On Sunday last, Dr. Colenso was to have preached for
Mr. Stopford Brooke at St. James's, York Street, but he was pre- vented from doing so by a virtual, though not formal, inhibition of the Bishop of London's. Dr. Jackson did what we suppose he held to be a disagreeable duty in the mildest possible way, by writing to Mr.. Brooke to say that he had seen the adver- tisement of the intended sermon, and that he hoped the intention would be quietly given up, as otherwise he should be obliged to inhibit the Bishop from preaching there. Mr. Brooke in communicating the disappointment to his congrega- tion, added that, in his private letter, Bishop Jackson "spoke almost with fervour of his sympathy with the efforts the Bishop of Natal had made to bring about justice in the colony over which he was Bishop." We have discussed elsewhere the moral right of the Bishops to close in this way the mouths of clergymen of the Church of England who have never been convicted of any heresy, and probably could not be convicted of any before the only ecclesiastical tribunals which have any authority to pronounce on this matter in the British Empire. We may add here that the notion of Dr. Colenso leading astray the flock of Mr. Stopford Brooke is a preposterous one. Amongst the rationalisers of the Church of England, assuredly Dr. Colenso does not by any means lead the advanced guard.
