The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1850-04-23 00:00:00

The Bishop of Bath and Wells has issued a declaration,
" being deeply impressed with the great disquietude
which prevails within the said diocese," in ;Consequence
of the late decision of the Privy Council. It is a short
document, and concludes thus:—" We do hereby
solemnly declare, that it is the doctrine of the Church of
England, as of the whole Church of Christ, in all ages,
that original sin is remitted to all infants by the applica-
tion of the merits of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Chirist,
in and by the sacrament of baptism ; and that it is the
plain teaching of the Church of England that all infants
are made members of Christ, children of God, and
inheritors of the kingdom of Heaven,' in and by that holy
sacrament."
One hundred and eighteen clergymen of the diocese of
Lincoln have transmitted, through their Bisbop, a peti-
tion to the Archbishop of Canterbury to request his
Grace to represent the feelings of the petitioners and of
an increasing number of members of the English Church,
in favour of the issuing of a license to convocation to as-
semble to deliberate upon the appointment of a proper
tribunal in cases of heresy. The Archbishop declines to
take this course because from reading the annals of for-
mer convocations he is certain, " that the meeting of such
a Synod for deliberation would tend to Inflame rather
than to moderate feelings which are already too much
excited, and increase the difficulty of restoring that peace
to the Church of which we so greatly stand in need."
The Times, in a conspicuous article, thoroughly iden-
tifies itself with Mr. Gorham and his friends. It con-
cludes with the following advice :—" It will very soon be
felt by all parties that the decision of the Council must be
accepted, whether for better or for worse. Probably no-
thing will have so much tended to give firmness to the
Government, to the Primate, or to the Bishops, than that
calmness in the great body of the church which is above
all others the sign to cautious and reflecting minds of a

consciousness of strength. It would have been unwise
and uncharitable, by a counter-agitation, to have renewed
the struggles of this unfortunate controversy. We ad-
vise, by all means, the provincial, moderate, or evange-
lical party, to follow the course adopted in the metropo-
lis. They have no ground to fear, that if there be cause
to agitate, there will not be many in London quite ready
to recommend and to guide the movement."

CHURCH COLONISATION.—THE CANTERBURY SET-
TLEMENT.—A public meeting was held on Wednesday, at
St. Martin's Hall, Long-acre, London, for the purpose of
giving information concerning the objects, plans, pro-
gress, and prosperity of this new colonising enterprise.
The meeting was very numerously and respectably atten-
ded. The chair was taken by the Right Hon. Lord Lyt-
tleton, and the following, among other noblemen and
gentlemen, supported the noble lord on the occasion :
The Bishops of Exeter, Oxford, Norwich, and Down ;
Earl Talbot, Lord Courtenay, Lord Wodehouse, Lord
A. Hervey, M.P. ; the Right Honourable Sydney Her-
bert, M.P., H. K. Seymer, M.P., C. B. Adderley, M.P.,
J. Simeon, M.P., T. S. Cocks, M.P., the Right Hon.
H. C. Fortescue, M.P., W. Hutt, M.P., W. H. Carew,
M.P., G. Dundas, M.P., H. Tancred, M.P., S. Mock,
M P., W. Cubitt, M.P., Sir W. James, the Ven. Arch.
deacon Wilberforce, the Rev. G. R. Gleig, and the Rev.
E. Hawkins. Several interesting speeches were made,
and resolutions passed in favour of the Canterbury set-
tlement in New Zealand:

STATE OF THE CHURCH AND DISSENT IN WALES.—
ID the early part of this session a printed return was
issued by the House of Commons, showing the number
of Churches and Chapels attached to the Established
Church in each of the four Welsh dioceses, and the num-
ber of services performed in each, distinguishing the
Welsh from the English. In the last two numbers of
the weekly papers published in the Principality, this re-
turn is noticed ; commencing with the diocese of Llan-
daff, eleven parishes are taken alphabetically, and the
result is as follows :--Number of Churches, twenty-one;
total number of services in the Churches every Sunday,
thirty-one; of which twenty are performed in the Eng-
lish language, and only eight in the Welsh language,
three services being performed alternately i.nce a fort-
night, in Welsh and English. Annexed to each parish
is an account of the spiritual provision afforded by the
Dissenting community for the natives of the country, by
which it appears that there are in these eleven parishes
fifty-seven Dissenting places of worship, in which there
are one hundred and eleven Sunday services, ninety-nine
of which are performed in the Welsh language, in addi-
tion to one hundred and ten weekly services it the same
parishes, provided by the Dissenters, ninety-eight of
which are performed in the Welsh language, and twelve
in the English. These tables are to be continued weekly.
LORD CAMPBELL AND MISS SELLON.—MISS Sellon
has addressed the following additional letter to Lord
Campbell:—

"The Orphans' Home, St. Peter's,
Plymouth, April 16.
"My Lord,—l am very much surprised and pained to hear
that my letters to you have been published.
" If your Lordship had thought it advisable that any public
statement should have been made regarding the subject on
which they were written, this could easily have been done in
another form; but those letters were addressed simply to your
own heart, and coming from the fulness of mine, were such as
I should not have shown to others. They were a sacred mat-
ter between your conscience and my own and our God; and
are, I need scarcely observe, singularly unfitted for the columns
of a newspaper.

It is not the first time that I have had cause to remonstrate
at the way in which my private words have been made public
by others ; I would, my Lord, that you, and all to whom I
write, would recollect that my letters are written only for those
to whom they are addressed, and that I claim the courtesy
most especially due to a woman in requiring that they should
not be published without my knowledge and permission.
" I own, my Lord, that I am rather indignant with you, but
I am still

"Yours humbly and affectionately,
"P. LYDIA,
"The Mother Supr. of the Sisters of Mercy "
The Times expresses a hope that. Lord Campbell's
answers, which it describes as " a masterpiece of temper,
good sense, and grave remonstrance, will have their effect
upon other persons besides Miss Sellon, whose conduct,
it says, "would be the height of impertinence if it were
not the height of bigotry."
THE SCOTTISH EPISCOPALIAN CHURCH.—In what light
the Ultra-Tractarians looklupon the Scottish Episcopalian
Church is now manifest, from the circumstance that the
Rev. C. Marriott—(the companion of Mr. Allies in his
journalised travels)—lately told his hearers, in a sermon
preached at Margaret-street chapel, that, if they contem-
plated secession, it were, perhaps, better the secession
should be, not to Rome, but to the Scottish Episcopalian
Church. When we have spoken of such secessions, we
have been told they were impossible, because the Church
of England and the Episcopalians in Scotland belonged to
one and the same community of faith. The contrary is
now fully acknowledged.—Church and State Gazette.
In Mr. Maskell's " Second Letter on the Present Posi-
tion of the High Church Party in the Church of England,"
he owns his former convictions as to the exclusion of Mr.
Gorham's doctrines by the formularies of the English
Church to have been shaken by a more intimate acquaint-
ance with the divines of the age of Elizabeth, as well as
by some of the arguments adduced by Mr. Turner. He
also has been much affected by the heretical character of
of the articles of the Irish Church of 1615, which are still
(with the English thirty-nine) the standard of doctrine of
that communion. Such accusations of the English Church
might have been made a year ago. Accepting the decision
of the judicial committee as " probably correct and true,"
Mr. Maskell further declares that the questions of rege-
neration and the supremacy are not all the difficulties of
our position ; he complains of the many essential doctrines
of the christian faith which are only received as matters
of opinion," not taught as doctrines among us. And,
avowing his belief that the evangelical party, as well as
that which is opposed to them, carry out the spirit and
system of the reformation, he declines any further strug-
gle on the side of which he has been a hearty supporter.
TRACTARIAN DEFEAT.—A meeting was held on Thurs-
day, the 18th, at the Rectory House, Stepney, the Rector
in the chair, convened by circulars to the clergy of the
several parishes, formerly within the limits of Stebon-
heath, to take into consideration the propriety of an ad-
dress of thanks to the Bishop of London, for the part his
lordship had taken in the late decision of the Privy Coun-
cil, in the case of " Gorham v. the Bishop of Exeter."
The sddress was moved by the Rev. T. T. Bazeley, rector
of Poplar, who assailed the judgment of the Council in
most violent language, anathematising it and all who took
part in it, and was seconded by the Rev. Bryan King,
rector of St. George's in the East. An amendment was
then moved by the Rev. W. W. Champneys, the rector of
Whitechapel, seconded by the Rev. James Williams, mi-
nister of Ratcliffe, Middlesex, to the effect that it would
be unwise to disturb the peace of the church by party ad-
dresses got up either to the bishop of the diocese (Lon-
don), or to the venerated archbishop of the province.
After a good deal of warm discussion the amendment was
carried by a majority of 2, the numbers being for the ad-
dress 24, for the amendment 26. The chairman, the
Rev. R. Lee, then gave his vote in favour of the address,
and also his vote as chairman, thus equalising the num-
bers. The Tractarian party were manifestly much mor-
tified at their defeat, having calculated on a large majority
from Bethnal-green, their stronghold.
A HARMLESS PROTEST.—At the visitation held by the
Archdeacon of Suffolk, at Ipswich, the sermon has usually
been delivered in the church of St. Mary-le-Tower : on
the last occasion, however, the incumbent, the Rev. W.
N. St. Leger, (as our readers know) entered a protest
against its being preached by Mr. Lumsden, on the
ground that that gentleman, at a meeting of the Colonial
Church Society, declared his approval of Mr. Gorham's
doctrine, and his confidence in the committee of privy
council. The archdeacon having declined to notice the
protest, Mr. St. Leger issued a declaration to the effect
that he will not admit Mr. Lumsden into his pulpit. The
archdeacon asserted the right to hold the Vsitation, and
to appoint the proacher without the incumbent's consent;
but, says the Ipswich Chronicle :—" With the view to
avoid unnecessary unpleasantness, in consequence of the
protest of the rev. incumbent of St. Mary-le-Tower,
Ipswich, it was arranged, we are told, that the visitation
should be held in St. Margaret's Church ; but, the matter
having reached the ears of the Bishop of Norwich, a man-
date was issued by his lordship directing that the cere-
mony should be observed at the Tower Church as hereto-
fore.', Accordingly the church was opened on Friday,
when Mr. St. Leger read the prayers, and at the close
read a formal protest against the visitation sermon being
preached in his church by Mr. Lumsden. He then de-
scended to the vestry, removed his surplice, and immedi-
ately left the church. Mr. Lumsden preached without
making any allusion to the circumstance.
INCONSISTENCY OF THE BISHOP OF EXETER.—The
Church and State Gazette very properly remarks that
" the Privy Council, without at all declaring itself in
favour of Mr. Gorham's peculiar tenets, pronounced a
sanction of his suit as far as his right to institution to the
living of Brampford Speke was concerned. Thereupon,
we have heard her Majesty, the two primates, and the
entire consenting members of the Judicial Committee,
branded as heretics with whom no good churchman may
hold communion, and from whom no church institution
may accept:service ! But even more than this, the Bishop
of Exeter :himself, irate at his defeat, allows neither con-
science,.honesty, nor capacity, to the tribunal which calls
upon him'to respect the law as it exists, and, we may add,
.which does .not ;moot him from doing his utmost .to I