DOI Heft:
December 1, 1866
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16878#0227
December 1, I860.]
PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI
219
FOXES AND GEESE.
A Dining Room.—Dessert. Uncle and Nephew.
Nephew. Is it true that Dr. Pusey denies that he and his adherents
demand or enforce Confession?
Uncle. Yes. I hope he means what he says, and says what he
means. If he preaches the necessity of Confession, when he says that
he doesn’t enforce it he equivocates ; and an equivocation, meant to
mislead, is simply a lie.
Nephew. Does Pusey claim the same powers as those asserted by
Roman Catholic Priests ?
Uncle. So I understand.
Nephew. What do the Roman Catholic Priests say of his pretensions ?
Uncle: That they are false. The Roman Catholic Priests disown all
connection with Dr. Pusey. They consider him no priest at all, and
not even a Catholic. In their estimation he is no more a priest than I
am, and no less a heretic. The Roman Catholic Priests, with the
Pope at their head, and the whole Greek Church besides, Patriarch
and all, hold precisely the same opinion of Dr. Pusey as that which
the President and College of Physicians, and the President and College
of Surgeons entertain of Professor Holloway.
Nephew. That is to say, they regard Dr. Pusey as an ecclesiastical
quack ?
Uncle. Yes ; or rather a lay quack; no ecclesiastic at all.
Nephew. May not Dr. Pusey’s pretensions be as well-founded as
theirs ?
Uncle. Yes ; if theirs and his are equally unfounded. By far the
greater part of Christendom votes Dr. Pusey a humbug. I do not
say a conscious humbug ; but still a humbug. On the question whether
he is a humbug or no, that is, whether he is a priest or no, Dr. Pusey
is in a very small minority. All Protestants think him a humbug. All
Roman Catholics think him a humbug. The contrary opinion is con-
fined to the High Church party in the Church of England. Dr. Pusey
is certainly not a humbug—if the authority which the Pope claims is
vested in that body of English parsons.
Nephew. Was a young lady caused to remain in an Anglican convent
against her will by Dr. Pusey’s threat that, if she did not, he would
cease to be her “ spiritual director,” and no longer grant her absolution,
lor want of which she feared she would be “ lost ” ?
Uncle. Such a statement has been made in an account published by
a lady of her experience in an Anglican Sisterhood. Let us hope that
the lady was misinformed, and that the story is utterly untrue.
Nephew. Don’t you believe it ?
Uncle. I have no evidence for its truth, and the gown of Dr. Pusey
remains on his shoulders.
Nephew. You don’t approve of Father Confessors ?
Uncle. Especially not of amateur Father Confessors. Confession has
been abominably abused even in the Roman Church, by the Romanists’
own showing, as in the evidence for the defence in that cause celebre,
Achilli v. Newman. It is liable to foul abuse even there where it is
practised as a system, subject to strict regulation. The probable
results of its irregular and unrestricted practice may be imagined.
Nephew, Cannot your sham Father Confessors be turned out of the
Church ?
Uncle. Hardly. In these days it would be almost impossible to turn
a Mormonite out of the Church—let alone a Puseyite. The only
feasible plan is to turn them out of the house whenever they are found
in it, and the process of ejectment would be best performed by the act
of kicking as hard as possible, for which I would recommend Pater-
eamilias to choose out the thickest and heaviest pair of boots in his
whole collection.—Pass the claret.
PAPERS AND PASSENGERS.
We lately noticed a placard, advertising a certain journal as a “ First
Class Evening Paper.” The idea of a first-class paper implies the
supposition of second and third class papers. Why should not the
two latter classes of papers be also advertised as such ? By an ex-
tension of the same plan novels and other works could be announced
as first, second, and third class publications. People would thus be
guided in the selection of newspapers, periodicals, and books, so as to
be enabled readily to choose those suitable to their tastes and circum-
stances ; and the option of taking his own class would accommodate
every traveller on tne hues of literature.
An Incomplete Trio.—The Seal aud the Tapir at the Zoological
Gardens, for they want—the wax.
PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI
219
FOXES AND GEESE.
A Dining Room.—Dessert. Uncle and Nephew.
Nephew. Is it true that Dr. Pusey denies that he and his adherents
demand or enforce Confession?
Uncle. Yes. I hope he means what he says, and says what he
means. If he preaches the necessity of Confession, when he says that
he doesn’t enforce it he equivocates ; and an equivocation, meant to
mislead, is simply a lie.
Nephew. Does Pusey claim the same powers as those asserted by
Roman Catholic Priests ?
Uncle. So I understand.
Nephew. What do the Roman Catholic Priests say of his pretensions ?
Uncle: That they are false. The Roman Catholic Priests disown all
connection with Dr. Pusey. They consider him no priest at all, and
not even a Catholic. In their estimation he is no more a priest than I
am, and no less a heretic. The Roman Catholic Priests, with the
Pope at their head, and the whole Greek Church besides, Patriarch
and all, hold precisely the same opinion of Dr. Pusey as that which
the President and College of Physicians, and the President and College
of Surgeons entertain of Professor Holloway.
Nephew. That is to say, they regard Dr. Pusey as an ecclesiastical
quack ?
Uncle. Yes ; or rather a lay quack; no ecclesiastic at all.
Nephew. May not Dr. Pusey’s pretensions be as well-founded as
theirs ?
Uncle. Yes ; if theirs and his are equally unfounded. By far the
greater part of Christendom votes Dr. Pusey a humbug. I do not
say a conscious humbug ; but still a humbug. On the question whether
he is a humbug or no, that is, whether he is a priest or no, Dr. Pusey
is in a very small minority. All Protestants think him a humbug. All
Roman Catholics think him a humbug. The contrary opinion is con-
fined to the High Church party in the Church of England. Dr. Pusey
is certainly not a humbug—if the authority which the Pope claims is
vested in that body of English parsons.
Nephew. Was a young lady caused to remain in an Anglican convent
against her will by Dr. Pusey’s threat that, if she did not, he would
cease to be her “ spiritual director,” and no longer grant her absolution,
lor want of which she feared she would be “ lost ” ?
Uncle. Such a statement has been made in an account published by
a lady of her experience in an Anglican Sisterhood. Let us hope that
the lady was misinformed, and that the story is utterly untrue.
Nephew. Don’t you believe it ?
Uncle. I have no evidence for its truth, and the gown of Dr. Pusey
remains on his shoulders.
Nephew. You don’t approve of Father Confessors ?
Uncle. Especially not of amateur Father Confessors. Confession has
been abominably abused even in the Roman Church, by the Romanists’
own showing, as in the evidence for the defence in that cause celebre,
Achilli v. Newman. It is liable to foul abuse even there where it is
practised as a system, subject to strict regulation. The probable
results of its irregular and unrestricted practice may be imagined.
Nephew, Cannot your sham Father Confessors be turned out of the
Church ?
Uncle. Hardly. In these days it would be almost impossible to turn
a Mormonite out of the Church—let alone a Puseyite. The only
feasible plan is to turn them out of the house whenever they are found
in it, and the process of ejectment would be best performed by the act
of kicking as hard as possible, for which I would recommend Pater-
eamilias to choose out the thickest and heaviest pair of boots in his
whole collection.—Pass the claret.
PAPERS AND PASSENGERS.
We lately noticed a placard, advertising a certain journal as a “ First
Class Evening Paper.” The idea of a first-class paper implies the
supposition of second and third class papers. Why should not the
two latter classes of papers be also advertised as such ? By an ex-
tension of the same plan novels and other works could be announced
as first, second, and third class publications. People would thus be
guided in the selection of newspapers, periodicals, and books, so as to
be enabled readily to choose those suitable to their tastes and circum-
stances ; and the option of taking his own class would accommodate
every traveller on tne hues of literature.
An Incomplete Trio.—The Seal aud the Tapir at the Zoological
Gardens, for they want—the wax.