ENTHRONIZATION OF THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY.

New Zealander, Volume 4, Issue 242, 23 September 1848, Page 3

ENTHRONIZATION OF THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY.

Canterbury, Friday, April 28 —This d»y beina; appointed for the enthroniz-ition of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the gentry ot Kent began to pour into the city at an early hour, it being known that the new Piimate proposed to attend in person, and not to be enthroned by p:oxy. The doors of the cathedral were opened bsfjre ten o'clock, and the spacious choir, nearly 200 feet long, was filled almost immediately by those who Imd secured tieke sof admission. We. observed ptesmt the M. rchioness of Coiiyngham, Lord A. Conyngbam, M.P., the Eail and Countess Dela« warr, Lord and Lady Sandes, Sir B. Bi.d^es, Mr. Deedes, M.P., Mr. Rice, M.P., Mr. S. R. Lushinston, Mr. B. Hope, Coloml Finch, the Hi?h Sheriff, and some members of nearly all the great county families. About eleven o'clock the pioceision entered the nave, headed by the choristers, who were singing the 348ih, 149 th, and 150 th Psalms, and the Hallelujah chorus ; producing a singular solemn effect in the choir, as the Hallelujahs from the voices of singers not yet seen wandered among the forest of pil ars and came trolling in louder and louder, whilst the train approached the gate of the choir. The Archbishop was attended by the Dean of the Province (the Bishop of Lichfield, as proxy Jor the Bishop of London), the Sub-Dean (the Bishop of Winchester), the Dean and Vice-Dean, and other officers of the Cathedral church, and about 200 clergymen. His Grace having passed up"the choir, and taken his seat in a chair placed on the" north side ot the communion table, morning »r r* vice was begun. At the end of the first lesson the Archdeacon went down from bis stall and conducted the Archbishop to his throne, on the south bide of the choir, opposite to the pulpit. Tbr mandate for the enthronization was then produced by the Vicar-General, Dr. Barnaby, and read by the Auditor, and the Archdeacon said — " I, James Croft, Matter of Arts, Archdeacon of Canterbury, do induct, install, and euthrone you, the Most Rev. Faihu-r in God John Bird Sumner, Doctor in Divinity, Lord Archbishop of Canteibury, into the archbishopric and archiepiscopal dignity of the. see of Canterbury, and into the real, actual, and corporal possession of the same, with all and singular the rights, dignities, honours, pre-eminences, and appurtenances thereof, and the Lord preserve your going out and your coming in, from ibid time forth for evermore. Amen." Morning service then proceeded ; and on its conclusion the Archbishop was conducted to the ancient marble chair, which is now placed in fjout of the commun.on table, just outside the rails. Hare the same form of induction was repeated pand his Grace then pasted to the Dean's stall, at the western end of the choir, and was placed in that seat, " in sign and token of his taking and having real and actual possession of the see of Canterbury, and of all the rights and privilege thereof.'' 'Abe Te Deumvrat next sung, and a 'prayer for the Archbishop was read — •' that he may faithfully serve God in thii offict!, and long live happily to rule this church, and that, hating worthily fulfilled his course, at the latter day ke may receive the crown of righteou«ne§s laid up by the Lord the righteous Judge " The Archbishop pronounced the blesiing, and the prtCiedings in the cl oir thus terminated. His Grace went then into the Chapter House, where be wus placed in the chief leat, and took the oath " to maintain the rights and liberties of this church, and to observe the approved customs thereof, and, as tar as it concerned him, to cause the same to be observed by others, so far as such customs are not repugnant to God'i word, the law, statutes, piovisions, and ordinances of the realm, or to her Majesty's prerogative, and not otherwise." The Archdeacon, j

Deans, and o'lier nulhoriiies, having next ieverally 11 promised to pay canonical obedience to his GtMce," an act of the proceedings was signed, ftnd the assembly was dismissed by the Dean. This closed the whole ceremony, and the congregation then dispersed.

Death or Bishop Russlll.— We learn with deep regret the death of this excellent man and eminent divine of the Scottish Episcopal Church. He was, as in the case of the late Dr. Chalmers, found dead in his bed early on Monday morning. On Sabbath morning and aiternoon he conducted the servicei in the chapel at Leith, and thereafter the devotional exeicisesin his own family. His death will cmse a blank in the church which will not be easily supplied. His writings, also, will cause his death to be widely and gene* rally felt.— Standard.

Speech of Lord Morpeih at the 44th Annual Meeting of the British and Foreign Bible Society, May 3, 1848. Viscount Morpeth then rose and said, that he should indeed have felt hesitation in rising and presenting himself for the ve'y few minutes he intended to occupy of their time at so early a stage in the proceedings of the day for the purpose of seconding the resolution which had heen so appropriately , placed in the hands ol the newly-appointed Archbishop of Canterbury, if it had not been for this consideration— his Grace as they well knew, was head of the ecclesiastical establishment of this countiy. He (Lord Morpeth) happened to be, though in a temporary and subordinate manner, connected with the secular Government, and he had not felt unwilling that both what wai ordinal lly termed the Church and what was ordinarily termed the State should be indentified in furtherng the great work of the society, and thit ihe ministers of the Crown and the prelates of the Establishment, as well as those who he hoped would take part in the day's proceedings, and who were the representatives of bodies of persons who dill'ered from the government, the discipline, and perhaps some of the doctrines of that Establishment, should all be associated in paying the utmost honour to the name, and in giving the widest possible circulation to the Word of God. Upon such an occasion, ar.d before such an assembly as this, he would not dream of uttering a word upon so disputed, and vrhat, in the presence of the peculiar objects of the Bible Society, he must term so subordinate, a question as the connexion of the State and the Church. But he was willing to hope that it would be admitted even by those who were most disposed to question the propriety of that alliance, that the State— and he might especially mention the noble L-)rd at the head of the Government hho acted on behalf of the State on such otcasions — had thus far at least acquitted themselves well of their duty in placing the mover of the first resolution at the head of the ecclesiastical establishment of this country (cbeers) ; inasmuch as by his knotvn character by his whole life, by his career as a working: clergyman (cheers), by his piesence here this day, by the rpeeih he had nude, by the very disclaimer he had put forward of all special claim, he hitd exhibited the be3t credentials they could require. (Loud chsers.) He had adveited to the pecuaar objects of the society, and lie had often classed others which largely occupied the attention of the r contemporaiies as tuboidi iate to them ; and they must admit that he had not unjustly so classed them, when they remembered what those peculiar objects weie, for they seemed to be at once the most dome>,tic and the mobt expansive. They did not pass over the, street in which we lived, the neighbouring suburb or the nearest while at the bame tuue they pervaded the farthest shores which our ships could reach, or our commerce could penetrate They were the most uncompromising, as well as the most co nprehensive, for they wou.d not 0 nit one hingle word of " the whole council of God ;' and at the same time they invited eveiy one who submitted to that council into tbeir pale. They were, hs had been observed, the most uncompromising and the most tolerant. They were also the most individual and the most universal, for their aim was at first to legenerate the human heart within each one of u n, and to make all the kingdoms oi the eart'i " the kingdom ot one God and onts Chiiat." (Loud cheers ) Yes, the kingdoms of th-i earth; and were they not every day receiving evidence of their unsalable and unendu ring characier? (Here.) He did not presume, any more th.in the fiamersot the eloquent report which tliey had heard lead, to attempt to interpret or to fix the words of prophesy, but with whetever uneasiness and apprehension they must contemplate— for who could contemplate them without thoie feelings ? — the events which we were now stirring on the face of the society, he thought they would agiee with him, tbat tbe details which the report had so .successfully presented to them of the increasing circulation of the Holy Scriptures afforded the most compensating and the most coiisolitary con6iderntions. Peihaps France was the cuuutry which excited those feelings of uneasiness and apprehensions in the most lively manner. Woll, they had heaid only bv that day's post of the actual abolition of s'avery in the colonial possessions 01 Fiance. (d.eers.) And might they not hope in trembling that even through the wrath of man, and through the wonder-working power of heaven guidmg and oyerrulling it, there might be a corresponding and unloosing ot the worst fetters, the moral and ipiritual fetters, that unch>iined tha mind and debased the soul ? (Loud cheeis.) But whatever might be tha final issue of these momentious events which tney are called upon to contemplate, and haidly to keep their breath while they ran along with them, yet he thought it would be felt by all whom he addressed, that ,it a time like this, when the constitutions, the politics, the powers, the dominations of this world weie heaving with unwonted throes— when tbe old foundations seemed all to be broken up -when historic thrones were tottering, and impel ial sceptres were sinking— they did receive the most solemn and most thrilling warning, as far as related to their individual capacities, to strengthen their foundations on the Rock of Ages (loud cheers), and, as far as related to their households, to their neighbourhoods, to their countiy, to their species, to incalculate those doctrines, precepts, and promises which belonged to " the hope that maueth not ashamed" (renewed cheering), to invite the benighted and bewildered nations to the fellowship of that hope which should be the only stability of our times, and to the franchises of that kingdom which pasbeth not away. (Loud cheers.)