THE

BRITISH CRITIC,

FOR JANUARY, 1815.

ART. I. Charge delivered to the Clergy of the Diocese of London, at the primary Visitation of that Diocese, in the Year 1814. By William, Lord Bishop of London. 4to. 2s. 6d. Payne and Foss.

1814.

FOR the appearance of no theological work, within our memory, has the attention of the world waited with so much anxiety, as for the publication of the charge now before us. The sudden elevation of its author to the highest episcopal throne in these dominions, the character for learning and piety which accompanied him in the divinity chair of Oxford, the eagerness to ascertain the opinions of such a man upon those important questions which now agitate the Church, all conspired to direct the public view to the first official declaration of the newly created prelate. The favourable report of the few who were present at its delivery, might also have influenced to a still higher degree the general desire to see it embodied in a more permanent form.

Awful as the responsibility must be, which is in every case attached to the episcopal office in these days of latitudinarian innovation and multiplied division, upon no one does the weight fall with more severity of pressure, than upon him, to whom the administration of the diocese of London shall have been by Providence entrusted. Situated as he is at the fountain head of all infidelity and schism, and surrounded by enemies of every deDomination and description, the duties, and the anxieties of office are doubled upon him. But in proportion to the difliculties which attend the discharge of his high and holy duty, is the extent of his influence and the power of his example.

In the present political state of our country, to the metropolis are directed the eyes of the distant parts of the empire, 23 to the rallying point no less of sound' and constitutional principle than of the feuds of faction and disorganization. Ju the vast and complicated machine of our civil and ecclesiastical esta. lishment, however distant its parts may be, none of them are unconnected VOL. III, JANUARY, 1815,

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unconnected with or independent of the main spring and centre of motion which the metropolis exhibits. From the sentiment and opinions which there prevail, the whole country in various degrees takes its tone: with respect to ecclesiastical affairs, in London are situated all those associations of support, by which the interests of the Church are maintained, and all those combinations of hostility, by which she is openly assaulted, or secretly undermined. From the operation of these and similar causes, the clergy of London are placed upon an eminence to which the view of their brethren, in every distant province, is constantly directed; while to the opinions, the language, and the conduct of their Diocesan is a still higher consequence and veneration attached. Whatever, therefore, may be the importance which we attach to an episcopal charge in a distant diocese, much greater is the influence of that, to which the clergy of the whole kingdom naturally look up, as to the criterion of the feeling upon religious matters in the metropolis, and as a declaration from the very penetralia of ecclesiastical government.

With these views, therefore, we shall present our readers with an analysis of the charge before us, which, if we mistake not, will have a far more powerful effect upon their minds than the gratification of any ordinary feeling, or the satisfaction of general curiosity.

The charge opens with a tribute of public veneration and private regard to the memory of the venerable prelate, to whom he immediately succeeded. This is no common effusion of customary compliment, but a pious, sincere, and heartfelt testimony to the virtues of a man, who bravely faced the dangers which surrounded him, and presented an undaunted front against the acrimonious scurrility and abusive malevolence with which he was assaulted by every enemy of the Church. To the soundest principles he added a decision and a spirit which enabled him to execute, with perseverance and vigour, what he conceived in justice and wisdom. If, in manner, he was too unbending for that secular intercourse, which his diocese so peculiarly required, in his actions also he preserved the same unwavering determination. In his eulogium, therefore, on the virtues and the labours of his predecessor, the Bishop will be cordially joined by every friend of the establishment.

In the execution of a far more difficult task the Bishop is peculiarly happy. Very rarely have we heard a man speak of himself and his own pretensious with so much frank and unaffected modesty, declaring itself, not in an absurd disavowal of those abilities which every wise man is assured, and every coxcomb fancies he possesses, but in that real and unreserved dis→ trust in the strength of his own powers, which teaches him to " look

look up with humble reliance to the source of all power and wisdom, whose spirit is strength to the feeble and light to the blind," for support and direction in the administration of his arduous charge.

From these subjects, the Bishop proceeds to call the attention of his clergy in regular order, to all those important points, in the discussion of which, their professional duties and personal interests are so deeply involved. The first circumstance, which falls under his notice, is the relief granted by the equitable interference of Parliament to those unfortunate clergy, who were suffering under that persecution for non-residence, which the existing law, without the intention of its framers, had given too certain and too severe a sanction.

"The equitable interference of Parliament has afforded relief in this emergency, empowering the diocesan to discriminate between involuntary error, or venial omission, and substantial violation of law. The result of the inquiries to which this arrangement has led, I am happy to state, has been peculiarly creditable to the clergy of this diocese. In the numerous cases referred to my decision, the fault has, almost without exception, been found to consist, not in wilful dereliction or criminal neglect of duty, but in the disregard of those precautions, which are necessary to legalize virtual residence, or to confirm the claim of justifiable absence to the indulgence allowed by law. Among the objects of attack, it is bare justice to say, are many individuals irreprehensible in character, and exemplary in conduct, who have constantly resided in the bosom of their cures, and whose lives and affections have been uniformly devoted to the spiritual concerns of their parishioners. By men of this description, unaccustomed to reproach, the unmerited imputation of delinquency has been felt as a more intolerable grievance, than the pecuniary loss which would have followed the rigid execution of the law. But, whilst they stand acquitted of criminality, they have been deficient, it must be allowed, in that reasonable care of their own interest, which, in the complicated relations of civil life, becomes a duty to society, of stronger obligation perhaps on the Ministers of the Gospel, than on any other class of men. The salutary influence of the clergy, which gives efficacy to their exhortations, and weight to their instructions, is intimately connected with the general respectability of their persons. And the dignity of the sacred office will undoubtedly suffer in the estimation of the public, when men invested with this high character are placed in the humiliating situation of delinquents, and compelled to struggle with the disquietudes of mind, and the distress and embarrassment of circumstances which are the natural consequences of an expensive prosecution." P. 5.

The same malignant spirit, which had instigated the profligate

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and vexatious persecution of the clergy, for the omission of formal notifications and venial omissions, was again, as we have understood, at work, and was preparing a new source of torment for its unoffeuding victims, under an obsolete act for bu rying in woollen, from which they were relieved by the wisdom and foresight of the legislature, who anticipated the designs of malice and rapacity before they were ripe for execution.

"The kind and, I may add, the equitable concern of the Legis lature for the comfort and respectability of the Clergy has been further evinced in a temporary bill, by which the provisions and penalties of former acts on the subject of residence have been so far modified and altered, as to afford, at least for the present, sufficient protection against the vexatious attacks of the informer. And the repeal of the acts for burying in woollen has relieved us from the terror of statutes which had long slept, but, like the insect which stings after death, might have been awakened to mischievous activity by the call of malignity or avarice. The best demonstration of our gratitude for these favours is unequivocal fidelity in the discharge of those high duties, to which we are pledged by the most solemn engagements to God and to our country. Yet, in acting under the impulse of feelings the most exalted, your course must ever be shaped by the strictest attention to the letter of the law; nor can we with safety for an instant forget, that neither the discretion of the Diocesan, nor the equity of the Judge, can dispense with the forms or mitigate the operation of a penal statute. On the importance of this caution I have insisted with greater earnestness, because this is a point on which the most conscientious Clergyman, engrossed by the duties of his charge, is not unlikely to fail; and I have found by experience, that the distress and vexation, occasioned by the late prosecutions, have not been universally efficacious in impressing the necessity of a more accurate acquaintance with laws, which in no single particular can be transgressed or neglected with impunity *. I am equally disposed by inclination and duty to watch over the interests and promote the welfare of my Clergy: but in this, as in all other private concerns, the security of the individual is to be found in his personal circumspection and vigilance." P. 9.

The exhortation which is here repeated, will we trust, have its due effect upon the minds of the whole body of the clergy. Inoffensive, as their very enemies must allow them generally to be, towards others, they are too apt to conceive that the same

"A collection of the statutes relating to the Residence of the Clergy and to Stipendiary Curates, including the Act which received the Royal Assent July 30, 1814, has been lately printed at the Clarendon Press, and may be had in' London of Messrs. Payne or Rivington.”

line of conduct will be adopted in return towards themselves. But, however secure they may be in most cases from annoyance, as long as one malignant heart exists, which either avarice or hostility may induce to make the attack, their security cannot be considered as permanent. We would not have the clergy immersed in secular pursuits, but we would have them thoroughly acquainted with every law which prescribes their duty, and concerus their interest; which may easily be effected by the possession of the volume which the Bishop so judiciously recommends. We are persuaded that this knowledge, so far from disqualifying their minds for the discharge of their spiritual duties, would have the contrary effect, by inducing that general activity, which applies itself to every professional object. Where negligence prevails in one department of the mind, there is at least a chance that it will gradually pervade the whole. We must also declare, that after this zealous and affectionate exhortation from the Bishop upon so important a point, that any such negligence or disregard for the time to come is even criminal, as involving not only their own indivi ́ dual ruin, but, by the sufferings and degradation of its members, shaking the temporal security of the establishment itself. Any future sufferings which they may endure for the neglect of forms, sufficiently easy of observance, cannot reasonably be deemed persecution. To recur to the past, we believe that the testimony of the Bishop, in favour of those who have fallen under the lash of the informer, will be confirmed by the united voice of his colleagues upon the bench, who will declare in how very few instances the fault has consisted, not in a criminal neglect of duty, but in an inadvertent omission of those forms, which the then existing law had enacted under penalties of such excessive severity. Upon a point connected with this system, the Bishop speaks with a high view of ecclesiastical polity, worthy even of Hooker himself.

"To me, indeed, I frankly avow, the principle of maintaining order and regularity in the church, by the casual and indiscrimi nating agency of the common informer, appears to be founded on complete misconception and ignorance of the nature and ends of ecclesiastical government and discipline. The efficiency of ecclesiastical authority, of all authority I might say, which has for its object to regulate the conduct of individuals in a multiplicity of emergent cases, depends on the rational exercise of discretion, acting indeed by regular forms, and insisting on the observance of general rules, but maintaining a proportion between the offence and the punishment, and not leaving the determination of innocence or guilt to the technical interpretation of ambiguous statutes." P. 6.

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