it is chiefly occupied in an attempt to justify the connection subsisting between Churchmen and Dissenters in the Bible Society, its materials being wholly borrowed from the common stock of eloquence consolidated in the Reports of Auxiliary Declamations, shreds of which, all contributing more and more to sophisticate the important point of Christian Unity, and dissolve its limitations, are strung together through thirty pages of latitudinarian slang, quibble, and prevarication. As a sort of after-piece to this, the Christian Knowledge Society is brought forward, to be disparaged and lowered as much as possible in public estimation, and because truth can lay no serious deliquency to its charge, falsehood and misrepresentation are employed for this worthy purpose. The former of these methods of depreciation is exemplified in the assertion, that within the last six years "the Managing Committee of the Society have expressed their wish that its Members would spare, as much as possible, the issue of Bibles, and rather favour the issue of Tracts;" for which, upon enquiry of the Secretary, we are informed there is no foundation whatever; and the latter in what is insinuated respecting the alteration of the Society's Tracts, which might easily be shewn, (were this the place to enter into the explanation) to derive from the author's false coFouring all its appearance of criminality.

But the Pamphlet is chiefly remarkable for its gross personalities against the Bishop. The torrent opens at P. 6, with the author's delivery of this judgment on the Charge, that he has ** seldom read a composition more full of false statement and false reasoning;" at P. 7, it is described as not having " excited any misgivings in his mind, excepting such as respect the solidity of the Bishop's judgment," which it is insolently surmised at P. 8, that" perhaps the lapse of years might have impaired." In the same page the Charge is characterised," as having the stamp of haughty arrogant assertions, combined with a kind of insulting compassion for those weak, unsuspicious, though well meaning men, who have suffered themselves to be seduced into the support of the pernicious designs attributed to the Bible Society." At P. 9, the Bishop's At P. 9, the Bishop's "piety" is obliquely reflected on; and it is insinuated, that in his case," the (Episcopal) office (as too often unhappily occurs) is filled by one of a mere worldly spirit" at P. 11, a particular passage of the Charge is spoken of as "quite destitute of either strength or authority, and as deriving all its seeming force from the mere management of words;" at P. 14, " envy, hatred, malice, and all nncharitableness,” are obliquely imputed to his Lordship ;—at P. 21, the convenience of " dealing in loose invective, when facts are not at hand to effect the object," is cast as a reflection

66

upon him, and his remarks upon associating with Dissenters, are characterised as the attack of calumny," the basest and most hateful of crimes." At P. 22, these same sentiments are pronounced justly censurable for their " malignancy;" at P. 24, they are represented as befitting only "the Roman Pontiff in the days of Luther:" at P. 31, the Bishop is called upon to point out the temporal advantages which they (the Clergy) can propose to themselves through the medium of the Society, or to forbear to cloak his positions with the mere words of Scripture, only to invest them with some shew of strength and authority, when the original meaning of the words will not warrant their application;" and to close this disgusting exhibition with a copious effusion of abuse and acrimony, at P. 19, it is left to the determination of his Lordship's feelings, how he will be able at any future Visitation, " to meet those Clergymen whom he has thus grossly insulted, when he finds them not in the least degree cured of their folly, by the happy disclosure of his sentiments concerning them :" and it is added, that "unless he possesses the supple art of a confirmed diplomatist, he will be scarcely able so to conceal his uneasiness, as to extract from his brethren even the compliment of thanks for his polite attentions*, which were so ingeniously devised and awarded

The proceeding here adverted to, and detailed with disingenuous reservations, took place at Leicester, where the Bishop after holding his Visitation dined as usual with his Clergy. When the cloth was drawn, a dignitary of the Church, since elevated to the Bench, whose province it was to propose for himself and his brethren the suitable acknowledgements to their Diocesan, instead of expressing himself in the usual form, passed what is ironically called above "the compliment of thanks to his Lordship for his polite attentions." The toast however had no sooner gone round, than its insufficiency, in the estimation of the meeting, to convey the sentiments which the Charge had left impressed upon their minds, was conspicuously manifested, for a second toast was immediately given out by the Clergyman next in precedence, with the concurrence of the first mover, which, besides specifying the Charge, as the particular ground of their acknowledgements, went on to characterise it, as "most excellent, most judicious, and well-timed;" and with the exception, it is said, of one or two, was hailed with applause by the whole company, who rose with one spontaneous movement in testimony of their approbation. All this would have remained matter of conversation amongst the Clergy present on the occa sion, had not the avowed purpose of "gratifying the friends of the Bible Society, in the neighbourhood of Boston," with a sketch of

awarded to his Lordship for his labours on the present oecasion" and still to protract the depraved gratification of being scurrilous, a possibility is alleged that "his Lordship anticipates a speedy translation to another sphere of action, and has kindly intended only to relieve the minds of some of his Clergy from any poignant feeling of sorrow at his departure;" and he congratulated on the complete success," if such was his intention, which in many instances "is likely to attend his remedy."

is "

We have now put our readers in possession of the substance of the three pamphlets of which the Bishop of Lincoln's Charge has been made the occasion; and we are persuaded that had we nothing farther to alledge in aggravation of what our summary contains, we have made such an exhibition of the spirit which the Bible Society generates, and of the menacing aspect which it has assumed against the Hierarchy of the Church, as must very forcibly remonstrate with every conscientious Member of our Communion against affording further countenance and support to so portentous a confederation: but the outrage offered to Episcopacy in the person of the Bishop of Lincoln is very far from being comprised within the limits of the publications before us. Every instrument, which could vociferate clamour, has been employed to make the country resound from one end to the other with invective against his Lordship, and to call down upon him universat obloquy and contempt.

The Christian Observer, the fugelman of the party, which gives the cue to all its subsidiary publications, made an attack upou the Charge whilst it was still in course of delivery.. The" ten thousand throats in the Society's interest, im

Episcopacy, insulted in the person of their own Diocesan, tempted a Socinian partizan of the confederacy, to try his skill at distorting facts in the shape of a Letter to the Editor of that provincial newspaper, traducing both the dignitary above referred to, and the Clergy present-the one, by representing him as not only having objected publicly to the amended toast, but as having taken the liberty to animadvert very freely upon the contents of the Charge in strong terms of disapprobation: and the other by the gross calumny, that upon a second proposal of the amended toast, the majority signified their disapprobation of it by remaining silent, and covering their glasses with their hands; at which (to make the triumph of fanaticism appear complete) he goes on to state, that the Bishop was so much mortified, that he took his hat, and left the room very soon after. See the Boston Gazette of July 25, and the Leicester Journal of August 11, the one for the falsehood, the other for its refutation.

mediately

mediately opened upon this signal from head quarters; and, for some weeks, several of the, London newspapers, and all those issuing from the counties subject to his Lordship's jurisdiction, or bordering upon them, were made vehicles of the coarsest animadversions, proceeding, some from persons evidently Socinians, and others from his own Clergy, and concurring with admirable harmony, not merely in setting his authority at nought, but in attempts to blast his reputation. Of the former of these classes, we specially refer to the British and Foreign Monitor of June 21st, which we select because coupled with a profusion of low invective against the Bishop, an important misconception relative to the party whose influence prevails in the Society is rectified, and a very significant vaunt is made of its impregnable stability for it is declared that though "at all the meetings the Dissenters are thrust into the back ground, and seem to acknowledge a kind of inferiority," yet "on many occasions the audience, the money, and the talents are all on their side," and this defiance is fulminated in the Bishop's face, that " the noble fabric is now too firmly cemented to be shook by the stroke of a Bishop's Crozier, even though the representative of St. Peter himself were to accompany it with as terrific a Bull as that of Leo X. against Luther." Of the Provincial Papers we chiefly advert to the Leicester Journal of June 16, the Boston Gazette of June 20th, and the Northampton Mercury of July 1st, and to the Letters signed U. T.-C. S.-and a Clergyman of the Diocess of Lincoln in those Journals respectively. We shall not trespass upon our readers' patience by citing the insults offered to the Bishop in these productions, because it is quite time to bring this article to a close, and we have yet to call their attention to several speeches at Auxiliary Anniversaries, for which great occasions the most unwarrantable excesses have been reserved in this crusade against Episcopacy.

66

At the Wrexham Branch Bible Society Meeting the censor, who seems to have volunteered his services to rebuke the Bishop of Lincoln, is the Dean of St. Asaph. We are not fa

voured with the detail of his animadversions, but only learn that he particularly noticed the futility of the arguments of a learned Prelate," in which he was assisted by his son, and in further aid of the good cause, made the most of a distorted analogy upon which the engineers of the Society plume themselves, to lower the authority of the adverse Bishops by repre senting them" at open variance among themselves," Chester Chronicle, October 13.

At the Rochester and Chatham Branch Bible Society the office was filled by the Honourable and Rev. Gerrard Noel, now become one of the Society's itinerants, who at once opens upon the Charge; in the shape of a question stigma

tizes it as having "wholly sacrificed the modesty and candour which ought to characterise every important discussion;" and pronounces it "a trial to charity and patience," Kentish Courier, July 4th.

the ex

At the Shropshire Auxiliary Anniversary, John Lee, Esq. performs the important service. He introduces the Bishop to the notice of the company, with a compliment on tent of learning and ability with which he has defended the bulwarks of our common Christianity, but this salutation is of the nature of Joab's; for in the next sentence his Lordship is characterised as displaying in his Charge those "certain indications of conscious weakness," the having found "invective the only convenient substitute for solid argument," and this is succeeded, after a citation of some passages of the Charge, by a repetition of the same sentiment rendered more offensive by its conveyance in the ensuing aggravated terms, "that such accusations are used by their adversaries as a substitute for their miserable want of something better to advance." This language being sanctioned by the presence, and as far as appears by the tacit acquiescence of the Archdeacon who presided on the occasion, Salopian Journal, June 12.

At the Carlisle Auxiliary Meeting, the Rev. Charles Simeon, having travelled all the way from Cambridge to lend his eloquence to the point, " produced the celebrated Charge which he subjected," say the reporters, "to one of the most mi. nute and rigid codes of criticism that we ever recollect to have heard or read, during which he received from all parts of the room very great applause:" Carlisle Patriot, July 15.

At Leeds, one occasion of holding up the Bishop to public reproach, was not deemed sufficient to gratify the spleen of the confederacy. At the Missionary, therefore, as well as at the Bible Meeting, the vilifying of his Lordship made a part of the enter tainment of the day. In the former instance a flippant divine (whose name, because we have not seen the Missionary proceedings in print, we forbear to mention) scurrilously comparing him to "a sparrow chirrupping upon the house top," and in the latter, the Recorder of Leeds, Mr. Hardy, eminent for his false statements of the Society's Translation exploits in India, condensing his hostility into this concise dilemma, inferred from the concluding allegation of Mr. Hey's philippic against the Charge, that "it evidently resulted from this statement" (viz. the statement of the object of the Naval and Military Bible Societies, and of the Archbishop of Canterbury being President of it) " that either the Bishop of Lincoln was a false accuser, or the Archbishop of Canterbury was a traitor to the Church." Leeds Mercury, October 14th.

At the Sussex Auxiliary Mecting, the Rev. Dr. Styles,

whose