DEATH OF ARCHBISHOP OF CAPETOWN.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 247, 11 July 1908, Page 10

DEATH OF ARCHBISHOP OF CAPETOWN.

: -AN INTERESTING CAREER. The-.Archbishop of: Capetown. (Dr.- William • West.,-Jones)- died at the:. Lizard; Cornwall, -England, on May 21.' i •The : Most.-.Rev. William West/Jones, D.Dlj who-was . tho son of. the/late Mi\ E.' H. Jones,- was educated at ■ Merchant' Taylors'Scliool, then in. its qld coufinod homo in Suffolk Lane, and proceeded in due courso to.St. .John's C.qllege,:.Oxford, whoro ho hold a-:,fo'undation..-.spii,olarship. ; '.:, 'He was "placed in thp. second class in moderations'in 1858,' .and- graduated in-1860 with, an '.'honorary fourth", class--. both in' mathematics • and •in -Lit. Hum. By that timo .he had. already been advanced to a" Fellowship, which ho: held for twenty, years. .. He ,was;.ordained deacon in. 1861 and priest in- 1862 by Dr. Wilberforco,; Bishop of Oxford. Ho' proceeded to tho B.D. degreo in 1869, and received an honorary D.D. in 1888 when visiting England to tako part in tho third Lambeth Conference. " -.His connexion with St. John's' College was-resumed: on his election as "an honorary Follow in 1893. • . ■ '•Dr.'.WesWones was .a lifelong adlierent- of the' Traotarian party in the Church of England; His first and only- curacy-was, that of. St. 'Matthew, City Road, and in 1864 lio .accepted from his collego tho viearago of Sumniertown, Oxford, where for .a: short time;he; was riirat dean.of Oxford,-and.' held tho now obsbleto office of- .University preacher .at tho; old Whitbhall -Chapel. After. ten years; as an Oxford' inoumbent.- during, which ho was closely .-intimate witli Dr. Wilberforco, he was'consecrated Bishop of Cape Town in Westminster' Abboy on May 17, 1874, so' that ho had completod thirty-four years iu tho Episcopato, a respect in which tho vonorable Archbishop of Armagh is possibly' his only senior.

Tho circumstances of his appointment' to Capetown wero ■ full of anticipations of struggle and conflict. For ho was succeeding the earnest but imperious Bishop Gray, who found-his English champion in Bishop Wilborforce, and whoso recklessness, as Taitsaid, 7 r made Archbishop Longloy; almost tremble with anxiety at tho arrival of each ■mail-from the .Cape." ~ln particular, thero. had -been trouble between Bishop Gray and Lambeth as. to-, the oath of. canonical/pbedioiico'tb the See of-Canterbury being "taken .by' a' Bishop consecrated in; England by the. .'Archbishop of Canterbury for a colonial See; The now Bishop, while as dovot-ed as Bishop Gray to Tractarian principles, was a man' of quietor spirit. But ho neve' - lacked courage, and ho stood out for soma consideration in the matter of this oath. He agreed to take it, but on terms sot forth in a document executed at the timo, _ making -it clear that ho was 'not compromising! his prerogatives as Metropolitan of South Africa.--.. Tho same spirit of anxiety, rather than of the fractiousness displayed by his predecessor, entered into his relations with Archbishop Benson. Ho pressed for definitions of tho •relation of the/ See of Canterbury to' the Church of-his provinco and for a declaration from the Archbishop and Province of Canterbury on the subject of tho unity of tho Church of South Africa with tho Church of England. His province, though not his actual diocese, continued for yoars to bo-dis-turbed by tho difficulties in tho diocese of Natal,-and ho urged Archbishop Benson to nominate in succession to Dr. Macrorio a Bishop who should bo' accepted by both sides. . In 1897. in commou with tho heads of several ' province's in the Anglican'communion, tho Bishop of Capo Town assumed and had since maintained the title of Archbishop, a change which meant less, perhaps, in his case than in aiiy other, as previous controversies had tended-to accentuato tho metropolitan authority of his Seo. As an ardont Tractarian lio did much to maintain tho power of the -party to which ho adhered in • the Church : of 'South Africa. Ho kept up his closo connexion with the English Cliurch Union at. homo, and; at the timo of the Lincoln trial ho took part in soveral meetings arranged by tho union in order to givo moral support to tho Bishop of Lincoln: It is. however, only fair.'to say that Evangelical clergy havo been. welcomed in the dioceso of Capo Town.' howovor hard-it may' bo for them to obtain a foothold in . some parts of the provinco, ■ Tho lato Archbishop_ gave ospecial encouragement to tho "Mission of Help,"-which drew English clergy of both parties to. visit South Africa and preach and exhort in various dioceses. Ho had recently arrived in England to attend tho Lambeth Conference, of which ho, Was, of course, one. of the oldest members, and," as his custom was, attended servico in St. Paul's Cathedral, taking tho opportunity to pay a brief visit to his old friend Dean Gregory. There was some doubt in tho minds of his frionds as to whethor ho would return to his work at the closo of the conference, but he did not harbour tho doubthimself. It will be remembered that he had bceii' keenly engaged in the task of buildirirr 'a new Cathedral for. Capo" Town as ft' memorial of those who fell in the war, and it was his hope to return and see at least a part pf the undertaking completed.