itilistellantotts.

The remonstrance of thirteen Bishops against Dr. Hampden's elevation to the see of Hereford has been published this week. In our second edi- tion, last Saturday, we copied from a provincial paper a statement that the reports of such a remonstrance were unfounded; but here we have the document itself, with Lord John Russell's reply.

REMONSTRANCE OF THE THIRTEEN BISHOPS.

" My Lord—We, the undersigned Bishops of the Church of England, feel it our duty to represent to your Lordship, as head of her Majesty's Government, the ap- prehension and alarm which have been excited in the minds of the clergy by the rumoured nomination to the see of Hereford of Dr. Hampden; in the soundness of whose doctrine the University of Oxford has affirmed, by a solemn decree, its want sf confidence.

" We are persuaded that your Lordship does not know how deep and general a feeling prevails on this subject; and we consider ourselves to be acting only in the discharge of our bounden duty both to the Crown and to the Church, when we respectfully but earnestly express to your Lordship our conviction that if this ap- pointment be completed, there is the greatest danger, both of the interruption of the peace of the Church, and of the disturbance of the confidence which it is most desirable that the clergy and laity of the Church should feel in every exercise of the Royal supremacy, especially as regards that very delicate and important par- ticular the nomination to vacant sees.

" We have the honour to be, my Lord, your Lordship's obedient faithful servants,

C. J. LONDON, J. H. GLOUCESTER and BiusiroL, C. WINTON, H. ExErna, J. LINCOLN, E. Sarum, Clut. BANGOR, A. T. CHICHESTER, HUGH CARLISLE, T. ELY, G. ROCHESTER, SAMEL. OXON.

RICH. BATH and WELLS,

4' To the Right Honourable Lord John Russell, Sta." LORD JOHN RUSSELL'S ANSWER TO THE BISHOPS.

" Chaaham Place, Dec. 8, 1847.

"My Lends—I have had the honour to receive a rvFmentation signed by your Lordships on the subject of the nomination of Dr. Hampden to the see of Here- ford.

"I observe that your Lordships do not state any want of confidence on your part in the soundness of Dr. Hampden's doctrine. Your Lordships refer me to a decree of the University of Oxford, passed eleven years ago, and founded upon lectures delivered fifteen years ago. "Since the date of that decree, Dr. Hampden has acted as Regius Professor of Divinity in the University of Oxford; and many Bishops, as I am told, have re- quired certificated of attendance on his lectures before they proceeded to ordain candidates who had received their education at Oxford. He has likewise preached sermons for which he has been honoured with the approbation of several Prelates of our Church.

"Several months before I named Dr. Hampden to the Queen for the see of Hereford, I signified my intention to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and did not receive from him any discouragement.

a In these circumstances, it appears to me that, should I withdraw my recom- meudation of Dr. Hampden, which has been sanctioned by the Queen, I should virtually assent to the doctrine, that a decree of the University of Oxford is a per- petual ban of exclusion against a clergyman of eminent learning and irreproach- able life; and that, in fact, the supremacy which is now by law vested in the Crown is to be transferred to a majority of the members of one of our Universities. "Nor should it be forgotten that many of the most prominent among that ma- jority have since joined the communion of the Church of Rome. "I deeply regret the feeling that is said to be common among the clew on this subject. But I cannot sacrifice the reputation of Dr. Hampden, the rights of the Crown, and what I believe to be the true interests of the Church, to a feeling which I believe to be founded on misapprehension and fomented by prejudice.

" At the same time, I thank your Lordships for an interposition which I believe to be intended for the public benefit.

" I hare, &c. J. RUSSELL. "To the Right Reverend the Bishops of London,

Winchester, Lincoln, &c.:" Lord John has subsequently been engaged in a lay correspondence on the same subject. The first of the subjoined documents was signed by 485 laymen; that number including many Peers and Members of Parliament.

REMONSTRANCE OF THE LAYMEN.

"My Lord—We, the undersigned lay members of the Church of England, beg leave to represent to your Lordship the deep concern with which we have hmM the report of your intention to recommend Dr. Hampden to her Majesty as the future Bishop of Hereford. "We have seen and heard enough of the strong feeling, both of laymen and of clergy, on this occasion, to convince us that the appointment, if persisted in, will stir up feelings of bitterness which it would be impossible soon to eradicate, and which would probably lead to consequences which your Lordship would deprecate as earnestly as ourselves. "We fervently hope that these, or other reasons, may induce your Lordship to reconsider the case, before you finally advise her Majesty to recommend for elec- tion to the vacant bishopric a person who hen been solemnlypronounced by his own University to be unworthy of its confidence as a teacher of Christian truth.

"We are, my Lord, &c. &c. "To the Right Honourable Lord John Russell, M.P."

LORD JOHN RUSSELL'S ANSWER.

Cheeham Place, Dec. 10, 1847.

" My Lords and Gentlemen—I have had the honour to receive your representa- tion on the subject of my recommendation nf Dr. Hampden to the Queen for the see of Hereford.

"I am aware that there exists a strong feeling on the part of some laymen and clergymen against Dr. Hampden; but that the appointment should excite feelings of bitterness, is, I hope, an error, as it would show a sad want of Christian charity on the part of those who would indulge such feelings.

"The consequences with which I am threatened I am prepared to encounter; as I believe the appointment will tend to strengthen the Protestant character of our Church, so seriously threatened of late by many defections to the Church of Rome. Among the chiefs of these defections are to be found the leading pro- moters of the movement against Dr. Hampden eleven years ago in the University of Oxford.

"I had hoped the conduct of Dr. Hampden as Regius Professor of Divinity, and head of a theological board at Oxford, had effaced the memory of that un- worthy proceeding. "I have the honour to be, my Lords and Gentlemen, your obedient servant, J. Rossau.." " To certain Lay Members of the Church of England."

In the absence of " the remonstrant Bishops," who had returned to their dioceses, the Bishop of Exeter addressed a rejoinder to Lord John Russell, replying in detail and at great length to the Premier's answer to the protest.

The Bishops, says Dr. Philpotts, had not expressly declared want of confidence, on their own part, in Dr. Hampden's teaching, because they would not obtrude on Lord John an opinion unasked. If four years were suffered to elapse before the University passed a decree on the Bampton lectures, it was because Dr. Hampden had not previously been in " a position special and immediately connected with theological teaching"; but his appointment to the Regius Professorship was de- precated, and King William's interference was invoked, and even the Royal wish MPS expressed against the selection—in vain. If the Bishops have not broken the long-established custom of requiring certificates of attendance on the Regius Pro- fessor's lectures, Dr. Philpotts is not surprised; nor would it preclude them from testifying to their adverse judgment on any grave occasion. Dr. Hampden's ele- vation to the see of Hereford is beyond all precedent. " Never before was any person recommended by the Crown to a bishopric against whom there stood a formal legal judgment affirming the unsoundness of his doctrine. This is the real, the special distinction of his case. Short of this, indeed, one or two in- stances, not dissimilar, occur to me while I am writing. The first is the case of two persons nominated by King James the Second, in the year 1686, to fill the sees of Chester and Oxford; and I would rather give the case in the words of Burnet than in my own: "'Cartwright was promoted to Chester. The see of Oxford was given to Dr. Parker. These two persons were pitched on as the fittest instruments that could be found among the clergy to betray and ruin the Church.'—My Lord, I moat unfeign- edly disclaim the slightest intention to insinuate that such is your object in naming Dr. Hampden, or that he would be a fit instrument for such a purpose. I believe you both to be utterly incapable of anything so dishonourable. But the preceding inapposite words are necessary to introduce what is, I submit, really apposite: 'Some of the Bishops brought to Archbishop Sancroft articles against them, which they desired he would offer to the King in Council, and pray that the man- date for consecrating them might be delayed till time were given to examine par- ticulars; and Bishop Lloyd told me that Sancroft premised to him not to conse- crate them till he had examined the truth of the articles, which were too scan- dalous to be repeated. Yet, when Sancroft saw what danger he might incur if he were sued in preemunire, he consented to consecrate them. [An accident happened in the action that struck him much. When he was going to give the chalice in the sacrament, he stumbled on one of the steps of the altar, and dashed out all the consecrated wine that was in it; which was mach taken notice of, and himself much trouble, since he was frightened by so mean a fear.]'—Burnet of his own Times, Oxford, 1823; vol. iii. p. 136-8.

" Such, my Lord, is the first—precedent shall I say? or warning? It is for your Lordship to decide; and in forming your decision, you will, I doubt not, re- member that Sancroft, is not now in the see of Canterbury, nor James IL on the throne of England.

" The other case is that of Bishop Headley; of which I am more apprehensive that your Lordship may think it worthy of being followed. Against this Prelate, s notorious Latitudinarian, and something more,' the Lower House of Convoca- tion in 1717 prepared a representation to be presented to the Archbishops and Bishops sitting in the Upper House, 'that with much grief of heart they had ob served that the right reverend the Lord Bishop of Bangor bath given great and grievous offence by certain doctrines and positions by him lately published'; the tendency of which they proceeded to set forth in the form of articles. Before this representation could be brought into the Upper House, the Convocation was pro- rogued by a special order from the King, and was not permitted to sit again. The accused Prelate was not long afterwardstranslated to Hereford, (what a complete and happy precedent !) and subsequently, in due succession, to Salisbury and to Winchester.

"My Lord, if the conduct of the Minister of George L on that scandalous oc- casion be not adopted by you as a precedent, show that you repudiate it. Take that step which is due to justice, to the rights of the Church, and to the consci- ence of every Churchman. Withdraw the recommendation which you have so inconsiderately made; or if you persist in it, refer the writings of Dr. Hampden to the judgment of the Church in Convocation." Before Dr. liampden's appointment to the bishopric, the ban of exclusion ought to be repealed—either by the retraction of his errors, or by proof that the formal censure on him was unfounded. As to the argument that the protest of the Bishops encroaches on the supremacy of the Crown, the same might be said if Dr. Hampden had incurred a criminal sentence in the Court of Queen's Bench for some flagitious crime and that sentence were urged against his appointment. But Dr. Philpotta objects to Lord John Russell's application of "a term so sacred as'the rights of the Crown to a matter so foul as the provisions of the statute " on which that remark rests.

"My Lord, the Crown has no right, can have no right, (I trust, too, that it will be found to have no power,) to force a Bishop on the Church whom the Church has just right to reject as a 'setter forth of erroneous and strange doctrine, con- trary to God's Word.' True, my Lord, the statute 26 Henry VIIL chap. 20—the Magna Charts of tyranny—does give to the Crown a power which your Lordship bas been pleased to call a right to condemn to prison and to penury any Dean or any Chapter which may refuse compliance with such a mandate. But no sta- tute has the power to effect the execution of the mandate itself; no statute has the power to make an honest and conscientious Chapter to elect, or an honest and conscientious Prelate to consecrate to the office of Bishop, such a person as I have described above."

The Bishop of Norwich declined to sign the remonstrance against Dr. Hampden's appointment; for the following reasons, set forth in a letter to one of the remonstrant Bishops-

" 1. Because I conceive that by such proceeding we are giving to an University censure an authority which in no way belongs to it, and which many of its most devoted friends have disclaimed. And further, that I can attach little weight to a decision emanating from Oxford on that occasion; bearing in mind that the movement against Dr. Hampden originated with a party suspected (how justly subsequent events have fully proved) of entertaining a strong leaning to- wards the Church of Rome. That the opinions, moreover, of many of those members of Convocation who opposed Dr. Hampden were manifested with a bitter- ness of party-spirit little creditable to them as members of a Christian community and a calm deliberative assembly; and that there is good reason for believing that the majority was obtained by votes given by many individuals who came up ex- seemly for the purpose, though it was notorious that they had never read the Weeks which they professed to condemn.

"2. That even if the censure of 1836 were deserving attention, it was virtually repealed by a statute in the early part of 1842, which expressly appointed Dr. Hampden to the office of Examiner in the new Theological Examination, and which was by several influential members of the University understood to cancel the.previous censure: and that, in the summer of 1842, an attempt was made actually to repeal the censure of 1836, which very nearly succeeded, supported as it was by some of the most distinguished members of the University—amongst others, I believe, by no lees than 15 out of 17 of the heads of Colleges; and that it was opposed by a large portion of those well known for their Tractarian ten-. dencies.

" 3. Because I believe Dr. Hampden to have been very unfairly treated, judged as he was by extracts separated from their context, and many of them obscurely worded, on points involving deep metaphysical reasoning, requiring unprejudiced and dispassionate investigation to decide upon. "4. Because I consider that on other occasions, more especially in his inaugural lecture, he has shown clearly and unequivocally, and beyond all controversy, that his sentiments on those particular topics on which he was supposed to be unsound were in accordance with the formularies of our Church and with the Holy Scrip- tures."

Tuesday's Gazette announced that the Queen had ordered a cong4 d'elire to the Dean and Chapter of Hereford to elect a Bishop in the room of Dr. Musgrave; and that her Majesty has recommended the Reverend Bean Dickson Hampden, D.D., for election to the vacant see of Hereford.

Lord Ebrington is to be appointed to the office of Parliamentry Secretary to the new Poor-law Commission; and Mr. Nicholls, the senior Commissioner of the Commission now about to be superseded, is to be the permanent Secretary. The Fwent Commission will expire on the day after the commission appointing Mr. Charles Buller the President is published in the Gazette.—Morning Chronicle.

It is understood that either Mr. Tancred or Mr. Hayter will succeed Mr. Charles Buller as Judge-Advocate-General

it is now generally understood that Mr. W. H. Tinney, Q.C., of Lincoln's Inn, 'will be the new blaster in Chancery, in the room of the deceased Mr. Duckworth. The Attorney-General has appointed Mr. L. P. Fearon, of the firm of Fearon and Clabou; Great George Street, Westminster, his solicitor for the conduct of the Crown charity snits.

Mr. Cowan, who declined to take his seat for Edinburgh at the meeting of Parliament on account of a technical flaw, went through the form of another election on Wednesday, and was returned without opposition. Don Miguel has been laid up by the prevailing epidemic, at his residence in 'Welbeck Street.

The prevailing influenza has numbered amongst its victims Mr. H. B. Curteis, M.P. for Rye; who died on Monday, at Coxe's Hotel, Jermyn Street. The Standard says, "it is not unlikely that he will be succeeded in the representation by Mr. Curteis Pomfret, who is a rich banker at Rye, and a Conservative and Protectionist" Mr. Buncombe, father to the Member for Finsbury, died on Tuesday sennight, at Copgrove, his seat near Knaresborough.

A lengthy statement has been published by the officers of the Lady Kennaway, to show that all was done which the circumstances seemed to permit to save the ship. All the officers and men are ready to swear to the truth of this document which gives a very different oolour to the affair. We are obliged to a correspondent for calling our attention to an error in our last number respecting a resolution adopted at a Convocation of the Univer- sity of Oxford ig a majonty of 52 against 10: our paragraph spoke of it as a petition against the elevation of Dr. Hampden to the see of Hereford; which was wrong. " The petition you allude to had no reference whatever'to Dr..11am The petitions submitted to the Convocation were against 'the admission of per_ sons professing the Jewish religion to the privilege of sitting in Parliament'; and these petitions were carried by a majority of 52 against .10. I may further add, that a petition, the prayer of which was such as you named, was stopped in limine by the veto of the Vice-Chancellor; and on being referred to, the Caput met with a similar fate."

Results of the Registrar-General's return of mortality in the Metropolis for the week ending on Saturday last—

Number of Antonin deaths. avecago. Zymottc (or Epidemic, Endemic, and Contuglous) Diseases 783 .. • 211 Dropsy, tftncer, and other diseases of uncertain or variable seat HO .... tot Diseases of the Brain, Spinal Marrow, Nerves, and Senses 177 ..• 167 Diseases of the Lungs, and of the other Organs of Respiration 913 .... 333 Diseases of the Heart and Blood-vessels 50 .... 34 Diseases of the Stomach, Liver, and other Organs of Digestion 114 .... 74 Diseases of the Kidneys, Re. 17 .... 9 Childbirth, diseases of the Uterus, ifcc. 20 • • • - 14 Rheumatism, diseases of the Bones, Joints, &c 11 .... 7 Diseases of the Skin, Cellular Tissue, Ate Old Age 134 .... St Violence, Privation, Cold, and Intemperance 85 .... 29 Total (including unspecified causes) 2416 1048

The lowest temperature of the thermometer in the shade was 25.0°; the mean temperature by day being warmer than the average mean temperature by Me. The thermometer whose bulb was placed in the full rays of the sun was broken. The general direction of the wind for the week was South-south-west.