere
operato grace of the Sacraments. And now let us remem-
ber. for it is the important part of the case—that all this
while the Articles were under discussion. The strife of
this controversy naturally delayed them. But in the year
following the writing of this letter, those Articles, the
doctrinal standard of our faith, appeared, and it is impos-
sible not to see, that, under these circumstances, we have
in the Articles the Church's determination of the baptis-
mal question. They were framed after the Prayer Book
had appeared, and after a question had been raised—as it
is now raised—concerning the meaning of some expres-
sions in that Prayer Book. It is inevitable, therefore,
that in them we must find the Church's final decision;
both because they were last framed and promulgated, and
because they were drawn up expressly as a standard and
dogmatic declaration of the Church's faith.

I lance to be carried forward to assist the June half-year
will not exceed £45,000. The balance hitherto carried
forward to the June account has been about £70,000. A
dividend at the rate of 5 per cent. per annum would leave
a balance of £89,000 for the June six months.' The ba-
lance carried forward by the London and North-Western
Company from the. December half-year has never been
less than £70,000. If, therefore, a dividend at the rate
of 51 per cent. per annum should be asked for by the
shareholders—for we believe the directors are likely to
recommend a 5 per cent. dividend—the probability is that
the next June dividend would beat the rate of 4} per cent.
per annum, unless the large increase of traffic which has
come upon the railway since the commencement of the
year should be maintained through the current six months.
[The report of the committee has since been published,
and it appears that the dividend will be 51 per cent.]

A TALE OF MYSTERY,

It may be remembered that we gave a week or two
since a report from the Berkshire Chronicle of the open-
ing of a grave wherein a young female had been recently
buried, and the charge brought against a young man, who
had been engaged to the deceased, of being concerned in,
the violation of the tomb. Doubtless the following case,
which was brought before the sitting Alderman at the
London Mansion House last week, has reference to these
singular proceedings. A young man of respectable ap-
pearance, who gave his name and address to Alderman
Carden, applied to him for advice.
He had, he said, written to the Secretary of State for
advice in what manner to proceed in a case which had in
the part of the country in which it occurred excited a great
deal of surmise and conversation. A lady to whom he was
to have been suited in marriage suddenly died about the
middle of January. He had been for some time paying his
addresses to her, and the marriage was to have taken
place in a few days, but her mother and stepfather, who
were opposed to the match, had placed her under violent
constraint, and the rapid approach of death, together
with a variety of circumstances connected with that event,
led to the suspicion that the patient had been prematurely
hurried out of the world. The belief that the unfortunate
young lady had not died a natural death gained ground
from the fact, that one of the domestics who had whis-
pered that she had been cruelly beaten by her mother, and
that her father-in-law had sworn that he would hang her
rather than that the marriage should take place, was dis-
missed from the service. Shocked and afflicted' by such
intelligence, the applicant represented the various matters
which had come to his- knowledge to the coroner, who
was disinclined to hold an inquest on the body unless for-
tified by the opinion of the medical attendant of the de-
ceased ; but the physicians upon being waited upon, de-
clined giving a certificate as to the necessity of such a
proceeding. Several of the residents of the neighbour-
hood joined in a requisition to the coroner upon the sub-
ject, on the ground of public/justice; but whether an im-
proper influence had been exercised for the purpose of
stopping inquiry, or means of prevention had been adopted
in any other way, certain it was that the coroner perse-
vered in his determination not to summon a jury to in-
quire into the remarkable circumstances of the case.

Alderman Carden : What was the opinion of the med
cal man who attended the deceased ?

The Applicant: He said that she died of a disease of the
brain. I had not seen her for six weeks before she was
taken ill, and she died three clays after her first attack.
Alderman Carden : Had she any property ?
The Applicant : She was to have come in for some pro-
perty in a very short time, and-she was about twenty-seven
years of age. The property she was to have inherited
from her father. Sir George Grey, upon reading my
statement of the facts which Vhave represented, advised
me to apply to the magistrates;: but I apprehend that an
application to them would not be so effective as an appli-
cation to the Lord Mayor or his-representative, and I,
therefore,. determined to come here. It is necessary that
I should state one fact of a singular nature. The vault in
which the deceased was buried was opened in the night,
and next day I was charged as one of the violators of the
sepulchre.

Alderman Carden : It is quite impossible that the Lord
Mayor could interfere in a matter of such a nature wholly
out of his- jurisdiction. I would have you apply to the
magistrates of the district in which the lady died, if you
are not satisfied with the result of your appeal to the co-
roner and' the medical man, and; nave no doubt that due
attention will be paid to you in such a case by every gen-
tleman in the commission of the•peace..