Obrázky na stránke
PDF
ePub
[blocks in formation]

The

A meeting of the Philosophical Society was held on Monday evening, April 18, the Very Rev. the Dean of Peterborough, the President, being in the chair. first part of a paper by Professor Whewell was read, containing a mathematical exposition of some of the leading doctrines of Mr. Ricardo's " Principles of Political Economy and Taxation." There was also read, by Professor Airy, a description of an apparatus, constructed under his direction, and of the properties of ellipticallypolarised light exhibited by means of it. It was stated that the phenomena had been found to agree, in the most precise manner, with the results previously obtained by calculation.-After the meeting, Professor Henslow exhibited a number of the appearances of what have been called

[ocr errors]

spectral wheels," produced by the rotation of two wheels, one behind the other.

Meetings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society for the present term:-Monday, April 18; Monday, May 2; Monday, May 16; and Tuesday, May 17, (anniversary.)

The Act of Parliament for authorising the removal of the present Botanical Garden to a more eligible site, received the Royal Assent on Wednesday, the 31st of March.

DEGREES CONFERRED.
DOCTOR IN PHYSIC.

George Burrows, Caius Coll.

MASTERS OF ARTS.

Rev. James Lloyd Wallace, Trinity Coll.
Rev. William Williamson, St. John's Coll.
Rev. Geo. Philip Simpson, Corp. Chr. Coll.
Rev. Aylmer Farquhar, Jesus Coll.
Rev. Thomas B. Lutener, Jesus Coll.
Rev. Edmund Russell, Catharine Hall.
Rev. J. J. Smith, Fellow of Caius Coll.

BACHELORS IN CIVIL LAW.

Rev. Daniel B. Langley, St. John's Coll. Rev. Edmund Pepys Nottidge, Trinity Hall. Rev. T. Cornfield Haddon, St. John's Coll.

BACHELORS OF ARTS.

Augustus Fitzroy, Trinity Coll.
Richard George Jebb, Trinity Coll.
William Henry Rough, Trinity Coll.
Henry Trail Simpson, Trinity Coll.
Robert Wegg, St. John's Coll.

Wm. George Moore, St. John's Coll.
John Bull, St. John's Coll.

Henry Villiers Crotty, St. Peter's Coll.
Horatio Westmacott, Corpus Christi Coll.
Henry N. Bousfield, Queen's Coll.
Edward B. Warren, Queen's Coll.
Peter Von Essen, Queen's Coll.
Thomas Scott Bonnin, Queen's Coll.
Henry Dawson, Catharine Hall.
Joseph Oldknow, Christ Coll.
John Wm. Clarke, Sidney Sussex Coll.

MARRIED.

At Paington, Devonshire, the Rev. Benjamin Hall Kennedy, M. A. Fellow of St. John's College, to Janet, youngest daughter of the late Thomas Caird, Esq. and niece of Captain Devon, R. N. K. H.

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.

R. P." shall not be forgotten, and we hope he will not forget us.

We will, if possible, meet the wishes of a "Country Clergyman."

Had the observations of a "Friend and Upholder of Church Discipline" been forwarded to the individual to whom they refer, it is possible they might have done more good than might ensue from their publication.

We have no recollection of the Sermon to which " E. B." alludes.

CHRISTIAN

REMEMBRANCER.

JUNE, 1831.

REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS.

ART. I.-1. The Life of Reginald Heber, D. D. Lord Bishop of Calcutta. By HIS WIDOW. With Selections from his Correspondence, Unpublished Poems, and Private Papers; together with a Journal of his Tour in Norway, Sweden, Russia, Hungary, and Germany, and a History of the Cossaks. 2 vols. 4to. Pp. xv. 684; viii. 636. London: : Murray. 1830. Price 3l. 13s. 6d.

2. The Last Days of Bishop Heber. By THOMAS ROBINSON, A. M. Archdeacon of Madras, and late Domestic Chaplain to his Lordship. Madras and London: Jennings & Chaplin. 8vo. Pp. xii. 355. 1830. Price 9s.

3. Sermons preached in England, by the late Right Reverend Bishop Heber, D. D. Second Edition. London: Murray. 1829. 8vo. 9s. 6d.

4. Sermons preached in India, by the late Right Reverend Bishop Heber, D. D. London: Murray. 1829. 8vo. 9s. 6d.

(Concluded from p. 271.)

WE stated in our last number, that it was our intention, in resuming the present subject, to produce some further testimony on Heber's attachment to that Church of which he was so conspicuous an ornament. In so doing, we must be content only to refer our readers to his admirable article on Ecclesiastical Revenues, intended for the Quarterly Review, and published in the XXth chapter of the "Life." This paper, which admits not of abridgment, is not only demonstrative evidence of Heber's intelligent affection for his Church, but is peculiarly calculated for the correction of errors more studiously and mischievously disseminated of later years, than even at the date of its composition. As such, we strongly recommend its separate publication. To another document also we must be satisfied simply to refer the Letter to Mr. Davies, of Bombay, written shortly after the Bishop's arrival in India, in which the episcopal authority is mildly, but most decidedly and inflexibly asserted. An attention to ceremonial and external matters, how much soever considered of inferior moment, does not certainly form a topic of much consideration with those who treat more important distinctions with indifference.

[blocks in formation]
[ocr errors]

Now Heber was a high advocate of ritual decencies. We have already, in our number for last December, inserted an elaborate treatise by him, on the relative positions of the altar, pulpit, &c., and we add on this subject the following passage, from his first Charge to his diocesan clergy.

Let me express my sorrow, that so little pains have yet been taken to bring Protestant Christianity before the attention of the heathen in its most comely and attractive form; in that form which blends DECENCY OF ORNAMENT with perfect PURITY OF WORSHIP, and has preserved the beauties of the ancient liturgies without any intermixture of more recent superstition. The Common Prayer has been translated into Hindustani, Cingalese, and Tamil. But how few places of worship for those different nations are there, in which that excellent ritual is regularly used, with its striking and PRIMITIVE appendages of SURPLICE, font, and ALTAR! Even where Ministers of our own Church have officiated, I have heard, in many parts of India, of a carelessness in these particulars. I am, therefore, the more anxious to call the attention of those who hear me to the advantage, and, I will say, the duty of conforming in EXTERNAL DECORUM, no less than in spirit and doctrine, to A CHURCH OF WHICH, I TRUST, NONE OF US ARE ASHAMED; and to that beauty and regularity of worship which both well becomes the truth, and may cause the truth itself to be received with less reluctance.-Sermons in India, pp. 21, 22.

From the same Charge we extract what follows:

From even the taunts of an adversary, however, a wise man will increase his wisdom. And, if we learn, from the volume which I have quoted,* a greater moderation in our language and a greater circumspection in our deportment; more STRICT adherence to the UNION and DISCIPLINE of the Church; and a more careful abstinence from every thing like exaggeration in those accounts of our progress in the work which are sent to our friends in Europe, it is apparent that some of those hindrances will be lessened which impede the progress of the truth, and that a MORE ABUNDANT BLESSING may be expected on our toils from Him who is the God of peace, of ORDER, and of humility.-Sermons in India, pp. 23, 24.

But further evidence on this subject will be incidentally accumulated, from an examination of a subject which may here be naturally expected. Heber (it is argued) was a warm patron of the Bible and Church Missionary Societies, and therefore must have been friendly to that ecclesiastical party, in which those bodies possess the majority of their members. The conclusion is unwarranted. We have already shewn that, as a matter of fact, his opinions were distinctly contrary to those of that party, on every essential point of the controversy. His patronage of these societies appears referable to a variety of concurring circumstances; nor do they seem to have been entirely the same circumstances which influenced his predilections in both cases. We shall, therefore, consider Heber's views of each separately, premising that two considerations probably operated in both instances; one, his great intimacy with Mr. Thornton, whose domestic bias on these subjects is well known; the other, not his wish to associate himself with any school of religionists, but the direct contrary-his sensitive apprehensions of identification with party, which

The Work of the Abbé Dubois.

induced him to subscribe, on the one hand, to the Christian Knowledge and Bible Societies, and on the other, to the Incorporated Society for Propagating the Gospel, and to the Church Missionaries. That such was his feeling, is placed beyond doubt by the following passage from the Critique on Scott, whence we have already so liberally quoted. But even here Heber is too straight-forward to make any secret of his preferences.

To those who are possessed of the power to give largely, I would recommend the subscribing to such charitable or religious societies as they think best, without regard to PARTY FEELINGS. For instance, I would make a point of subscribing both to the Bible Society and to the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. But where only one subscription can be afforded, I would prefer THE LATTER, both from the double application of its funds, and BECAUSE IT IS A SORT OF BADGE OF OUR ATTACHMENT TO THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.-Life, Vol. I. p. 550.

But the real grounds of Heber's support of the Bible Society are detailed in two letters addressed to the editor of this publication, who was precluded, by their great prolixity, from inserting them. An abstract of the arguments which they contain may seem, however, the property of our readers. His reasons then in brief are, 1. The much greater number of Bibles which might be circulated by a combination of dissenters with the Church, than by the Church alone. 2. The policy of directing into an unexceptionable channel those resources, which the dissenters might have otherwise employed in the dissemination of sectarian tracts. 3. The relief accruing to the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, by throwing the burden of Bibles on another society, &c. 4. The removal of prejudices against the Church, particularly that of her opposition to the dissemination of the Bible. Such were the arguments that prevailed on the mind of Heber to support the Bible Society, not any manner of attachment to the party by whom that society has been chiefly countenanced in the Church. On the contrary, in the course of this correspondence he speaks of himself as "identifying himself in almost all other particulars" with the men from whom he differs in this one single point."*

66

This is not the place to examine the validity of Heber's reasoning. Our object is simply to shew the opinions which he held. His patronage of the Bible Society is acknowledged by himself to be an exception to the class of sentiments which he generally entertained; and in that acknowledgment alone he has sufficiently explained his motives. Heber assumed throughout, that the avowed designs of the Bible Society were exclusively pursued, and its regulations faithfully adhered to. To this conclusion, his most intimate associates, and his own unsuspecting simplicity of heart, almost necessarily con

*Second Letter to the Editor of the Christian Remembrancer, Life, Vol. I. p. 530.

ducted him. An opposite opinion withdrew from that society many names which had represented motives no less pure than Heber's. Time has since afforded us some light on the value of the Bishop's conjectures. The Bible Society has much enlarged its dominion since the year 1819; yet we find not thereby any reduction in schismatical resources. A "Society for Promoting Ecclesiastical Knowledge," or, by interpretation, a combination of "Evangelical dissenters," "not limited to persons of any particular denomination,"* and, consequently, having no bond of union but hatred of the Church, (the very thing the Bishop dreaded), is actually now at work. The resources of the Christian Knowledge Society, are, to our own personal knowledge, in some instances directly impaired by the action of the Bible Society; and as for prejudices against the Church, let a profligate and venal press bear witness how far the Bible Society has reduced them! Let the "Record" and the "World," the Society's great organs, be consulted by those who are desirous to know how much has been effected by the Bible Society against calumniation of the Church!

But we must not suppose that because Heber was not of that number who

[blocks in formation]

he supported or countenanced all the details of the Bible Society. In his second letter to the editor of this publication, he speaks of the Society's "absurd and objectionable features;"† and in his Critique on Scott, he says, immediately after the passage which we have already quoted on this subject:

Observe, however, that by supporting the Bible Society, I do not mean supporting, either by money or influence, any of those OFFENSIVE FOLLIES which have been engrafted on the original excellent institution, under the name of Ladies' Bible Societies. These I have always opposed, and always will do so, from being persuaded that they have done infinite harm to our good cause in the minds of the clergy; and that the principles on which they are conducted are cOMPLETELY

AT VARIANCE WITH THE DELICACY AND RETIREMENT WHICH BECOME FEMALES.—

Life, Vol. I. p. 550.

We desire to merit the fame of "honest chroniclers;" and though we can never differ without reluctance from such a man as Heber, we deprecate too much the principle so widely acted on, of warping Heber's language to countenance opinions which he discouraged or disclaimed, to wish to conceal, in a statement of his principles, such as are at variance with our own. There can be little doubt, that, with the willing confidence of friendship, he imbibed the opinion, that, of the two societies existing for the dissemination of the Gospel, the

* Address of the Society for Promoting Ecclesiastical Knowledge. The publications of this Society are marked by the most scurrilous bitterness against the Church. Life, Vol. I. p. 530.

« PredošláPokračovať »