THE MARQUESS OF WESTMEATHinquired, Whether the Hymn Book entitled, Hymns Ancient and Modern, for use in the Services of the Church, has been adopted as the authorized Hymn Book for Her Majesty's Army and Navy? He understood that the Hymn Book in question had been 860 issued to the army and navy, with orders that no other work of the kind should be used for the service, and that it was bound up with the Prayer Books furnished to our soldiers. The noble Marquess quoted various passages from the hymns to show that they were either derived from or founded upon the Roman Catholic breviaries and missals, and maintained that their language was inconsistent with the principles of the Church of England, and countenanced doctrines which the Articles of that Church expressly denounced as "blasphemous fables and dangerous deceits." He complained of the insidious manner in which these doctrines were being introduced into the army and navy, and asked whether it was true that that Hymn Book had been inflicted on our soldiers and sailors.
EARL DE GREY AND RIPONsaid, the noble Marquess was correct in supposing that a selection of hymns from the book called Hymns Ancient and Modern, had been made for the use of the army, and had been bound up with the Prayer Book as he had stated. These Hymns had also been issued to the navy. With respect to the book itself, he had not been able to follow the noble Marquess in the extracts he had read, and was therefore unable to say whether or not those particular hymns were included in the selection; neither could he enter upon any theological discussion of the subject; but the admitted fact that these hymns had been recommended by the dignitaries of the Church, and were used in a thousand parishes in this country, was the best guarantee they could have that they contained nothing inconsistent with the received doctrines of the Church of England. The old hymns of Tate and Brady had become distasteful to the soldiers and sailors, and it was thought desirable to provide some new ones. These had been adopted with the approval of the Chaplain General of the Army and of a Committee of naval chaplains and officers. The noble Marquess complained that portions of these hymns were taken from the Roman Catholic books of worship; but he surely was aware that large portions of the Book of Common Prayer was taken from the ancient Liturgies, and that the Te Deum, for instance, was similarly derived. That there was nothing in this Hymn Book contrary to the doctrines of the Church of England, the character of the noble Duke at the head of the Admi- 861 ralty (the Duke of Somerset) was a guarantee. He would not enter into a theological discussion with the noble Marquess, but he was content to rest his defence of the course taken in regard to this question upon the approval of a body of men who understood such subjects better than he or the noble Marquess—namely, the great dignitaries of the Church and the clergymen of a thousand parishes.
THE MARQUESS OF WESTMEATHsaid, he was much obliged to the noble Earl for his candour, but must say that, while certain parts of our Prayer Book were no doubt taken from the Church of Rome, as, for example, the Te Deum—than which nothing could be more magnificent—yet nothing had been borrowed from that source which the Church of England expressly declared to be incompatible with her own principles.
§ House adjourned at a quarter past Nine o'clock, till To-morrow, One o'clock.