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Wellington Independent, Volume XVIII, Issue 1885, 23 June 1863, Page 3

THE BISHOPS AND DR COLENSO. The Bishop of Natal tias published the following reply to an address presented to him on the part of all the Bishops:— "My Lord Archbishop, — I have seriously considered the address which has been forwarded to me by your Grace, signed by a great number of the archbishops and bishops of the Oburcb of England. In reply, I feel obliged to say that I am unable to comply with the suggestions thereio conveyed to me, that I should resign my episcopal charge. I trust tbat I yield to none of your Lordships in a heartfelt deference for the Holy Scriptures. But certainly I do not believe as the words of the address seem to imply, that your Lordships do believe that ' all our hopes for eternity' rest on the literal historical truth of such a narrative as the Scriptural account of the Noachian Deluge. But I must refer to my books for a statement of the reasons which justify to my own mind the course which lam taking. To resign my office would be to admit that my conduct has been legally or morally wrong, which I am very far from feeling. Rather, I am persuaded that my duty to God and the , National Church, which I have received in the same manner as your Lordships, that Episcopal commission whicb we have no power of abdicating, requires me to persevere in the task which I have undertaken — namely, to set before the English Church the real facts of the case in regard to the eompositiou <>f the Pentateuch, in accordance with the most trustworthy results of recent criticism. I venture to add tbat the progress of true religion appears to me to be grievously impeded in this country by the contradictions which undeniably exist between the traditional notion of the historical truth of all the narrative contained in the Pentateuch and the conclusions of science, as now brought within the comprehension, even of the youth of both sexes, by the general extension of education. And it is my firm conviction that this subject deserves, more- than at any other time, our most serious consideration, and, if possible, our united action, as bishops of the National | Church. I am, my Lord Arcbbisbop, your i Grace's very faithful and obedient servant, J. W, Natal.— London, March 5."

Punch gives the following summary of the correspondence: — * I. My Dear Colenso, With regret, We hierarchs in conclave met, Beg you, you most disturbing writer, To take off your colonial mitre, This course we presi upon you strongly, Believe me, Yours most truly, Lambeth. Longww. 11. My Dear Archbishop, To resign That Zulu diocese of mine, And own myself a heathen dark, Because I've doubts about Noah's Ark, And feel it right to tell all men so, Is hot the course for Yours, Kensington. Colenbo.