CAMBRIDGE

CAMDEN SOCIETY.

The COMMITTEE of the CAMBRIDGE CAMDEN SOCIETY have waited the result of those deliberations, which it was understood had been undertaken immediately after the anniversary meeting of the 8th inst., by members composing the minority on that occasion, and who dissented from the resolution then adopted.

The Committee, through the President, at that meeting represented a main, if not the direct and only, object of that resolution, to be the abandonment on their part, in case of their being re-elected, of the management of the ordinary meetings in Cambridge, with a view to leave the field open for occupation by another body, under management more in sympathy with the sentiments of the senior members of the University, and with the interest which, judging from past experience, these may be expected to take in similar objects and pursuits. They trusted that the result would be the organization of a new Society, under a name unincumbered with the objections which the Camden Society has encountered, and free to emulate, in a way more congenial to the authorities, the credit and usefulness which that Society has achieved.

The Committee regret to find that the parties who set on foot those deliberations have only so far adopted the suggestions of the President, as to recommend by their example and advice the retirement from the Society of those to whom such a step shall commend itself either by a coincidence in their sentiments, or the weight of their names and influence. Having appealed to the constituent body on a question affecting its constitution and existence, with all the precautions they could exercise for testing the wishes of its aggregate members, the Committee could not but anticipate that many of the minority would thus dissolve their connexion with a majority, to whose sentiments they did not cordially

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subscribe. They trust they shall have credit for the regret demanded by the withdrawal of a countenance, for which they are not the less grateful because it was unsought by any compromises, and perhaps continued longer than it was thought to be deserved. But the decided expression of opinion amongst the resident members exhibited at the meeting, confirmed by the still more decisive testimony of the non-residents, (of whom more than 200 proxies were held by the Committee) would seem to have left them no choice as to the course by which alone they could fulfil the engagement conveyed in their circular of April 24, even if that course had been ever so much opposed to their own convictions.

If those who dissented from the past administration of the Society wished that it should go on, it was to be expected that they would come provided with a Committee, qualified and willing to conduct it, according to the principles which, as never having ceased to characterize it, the Society by a vast majority affirmed. This did not preclude a correction of those faults in its management, by the alleged operation of which it has been the misfortune of former Committees to offend. To none would it have been more welcome than to the members of the late Committee to resign the conduct of the Society's affairs to others, who should carry on its work in the same way without offence to any, either without or within. But as nearly all the persons who have actually taken part in the previous management are understood to be about to quit the University for various causes, some of them, perhaps, not altogether unconnected with their share in the Society, and as most of them would probably have been unacceptable to those who desire to see it reconstructed on another footing, it would seem to be unreasonable to require its operations there to be continued, while expelling from the management the only persons as yet known to be prepared to conduct them.

The discountenance which the Society has met with in high places in the University could not fail to have the effect of depriving it of the services of many, whom the Committee had from time to time desired to enlist, as fellow-students or apprentices, in what is, to a degree not generally appreciated, a science or a trade; or of deterring the Committee from adding others to their number, whose prospects as well as their studies might thus be prejudiced in the University or elsewhere: while the first person proposed on the other side with whom to start a fresh Committee, immediately declined on the ground that he knew nothing of the subject;' and there were only two names proposed at last, though the law requires six, to constitute the executive, on the part of those who demanded, what at the same time they complain of, the retirement of the former administration.

It is a mistake to suppose that the discontinuance of the ordinary meetings, (at which it will probably be found that not above three or four of the persons whose names are given in the 'Statement' ever attended as many times, or took the least interest in the proceedings), would throw the whole

power more into the hands of the Committee than it has always been. By the 16th law, nothing could be proposed, or even read before a meeting, without the previous sanction of the Committee; and this rule received the renewed and deliberate approval of the Society, when an attempt was made to rescind it on the same grounds of objection at an anniversary meeting only two years ago. It is equally a mistake to suppose that the Committee has adopted any resolution to pursue a course of operations which have at any time been deliberately condemned by its patrons; as it does not appear that any of these have condemned that fundamental principle of its constitution, which makes it a Society for Church architecture in conformity with the authorized formularies and ritual of the Church. In the manner of carrying that principle into practice its managing body may have committed faults which it has endeavoured, and is still in a condition to repair, and which it will be found ready, when such are distinctly pointed out and sustained, to retract, if it cannot satisfactorily defend them.

The Committee had proposed, and by every means in their power promoted, the dissolution of the Society. In proof of this they may appeal to the pains taken to secure the opinion of the most eminent lawyers on the power of the Society to dissolve itself; as well as to letters, inclosing' assents' to the dissolution, received up to the 8th of May from a great number of members, who stated at the same time that those assents were given "in deference to the wish of the Committee, and contrary to their own convictions." When "it was ascertained that this could not be effected legally without the consent of all the members, and that such consent could not be obtained,"* they had to determine, on the supposition of their services being wanted, what they ought to do. The course they adopted was simply this: when they could not make the Society cease, they did the next thing;-they made it, so far as they were concerned, cease in Cambridge. They determined that they ought not to be parties to the continuance of those its prominent functions which seemed to them, and seem now, to be comparatively of little value, and to be that which, at least in their hands, exposed the Society to suspicions it has not deserved: they consented to carry on its practically useful business, that which alone makes it really of value to the Church and to the public, and in the transacting of which (in a capacity that has been not unaptly designated as that of 'chamber-counsel') there was no necessity, as little as there was on their part any intention, in the slightest particular to offend. Their wish was to effect the dissolution they had recommended, in the only way they could effect it without converting the Society into a totally different body, the same in name, but in spirit "alien from the objects for which the Camden Society was originally founded."* This proceeding had the advantage of leaving it still in the power of any who might desire such meetings to be continued, to organize them afresh on any basis which should

** 'Statement submitted to the members.'

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be most generally acceptable to those for whose use they were intended; to the success of which there was nothing to preclude such members of the Camden Society, as should be resident, from contributing to any extent compatible with their ability and inclination.

On these terms, and with these expectations, the old Committee were prepared to serve. The object of the resolution submitted was simply to settle this point between them and the Society. If the meeting had determined against their proposal, it would bave been understood that none of the old Committee were to be elected. If, that proposal being affirmed, only a part of them had been elected, it would have been the endeavour of these to exercise their functions, so limited, in conjunction with those whom the Society should have yoked with them in that responsibility.

The Committee are precluded from entering at present upon all the considerations suggested by the 'Statement,' to which they have felt it becoming in them even thus imperfectly to advert; but they will not conclude without entreating the members to believe, that the course they adopted, to whatever other objections it may be liable, and whatever personal sacrifices it may involve, was understood by them as any thing rather than 'evincing their determination to continue to act upon principles, or pursue operations, which had deprived the Society of any of its Ecclesiastical and Academic Patrons,' (a supposition which they can only attribute to a misconception as to what are the actual functions which the Committee exercises, and what the principles to which they felt it their duty to pledge themselves to adhere): that it was adopted on the contrary for no other reason than because it was, of all the ways open to their choice, the MOST respectful to the authorities whose censure had placed the Society in a position they deemed incompatible with its character,' and the ONLY one by which, with a just regard to their own consistency, they could be any longer of use in promoting the objects for which' alone 'the Society was originally founded.'

With more, and they trust chastised, experience, having neither views nor motives different from those with which they originally joined in founding the Society, and from which it has never departed in their hands, they do not fear to be able so to exercise their less obtrusive, but not irresponsible, functions, as may yet serve the wants, and win back the good will, even of those their University members, from whose censure they had themselves first in a spirit of silent deference retreated, and from whose alliance they are now formally discharged: and (still, as ever, accountable to the highest ecclesiastical authority) to mature, if permitted, such a plan of operations, as shall enable them to render the Society useful in those quarters where its services shall be wanted, to put its members more generally in possession of its acts and proceedings, and to promote, so long as they can,

*In anticipation of such a result, provision had been made for determining the choice of the new Committee by a poll, to be held the next day; which was declined, or rather overruled, by the parties opposed to the resolution:-an opposition which, it may be remembered, caused some little surprise and embarrassment to the Chair.

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the study and interests of Church-Architecture and Antiquities in quietness, if they be let alone.

Subsequently to the meeting of the 8th inst., the Committee have received applications for the admission of fifteen new members; and for advice respecting a cathedral and four new churches, and several restorations.

P.S.-Since the above was printed, the Committee have learnt with some surprise, that the negociations for forming a new society having apparently failed, a standing Committee has been formed in Cambridge for the purpose of corresponding with the members of the Camden Society, nonresident as well as resident, and inducing them to withdraw from it, furnishing them at the same time with forms of resignation, which the said Committee undertakes to forward to the Camden Society. The Committee of the Cambridge Camden Society will not characterize this proceeding further than to remark, that even if it were an object with them to prolong the active existence of the Society in its present form, they could not desire the adhesion of any whose sympathies with them, and estimation of the services rendered or yet to be rendered to the Church by the Society, are to be abruptly severed by a dictation so unprovoked and ungenerous. It will scarcely fail to be remarked that no charge is alleged in the statement against the Committee to justify the assertions, that "the Executive of the Camden Society, supported by a majority, are determined to maintain a position pregnant with evil, and disrespectful to the authorities of the Church and the University”; and that “a spirit has of late guided the Society's proceedings, and will avowedly influence them in future, which is alien from the objects for which the Society was originally founded"; both which assertions the Committee of the Cambridge Camden Society respectfully but unequivocally DENY. In the absence of definite charges they can only recall the fact that, with the exception of the publications below enumerated,* (of which the Ecclesiologist was abandoned in May 1844, though the numbers wanting to complete the volume for which the subscriptions had been paid in advance were issued between that month and the following September), they have published no new work at all since December 1842; and are therefore at a loss to understand what are the manifestations of that "spirit which has of late guided the Society's proceedings," which is alleged as a motive for withdrawing from it. The Committee cannot undertake to refute vague imputations, the echo, as they believe, of old complaints, the revival of which in nearly the same terms by the same parties may serve to satisfy the objectors themselves that the Committee, while it claims credit for the correction of a tone in its earlier publications, then reasonably objected to and justly atoned for, is in 1845 the same as when it was charged in 1841 with having "prostituted the Society to influences alien to its designs." (See the "Remonstrance" in the Ecclesiologist, First Series, vol. ii. p. 25.) May 27, 1845.

The Ecclesiologist," vol. iii.; the "Cambridgeshire Churches;" the "Instrumenta Ecclesiastica," (a series of working drawings); the drawing of "Hawton Chancel;" and the "History of Christian Altars."

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