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254 The Leader mid Saturday Analyst. " ....
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CONVOCATION* I N the present day the pam...
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* MiflCorieal Remarks on th« Convocation...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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The Causes And Prevention Of Coal-Pit Ex...
and who Is he ? An old mining manager , brought up in the very system he proposes to inspect ; bound up by custom , and by gratitude for recommendation , with the Northern .. viewers . Recommended by them , lie was , in fact , their nomin « e . We might say much upon the system of appointments , upon the gentleman employed to examine candidates , and upon the necessary eonsequence of all the parties forming one concern . We fear , however , that it would be useless to waste words upon this inatter . The day is yet distant when an overworked Home Secretary can enter into these minor matters . He knows nothing of mines—how should he ? He inquires who are the men of highest repute in mining These
circles . He is referred to the very viewers themselves ! viewers have particular friends and particular foes , and have pupils who are looking out for places . Some have special reasons for believing in the competency of certain candidates . What , then , is to be expected P Why , only this : that the course of things under ground and above ground is very much alike—only this : that , as . according to homoeopathy , similia . similibus curantur , so according to coal-manag-crs * pits are best inspected by their own nominees and friends—only this : that the country , instead of the coal-owners , pays a corps of inspectors for that which ., is not , and cannot be , in the nature of things , independent , author itative and impartial inspection !
254 The Leader Mid Saturday Analyst. " ....
254 The Leader mid Saturday Analyst . " . ¦¦ J MaAoh 17 , 1860 .
Convocation* I N The Present Day The Pam...
CONVOCATION * I N the present day the pamphlet is very often better worth a critical survey than the volume ; the former contains generally a strong and succinct , though almost invariably a party if not an individual view of some matter of deep present interest , . and" is often a " brief , " more or less fair , of formei * arguments , with frequently an historical summary . Such briefs as Mr . Poyndek ' s are very valuable when honestly written , as -we believe his to he , on a subject much talked , about but little understood by the generality of readers . Truth * like certain marine animals , makes its progress by alternate „ contractions and expansions ; now a volume shrinks into an aphorism ,, and anon a word is puffed up into a controversy , truth generally being in the end the- gainer : we confess we like to catch a subject in its undilated and undiluted , or in its reduced state . ... . :. . . :.
Whether the reader agree with Mr . Poyndek in . his deductions or not , the summary is valuable and . interesting ,: especially that part of it- which goes to prove that the English Church only recognised even Hjsxry Vltl . ' s supremacy , with the saving clause , " so far as the law of Christ permits . " We have here a brief account of some , of the more interesting councils , synods , or convocations , from the apostles'days to the present time ; and , in touchin" -the Hoadley matters , one might fancy the writer had his eye on the page of a well-known modern historian , no indiffeirentist , by the bye , who says " this debate known by the name of the Bangorian controversy , would supply materials enough for a volume , but hardly interest enough for a page . " Those who agree with Lord Mahout on the matter may be thankful to Mr . PoYNBEit , who has kept himself pretty nearly within the noble ¦
historian ' s ) limits . 1 The inference that the writer draws is that the Church should be left to the government of her own authorities ; and as long as she keeps herself Within her own pale , to this we see no objection ' . A forcible passage id quoted from 4 Jord Bacon to show that a frequent meeting of Convocation for ecclesiastical , is as rational and as necessary as' p , frequent meeting of Parliament for civil , purposes . Theoretically , perhaps , what is a rule for one time in such oases ought to to a rule for another ; practically , we very much doubt whether this principle would apply . As , to the parallelism between the two cases , we may observe in the first place , that the consequence of doing without parliaments , or the ¦ allowing' tho same Parliament to ait too long 1 ,, was , in the days of the Stuaets , most injurious to the civil
government , and the peace and progress of tho nation , whilst the imost inurked improvement in the condition of the Churoh of England happens to have taken xilace during 1 the precise period on which Convocation has only mob to' bo dissolved . Again : civil councils are on questions practical , and , when once decided , resolve themselves for the most part out of the state of doctrine and theory ; and familiarity with the practice to which tlie vanquished party on a political question is compelled to submit becomes at lust a habit , and , sooner or later , the theory on which it was based ^ e * comes less and less obnoxious . In Church matters the same might be the chso in points of ritual and discipline , not ; involving any
important dootriiml point , but not where the essence of the question is doctrinal . Where t )» e difference is or is likely to be of the latter description , we believe that the odium theologioum , between the extremes of the conflicting 1 parties is likely to be fur , more intense and earnest than any odiwtt polhpicwm between tho extromo right and extreme left on any purely political question . There is between Churchmen more bitter and ill-concealed unchristian contempt , less dispoHition to give , or even receive , quarter , than there would he in the case of a Btticmqp and a Djshaew . The contempt is vile , but the excess of earnestness perfectly Jrousonab | e , inasmuch as spiritual questions are of higher import than temporal ones . In , face to face disputation on certain doctrinal points—wo could mention , of course , three or four especially which occur in tho Outechism , Arttoleu , and
but less offensive action of opinion without point , controversy , and , if to be defeated , would receive its defeat with more patience and temper in a court of law , or from a Parliament , if partially , hot generally , unchristian , than at the hands of its regular and professed ecclesiastical opponents . What has happened several times in the House of Commons would be likely to happen far oftener in Convocation . Offensive measures might induce indignant ecclesiastical WiJSTDHA 3 is or Btjekes to withdraw altogether with their section of followers from the public councils of the Church after some obstinate encounter , not improbably from the Church itself , rather than submit to the effects of a victory . -Even at present many only remain in the Church with the idea that they are the leaven of it , and that , ultimately they will be its regulators—as an honest director , a Kennedy , may stay in a British Bank , believing it , though shaken , to be solvent / and that he may be the saving of it in time it" the public will have patience .
blank Services of the Church—we should , probably > have old scenes and old weapons , with new combatants , . Was it by Scripture tried ? . No ,: sure to that the rebel would not yield , ' Squadrons of texts he m ' arsh & lled in the field ; It was but civil war , an eqyuLl set ,. Where spears with spears and eagles eagles met : With texts point blank and plain each faced the foe . And did not Satan tempt our Saviour so ? It is our full belief that Convocation is only sincerely desired afc any given time by that party of the Church which conceives itself to be the stronger , or , at any rate , to have an equal chance with its adversary ; and that either party , if fully convinced of its own inferiority of strength , and the necessity of implicit obedience , if vanquished , would rather leave the matter to be settled by the slow
However , to Convocation we have really no hostility ; restriction and regulation , from some quarter or other , are evidently wanted to check individual extravagances , thoroughly distasteful not onlyto the lower orders , with their stubborn dislike of practices which experience has . justified them in suspecting of Concealed Romanism , but to the mass of intelligent members of the Church of England . Convocation is on its trial as regards its practical good— t 6 leave alone its claims and its rights . 'Its opportunities of making itself even popular are . great if it chooses to avail itself of them , audits than at other
chances of continued efficiency greater now many periods" of its history , perhaps greater than at that early period ; of the Chureli when there were heresies ; though , from the fact of the popular election of the bishdps , one might have expected almost unanimity in the synods . There are , no doubt , violent men in the present day at 'tlie ' two exti-cmes , perhaps many of them ; but , on , the whole , there is a very great . approximation of parties , especially where some practical good is at stake . It is difficult to distinguish between large masses , of the highest of the Low and the lowest of
High Church party . Black steals unheeded , from the neighbouring -white , Without offending tho well-puzzled sight . ¦ We hope the half prophecy contained in the latter part of the following passage ; from a kindly and moderate writer already quoted , will not be realized : '" Several good and wise men have deplored the cessation ( oiconvocation ) , and it is certainly possible that the frequent holding of this assembly might have checked the progress of dissent , and moreearly provided sufficient space and means for religious worship . But it is at least equally probable -that its disputes would have sometimes widened into sphism , its zeal wurmed into intolerance ; that the trade of agitator might have grown profitable in the Church as it is in the State , and that the enemies , of all religion would often have been gratified with the Unseemly sight of conflicting divines . " ( Lord' Mcthon ' s History of JGngland . ) _ Convocation
As to the idea of the counsels of having a tendency to check the progress of dissent quoad Convocation , we very much doubt any such result : that would depend on the accidental moderation , or the want of it , of the men who might happen to form the Convocation at the , time being ; unless a hint is hero given of the old Komanist idea of making use of the civil power to coerce others , without any submission whatever to the civil powor on the pnvb of the Church itself as represented by Convocation . Somewhat with this view , the author of the pamphlet before us quotes a passage from Magna Charta- granting the Churoh "jura sua intogro ., " and , amongst others , the election of her own bishops , a point which tho earlier Nonnnn Icings would not concede , and for which they were plentifully abused by the churchmen of those times . Many churchmen now would claim the plenary authority of Convocation , and consequently , o course , its powor of meeting as a pluin right , without entertaining the question of expediency ut all . Thev aire inclined ( o say , whatever quarrels wo have let us sett ]©
among ourselves ; lot the Church of England be leit alone to provide for the spiritual interests of Iflug-land . m Every article even of Mngna Chart" , is not eternally binding on the British nation , under every conceivable change of circumstances . Magnn Oharta aimed , « t what was then the ecclesiastical liberty of the nation , against the intolerably corrupt disposal of benefices by Norman tyrants . It was tho expression of the general feehng ofc the nation when there waa little or no dissidonco ' on religions matters ; it w » s a human and not iv divine charter . The Legislature now ha « to consult many interests , and to act fpr the general trpod of the nation , and to give satisfaction and content as far as ppseiblo to its component interests ; and wo ore not disposed to think that on such questions as the payment of churqh rutos by dissenters , it ought to conje to Convocation for its authority . . Uet
* Miflcorieal Remarks On Th« Convocation...
* MiflCorieal Remarks on th « Convocations of tho Churoh of JSn < jland oto . By tho Rev , I ^ xvbdeiuck PoxNPBri , M . A . tuvlngfcon ; BeU nnd DaMy - J . Parker .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 17, 1860, page 10, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_17031860/page/10/
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