REV. PATRICK CHEYNE, OF ABERDEEN.

73

This address is said to have been signed by not less than 400 of our clergy. Assuming, therefore, which is not too much to do*-that each of these individuals has contributed to swell the Bishop of Oxford's "overwhelming majority," we reduce the 5,000 to about 4,600; for we cannot for a moment allow anything but a "very unweighty character" to the signatures of men who thus express their sympathy with a pronounced and deprived heretic.

Thirdly, we have heard of certain divines condoling with the Rev. Bryan King, and subscribing† to bear him harmless in his obstinate attempt to establish a Popish ceremonial in a Protestant Church, in defiance of the clearly expressed feeling of 20,000 of his parishioners, and the vast body of Englishmen throughout the land. How many of these gentlemen, we wonder, help to swell the Bishop's "overwhelming majority?"

These are the women-old and young (chiefly the latter)— the cooks, the garland-weavers, and the perfumers.

The time would fail us to reckon up the waiters, scullions, and cup-bearers; that is to say, the bishops' chaplains, the rural deans, and the archdeacons,§ who have, all of them, received their nomination direct from their lordships; which

the Communion. The only theory necessary to the completion of the sacrifice is the communion of the priest, which is required to complete the idea of sacrifice, as an act of communion between God and man." (P. 34.)

See Hampshire Telegraph of March 10th, 1860.

* An examination of the list confirms this conjecture in a remarkable manner. It may suffice to mention the names of the Rev. F. G. Lee, and Orby Shipley (since then a pervert to Rome), as samples of this class.

+ One of the subscribers was a certain combative archdeacon in the North, who became, in consequence, involved in a newspaper correspondence with one of his clergy.

The names of at least 160 rural deans will be found in the list as published by Bell and Daldy, all nominees of the bishops; while, curious enough, of the deans proper, who are independent of Episcopal control, only five appear to have signed!

§ Most of the archdeacons and bishops' chaplains are there also.

last, be it always remembered, are said to have declared unanimously "that the PRAYER-BOOK SHALL NOT BE TOUCHED.

same.

We spare to count the incumbents of Episcopal livings, or those who "stand and wait" till the next vacancy of the * 'Twere long, also, to tell the names of the curates to those whom we have already classed under heads 1, 2, and 3; the strait-waistcoated divines, to wit, of Frome; East Brent; West Lavington; Boyne-hill; St. Paul's, Brighton; St. George's-in-the-East; St. Philip's, Clerkenwell; St. Philip's, Stepney; St. Matthias, Stoke Newington; St. John's, Hackney; St. James's, Hatcham; St. Mary's, Soho; St. Mary Magdalene, Munster Square; St. Vedast's; St. Barnabas; All Saints', Margaret Street; Enfield; St. Saviour's, Leeds; Sidmouth, Devon; Torquay; Plymouth; Exeter; and the like.

"Not less their number than the embodied cranes,

Or milk-white swans in Asia's wat'ry plains;

That o'er the windings of Cayster's springs,

Stretch their long necks, and clap their rustling wings."

Suffice it to say, that until the public have the list fairly before them, with the opportunity of ascertaining whether "a careful scrutiny of its contents" may not "discover several remarkable facts † concerning it, and so shake any possible weight that might otherwise attach to it," the Bishop of Oxford is hardly justified in his triumphant boast of the "marvellous unity of expression of feeling with which thousands of the clergy have laid aside all those difficulties

* About 3,000 pieces of preferment are in the hands of the bishops. See Vol. I., Letter xxx., p. 201.

+ The most "remarkable" of these "facts" is the great preponderance the list contains of "sheep-walkers ;"—" those who," according to Sydney Smith, never deviate from the beaten track, think as their fathers have thought since the flood, and who start from a new idea as they would from guilt." (Sydney Smith's Memoirs, p. 435.)-Some 100 at least of these came within the range of the author's personal acquaintance.

RETREAT OF THE TEN THOUSAND (1860).

75

which men usually feel in placing their name to any document."

Finally, whenever this curious "document" does appear,* it will much surprise us if these Ten Thousand Anglicans have not to tread in the steps of the Ten Thousand Greeks under Xenophon, and beat a hasty retreat, if they can, to the place from whence they came. Happy, thrice happy, if their leader (the Bishop or the Dean) have the fortune to meet with an honest historian, who shall transmit his memory to an immortality of fame, inscribing his monument with the imperishable record,—

"He did his utmost to put back the tide of religious advancement in the nineteenth century, but failed, through the good sense and determination of a more enlightened British public." All honour to his memory-quia magnis excidit ausis!

Yours faithfully,

April 12, 1860.

"INGOLDSBY."

LETTER LXXXIII.

REV. FRANK MASSINGBERD ON REVISION OF THE PRAYER-BOOK.

"Amphora cœpit

Institui;-currente rotâ, cur urceus exit ?"-HOR., Ars Poet.
"Promised a play-but dwindled to a farce."-DRYDEN.

SIR,-To relieve the tedium of perpetually reviewing tracts in favour of a Revision of the Book of Common Prayer,

* After the above had been published in Bell's Weekly Messenger, of April 14th, the document in question was sent me by an unknown hand, entitled "Declaration of the Clergy against Alteration of the Book of Common Prayer." London: Bell and Daldy, 1860.—I have since taken great pains to analyse its contents, and I challenge contradiction in any of the above statements. Above half the subscribers are now dead. (1878.)

we will to-day slightly vary the entertainment, by presenting our readers with the rare exhibition of a writer on the other side the Rev. Francis Charles Massingberd,* "Rector of Ormsby South, with Ketsby Rectory, Calceby Vicarage, and Driby Rectory, Diocese of Lincoln; Prebendary of Thorngate in Lincoln Cathedral, and Proctor in Convocation for the Diocese of Lincoln."+ This is indeed a goodly array of clerical titles, and must add weight to the opinions of the possessor upon any matters affecting the temporalities, if not the spiritualities, of the Church.

Some few weeks ago the Literary Churchman commenced an article upon Revision with the following remarks:

"The pamphlets which are continually issuing from the press show how thoroughly the clergy are rising to the defence of their Prayer-book, the defenders being at least three to one of the assailants. In the pamphlets before us this ratio happens to be reversed (!), but we are speaking of the whole number of them."

To this piece of "splendid mendacity," a writer in the National Standard replied as follows:

"What are the facts? Since last summer no less than sixteen pamphlets have been published in favour of Revision. According to the statement of the Literary Churchman, there should have been therefore at least' forty-eight against alteration of the Prayer-book. I have, however, by diligent search in the advertising columns of the High Church newspapers been only able to discover, in that period, the titles of two, and both of these are mere reprints of articles

Subsequently, by favour of the Bishop, Chancellor of Lincoln; where he died Dec. 12, 1872, æt. 71. Peace be with him!

† See Crockford's Clerical Directory for 1860, p. 412.

In October, 1862, the number of recent pamphlets in favour of Revision, according to the list published by the Association, amounted to one hundred. We are not aware of the titles of as many as ten on the other side.

THE REV. FRANK MASSINGBERD, OF LINCOLN.

77

in newspapers or reviews. The other forty-six appear to have sprung, Minerva-like, from the fertile brain of the Editor of the Literary Churchman-the 'wish,' I suppose, as is not uncommon with the writers on that side, being 'father to the thought.' Surely mis-statements of this kind only damage the cause they are intended to support.-I am, Sir, yours, &c., CLERICUS."

Since that time at least a dozen more tracts have issued from the press in favour of Revision, while (to the best of our knowledge and belief) the only one on the other side is a small brochure by the Rev. Thomas Lathbury ;* proving, however, little, except that the same author who can laboriously compile a history of the past is not necessarily skilled in adapting his learning to the circumstances of the age in which he lives.

It is true, the Rev. F. C. Massingberd blew a blast loud and shrill from the lowlands of Lincolnshire about two months ago, announcing the approaching birth of a treatise from his pen on the same side as Mr. Lathbury;† and as this second champion in the cause of stagnation is also known as a Church historian, great was the expectation raised, and large the orders upon the county-town bookseller, in anticipation of the forthcoming work. Alas! for the disappointment both to the bibliopolist and his customers, when the rolling wheel of Time, in place of the promised vase, produces but a pitcher from the hands of this venerable potter, in the shape of two letters to the Lincolnshire Chronicle, bearing date Torquay, March 28th, and April 5th, 1860.

Whether the Bishop of Exeter (Phillpotts), whose country

"The proposed Revision of the Book of Common Prayer considered." By the Rev. Thomas Lathbury, M.A. Oxford: Parker, 1860.

Which said pamphlet, however, shared the fate of the "Murdered Innocents," or rather never came to the birth at all. See Letter LXX., p. 4. Also see remarks of Mr. Massingberd in Convocation, on the Dean of Norwich's motion, March 14, 1861. (Guardian.)