Litchfield enquirer., 1867-11-07
The English Church.


 sessions with closed doors, and dissolved without doing anything. Inasmuch as they had no authority, whatever, to do anything, such result might be deemed unavoidable. The American prelates seem to have been most cordially received, were addressed as Lord Bishops, and made Doc tors of Law by the University of Cam bridge. The politeness shown our chief ministers and the evident desire for friend ly intercourse with the Episcopalians of America we duly appreciate; nevertheless, we confess we do not wish to see too inti- mate an acquaintance.
 In the first place we cannot help think ing that American Protestants should culti- vate home rather than foreign friendships. Charity, reconciliation and fellowship are the prime necessities of our jarring broth erhood of denominations. They have yet to acquire that christian bearing towards each other which is just as much the duty of churches as of individuals. Diametri- cally opposite is the policy that courts al- iance with corrupt Greek church, abroad while it prosecutes for kind of technical trespass, those who associate with reformed churches at home We do not care to abet this class of exclusives in making episcopa- cy of more importance than christianity, or in cutting the acquaintance of the plain American christian for titled foreign cone nection.
 We have another strong objection in the peculiar characteristics of the the Episco- pal clergy of America. Every class of men has it's evil habits and fashions, and those of the Episcopal clergyman often lead him to attack republicanism in attacking Puritan 1sm-to become un-American in becoming Anglican. Every intelligent American knows that during the century of conflict between the English crown and the English people which settled the fate ofrepresenta- tive government in Great Britain, in Amer ica, and perhaps in the world, the clergy of the English church were the biterest politi- cal partizans of despotism. Nevertheless, our Episcopal clergy are too apt to take sides with their church against the funda- mental principles of our national govern ment. We are aware that their Jacobitism is sentiment rather than principle When Bishop Clark speaks of the revolu- tion that overthrow Charles I as the 'sgreat rebellion we must not infer that he favors absolute monarchy any more than we are to suppose that Sir Walter Scott really de- sired the restoration of the Stuarts. Such a sentiment, however, seems to us an in- consistent, disreputable, and dangerous one. We can excuse Land for being a monarchist,a ritualist and persecutor, for much the same reason that we excuse Jug gernaut for being an idol-it was the best the timber was capable of-but thinking their capacity greater, we cannot so easily excuse the Archbishop's American admir- CTS. Few men live who have shown more thorough manliness and patriotism than Bishop Coxe of Western New York; yet no sooner does he strike English ground than he seems no longer his own man-not even Archbishop Hughes, at Rome, could be more completely possessed by his tradi- tions. A denouncer of ritualism at home, abroad, he venerates the memory of Laud; /; thorough republican, here, in En gland he hotly espouses the cause of Charles I and praises everything High Tory and Aristocratic. When such is the effect of the traditions of the mother church on our strongest ministers we may well shun closer connection. One Rome is enough.
 We have hitherto spoken of grounds of objection to the English church common to all genuine Americans. As Q member of the great Radical party, catholic, in whose ranks are to be fonnd Sumner, Bright, and Garabaldi, we reckon the Church of England our political enemy, 8 Conservative machine run in the interests of royalty and aristocracy, the property of the gentry who own all the soil of England and, almost, the people who live on it. In the interests of its owners this Chris tian church fashions it's scale of reciprocal duties thus:-to the ruling aristocracy, charity, the bestowing of liberal doles of soup and cold victuals; to the subject peo- pie, gratitude. In short, it is preaching patience long after patience has ceased to to be virtue. That such church should have been our enemy during the war was unavoidable. They bitterly oppose Prog ress and Progress in America, in these days involves Progress in England, almost as smely as Radical triumph in Pennsylva- mia in October involves Radical triumph in New York in November. It was the downfall of the Rebellion that made the passage of the Reform bill necessity. h. tending, therefore, to do all We can tow ards the overthrow of the English and par ticularly of the Irish Establishment, tow ards bringing the English church to re- liance on the voluntary support of the peo