Imatges de pàgina
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THE Bishop of Peterborough (Dr. MARSH) seems to be determined that his episcopate shall not be inactive or undistinguished. A case lately occurred at Wellingborough, in which it appeared that he was understood by the clergyman to forbid the tolling of a bell at the funeral of a Dissenter. We do not know whether we respect less the consistency of the Dissenter that requires this obsolete su perstition, or the intolerance that commands it to be withholden. But it is not towards Dissenters only that the Bishop exercises rigorous discipline. From a pamphlet lately published ("A Statement of Two Cases decided in Trinity Term, 1824; the one in the Court of King's Bench, the King v. the Bishop of Peter

£264,419,000

borough; the other in the Arches Court of Canterbury, Gates v. the Rev. J. Chambers, clerk, 8vo.) it appears that Mr. Wetherell, the Rector of Byfield, Northumberland, engaged a Mr. Paris as a curate at a salary of £100. per annum, and on applying to the Bishop for a license, received it, but with an increase of salary to Mr. Paris, on the Bishop's appointment, of £20. per annum. Against this Mr. Wetherell protested, but in vain; the Bishop asserted his power to act as he had done by the Act of 57 Geo. III. His lordship went further. Mr. Wetherell having given Mr. Paris notice to quit the curacy, the Bishop insisted that the curate could not be removed without his consent, and threatened a sequestration

of the benefice unless the augmented salary was paid to Mr. Paris as curate. Hereupon the Rector, encouraged by his legal advisers, appealed to the Court of King's Bench and obtained a writ of prohibition to restrain the Bishop's proceed -ings. The second case in the pamphlet arose out of the first. While the cause was pending in the King's Bench, Mr. Wetherell engaged his friend Mr. Chambers to take the morning duty for one Sunday, at Byfield, in his absence. Mr. Chambers officiated, but not without a protest on the part of Mr. Paris. Presently, the Bishop's Secretary, Mr. Gates, cited Mr. Chambers to appear in the Court of Arches for a breach of the 48th Canon. On reading Mr. Chambers's allegation in answer to the articles exhibited, Sir JOHN NICHOLL made some remarks which induced the Bishop's Secretary to withdraw the articles and sit down with the costs. Even Sylvanus Urban takes part against the Bishop. [See Gent. Mag. for April, Vol. XVIII. N. S. p. 341.]

Dr. IRELAND, the Dean of Westminster, has recently placed at the disposal of the University of Oxford, the sum of £3000 for the purpose of endowing three scho. larships: the nature of the Examinations, and the nomination of Examiners, to be left entirely to the decision of the University.

On Sunday, March 27, the Rev. JOHN INGLIS, D.D., Ecclesiastical Commissary in the diocese of Nova Scotia, was conse

crated at Lambeth, by the Archbishop of Canterbury, to the bishopric of that diocese, on the resignation of the Right Rev. Bishop Stanser. The sermon was preached by the Rev. A. Hamilton, Secretary to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts.

PARLIAMENTARY.
HOUSE OF COMMONS.
MAR. 17.

Clergymen holding Lay-Offices.
Mr. HUME made a few observations
upon the impropriety of clergymen hold-
ing lay-offices, and mixing themselves up
in secular affairs. To obtain some offi.
cial information on this subject, which
was one of a most interesting nature, he
should move-"That an humble Ad-
dress be presented to his Majesty, praying
for a return of all persons, in Holy Or-
ders, in borough corporations or cities,
with their names, the name of the office,
the names of the boroughs or cities, whe-
ther they have any benefices, and how
many, and whether they reside on their
benefices or not."

VOL. XX.

3 т

Dr. PHILLIMORE opposed the motion, which he considered at the best as unne.

cessary.

Mr. JOHN SMITH was of a different opinion. themselves improperly in such offices, If the clergy had conducted that would be a matter for the future consideration of the Legislature.

Mr. PEEL thought the reason just given by the Honourable Member for Midhurst in favour of the motion, disclosed its real object, and was the strongest that could be urged in opposition to it. If it was the intention of the Honourable Member for Aberdeen to obtain a vote of this House on the present motion, impliedly declaring its opiuion that clergymen ought not to hold borough offices, he must say, that such a method of obtaining the opinion was the least correct that could be adopted. If the Honourable Member wished to disqualify clergymen from holding such offices, let him do so by bill, in which they could have the assistance of the other branch of the Legislature, and not in the form of the present motion, in which the disqualification would be by implication alone.

Mr. F. PALMER observed, that it would be impossible to bring in such a Bill as the Right Honourable Gentleman recommended, unless the previous return for which his Honourable Friend moved were laid before the House. He therefore supported the motion.

Mr. CARUS WILSON opposed the mo

tion.

Mr. WYNN opposed the motion. He defended the character of the clergy generally, and more especially of the clergy of Wales, and maintained that they had acquitted themselves in many instances with the greatest advantage to the public in the discharge of the magisterial func

tions. He recommended to the Honourable Member for Montrose to withdraw his present motion, and to bring the subject before the House on general principles.

Sir J. NEWPORT Confessed that he thought it would be expedient that the subject should be submitted to the House with reference to the general question of the eligibility of the clergy to civil offices. Although it might be advantageous in the country that clergymen should hold magisterial situations, it appeared to him that in cities it was quite the reverse.

Mr. HUME made a brief reply; after which the gallery was cleared for a division.

there were not members sufficient to conIt appearing, however, that stitute a House; there being only four in favour of the motion, and 22 against it, an adjournment necessarily took place.

Second Reading of Unitarian Mar- Unitarians, which fully explained their

not agree.

riage Bill.

MARCH 25.

Mr. W. SMITH said, that it was not his intention to enter into the subject at any leugth, because the grounds of the measure were sufficiently understood, as it had already been before the House on more than one occasion. The parties on whose behalf he spoke were the Unitarian Dissenters of this country, who entertained no objection to the form of the marriage ceremony, excepting that it ex pressed sentiments in which they could All they asked was to be relieved from the expression of those sentiments. The Honourable Member then noticed the manner in which the Bill of last year had been received in the House of Lords, and quoted some opinions in its favour, from whence he inferred that it was admitted that the object in view was just and reasonable. He was aware that certain parties were unfriendly to the measure, but he conceived himself justified in expecting that the second reading of this Bill would not be strongly resisted. All the framers of it sought was a reasonable relief, from conscientious motives, to which the Legislature always attended. They had, therefore, drawn up the Bill in the most unobjectionable terms. At the same time they were not so wedded to its provisions as not to be disposed to accede to any moderate alteratious. The Dissenters only desired to be relieved from attending a service in which they could not agree, and were willing to give any security to comply with the statute of .Geo. II. to prevent clandestine marriages. He reserved himself to reply to any objec tions that might be urged, and moved that the Bill be read a second time.

Mr. ROBERTSON considered the Church of England essential to the throne of these kingdoms, and resisted the further progress of the Bill. He had agreed to give emancipation to the Roman Catholics, because they insisted upon being emancipated; it could not be longer refused to them; but he would not concede to the Unitarians, as they had no just claim to the exception they sought. He agreed that scruples of conscience ought to be respected; but was it known that those scruples really existed? And if the Unitarians obtained what they required, there was no pretence for not yielding to the real or supposed scruples of the Presbyterians and other classes of Dissenters. In his opinion, Government would desert its duty if it gave the slightest countenance to the present measure. Two years ago, the Honourable Member who moved this Bill had presented a petition from the

objects. It shewed that the Unitarians were not Christians: they called themselves so, but he denied the fact: strip the Saviour of his divinity, and there was rians were much more like Mahometans, an end of true Christianity. The Unitawho contended that Mahomet was not God but a prophet. When this claim was granted, it would instantly be followed up by others more unreasonable. The chief objection of the Unitarians was to the words the "Holy Ghost" in the marriage ceremony-but that was a mere verbal dispute of no substantial importance. He begged leave to request the House to turn back their eyes over the pages of history, and view the awful mischiefs which Puritanism had brought upon this country. Patronised by the fanatic Cromwell, they had pulled down the Church, and had instilled a spirit of mischief into the nation. He, therefore, opposed the second reading of this Bill upon all the grounds he had stated, and he did it earnestly, because he thought the concessions asked would be productive of the greatest degree of mischief.

Dr. LUSHINGTON said, there was one observation of the Honourable Member who spoke last, that struck him most forcibly-namely, that he was not allied to the Church of England. The Church of England had been much misrepresented, when it was supposed to have the enjoying their religious opinions fully and effect of preventing the Dissenters from fairly; and he would take the liberty of stating to the House, the opinion of two Archbishops of the Realm, and the Bishops of London, Exeter and Landaff, on this subject. They had said, "We will not take upon ourselves to judge whether your scruples are well or ill-founded; we the fallacy of your opinions-because we will not go into an examination to prove know that, upon all matters of religious belief, the conscience alone of the individual must guide and reconcile to him the religion of the Deity whom he worships.' This was the opinion maintained by these distinguished prelates; and the same opinious prevailed at a former time when a similar measure would take the liberty of stating_the was agitated. He archbishops, and ten bishops in Ireland, contents of a Protest signed by three in the year 1782, on an occasion when a bill was brought into the Irish Parliasenters to be married by ministers of ment for the purpose of permitting Distheir own persuasion. They dissented to the Bill in certain clauses, but to the principle of it they decidedly assented. Protest: "We are willing to pass a bill, These were the concluding words of the rendering all matrimonial contracts or

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