The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1851-04-22 00:00:00

CLERICAL INTELLIGENCE

The Bishop of Durham attained his eighty-first year on
Sunday last. His lordship was in excellent health, and
will shortly leave Aucland Castle for London.
The Rev. J. Garbett, M.A., Professor of Poetry in the
University of Oxford, and Rector of Clayton, Sussex, has
been appointed to the Archdeaconry of Chichester, vacant
by the resignation of the Rev. H. E. Manning.
The Rev. F. A. Power, Incumbent of Bevington, Li-
verpool, has written to the Morning Chronicle, avowing
himself the author of the conversation alluded to in the
recent letter of the Rev. Cecil Wray, but at the same time
adding :—" I know nothing whatever of the designs of
Lord Ashley's association by any private or secret com-
munications. What I did state had reference to my own
opinions, and perhaps, wishes."—Mr. Wray implied that.
from a conversation which he had bad with a Liverpool
incumbent, Lord Ashley's association contemplated an
alteration in the Prayer Book.
THE NATIONAL SOCIETY.—The Rev. G. A. Denison
has given notice of his intention to move the following
resolution at the ensuing annual meeting of the National
Society :—" That this meeting deeply regret that her
Majesty's Government continue to disallow the equitabl!
claim

of members of the Church of England, as set forth
in the resolution of the annual meeting of this society,
June 6, 1849 ; that those founders of Church Schools
who see fit 'to place-the management of their schools
solely in the clergyman of the parish and the bishop of
the diocese' should not, on that account, be excluded from
State assistance towards the building of their_schools.'?-

TRACTARIAN DEFERENCE TO EPISCOPACY.-The
Bishop of Ripon, in a letter just published with reference
to the recent secessions at St. Saviour's, Leeds, says,—
" That innovations in matters of ritual do oftentimes go
hand in hand with errors in doctrine, has been abundantly
proved in the recent instance of St. Saviour's. After
the difficulties with which I have had to contend in my
constant endeavours to counteract their evil inilnence,
and the unceasing opposition I have had to encounter in
these efforts, some of you are already informed ; an4l you
will have ample opportunity of judging of their nature
when when I shall have given the whole church (as I am
on the point of doing) an insight into the history of St.
Saviour's from its first commencement down to the recent
proceedings connected with it. The publication of this
document has been delayed only by reason of the pend-
kg appeal to the Metropolitan.''

THE BISHOP OF EXETER'S PASTORAL.—IIis lordship
has taken the field again. In lieu of an oral charge at h s
triennial visitation, he has put forward a " pastoral letter"
to the clergy of his diocese, " on the present state of the
church." In this polemical epistle, the bishop justiff-s
his having formerly declared that he could no longer hold
communion with his metropolitan, by explicitly charging
the most reverend prelate with having become a " Minor
of heretical tenets." Not content with denouncing and
challenging the archbishop, lie proceeds to produce in-
stances, private as well as public, of what he (the Bishop
of Exeter) deems glaring instances of unsound doctrine
among others of the episcopal bench ; and he then lays
down, literally ex-cathedra, the Anglican doctrine on the
mediation of saints, the Eucharistic sacrifice, and the
doctrine of absolution, together with authorities for the
practice of what is called auricular confession, as distinct
from compulsory confession. He warns his clergy of the
necessity, now more than ever inc mbent on them, .• of
teaching high Catholic truth ;" disavowing the adequacy
of the phrase " Protestant faith ;" and urging, that it is
by no means the first duty of the clergy to preach against
Romish or any other errors, but to bring up their flocks
in positive truth, especially in those articles of the Creed
which are now popularly assaulted under the name of the
" Sacramental System," upon the practical value of
which the pastoral enlarges with much emphasis. The
bishop then takes up the recent address of the archbishops
and bishops, and explains, at great length, his reasons for
not concurring with the great majority of the bench in its
statements, the truth of which it impugns. But the most
important matter treated of in this pastoral is the convo-
cation of a diocesan synod, upon which the bishop has
determined, with a view to obtain the support of his
clergy in his protest against the archbishop's instituting
" a presbyter condemned by the authorities of the church."
" It is," says the bishop, " my purpose—the execution
of which Las been delayed by me till the present occasion
—to invite you, immediately after the close of my visita-
tion, to meet me in a diocesan synod at the cathedral city,
and there to call on you to express or refuse your concur-
rence with me in a declaration that we adhere, and, by
the blessing of God, will continue to adhere, faithfully
and at every hazard, to the article of the creed, ' I ac-
knowledge one baptism for the remission of sin,' which
article we consider to have been virtually denied when her
Majesty decided, as she did, on the report and recommen-
dation of the judicial committee of the privy council. Let
me, in the outset, have the satisfaction of informing you
that, as we should not attempt (nor, indeed, wish) to
make canons binding even on ourselves, there will be no
doubt of the entire lawfulness of such a synod. I have
sought and obtained the highest legal authority to assure
us on this point, and, in seeking that authority, I espe-
cially drew attention to the necessity of the synod being
composed mainly of representatives, elected by the clergy
of the different deaneries. This, I rejoice to be told, will
not make the legality of our meeting at all doubtful."
The Church and State Gazette, in an article on this
miiancholy exhibition of episcopal rancour, says :—" Of
the literary merits of the " Pastoral" itself we can hardly
speak too highly ; but able as it is, and well-meant as it
may be, it is a perfect firebrand, red hot with malevolence,
and full of an incendiary spirit of rebellion against archie-
piscopal interferenc with individual bishops. Good it
cannot do ; but it. may act in an opposite direction with
regard to the Church, and may also bring unforeseen
consequences upon the writer of it. The prolected Dio-
cesan Synod, of the legality of which the bishop pro.
fesses to be convinced, will probably accelerate the crisis
which has been so long threatening."