PREFACE. It may be proper to state, that the author strictly prohibited any advertisement in the papers, during Lord King's illness, and as strictly prohibited any sale of this pamphlet, immediately after his death; the reader, therefore, will consider unsaid, and cancelled, any and every expression which might be deemed disrespectful, over the grave, particularly where Lord King, in the title-page, is classed with Lord Teynham. W. L. BOWLES. London, June 25, 1833. of a large diocese, with cathedral duties twice every day in the year? Though a Master of Chancery, as the Quarterly Reviewer well observes, might find time to write pamphlets on subjects of which he knows nothing, what leisure could a bishop have, incessantly occupied with correspondence, to devote to his own concerns, or his books? PREFACE. SINCE these pages were begun, it appears, from an admirable article in the Quarterly Review, on Lord Henley's Plan, that already the poor Dean and his spiritual helpers are to be dismissed; and the Bishop, being turned out of Parliament, according to another plan of our good Master in Chancery, will be expected to keep up the psalmody himself ! "No more cats than will catch mice," seems to be his Lordship's motto, after certain modern political economists. But what bishop and what man could undertake the care of a large diocese, with cathedral duties twice every day in the year? Though a Master of Chancery, as the Quarterly Reviewer well observes, might find time to write pamphlets on subjects of which he knows nothing, what leisure could a bishop have, incessantly occupied with correspondence, to devote to his own concerns, or his books? It seems that Plans of Church Reform crowd on the visions of the solemn Master in Chancery, like the clouds of the summer, which at one time are very " like a whale," and in another become like a "camel." It seems a pity, that he who is so " scriptural” should not " study to perform "his own business," instead of occupying his thoughts with visions of Church-Reform, evanescent as soon as brought forth. Upon the whole of this Plan, as it affects our ancient establishments, and the shapes it has taken ere we can look round, we cannot express our feelings better than in the words of Mrs. Trollope It was not till these pages were nearly out of type that I saw Professor Pusey's work on the same subject. Speaking of the rushing torrent which threatens to destroy our bulwarks, and calls for our united strength, he enumerates the enemies of these institutions" the profes"sors of Naturalism, Socinianism, Rationalism." Alas! he forgot one enemy more inveterate against cathedrals than all of them put together-" PURITANISM !!" He has omitted to speak of cathedral services and choir music, respecting which Lord Henley has conceived and written in the spirit of "Praise-God-Barebones." The cathedral worship is " cold and formal," according to his views. Mr. Tennyson, now a member of the first reformed Parliament, and his colleague, Mr. Hawes, an eminent dealer in soap, have pronounced, also, cathedral services a mere "ding-dong" worship, and the most illustrious examples of learning, and piety, and charity, from age to age, " drones "and locusts." That they are not "drones," the long list of their immortal works will prove; and as to "locusts," they are neither more nor less so than those who have inherited their property without any works at all, done in return. The Calvinistic ideas of the " pompous ceremonials" and cold formal "services" of the cathedral are mere figures of the same speech, which the same people used before they destroyed "episcopacy," root and branch, with its ungodly gear of "surplices," and its " barkings" of "duets, chants, and anthems."* "Shut to the door, good John!" Mercy on us! Plans on plans, for Church-Reform, succeed. * " Velut unda supervenit undæ." I have spoken of the incongruity of reading the "Venite," when the words are "Oh! come let us sing." Honest Tate and Brady, in their metrical translation of the Psalms, fall into the same incongruity, for when the congregation are expecting a psalm in metre, the clerk quavers "Oh! come loud ANTHEMS let us sing." A clergyman at Hampstead has adopted a new and appropriate style of introducing the "Venite." He reads entirely the first verse, "Oh! come let "us sing unto the Lord," &c., and the choir and organ immediately follow, " let us come before his presence," &c |