Original Correspondence.

New Zealander, Volume 4, Issue 254, 4 November 1848, Page 2

Original Correspondence.

To (he Editor of the New Zcalandcr, Sir. — You will oblige me much by giving -> place in your widely circulated journal to the f(>]» lowing icmaikfi, which arc presented for consideia iou To the Laity of the Church of England in NcwZcahmtL I auk leave to addiess a few words to you on u subject th.it has cost me some anxious thought ; on tho measuie of advantage that is likely U> be dei ived fromthe consultations between clcigy and laity which aio now in progress, wiih icgnrd to the establishment ot a Colonial Chinch in New Zea'and. While carclul.y ichainiiu:, for the present, from ofi'ciing an opinion on the expediency of these pioeeedings, I must still avow a ccit.iin general reluctance to any active mt ileienc of the laity— always exceptingthe lights ol the Slate — in ecclesiastical affairs. Not, th.it I would deny tlieii claim lo shaic in government ol the Chinch; to disallow them a voice in what concerns the whole church alike would be absuid ; but it is one thing to admit that right, and another thing to rouse and urge them to cxeit it. From the earliest times, whenever the laity have taken these inattois into their own hands, they have acted with much less discretion than the clergy would have shewn in their place ; and the uniform operations o( human nature must lead us to expect that they will still continue so to do. The rioting imd frequent bloodshed, ihe biiter pa ty feelings to which the populai election of bishops gave rise ; the massacres of Alexandria; the excesses of the llcfoim.i'ion ; the Anabaptists cf Minister, the Iconoclasts, the Puiitans, the Covenanters, the cruel and tyrann'n al " blue laws of Connecticut," stand as warning beacons belore us. It is needless to mill iply instances; but, through the whole course of ecclesiastical liUtoiy, the laity, savo when chastened by the iron rod ot persecution, havo m.inil'es.ed the gieater inclination to inn into excess. The secut r arm has always shewn itself the moic heavy-handed ol the two. A double reason may be assigned why such should be i he case. In the first place tire errors of tha clergy, and the enois of the laity, are of widely didcient character; the later transgressing more naturally on the side of fanaticism, the former on that of bigotry ; a staid and decent folly* when compared with the wild ravings ol the other extreme. Secondly, the laity aru a strong check upon the clergy, but the clergy mo by no means an equal check upon the laity Let an epoch, of excitement but once arise ; once let the laily go beyond the clergy in extravagance or overstrained doctrine, the lutter aie shaken oil' without scruple, as dumb dogs that b irk not, barren fig trees, millifiduu Achans, halting neutrals, with showers of otlur such illfavored terms thutaic sure, at those periods, to be of tellinj foicc. A pastor may lead his congicgation, but he cannot resirain ; once he is in the rear of them, he must prepare to see his influence peruhinjj away. Hut it is time lost to dwell upon objection* that have been a ready ovei ailed in practice ; let us rather try to make the best of the matter as it stands. If, then, the laity must be summoned in convention, let us at jill events make sure that the opinions elicited there bo really and actually our own ; let us see that facile com* pliance with the propositions of those few who take lead in the proceedings, be not mistaken for maturedconclusions, arrived at by a process of deliberate reflection. It is useless to try to disguise from ourselves, that we know little or nothing of the subject on which we suppose ourselves to to engaged ; or to forget that the meeting is in leading strings without which, I grant, it cou'd scarcely stand at all. We are called together, embryo Martin Luthers, for the purpose of " shaking ofl'fiom the Church that which does not belong to the church," whilst for even odds and ends of knowledge that we gather as we go along, we are obliged to rely so entirely on thiee individuals, that theie is no choice but to follow with doeilit), throwing in opinions fiom time to time as make-weights to their own. Vm be it from me to speak disparagingly of them ; no one is likely to receive their suggestions with more icspect, or to object with gi eater ihlfidence than myself. There is the Bishop, a man in ten thousand ; Jor earnestness and hiboriousness in his cause, almost without an equal. The very Abbot Sampson of St. Edmondsbury, as pourtrayed by the most eloquent of llv ing wntcis ; with such lull contiol over a naturally enthusiastic temperament as to be able to lay himself out more delibeiatcly and cautiously to gain his ends than a careless observer would believe ; eminently practical, save when beset by visions of a primitive church, yet still with a stiong Uildebi. incline element in his composition, and one that in the early age* would have been equally ready to inflict, or suffer martyuloni. Theie is the Chief .Justice, earnest, clearheaded, anil well inteutiontd j high authority as far as infomiation is concerned, but one who would welcome new ioim* for the sake of getting rid of'the old ; a roiigiVhandcd i eformer withal who would go about to clean a Madonna of Jliffaellc with a hearth stone. Theie is the Attorney Geneial, a lucid reasoner, but somewhat infirm of puiposc, and likely to be the echo of the other twc. Now tlie opinions of these three leaders of our meetings, valuable as all will admit them to be, have no complete infallibility attached to them ; it therefbic hvhove.i us lo be cautious m Hiving them that great additional weight which they will acquire ill Jiugland

from what will be there received as our well considered acquiescence. The caution is not superfluous, for I can already perceive some danger of a preconcerted ar* rangement, flanked by the mechanical assent of some twelve or fifteen laymen, being taken as an expression of the general feeling and wishes of the Northern province. The late narrow escape from passing a resolution, the purport of which I believe to have not been quite distinctly understood points out the necessity for care. . It appears to me that we have not gone the right way to work to ascertain the real •entiments of the laity on the subject. For how does the matter stand at present. A scheme of Church government, of which but a very meagre outline has been communicated, is arranged. Jt is laid piecemeal before a meeting, at which we are led on, step by step, never knowing what is behind, but asked to consider a seiies of isolated proposals, to pass blind resolutions, to shape out purposeless regulations one by one, without reference to the combina* tion that will be formed when they come to be put together, or to their several bearings on the completed scheme. We arc painstakingly cutting out the squares and triangles of a Chinese puzzle, without knowing which of the innumerable figures that can be composed from them is to be chosen. Be it likewise observed, that at each successive step in progicss we shall find our freedom of judgment more and more hampered by previous determinations, and by principles to which we shall have unawares committed ourselves 5 so that we risk being piesently <liiven, by undeniably logical argument, to conclusions that might have startled us at tiist, but from which the re will be no escape unless the meeting be content to stultify itself, by rescinding some of its past proceeduigs. Like the wild elephants in the East, we are walking deliberately into a *V trap, moie and more narrowly hemmed in at every pace by the closing barriers on either side. We should bare first made up our minds dearly where we were going to, before attempting to find the road. Nor would this, in reality, have been so hard to do, had a different course of proceeding bet n adopted at the commencement of these deliberations. I think that the leadiest way of arriving at a cK»ar comprehension of the subject would have been to break it into two grand divisions ; that we should have addressed ourselves to enquiring, first, what alte rations in the English system of Church Government are necessary for its adaptation to this Colony— what there ii which we cannot do without— what contingencies must be provi led for. When the necessities should have been distinctly ascertained, we might then have proceeded to ask what additional piovisions for our Church Government it would be expedient to make. For lome of m may be inclined to change for tbe sake of change ; othe-s may be unduly attached to the forms they left behind them in the Father land ; and it would s.ive mUch time and much confusion of ideas if all were made clearly to see on which points it were needless to put forward their own peculiar views. The rough draft of an entirescheme mi^ht have been then proposed to the meeting, as the possible issue to its deliberations ; guiding principles, without which it is impossible to discuss details with anything like unity of intention, might have been laid down and agreed to, so that those who attend, becoming gradually fami iarised wi'h the general design, should be enabled to off r pertinent opinions—so soon as a close examination of its several divisions should be entered into instead of the stray and unconnected rematks wl-ich the present sy-tein is only calculated to draw forth. Instead of this, what have we rather done ? We have gone into committee before the second reading of the bill ! With reference to the soundness of tbe suggestion, as thrown out in Mr. Gladstone's letter to the late Ardhbisbop of Canterbury, which has given rice to these proceedings, it is to be regretted that we have not the advantage of being guided by the moro detai'ed opinions of a prelate whose cool ju -gmunt atid aoutenv'ss carried more weight in Unhand than that of all hib brcthien on the bench. From no obseivation on his Grace's answer having been made, we must presume it to have been one of simple arquiesceuce. In the smcerest hope that much advantage may ensue from our deliberation*, I subsciibe myself, A Layman or the Church of England^

To the Editor of the New Zealander. Sir. — I read in your last Wednesday's Journal with feelings of regret and astonishment that, although important European News oF, amongst other events, a Parisian insuireclion, tlie slaughter of 300!) human be. ings, and the prospect of the change of the English Ministry, arrived in Auckland about the middle of October, the Auckland public were ignorant of even its lumour fot twelve days after that date, and would probably have been so now, were it not for the opportune arrival of another vessel from Sydney. It appears that the newspapers containing such news were forwarded to Captain Maxwell, of H. M. S. Dido ; that you applied to him for their loan, but that he not only did not acknowledge your application, but also kept locked within his bieast every mention of the intelligence. Colonists, whose relatives and friends rtside in England, whose birth place and nominal home it is, naturally'feel an interest, enhanced by separation, in the welfare of tint country, and regard with some anxiety the political state of Europe — and I really think that Captain Maxwell might, without infringement of his Admiralty Instructions, hare conferred on them the acceptable boon of communicating such news, if not, of Ins own accord, at least upon app ication ; — but no, in Hongkong, in Auckland, in Sydney, it is all the same, whenever any information — whether it bo the date of the vessel's departure, or news of a recent war —is requested of him for public use, he wraps himself up in a cloak of supercilious mystery and cold reserve, aud says nothing. The Colonists are not anxious, I feel sure, impeitinently to interfere in naval matters — we have no wish to read the Dido's sailing orders, to levise the Captain's despatches 1 ;, inspect his seciet signals, or criticise his log, but we do, not veiy unreasonably, expect that when any important general news is exclusively received ou board ot a Man-of-war, it should not be monopolised, when its promulgation does not compromise the safety of H. M Nayy — and that the public should not be treated with indifference, or wholly left out of the question. Captain Maxwell has probably read in the Admiralty Instructions how necessary, speaking in general terms, secrecy is to the efficient conduct ot the naval seivice, and, like most men of confined intellect and bound.ess prejudice, has lushed into the extreme, determined to eir on the safe side, and rather run the risk of unpopulauiy than a wigging from the Board of Admiralty ; though I do not think they would, in this case, have blamed him or stopped hisprefeiment, for lending to a Newspapei Edi.or two or thiee papcis containing an account of momentous events in Euio|>e. Giacelul acts of courtesy aie vciy easy of exercise, and aie often pioducfive oi'gieat piactical good — taey aie our it oial dew oi heaven, tending to soften the rugged aspenties and to render fruitlul the best impulses of human nature. Those hjgh in authority little iinagine what a tiain of beneficial consequences iiuy re-

suit from one act or word of kind courtesy. I am the list to disavow the importance of secrets in public affairs, but, surely there is an " aurea medioprituV ' in that respect, and it does not require much discrimination to distinguish when secrecy is, or is not important. The natural disposition of Captain Maxwell is, I believe kind and amiable, it is a great pity that he does not allow it more play in matters of this kind. I conclude with a sincere hope that a little reflection may hereafter induce him to relax somewhat of that unbending taciturnity, where general information is concerned, and I am sure that he might do so with credit to himself, and no detriment to the public service. I am, &c, A Colonist. [We are perfectly disposed to give every credit to our correspondent's assertion that " the natural disposition of Captain Maxwell is kind and amiable. 1 ' That he bus a heart, and h feeling one, is certain ; and we have not forgotten his liberality in the caae of the orphan child of the ill-starr'd Snow's. It is a sad pify, nevertheless, that Captain Maxwell's kindness and amiability should be encrusted in such a crossgrained shell ; and that he should repulse by supercilious and needless scorn, those whom a little affability — a slight measure of condescension would conciliate ai d attract. — Ed.]