136 



COLENSO, JOHN W. 



COLLISIONS, MARINE. 



1862. As was to be expected, this assault on 

 the accuracy, veracity, and authorship of the 

 books of Mo?es was at an early day brought 

 before the authorities of the Church in Eng- 

 land, and both Houses of Convocation of the 

 Province of Canterbury condemned it in 1864, 

 as containing " errors of the gravest and most 

 dangerous character." That work was re- 

 viewed in several of the prominent organs of 

 free thought and of orthodox religion (chiefly 

 the u Westminster " and " Quarterly" Reviews). 

 On the one hand, Colenso was praised without 

 stint, as a noble champion of truth and a fear- 

 less critic of the Old Testament; on the other, 

 he was censured with corresponding severity, 

 as one who showed himself ignorant and pre- 

 sumptuous beyond all excuse ; and it was 

 urged that no honorable and upright man 

 would be willing to continue to minister at 

 the altars, or receive emoluments from a 

 church, whose doctrines on inspiration and 

 other fundamental points he denied and was 

 holding up to public odium. 



The next step on the part of the Church in 

 South Africa was the presenting and summon- 

 ing Bishop Colenso for trial, and, on his refusal 

 to appear, the deposing him from his bishop- 

 ric by the metropolitan, Bishop Gray of Cape 

 Town. Dr. Colenso resolved not to submit to 

 the ecclesiastical authorities in the colony, and 

 the result was that this case was brought on 

 appeal before the courts in England. The 

 matter was argued at length, and it was de- 

 cided by the Privy Council, in March, 1865, 

 that the deposition was "null and void in 

 law," the ground of the decision being that 

 the crown has no legal power to constitute 

 a bishopric, or to confer coercive jurisdiction 

 within any colony possessing an independent 

 legislature; and that, as the letters - patent 

 purporting to create the sees of Cape Town 

 and Natal were issued after these colonies had 

 acquired legislatures, the sees did not legally 

 exist, and neither bishop possessed in law any 

 jurisdiction whatever. Notwithstanding this 

 decision, the bishops forming the Council of 

 the Colonial Bishopric's Fund refused to pay 

 Dr. Colenfo the income of the see of Natal. 

 He accordingly appealed to the Court of 

 Chancery, and the Master of the Rolls de- 

 livered a judgment, Oct. 6, 1866, ordering the 

 payment in future of his income, with all 

 arrears and interest. Thus the income was 

 secured to him for life, and, so far as the de- 

 cision of the civil courts could affect it, he re- 

 mained in possession of the see as its bishop. 

 The Church in South Africa, however, held 

 that he was lawfully and fully deposed, and 

 would have no intercourse or fellowship with 

 him. Dr. Colenso ministered to those who 

 thought him right and supported him ; while 

 the orthodox portion of the church commu- 

 nity looked upon him as one deprived of all 

 power lawfully to exercise the functions of the 

 episcopal office. Nevertheless, the occupant 

 of the see of Natal had numerous sympa- 



thizers in England, and in the summer of 1866 

 a meeting of the subscribers to the " Colenso 

 fund " was held in London, when 3,300 were 

 presented to him, as a token of respect and 

 good-will, on his going back to Africa. 



Ten years later he made another visit to 

 England, in order to report to the proper 

 authorities the condition of church affairs in 

 Cape Colony ; to ascertain, if possible, his re- 

 lationship to the new Bishop of Cape Town ; 

 and to arrange other matters in the existing 

 anomalous condition of church life and work 

 in that distant field. During his stay in 

 England, the Bishops of Oxford, Lincoln, and 

 London inhibited him from preaching in their 

 respective dioceses, as one having no lawful 

 authority to preach. Dr. Jowett, however, 

 whose sympathies doctrinally were with Co- 

 lenso, invited him to preach in the chapel of 

 Balliol College, that chapel not being within 

 the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Oxford. 



Dr. Colenso's later life was passed quietly 

 in Natal. He was noted for his kindly interest 

 and zeal in behalf of the Zulus and Boers. 



He published at intervals the remaining parts 

 of his work on the Pentateuch and the Book 

 of Joshua. In 1866 a volume of discourses 

 appeared, entitled " Natal Sermons." Besides 

 these he prepared and had printed a Zulu 

 grammar and Zulu dictionary, a Zulu transla- 

 tion of the New Testament and other parts of 

 the Bible and Prayer-Book, with several edu- 

 cational works for the instruction of the 

 Zulus. His latest publications were, "The 

 New Bible Commentary, by Bishops and other 

 Clergy of the Anglican Church, critically ex- 

 amined" (1871) ; the sixth part of" The Penta- 

 teuch and the Book of Joshua critically ex- 

 amined " (1872) ; and " Lectures on the Penta- 

 teuch and the Moabite Stone " (1873). 



COLLISIONS, MARINE. The increasing fre- 

 quence of marine disasters with the extension 

 of steam navigation leads to a general demand 

 for more effective precautions against collision. 



Proposed Navigation Laws. Since quick pas- 

 sages attract more custom to navigation com- 

 panies than a reputation for safety, it has been 

 proposed to sjiarpen the penalties for infrin- 

 ging the maritime laws against rapid sailing in 

 bad weather. In Germany, where the laws 

 are already exceptionally stringent, the sugges- 

 tion is made to bring such infraction within 

 the provisions of the statutes against murder 

 and attempted murder. The captain only 

 would be liable to indictment, although the 

 ship-owner is primarily and principally respon- 

 sible. A remedy would be found in making 

 them liable in cases of disaster to pecuniary 

 damages, in the same manner as railroad com- 

 panies. It is equally desirable to restrict 

 the rate of speed. The terms " half -speed " 

 and " slow " are indefinite, owing to the differ- 

 ence in the speed of different vessels. To in-- 

 sure the highest degree of safety, steamers 

 should be prohibited, in fogs, driving snows, 

 and on dark nights, from going faster than 



