Interviews with Bishop Julius.

Hastings Standard, Issue 447, 11 October 1897, Page 4

Interviews with Bishop Julius.

HOME IMPRESSIONS. I In an interview with Bishop Julius a representative of theLy tfcelton Timesgot the following interesting " copy " : ! —lt was only four years before that the Bishop had been in England, and; j therefore, there was not much striking change for him to notice. } more abounding prosperity now. Even in regard to agricultural prospects men j are more hopeful. This is well, for the Bishop grows grave as he tells of the dire effect of English agricultural depression on church and charities ; even on the universities. Hospitals, the value of whose endowments had shrunk to starvation point, were scarcely able to keep open their doors, but to their assistance had come the Prince of Wales' Diamond Jubilee Hospital Fund, the best and greatest and one of the most successful of Record Reign celebrations. It was well supported because, his Lordship remarked, practically sympathy with the poor is strong in England. " Why, then, was the Princess of Wales's appeal for funds to provide a dinner for the poor on Jubilee Day only saved from utter failure by the gift of one man ? " Not from want of sympathy with the poor, his Lordship explains, but because most people felt that ''he proposal was unwise. To provide a single meal meant the expenditure of thousands of pounds, which could be much better spent in some more permanent relief. Asked as to the condition of the poor generally the Bishop takes a hopeful view. Things are at all events not getting worse, though the permanent solution of the problem of poverty appears still in the very far distance. He heartily praises the work of tha London County Council in improving the slums and m generally bettering the condition of the people. He remarks, however, that the huge blocks of workmen's dwellings constructed by the municipal authority are not in all cases as popular as was expected. They are clean, healthy, and comfortable in a way, but yet cheerless, and the workman prefers a little cottage to a suite of rooms in a huge block. Thanks to workmen's trains and cheap fares to the suburbs, he is enabled to a great extent to indulge his preference. Among the poor the Oxford Mission in Bethnal Green and the Cambridge Mission in South London are, Bishop Julius says, continuing a great work with success. • Thoroughly modern in spirit, they aim at saving the whole man, body and mind as well as soul. Through their operations, and the devoted labors of the clergy of the new school, the Church of England is steadily increasing her hold on the masses in England. The recent pronouncement of the Pope against the validity of Anglican orders has, the Bishop observes, completely stopped the movement which had arisen in favor of union between the churches of Rome and England. The dignified reply of the Anglican bishops to the Papal utterance was viewed with warm approval throughout the English Church, and the result has been to leave English churchmen fully satisfied with their own position. As to the relations between the Church of England and other churches, the Bishop said that deep but very pleasant feelings were aroused at the Lambeth Conference by the admirable and noble letter of greeting sent by $e Established Presbyterian Church of Scotland. The presence of a bishop of the Russian Greek Chuuch, the Archbishop of Finland, at the opening services of the Conference and at the service on Jubilee Day was an agreeable intimation of the friendly relations between the English Church and the other great branch of the Church Catholic. The Finnish Bishop was a fine-looking man of keen intelligence. " I cannot," said his Lordship, " say much now about the Lambeth Conference, but I may say that; the spirit which actuated its proceedings was admirable. Its effects upon the Church are certain to be good, but as it was only a consultative body without power to pass resolutions binding on the Church, it is impossible to accurately estimate those effects yet. As I said before, there was a very general recognition of human brotherhood throughout its proceedings, and its recommendations on social questions were, I think, not behind the time." The Bishop was at Cambridge during the excitement which prevailed there over the question of granting the University degrees to women. He preached there on the Sunday before that question was decided adversely to the ladies. His idea of the matter is that the best way out of the difficulty will be found in the establishment of a separate University for women, and he considers that the recent action of the authorities was, under the circumstances, natural, though illogical, inasmuch as they have permitted the establishment of women's colleges, where female students go through the same course as the men. The latter can win degrees; the ladies cannot. Tije question is, however, looked at by the opponents of the ladies from a social rather than what may be called a scholastic point of view. "If," say they, " we admit women to our degrees we cannot refuse them admittance to the colleges, and their entrance there would upset the whole social arrangements which are a vital part of the system of our University. That system, of which residence in college and a particular social life are essential, has in the past been admirable for those for whom it was designed, the men. It has produced many excellent men. Shall we destroy a thing so good for the men in order to replace it by a system of which we cannot forsee whether the result will be good or bad, which may prove bad for both men and women ?" The Bishop is inclined to admit that fcbere is force in this contention. He condemns the disorderly and unchival-

rous conduct of .some of the undergraduates during the contest, but says that it was not really so bad as would appear from the published accounts of it. Tbero was not, it appeals, much strong ill-feeling against the women, the riotous proceedings partaking rather of the character of goodhumored horse-play. Indeed, the Cambridge men seem to wish, while refusing woman her request for degrees, to treat her with deferential courtesy. This was exemplified by one gentleman who gravely animadverted on the inconvenience which would be caused by the admission of ladies to certain science classes wherein the microscopes, which are not numerous enough for each student to obtain one, are when they are repaired allotted on first-come-first-served principle. " The man," said he " who had secured microscopes would be bound in courtesy to give them up to the ladies who came late and perhaps the men would lose the use of thsm altogether." The Bishop replied to this objection with the query, " Cannot the University buy more microscopes ?" i3ut it seems that it is not so easy as might be imagined, for the University revenues have been sorely diminished through the reduction of the returns, for its endowments. The idea of the ladies taking their chance with the other students of getting a microscope seemingly never entered the don's head. He did not want to place women on an equality with men either in regard to that or to getting degrees.