BELGIUM. 



BENSON, EDWARD W. 



57 



ries on the demise of the incumbents, and the 

 withdrawal of the salaries of vicars found to be 

 superfluous, at the discretion of the Govern- 

 ment. The clergy protested against the with- 

 drawal of subventions which were already too 

 small, and which were only an indemnity for 

 the ecclesiastical domains of which the Church 

 was robbed in 1790. Minister Barras retorted 

 that on that supposition their salaries would 

 be a mockery, instead of being paid as they 

 were for public services, and that the Church 

 had other and secret sources of income. A 

 law was passed taking away the exemption 

 from military duty enjoyed by seminarists arid 

 the inmates of religious houses. An electoral 

 reform law provoked the opposition of the 

 clergy, not less than the bills which affected 

 them directly. This extends the right to vote 

 in communal and provincial elections to all 

 citizens who can pass an examination corre- 

 sponding to the standard in the state element- 

 ary schools. This radical measure was intro- 

 duced by the Government in fulfillment of a 

 pledge made to the group of advanced Liber- 

 als in return for their support of the new taxes. 

 The Bernard Affair. In the su;nmer a note- 

 worthy trial took place, originating in circum- 

 stances connected with the conflict between 

 the ecclesiastical and civil authorities. The 

 Bishop of Tournai, Monseigneur Dumont, one 

 of the most uncompromising adherents of the 

 Syllabus, was in 1879 deprived of his spirituali- 

 ties by the Pope, on the ground that he was 

 insane. Monseigneur du Rousseaux was ap- 

 pointed apostolical administrator of the dio- 

 cese. The Belgian clergy have amassed enor- 

 mous funds from gifts and fees, the legal title 

 to which rests with the incumbents of the ec- 

 clesiastical offices for the time being, and is 

 transferred by them to their successors by sim- 



Sly handing over the property. Monseigneur 

 umont was, by a ruse, and before he knew of 

 his disgrace, deprived of the possession of the 

 episcopal palace, and of the custody of the 

 diocesan funds. Bishop du Rousseaux, having 

 knowledge of the intention of the deposed 

 bishop to bring a suit to recover the funds of 

 the diocese and test the legality of his dis- 

 missal, committed the episcopal treasury and 

 documents into the keeping of Canon Bernard, 

 with directions to place them out of the reach 

 of Bishop Dumont. Although Tournai is the 

 smallest and poorest of the six Belgian sees, 

 yet the portable funds in the treasury amounted 

 to more than 5,000,000 francs. Canon Bernard, 

 after first consulting M. de Landtsheere, who 

 was Minister of Justice in the last Conservative 

 Cabinet, ran away with the securities and ac- 

 counts to America, and deposited most of them 

 in safety-vaults in New York and Boston. 

 About 1,700,000 francs of the private funds of 

 Monseigneur Dumont were sent back to Bel- 

 gium in charge of a Montreal attorney, named 

 Goodhue, who was arrested on his arrival. 

 The Belgian Government applied for his ex- 

 tradition, and he was arrested at Havana and 



sent back to Belgium on a charge of embezzle- 

 ment. The securities were also obtained with 

 some difficulty and held by the Belgian Gov- 

 ernment, subject to the decision of the court. 

 Canon Bernard was honorably acquitted at his 

 trial in August, as it was shown that he had 

 not misappropriated the property, but had 

 acted throughout in obedience to the orders W 

 his superiors, although they were only gen- 

 eral orders to conceal the account-books and 

 securities, and so in taking them out of the 

 country he had acted on his own discretion. 

 This act was repudiated by Bishop du Rous- 

 seaux, who, when convinced that it was illegal, 

 himself instituted the extradition proceedings. 

 BENSON, Edward White, an English clergy- 

 man, born in Birmingham, July 14, 1829. He 

 was educated by private tutors and at the 

 Birmingham Grammar-School, and gained an 

 open scholarship at Trinity College, Cambridge. 

 After a brilliant college career, in which he 

 gained the senior chancellor's medal, the mem- 

 bers' prize, a first class in the classical tripos, 

 and a senior optime in the mathematical tri- 

 pos, he graduated in 1852. He entered into 

 holy orders, and became a master at Rugby, 

 where he taught with marked success, and 

 instituted some reforms. On the establish- 

 ment of Wellington College, for sons of de- 

 ceased .army officers, he was chosen head- 

 master. Within, a year he threw the school 

 open to non-foundationers, and made the cur- 

 riculum the most liberal, if not the best, in 

 England. He also made it a model in the mat- 

 ter of ventilation, drainage, dormitories, etc. 

 In 1868 he became prebend of Lincoln, and in 

 1874 chancellor of the cathedral. When in 

 1877 the diocese of Truro was created, being 

 set off from that of Exeter, Dr. Benson was 

 made its first bishop. " Under his administra- 

 tion a divinity school was founded, which has 

 attained great popularity, and the church of 

 St. Mary's, in Truro, was restored, beautified, 

 and converted into a cathedral, at a cost of one 

 million dollars. In connection with his dio- 

 cesan work in Truro, he adopted and carried 

 out the principle of employing lay help in the 

 church, both in the reading of prayers and 

 in preaching. He made himself familiar with 

 the history and interests of the diocese, and 

 performed his duties with so much industry 

 and personal interest as to infuse new vigor 

 into the religious life of the people. He made 

 his administration also acceptable to the Non- 

 conformists, and won their confidence to a de- 

 gree which was only temporarily diminished by 

 his hasty words of censure against the Libera- 

 tion Society a few weeks before his nomina- 

 tion for the archbishopric. He was preacher 

 to the University of Cambridge from 1864 to 

 1871, and to that of Oxford in 1875-76. Aft- 

 er the death of Archbishop Tait in December, 

 1882, Bishop Benson was chosen to succeed 

 him, and his consecration as Archbishop of 

 Canterbury, Primate of all England, took place 

 March 29, 1883. Archbishop Benson has con- 



