sent to every Clergyman of
England and Ireland, "with an adjuration, for the love of God and out of
duty to the souls of men, to sign it." That Declaration was a protest
against the acquittal of the Essayists; and Stanley rejoices over the
fact, that, though "every influence was used to get signatures to it,
and was so concealed as to enlist the support of High and Low Church
parties," the result was the signature of only one third of the London
clergy, nine Professors at Oxford and one at Cambridge, eight out of the
thirty English deans, two of the Head Masters of the Public Schools, and
only six out of the fifty clerical contributors to Smith's _Dictionary
of the Bible_; that more than one half of the rural clergy stood
altogether aloof from the document; and that when it was presented at
Lambeth only four of the twenty-eight Bishops loaned their countenance
to its formal reception. Stanley looks into the future and sees
permanent blessings bestowed upon the country by the "timely decision of
the highest Court of Appeal" that it has "no jurisdiction or authority
to settle matters of faith, or to determine what ought in any particular
to be the doctrine of the Church of England, since its duty extends only
to the consideration of that which is by law established to be the
doctrine of the Church of England, upon the true and legal construction
of her Articles and formularies." He is also pleased that the Supreme
Court of Appeal has refused to pledge itself and the Church to any
popular theory of the mode of justification or of the future punishment
of the wicked; and that it now stands declared that it is no doctrine of
the Church of England that "every part of the Bible is inspired, or is
the word of God." The Dean also looks with complacency upon what he
declares to be a fact, and which we are startled to hear; that "the
belief in endless punishment is altogether fluctuating, or else
expresses itself in forms wholly untenable ... that the doctrine of
endless torments, if held, is not practically taught by the vast
majority of the Clergymen of England."

The First Broad Church will not accept entirely the theology contained
in the _Essays and Reviews_, and complains of them that they are "almost
entirely negative; hinting at faults in the prevalent religious opinions
of the day, but not investigating them; indicating dislike to certain
obligations which are imposed upon clergymen, but not stating or
considering what th