THE BISHOP OF NEW ZEALAND ON THE IRISH CHURCH QUESTION.

Marlborough Express, Volume III, Issue 119, 30 May 1868, Page 4

THE BISHOP OF NEW ZEALAND ON THE IRISH CHURCH QUESTION.

The Bishop of Litchfield (G. A. Selwyn) held a primary visitation at Newcastle-under-Lyme on March 31. In the course of a discussion which took place on the subject of diocesan synods, his lordship deemed it necessary to repel an insinuation that he was indifferent on the subject of the Irish Church and the connection of Church and State. This he did, with' some emotion, in the following emphatic language :—“ Dr. Armstrong excused himself from attending yesterday the rural deanery chapter at Stoke on the ground that he had to meet and reply to, at Hanley, an itinerant lecturer on the Irish Church. That supplies mo with a strong argument in favor of diocesan synods, for our true policy is, not for each one of us to expend his strength and influence on every itinerant lecturer who comes across our path, for then we shall oidy get beaten in detail, but to act together, with the force and momentum which; synodical action would supply. Dr. Armstrong says the attacks on the Irish Church are .only the percursors of an attack on the English Church, the success of which would bring into existence a of episcopal sects, and that this would bo a very great calamity. I entirely agree,'with Dr, Armstrong. lam personally acquainted with Mr. Gladstone; we were schoolfellows together ; but I am firmly resolved to offer my most determined opposition to what I believe, is the beginning of ah attack upon the Church of . England. Some persons have supposed that because for 26 years I have lived, in the midst of.anon-established Church, and have seen it grow up in spite of the inconveniences of the -voluntary principle,, that, therefore, I: am in; favor of f that .principle. Nothing: of 'the kind. I ihav§(learpjtf .simply, in;whatever state I am, thereyd.th .to be content. iC < In New Zealand I found myself reduced to the. head, of a sect. . I tried, to make, the best of the position, and I did so by establishing diocesan synods, without which we could not have held our ground for a moment. I come to England, and I find that our Church is at this moment in peril of being disestablished. I therefore avow myself the most determined upholder of the establishment, So help me God ! — Home News*