I here cannot resist the temptation, arising out of an association involuntarily obtruding itself, to digress for a moment or two, while I mention a striking trait in an history, I have read, of three brothers,* the eldest of whom was very learned, being in this respect not only far superior to the other two, but so learned as to be reckoned the best scholar in all that or the next street to it. Insomuch that, having run something behind hand in the world, he obtained the favour of a certain Lord, to receive him into his house, and to teach his children.—A while after the Lord died, and he by long practice of his fathers will (which will, also his learning had enabled him to explain very much to his own advantage,) found the way of contriving a deed of conveyance of that house to himself, and his heirs: upon which he took possession, turned the young squires out, and received his brothers in their stead. Some differences, however, having afterwards (as the history in its sequel relates) arisen between them and him, concerning their father's will, these two were by their learned brother likewise turned out of doors.— A mode of treatment this, which your lordship will probably have remarked to be not unreadily resorted to by learned brothers, even in our days, in case of any dispute arising as to the construing of wills and testaments. Through other channels of history I am enabled to add, how the learned brother did endeavour to supply the loss he had sustained of his brother's company, by taking in some very near and dear friends, who having also much learning, and being consequently expert in the management of deeds of conveyance, wills, and other sealed instruments, were very useful to him in the management of his concerns. These new inmates, however, either carrying their zeal for his interests a little further than discretion warranted, or, probably, it being discovered that their zeal was not quite so disinterested as he had been led to suppose, when taking them into his house ;-the principles, also, whereon their calculations and reasonings were founded, having gone somewhat out of fashion, these near and dear friends were, nothwithstanding their zeal, real or pretended, for his interests, as the young squires first, and in the next place his own brothers, had been, turned by him in like manner out of doors. On the resemblance of the plans and principles of these friends of the learned brother to some, more recently adopted and held out, I shall in a future letter venture a few remarks; and shall conclude this digression, (for the length of which I must solicit your lordship's indulgence,) summing up therewith this matter, de conditione et jure possidentis, in the words of a learned writer, very conversant with, yet, seemingly, not altogether an adept in these controverted points,† "Ovid and Aulus Gellius (he observes) relate, that when Tarquin resolved to build the great temple of the capitol to the honor of Jupiter, he demolished, in order to make room for it, the temples of many inferior gods, who were all obliged to give way to Jupiter; but the god Terminus, or the patron of interest and convenience, refused to cede or make way for Jupiter himself; so he maintained his ground, and his statue kept its place in the capitol, jointly with that of Jupiter." Terminus, ut veteres memorant, conventus in urbe Such is the twofold matter in the history of the church's jurisdiction, which I was desirous of pointing out to your Lordship, with a view of deducing therefrom a further twofold enquiry. First, what would be the consequence to the church, and to its lay ministers, if the state, relieving the spiritualty from its burden, were to restore to the common and municipal law the cognizance of these causes :--at the same time, taking into its own hands for the public's use, the revenues arising from this branch of jurisdiction; or remitting altogether the tax thus levied on the transfer of civil property? Secondly, what are the most likely means of preventing such a loss of jurisdiction to the church :as also, of preserving to its lay officers and ministers that exclusive administration, not only of this branch, but of the whole of church government, which they have usurped from the clergy, whose birthright it is? The consequence to the church would be the loss of a very ample source of revenue.‡ *Their names were Peter, Jack, and Martin.. + Essay on the most Refined Policy. By Feyjoo, a Spaniard, and a dignified clergyman of the church of Rome. The Archbishop of Canterbury draws (I am informed) 12,000l. per annum, from the prerogative office alone. And here I would take occasion to observe, that the Most Reverend Primate being, in the discharge of his pastoral office, wholly relieved from the care of executing the sacred trust, thus reposed in him by his dying sheep, as well as, in great measure, from that of tending and folding the living flock, by his spiritual minis To the officers administering its jurisdiction, (together with the downfall of our civil and canon law in these causes) the same loss: involving, I fear, therein, the loss of all that is dear and lovely to their sight in the spiritual character. A calamity, indeed, my Lord, would this prove; and one, morcover, unalleviated by any recompense, neither counterpoised by any equivalent,-save only that of having, therewith, lost the pangs of jealousy they now endure, of apprehension they now suffer, lest the clergy should be in any case admitted to the performance of those ecclesiastical and sub-episcopal functions, the exercise of which belongs to the clergy (I repeat the assertion) by right, and by inheritance. In the next place, as to the means of preventing so severe a loss; of preserving, in bloom and bearing, to the garden of the church, so luxuriant a cyon; and still more of preserving, and exclusively too, its care and its cultivation to the labourers at present so diligently employed therein, in the gathering also, and the distribution of its fruit :-for these purposes, and for these ends, as for every purpose of unsanctioned usurpation, of authority unsupported by law,-avoiding thereby all unpleasantness of discussion, touching spiritual encroachment on civil jurisdiction, or that of the laity on the rights and privileges of the clergy,―the grand, the efficient, the all powerful and all-prevailing means are silence. Yes, my Lord, silence.-And hence I am furnished with an illustration, and an apt one too, I judge, of the lesson of refined prudence, so classically pourtrayed in the conduct of the three brothers, whose history I have, a few moments back, suggested to your Lordship's recollection: confirming also, by its means, and by a reaction of proof, the verity of my present thesis. At a time when they lived in harmony together, as, for a short period, in their earlier days, we are told, these brothers did,—in consequence of the perpetual alteration of fashions taking place in that age, the scholastic brother grew weary of searching farther evasions and solving everlasting contradictions. Resolved, therefore, at all hazards, to comply with the modes of the world, they concerted measures together and agreed unanimously to lock up their fathers will in a strong box, and trouble themselves no farther to examine it, but only to refer to its authority whenever they thought fit. So also, and in the same spirit of silent wisdom, do the ordinances of our church (such of their clauses, as might for any useful purposes prove needful, previously extracted, and their brazen clasps well fastened on the rest) appear to have been consigned to a tranquil quietude on their dusty shelves: where, with the folding-doors of their repository securely closed, they are guarded from intrusion and from scrutiny by the ΟΥΔΕΙΣ ΒΕΒΗΛΟΣ of the church's seal. Of the manifold advantages, resulting from this measure, if considered either with a view to external relations, or to internal polity; and more especially, respecting this latter, to the serenity and repose of presiding vigilance, under the hourly importunities of violated laws :—or whether in a third, and no less momentous one, of insuring to lay ministers, in the discharge of spiritual duties, an elevated and dignified composure, unruffled by aught of earthly care, or anxious foreboding :—to whichsoever of these different points our view be directed, I think it needless to intrude on your Lordship with any mention of the various advantages, resulting from the measure of prudence and precaution thus adopted. One of these, however, as comprehending their total sum and substance, cannot allow to pass unnoticed. The advantage, I mean, hence arising to him, whosoever he be, having possession of the key of the strong box, or repository, in which are preserved these close-kept volumes, whose authority can consequently be referred to when, and only when, "he thinks fit;" and whose contents, religiously as from vulgar eyes they are guarded, can also thus be construed, in any manner it may be "thought fit," for any existing purpose. And here, after a circuitous, and, I must confess too, a somewhat mazy route, do I, as regarding the mystery to be unravelled, find myself, not only out of the labyrinth, but arrived also at the very spot, I was desirous of reaching,-one lying within my own domain-yes, in my homestead even. For on to canonical ground it is, that I have brought, and here must for a few moments beg to detain your Lordship. Here shall 1, a " devoted canonist," in an instant point to the object of our search, the true exponential of our transcendent analysis;-here shall we quickly find that talisman of wonder-working efficacy, that potent spell, in whose compare, the word in the Arabian tale of mighty magic, "POWER," sinks lost and powerless into nothing. Whoso possesses this, as by the dulcet tones of Oberon's ivory horn, with a breath may he, having set the whole divan a dancing, in the hurly-burly, from the aged sultan then obtain, not his teeth alone, his ters:-in reward of the vigilance and zeal, evinced by them in the performance of their hiero-bucolic duties, these ministers naturally look up, and that more especially in times of difficulty and trial, for a full enjoyment of pastoral protection and blessing. eye-teeth, together with his daughter, (lovely maid!)—but whatsoever afterboon his boldest wish shall prompt to sue for. Of a truth, my Lord, full surely, is it in an ability to construe the church's laws at pleasure, and to impose silence on appeal: distancing, by the latter means, all fear of danger from mischief-bearing truths ;-by the former, subjecting those laws to an arbitrarious dependence on individual understanding, convenience, and will; constraining them to wear the unholy livery of private interests; and forcing them, so arrayed, to supply a charter's deficiences,* by standing, the reluctant foster-father, and unseemly sponsors for a spurious birth, for pretensions conceived (as with unblushing† candour, openly avowed) in a narrow jealously of those, who, qualified equally by every law, are saving vicarial influence !) equally privileged also with themselves :-in such-like ability, possessed by a chartered company, with the church's government so vested in its hands, are to be sought, and to be found the sources of a power, against which, with its upholding seigniorage, right well, and justly did You, my Lord, declare it, vain to contend.‡-What can or truth, or equity avail against a power, thus drawing, ad libitum, on the laws, with its drafts secure from-dishonor by a protest? When Sir William Scott declared, that my admission as an advocate of the court of arches was forbidden by a canon of the church,-by means of this simple, yet powerful aid, Sir William Scott was spared, not only the trouble of seeking, but the still greater § trouble of finding that canon; and the assertion produced the same effect, and answered the same purpose, it would, under open laws have done,—had it been true. When Sir William Scott declared, as he also did to me, that " they thought it a great grievance" that the clergy should in any instance be permitted to hold that spiritual office, which none but a spiritual person can hold, and whose duties consist in representing, in his absence, and in personating|| the Bishop, in giving ghostly admonition to his spiritual flock, and in passing the heavy sentence of spiritual displeasure on its wanderings from the path of spiritual duty;—and for the performance of which spiritual functions, the legislature has expressly enacted the privilege of dispensation from residence on the livings, where they have also the cure of souls, to such of the clergy, as shall be engaged therein, as well as to such as shall be employed as advocates in the court of arches.-When, I say, Sir William Scott declared that to be "a grievance," which the law of Parliament has positively sanctioned, and the law of the church has forbidden to be other * Not one iota is to be read in their charter of a power delegated to this society, nor in any charter to any one, by the sovereign, of regulating, otherwise than according to law, the public courts of justice of the realm. By this charter's very terms, 'tis the court of Arches which regulates the society, not the society the court. A specimen of the indulgent protection afforded by Archbishop Secker to this incorporated society of spiritual persons, with the Most Reverend Primate's condescending endeavours to render the church's discipline quite agreeable" to their wishes, manifested in the sacrifice thereto, so benevolently vouchsafed, of an individual's interests, without one eye-shot ever glancing that individual's rights, or those of his university, the church's laws, or the church's morals :-all this, large as, to some may seem, the debt of silent gratitude imposed by it, being yet in print, may by such as take an interest in the honour, purity, and dignity of the Church of England, be read in the preface to A Catalogue of English Civilians, By One of the College. "But imagine a set of politicians for many years at the head of affairs, the same visibly their own, and by consequence acting with great security; may not these be sometimes tempted to forget their caution by length of time, by excess of avarice and ambition, by the insolence or violence of their natures, or perhaps by a mere contempt for their adversaries ?" Dean of St. Patrick's. § In making this comparative assertion, I beg to be understood, as supposing the learned judge, whether alone or accompanied by his spiritual and co-incorporated coadjutors, to have set out on his search unprovided with the Etymologicomysticocabbala, or grand patent Explorator, by the help of which the celebrated Postellus is, by Archdeacon Jortin, in his remarks on Ecclesiastical History, said to have discovered in the Old Testament eleven thousand proofs of the Trinity.-But, even had Sir William, availed himself of so sublime an invention, succeeded in the discovery of this prohibitory canon, I am still of opinion (allowing oneself, that is, just for a moment, to imagine an hearing possible,) it would, for his purpose, have proved nothing worth; seeing that, not only Lord Hardwicke and the Lawyers, but Bishop Warburton also and the church-men, have unanimously agreed, that the canons are no canons, if contrary to the law of the land: of which law, if I recollect right, Judge Blackstone considers the law of Parliament as forming a part, and a part of some importance too. Sce Gibson, Ayliffe, Ridley, and all the canonists, on the character and duties of the diocesan chancellors. wise, the vicar-general of his grace the Archbishop of Canterbury did then utter a canonical opinion whereto no other means than this—the refusal of all appeal to the church's laws, all hearing of the prohibitions they contain, of the privileges they convey, could alone, to that opinion give—either stamp, currency, or value. Thus, however, my Lord, it is, that the canons, laws, and ordinances of our holy and catholic church, though closely fenced from any appeal thereto by an individual, suing for their protection, and seeking to do away the false gloss and construction put upon them, can yet be referred to at pleasure, and falsified also at pleasure, as may be judged fit for any occasional purpose. With submission to high authority I do, still, contend, that, when that purpose is to close the avenues to the fountain of spiritual justice; to prevent a legal and judicial hearing of a cause, involving as well the chartered rights of public bodies, and of the public itself, as the common and chartered rights of an individual; and to affect that individual with disabilities and disqualifications, such as, being unfounded in Jawcan be maintained only by a denial of the law-I do, then, with confidence aver, that such misinterpretation of the church's laws cannot be supported on any avowed, or acknowledged principles of the church's justice. But I beg pardon for detaining your Lordship, while thus stating the non-existence of legal, or canonical ground for the grievance I am sustaining. A point which I must, indeed, confess to have been long ago given up*-long ago has it been admitted, that there exists no authority in any law, spiritual or temporal, for the exclusion I suffer from my rightful and lawful profession of an advocate in the courts of the church. What ground then has been taken, when found necessary to desert that of the law? Expediency, my Lord.-Although found unsupported, and untenable by the law of the church, the conduct adopted towards me has been judged, and declared expedient, for the good of the church. I do yet, and notwithstanding such judgment and declaration, I do yet hold expediency to be, and " even at its best estate," but a sorry substitute for law and justice. On a question, involving the very essence of law and justice their freedom and their purity, I do further hold, that expediency cannot exist, in opposition both to the letter and the spirit of those very laws, which (could an hearing but be obtained!) must pronounce thereon. And I do, moreover, maintain the higher and paramount existing expediency, in a country said to be governed by its laws,-provided it be found inexpedient to conform thereto, and to the chartered privileges of a royal university, of repealing the one, and abolishing the other of these, lest by them the unwary be led astray to their ruin :-till they shall have been so repealed and abolished, I do, and shall contend, that law and justice call for their observance. Of expediency, also, as a substitute for law, the consequence is, that the use of one expedient furnishes a necessity for the use of a second;-and so onward. When admission to the canonical office of an advocate in the court of arches, under my ecclesiastical commission, was refused to me,—it was judged expedient to assert such my admission to be forbidden by the canons of the church :+-which assertion was untrue. When it was found necessary, in order to obtain a sanction to that refusal, to obtain a recall of the Archbishop's fiat, in pursuance of which my commission had been duly made out, signed, and sealed in Sir William Scott's office,-it was then judged expedient, by the proper officers" of the Archbishop of Canterbury, to assure his Grace, that his order had not been carried into effect, for that my commission had not been made out, nor did exist.-Which assertion was untrue. When, on being assured by the Archbishop of Canterbury, "that he had done all in his power, and that he could not consent to force a gentleman on the Society, against its inclination." § I appealed to the visitors of that incorporated society; it was then judged expedient, by Sir William Wynne and Sir J. Nicholl, to charge me with a falsehood, and to assert to the visitors, that I had misrepresented my case, by stating myself, in my appeal, to have been refused admission :||-Which assertion was untrue. When, by the advice of my counsel, I respectfully informed the Archbishop of Canterbury, that we purposed to move the Court of King's Bench for the production of that commission, of the existence of which I * The same canons of the church, which these "devoted canonists" were so ready to appeal to, while they either ignorantly thought, or trusted others would ignorantly believe them to afford a plausible colouring for an illegal monopoly, are now declared to be a dead letter; of no force or avail at all in the regulation of the Church's discipline, or of the courts wherein that discipline is administered. See report of case, and in it the affidavits, as filed in the Court of King's Bench. had, at several different interviews, in vain attempted to persuade his Grace, assured, as by his " proper officers" he was, on the contrary;-it was then judged expedient to inform me, that that commission had been destroyed:*-which assertion (it having been communicated to me, as I understood, by his Grace's order) was, I have no doubt, true. And, lastly, when I applied for an hearing in the courts of the church, for the purpose of proving, not only the existence, but the validity also of my ecclesiastical commission, † the former of which had been so wrongfully, the latter so uncanonically denied, it was judged both expedient and advisable || to refuse or rather (to use the written language of his Grace's note) it was "BY THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY Deemed UNADVISABLE TO COMPLY WITH THAT REQUEST." 66 Papa dispensare potest de omnibus Praeceptis Aeteris et Novi Testamenti.”: Touching some of the expedients above recorded, I shall, my Lord, content myself with observing, that, if these have really been found such, and, as such, have been rightly adopted, for the preservation of the honour, the purity, and the dignity of the Church of England, there can, henceforward, exist neither necessity, nor expediency, for applying for dispensation or indulgence from the Church of Rome. † I am not aware of any existing constitutional difference, in this respect, between the province of Canterbury, and other provinces of the same hierarchy, where these appeals are heard as matters of course, and determined according to law. "It is possible that many great abuses may visibly be committed, which cannot legally be punished; especially if we add to this, that some enquiries might possibly involve those whom, upon other accounts, it is not thought convenient to disturb."- -Dean of St. Patrick's. The minister of honesty and worth, § Cited by Bishop Hurl, from the Popish canons. Churchill. T |