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Feb. 18, I860.] Tlie Leader and SahMayAn...
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THE « OKDINATION SEBVIGE." T HE secessio...
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WHAT IS AX AUDITOIL ? SO ME honest trade...
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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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 Abuse Of Rewards. A Dmibat. Hope...
Sir Chakles Napier ' s advocftcy of Admiral Hope is an Illustration of the readiness with wliicli ^ reformers" are ready to sacriftce tlieiiv principles for the sate of themselves ^ or their friends ; but Lord C . Paget ' s quiet though severe rebuke will prove useful in enlightening many obtuse understandings . It was , however , marred by a statement that Admiral Hope's conduct had the approval of the Government . It vyas a most manifest case of reprehensible carelessness to assail the front of a position without reconnoitering it , and to send brave men to stick in the mud and be shot at , Avithout any reasonable prospect that the sacrifice would lead to any corresponding . beneficial result . Such , blunders ought not to have the approval « of any Government , however well-connected their authors may he . Sir C . Napier thinks his pet admiral has been depreciated in order that Mr . Bkuce should be unduly extolled . If this has occurred , an injustice hits been done . Both functionaries did the stupidest thing open to them ; and if we had an Order of Demerit , no objection could be made to their taking ¦ rank in it immediately below the Grand Crosses that would be bestowed upon the Court favourites of the llussian war .
Feb. 18, I860.] Tlie Leader And Sahmayan...
Feb . 18 , I 860 . ] Tlie Leader and SahMayAnalyst . 159
The « Okdination Sebvige." T He Secessio...
THE « OKDINATION SEBVIGE . " T HE secession from the ranks . of the Established Church by the Rev . Canon Wodehotjse is not only one amongst the many -ominous signs of the times in relation to ecclesiastical reform , but is an event to be regretted by every true friend of the doctrine and discipline by which that Church is upheld . But it is consolatory to predict that as from present evil much future good ultimately results , so from this loss of a faithful labourer in the vineyard of the Establishment inquiries and scrutinies into the cause of it may be
instituted , which will lead to amendments and wholesome modificsitions . This secession is the more to be deplored , because the reverend dignitary was neither a popularity-seeking Cal y inistic preacher , nor a pervert to Popery or the kindred practices of Pusevism . He is a conscientious divine ; whose maturer studies in tlieology have led him to a review of certain doctrines in the iook of Common Prater , which in his earlier examination of that volume he accepted without difficulty , and which * it would seem , nt the time of his ordination he had received without hesitation or
distrust . We fee ! considerable anxiety lest , in calling the attention ol our readers to this subject , our motives may be misinterpreted , and we unintentionally give offence where we intend none . Our object , as iriembers of tlie Christian community generally , and of the Established Church of England particularly , is to labour in otir vocation for the universal good of our brethren , . n-ad , as honest journalists , to record all events impartially , accompanied by fitting comments . Mr . Wodehqtjse , in a letter to the Bishop of Norwich , which has been published in the columns of the daily press , has himself explained the motives of his secession ; to that document , which is too long for our limited space , we must refer our readers , contenting ourselves with such extracts from it as are necessary to
a right comprehension and estimate of its tendency and importance . Mr . Wodekoxtsepyrites thus : " Ordained in 1814 ; in less than three years I became an incumbent and prebendary of Norwich . Led in after-years to examine more particularly the subscriptions required from clergymen , t came to the conclusion that I could not assent , in what I conceive to be the literal and established sense of our language , to the following parts of our Liturgy , viz ., the damnatory clauses of the Athanasian Creed ; the form of absolution in the visitation of the sick ; the words used at the imposition , of hands in the ordination of priests , and in the consecration of bishops . " We -assume that everybody is in possession of a Prayer Book , though , we fear , most persons very seldom examine those portions which do not relate immediately to the morning and evening services . We will
refer them to some parts of the Liturgy to which the ex-canon objects , and content ourselves with an extract or two from the Ordination and Consecration services , and the Absolution , which is consequent from the power therein conferred , leaving to their own judgment any opinions for or against the Athanasian Creed . The conscience of the reverend seceder has been offended by the words in the Ordination service of pviests , which are therein adopted as taken from the twenty-second chapter of the Qpspel of St . John , and which are used by the bishop whom he lays his Jhnnds on those admitted to the holy office : " Whose soever sins ye remit , they are rein it ted unto them ; and whose soever sins ye retain , they are retained . " Many years ago , he tells us , ho sought counsel of Dr , Kaye , then Bishop of Lincoln , who subsequently , in the House of Lords , stated the particulars of the interview , and then avowed that if the
excanon had expressed to him as a candidate for holy orders the same views which lie now entertains of the import of those words , we ( the bishop ) would nevertheless have ordained him . Now these words have either a most serious import or they have not , —^ no less a meaning than the communication directly made by the bishop of n power conferred by the Messiah himself upon his chosen apostles nnd abiding by implication in the Church , to be by it dispensed through the instrumentality of bishops and , priests to the l « tity , If these words have not snoh a signification , wl ^ at import have ' they P What notiona of their force the Jnto Vt , Kavjs hud arrived at , wo are unable to affirm ; but with all our respect for that prelate , And , with nil due reverence for his character as an able scholar , we cannot but express our surprise at his avowal ; and we must state
without qualification that if they mean nothing the sooner they are removed from the ordination service the better for the cause of common sense , plain dealing , and trite religion . The bishops themselves , with certain exceptions , to which it is not necessary more particularly to allude , are aware of the necessity of explaining away wlt at appears to most persons tobe a definite and explicit claim to the power of giving supernatural authority by one man to , another ^ and accordingly in those books which ai * e put ill to the hands of candidates for ordination , all such glosses and all such arguments as human ingenuity can suggest , and such pleading as acuteness of intellect can supply , are made use of to explain and qualify the startling * affirmation . Thus , young men , who like Mr . Wodehottse have at the time of ordination made little progress in divinity , receive with the indifference of ignorance or the imbecility of reliance ' on others what in their maturer years and more extended knowledge they repudiate and abjure . . . __'
What Is Ax Auditoil ? So Me Honest Trade...
WHAT IS AX AUDITOIL ? SO ME honest tradesmen , whose acquirements at school did not comprehend " bookkeeping by single and double entry , " employ an accountant to keep them aware of their own position , and to prove their honesty to the creditors of the concern . Other tradesmen there are who need no such assistance , but who practise the system 6 f double entry not to protect their creditors , but to secure a good balance out of a fraudulent bankruptcy . A case of this latter kind we remember when the Great Northern Railway introduced competition in the coal trade . The dealer in question sold coals at a loss , in order to keep up his connection ; arid knowing well where this must end , charged "domestic expenses" at double the amount actually spent , in order to enable him to coninience trade again . :
So some public institutions employ auditors to set forth every item of their expenditure , and convince their constituents that the whole is properly appropriated ; whilst others ( judging from their reports and from the lumping fashion of their balance sheets ) use their auditors as a blind to enable them still to fawn upon a benevolent public , and to misappl y the sums intrusted to their care . Widows and orphans suffer , whilst officials grow fat ¦•' . ¦ subscriptions to annihilate heatheiiism abroad are pocketed by worse than heathens at home , arid money intended to distribute Bibles here and abroad is devoured in the shape of fat capons washed down with old port and niadeira . ;
In one society , whose proceedings have latterly attracted public notice , nearly £ 400 is consumed by the adjournment at a dinner , tempting the reader to inquire what the dinner itself would have cost had it been eaten instead of being adjournejL Another society , whose professed object is to spread the Gospel in foreign parts , and whose annual expenditure is more than £ 87 , 000 , puts down over £ 4000 as expenses of deputations , £ 2000 for printing , and other £ 2000 for salaries . The society has £ 8 S , 000 and upwards invested , but accounts including the whole of these large sums appear to have been audited by two of the standing committee . Of course
every thing may be properly expended , but it looks ill for the men who have had the handling 1 of the monies and the whole control of the society to audit their own accounts , to be their own check , to affirm their own honesty . Again ,, the Church Missionary Society shows in its balance sheet interest on investments , £ 3600 ; but the same balance sheet shows invcstinents , the interest on which ought to amount to considerably more ; and in this case also the auditors appear to be two of the standing committee and one life governor , lu the Merchant Seamen ' s Orphan , Society there is an item put down as receivable which is really a defalcation by the secretary j that is , they reckon as an asset a sum of money which has been
stolen ,. • Wp have an old adage , that when things get t <> the worst they will mend , and it may surely bo hoped that these sham audits , both in benevolent societies and joint stock companies , have nearly reached their worst phase . The situation , of auditor is a most responsible and a most difficult one , but tlie interests involved in , an hoiuest or dishonest audit are so immense , tliafc any dereliction of duty ought to send the auditor to succeed Sir John Dean Paui . at " knitting nightcaps , or to Western Australia to join Leopold ItiKDPATH . An auditor ia generally a salaried officer , who in return , for his appointment too often feels inclined tp lmmour the officials wliose conduct he ought to check ; and tlien an audit , instead of being a searching investigation into every item of expenditure ^ so os to decide if it is proper qv improper in kind and amount , becomes
dimply a test of the correctness of certain columns of compound addition , all else being 1 assumed to be quite proper . J * ut if such auditing" loads people to invest in insolvent concerns , by representingrotten investments us sound , then assuredly the Fraudulent Trustees Act ought ' to operate against the fraudulent auditor . Iho law ot privileged communications would quite justify any exposure by an auditor to subscribers or shareholders for the protection of their property , and if ho obtains money under the fulse pretence of auditing when he really neglects to audit , lie deserves the heaviest punishment which the law can award . Xt is a sorry fact that auditors , like other men , are sometimes nunished for their truthfulness ; nnd it is worse that the public
should neither move to compensate the loser nor to alter the systejn . In fact , so far as tlie public dopartrnonts are concerned , truth to say , honesty ja not the best policy in this world , For instance , Mr . BisRTor . AOci , lato auditov of the Duohy qf Lancaster , refused tocortily that a certain property hivd been sold for th « beat pviee obtainable , because he was not furnished with the meows of jprovnigr it , ana lor
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 18, 1860, page 11, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_18021860/page/11/
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