Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub

dread the effect of any further interference with Church property. But we would say to such persons, with all the respect which is due to them, that the strength of the Church depends on its efficiency-that the blessing of God will go along with a firm resolution to postpone every other consideration to that of providing for the cure of souls, and what is immediately connected with it; and that the spirit of the age-a cold and ungenerous spirit we admit, but one which does prevail-forbids the application of the State's funds to religious purposes until those of the Church herself shall have been made available to the fullest extent. Are we then to see the people perishing before our eyes for lack of knowledge, because the State is illiberal and neglectful of its duties? Surely not: it is our duty, as a Church, to make every possible effort for the salvation of the souls of our brethren, and therein for the salvation of our Church itself, and of the nation. We must here avail ourselves of the sound and weighty words of Mr. Colquhoun :—

"I do not now speak of the want of new churches: I speak of that which is more important, the want of pastors; of men who will tread the lanes and alleys of our cities, dive into the cellars, and garrets, and hovels of the poor. Take them from what class you will, pay them as scantily as you may, but let us have them, and have them now. But who is to feed them? I do not say what the State should do. There is a previous question which your Lordships will feel must be settled. The Church must first do all she can. Has she funds which can be turned to use? She should employ them. Is there a part of her property which can yield an income now wanted? Let it go to the wants of the people. Are there any of her clergy who live in affluent ease? Their superfluity should be applied to feed the hard-working pastor. These changes are reasonable, essential; no time should be lost in making them. Till they are made, the public mind will not be satisfied : nor ought it. The State is not fairly treated, and still less the Church: the authorities in both (pardon me this freedom), have not done their duty.

"If I am asked why I press this on your Lordship, it is not because we fear any indisposition in the country to these reforms. The country is ready for them; nay, is impatient. Nor do we fear the opposition of Parliament. The reception given in the House of Commons to Mr. Horsman's motions on this subject, is a proof of its favourable disposition.

"But we have found, in quarters of the highest authority, a great indisposition to look this question in the face, and to admit that the time had come when it ought to be settled: such parties dread (perhaps it is not unnatural) a new occasion for the interference of Parliament with the revenues of the Church. They fear, that if these are again dealt with, they may be handled roughly.

"If these indeed were ordinary times, and our difficulties such as might be postponed, it might be safe, as no doubt it would be seemly, that your Lordship's government should defer to opinions of so high authority: but it is not safe. What your Lordship has said, in regard to the State, holds much more true in the concerns of the Church. It is not safe, in days of jealous remark, to leave any anomaly or abuse in institutions which we wish should stand. The true strength of the Church is its full efficiency for its highest work. If any dignitary is paid without working, he injures the Church. If he receives an extravagant income, his superfluity is not only a waste, but a hazard; for it points against the Church an artillery of public attack, and weakens its strength in public regard. No doubt it is hazardous to touch these questions; but it is ruinous to evade them. Therefore it is that we entreat your Lordship rather to look to the signs of the times, than to defer to authority, however grave. The dissatisfaction caused by the anomalies that prevail in the Church is deep; it is widely spread among the clergy; it is shared by the laity; and it is felt the most by those who are the warmest friends of the Church."

It is plain, from all that is passing before us, that the time is coming for an extensive rearrangement of Ecclesiastical property. The public mind is quite ripe for measures of this kind: and they cannot be long delayed. It remains, therefore, for those who are desirous of seeing the Church made more really efficient, to take all opportunities in their power for bringing forward and urging those points which are of the highest importance, and which are in danger of being forgotten. Some of those who are loudest and most persevering in their attacks upon Church defects or abuses, look only to increase the numbers of the parochial clergy, and are wholly indifferent or else hostile to any such increase in the hierarchy, as would be essential to the efficiency of the Church. Such statesmen as Sir James Graham, look on the bishop's office as little more than a sinecure. Now, where such gross errors are prevalent amongst public men, who will have to decide on Church questions, most assuredly it is the urgent duty of Churchmen to ask, and urge, and petition again and again, for what they believe essential to the proper working of her Church. If every man who wishes for an increase in the episcopate does not petition Parliament or his bishop on the subject, he may have to reflect hereafter, that his apathy or negligence may have been the cause of the Church's want of success in asking for what is indispensable to her. These Church questions are such, that activity on the part of Churchmen is certain to lead to a successful issue. Let them only push forward their claims, with sufficient unanimity, and they cannot fail, in the long run, to obtain what they seek for.

We trust that Churchmen will not lose sight of the necessity of petitioning for an addition to the episcopate. This question is at present in abeyance, owing to the opposition of a small knot of radicals to Lord John Russell's proposal for adding four new sees. The opposition has not been forgotten, and the minister apparently dreads to bring forward his proposal again. But will the Church let the question go to rest, or be content to depend on the convenience of Lord John Russell in a matter of this kind? We trust we may say, that such will not be the case. The Church Unions, at least, are pledged to bring it forward; and this will secure its not being altogether forgotten and put aside. They are not dependent on the ministry of the day; and whether that ministry be Whig, or Peelite, or Protectionist, they will look to the accomplishment of Church objects.

There are two questions of vital importance, which the Plan takes no notice of, and on which Mr. Colquhoun's pamphlet is also silent. We refer to the necessity of obtaining some additional securities from the Crown, that persons appointed to the episcopal office shall possess fitting qualifications-that this important office shall not be made the reward of mere political and family services, or a means of gratifying any body or set of men ; but that religious qualifications shall be sought for that a person to be named a bishop, shall be chosen with as much care for his fitness and efficiency, as the general of an army, or a judge in one of the courts of law.

The other question on which the Plan is silent, is that which is perhaps, more than any other, essentially connected with the reform of our discipline. We refer to the question of Church legislation. Plausible as might have been in former times the theory of those who would represent Parliament as the sole and sufficient legislative body in Church matters, to talk of any such theory now as applicable to our condition, would be perfectly absurd, when Parliament comprises sectarians of all kinds, including Romanists. There are many subjects of the very highest importance, which it would be absolute profanation to bring before such an assembly. Legislation, therefore, except on the merest externals of discipline, is impossible; and even these are put off and neglected amidst the crush of worldly and political business. The Church, in any of her more delicate and sacred interests, cannot obtain a hearing in Parliament. The atmosphere is unsuited to them. We have therefore only to seek for the restitution of an Ecclesiastical legislature, in such a shape as is suited to the present age. We have perused on this subject a very interesting and valuable pamphlet, the title of which will be found at the head of these pages, and which brings together the

sentiments of men of all schools in the Church, in favour of some revival of synodal meetings. Mr. Wright is an advocate, under certain limitations, for the admission of the laity into Ecclesiastical synods, which is actually carried out in the American Church. The desirableness of any such arrangement depends wholly, in our opinion, on the principle of selection; for the presence of lay deputies elected by universal suffrage, without regard to qualifications, might be just as mischievous, as the presence of faithful and religious laymen would be beneficial. Every thing here depends on details. We recommend Mr. Wright's pamphlet to the attention of the clergy.

ART. IV.-Histoire des Girondins, par MONSIEUR DE LAMARTINE. 8 vols. Paris, 1848.

THE Princesse de Lamballe had excited some pity in the bosom of the brutal ruffians Hébert and Lhuilier, who presided over that bloody mockery of a tribunal which God, in his inscrutable wisdom, permitted to scourge Paris in the month of September, 1792.

The extraordinary beauty, the mixed courage and gentleness, the noble bearing, and the winning graces of this "angelic apparition," so wrought upon these butchers, travestying the part of judges, that they sought to spare her life.

A man placing his hand on her lips, to stifle the exclamation of horror which the fear of death could not suppress, conducted her with difficulty over a heap of mangled carcases; and the peril seemed to have been passed, when a barber-boy, "drunken with wine and carnage," raised with the point of his pike the cap which covered the princesse's head, and, in doing so, drew blood from her forehead: the accident was fatal to her. At the sight of blood, the murderers who stood by rushed with the real glee of cannibals upon this image of unoffending loveliness, and tore it in pieces, with those circumstances of unheard-of and ferocious cruelty, which it was reserved for the actors in the French Revolution to invent and to exercise.

This is one, and not the least striking, of the terrible incidents in the appalling History before us; and it is one which the characteristic excellences of M. De Lamartine's style place in full relief before our eyes. (1. 25. c. 16, 17.)

When we heard that the publication of the work before us had greatly contributed to produce the Revolution which France has undergone, our astonishment was most unfeigned, and our thoughts involuntarily turned to the scene which we have just described as the only imaginable solution of so strange a phenomenon. It is not only "the sight of means to do ill-deeds" that "makes ill-deeds done; the recital has upon certain minds the same effect: the publicity given by the newspapers to acts of extraordinary atrocity, is known to fill some minds with a kind of frenzy to commit the same. We remember being told by a person, who discharged the duties of Under-Secretary of State with honour to himself and advantage to the country, that the police thought they could

« AnteriorContinuar »