wonder that people distrust the Court? or that we refuse to obey its decisions? Would such a thing be tolerated for a moment in any other Court? Indeed, I may ask whether it was heard of in other Courts that persons should sit as judges or assessors in causes on which they had openly and ostentatiously avowed their prejudices and their opinions beforehand, and had backed up those opinions and prejudices by vigorous action? Does not the very anxiety expressed by the Archbishop to the Bishops as assessors in the new Court, and his appeal to his Right Rev. brethren to come up if necessary to throw over any possible amendments made in the Commons whereby the Bishops would be excluded from the Court, show his fear that perhaps law and not policy may prevail if the Bishops are excluded? and does not this make it all the more necessary that the Bishops should be excluded? I will finish this letter by doing my best to let others know that-1st, we do not and will not acknowledge the jurisdiction of Lord Penzance nor of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in matters spiritual; and 2ndly, that if for policy's sake the new Court should affirm the so-called Purchas Judgment, it will not be obeyed." This is certainly plain-speaking. We note that Dr. West uses the royal, editorial and episcopal "We""We do not and will not acknowledge.' May we ask to whom the "We refers?" Is it the English Church Union, whose voice is so often stammering and its action weak, of which Dr. West is a light and leader? Is it Dr. West and his Curates? Or is it the Clergy and congregation of St. Mary Magdalene's, Paddington ? Or is it Dr. West himself, sole and simple? The plain testimony of one beneficed parson is a gain, where, as in so many cases, the parsons are scared and silent. And Dr. West, supported, as he is said to be, by so many rich and admiring people, ought certainly not to succumb. May the Saints bestow upon him adequate pluck and discretion to avoid such ignominy! Amen.

THE new "Laymen's Committee" in opposition to the Public Worship Act, seems to us to have chosen a policy of sound principle very different from the tame and miserable apathy of that utterly effete body, the English Church Union, upon which the very existence of this new Society forms in itself a strong and richly-merited censure. The "Laymen's Committee" is deserving of active and widespread support, and we wish all success to a movement which, if its principles are faithfully and vigorously carried out, may be productive of great good. But there must be hard work and unflinching determination. For the Church of England is in evil case; and not until, in God's good Providence, the See of Canterbury is vacant, can we hope for a thorough reform in the Episcopal policy. As a well-known and distinguished Church dignitary is said to have remarked lately, "His Grace the Archbishop has succeeded in realizing the Ultramontane ideal, and has practically suppressed the Episcopate."

WE

E have never concealed, and therefore need not here repeat, our opinion as to the value of what has hitherto been known as the St. Alban's Working Mens' Movement. Nor is the estimate we had formed of it in any way modified now that it has developed into the "Church of England Working Mens' Society.' We do not believe in that great Liberal idol-"the Working-man :' we do not admit the right of the least educated to dictate to other classes of the community, and we believe that to appeal to the vox populi is not only to abandon right principle, but also to play with a two-edged weapon. Nevertheless, as we said on a former occasion, so far as any Churchmen-whether working-men or not, claim to exercise their right, nay their duty, of upholding the law of the Church against the usurpations of Dr. Tait and the chicanery of Lord Penzance, they have our cordial sympathy and co-operation. And we must admit that a perusal of a report of the proceedings of the new Society at its first meeting shows that, amid much foolish talk, a certain amount of good sense, and we may even add, of right principle, found expression. In the first place, the Meeting very wisely declined, with prompt unanimity, to allow the Society to be made capital out of by the Liberationists. The Chairman, too, very properly insisted on the Bishops being spoken of with proper respect for their office; and the Meeting seemed, moreover, to have at least partially grasped the principle of obedience to Authority; that

So far, so

Authority being, in spiritual things, the Church. good. Let these good people now be consistent, and let us hear no more about "liberty to worship as we please," or the fly-blown cant about the " Working-Man," neither of which considerations have anything to do with the matter. By-thebye, it is just worth while noticing, with reference to Dr. Tait's assertion that the meeting between himself and the 'aggrieved" deputation from St. Alban's was pleasant and cordial, that that is not the view taken by the deputation, whose "impression was that His Grace was what they should call, if they had to speak of one in their own rank, very rude, very rough, and, in point of fact, very bullying."

THERE is another point on which the new Society is

thoroughly sensible and sound, and that is in the matter of School-Board Education, concerning which a resolution was passed protesting against the tyranny of allowing a secularist majority to enforce irreligious education in the rate-supported Board Schools, and pledging the Society to exert its energies in this sense at all School-Board elections.

NE correspondent of a Ritualistic contemporary, at least, has just begun to open his eyes as to the revolution which the Burials' Bill will effect. When passed, (as some kind of Act is sure to pass,) the Clergy will soon practically find out the greatness of the change. The writer in question asks:-"Has the Convocation of Canterbury been won over to Mr. Morgan's Burials' Bill? For surely the system of 'silent burial' will involve the ultimate surrender of the churchyard. For a year or two after the passing of such a measure, silence may be observed, but ere long this will be felt a hardship. First, a 'few words' will be spoken, in a short time a hymn will be added, and it will not be long before Custom will endorse the liberty of Dissenters doing as they please. The parish priest will, I suppose, have the unpleasant office of keeping these people to the law; and in most cases he will shrink altogether from the odium of prosecuting his neighbours. It is little good making laws in a country like ours, unless the feeling of the people is in their favour. And we cannot doubt but that in the event of the withdrawal of the Church's rites, the popular sentiment would back up Dissenters in ignoring the law of silence; and any Clergyman who sought to enforce that law would be regarded by public opinion pretty much as the Bishop of Lincoln and Mr. Smith of Owston Ferry, and as a dog in the manger into the bargain. Such a regulation as is proposed would very soon be repealed, if attempted to be enforced, and in which direction must be evident to all men." Here is a person who, at all events, owns a glimpse of common sense, and sees what is about to take place. Our complaint is, and it is reasonable, that when men see what is about to happen they make no provision for meeting such altered circumstances and silent revolutions. Are Churchmen still ready to provide Burial grounds out of their own pockets, only to find them alienated from the Church, and used by Jumpers, Howlers

and Infidels?

A LAYMAN of influence writes to us to the effect that he is quite ashamed of his class, and thanks us for having spoken out so plainly about the so-called "Free and Open movement. He says "I believe it to be the lawyers' dodge to save their own pockets." He also encloses us a copy of a Letter written by a gentleman of Parkstone, complaining of the intolerable stinginess which characterizes so many Churchof-England congregations. The Letter is so pointed and timely that we print it here:-"Did it never occur to you that you cannot pay a debt amounting to £1 by means of a sixpence? Of course you are aware that all our parochial charities have been in a state of bankruptcy, obviously owing to the small amount contributed by us. Did you ever look at the statement of our offertories published weekly in the porch of our Church without blushing?-I never did. Take for instance the contributions for the church expenses. If we wish the organ to be silent we should say so, and thus save the small stipend paid to the organist; but if we delight in church music, we should at least contribute enough to pay the organist. Consider also the amount offered for the Clergy of the parish-almost enough is collected to enable a curate

recited the customary summary of diocesan events in the past year, alluding specially to the number of persons he had confirmed, and to the increase in the membership. A motion by the Rev. W. Stephen, to the effect that the agent of the Walker Trust should be requested to furnish a statement of its funds, was duly carried, and formed the only other business of any importance before the Synod, which afterwards formed itself into a private conference to consider the object of the approaching General Synod.

THE NEW BISHOPRIC OF TRURO.-The Exeter Gazette says:-"The Bishopric of Truro Bill now only awaits the Royal Asseent in order to become law. Its passage through the House of Lords was very smooth, and we would have said uneventful, only that it was instrumental in making known the name of the lady to whose splendid munificence the Church of England is about to become indebted for the restoration of the Cornish See. This is by no means the first-though it is the greatest-of Lady Rolle's benefactions to the Church. She entirely rebuilt the parish church of Otterton, the carving in the interior of which attracts the admiration of all visitors, and the same liberal band supplied the beautiful and costly fittings with which the restored Lady Chapel of Exeter Cathedral has been furnished. Last of all, she has presented the greatest portion of the endowment for the new See of Truro.

CHURCHES RESTORED AND REOPENED.-The parish church of St. Feock, Cornwall, which has been rebuilt mainly through the exertions of the late vicar, the Rev. T. Phillpotts, has been reopened by the Bishop of Exeter. It has been erected from the designs of Mr. Piers St. Aubyn, and has cost nearly £3,000 of which £1,300 has been contributed by the Hon. Mrs. Gilbert, of Trelissick.-The chancel of All Saints', East Garston, has been reopened, after restoration, by the Bishop of Oxford. The clergy assembled at the vicarage, and walked in procession to the church, singing "Onward, Christian Soldiers," as they approached the churchyard. After the service a large number of guests, invited by the Vicar, sat down to luncheon in the schoolroom, amongst whom were the Bishop, Archdeacon Harrison, Sir John and Lady Hawkins, Mr. G. C. Cherry, and Miss Cherry. In the course of his speech the Vicar thanked Mrs. Butler, of Heale, for the altar-cloth which she had so kindly worked and given to the church.-A new school has been opened at Beauchampton, towards which Lord Carington has largely contributed. According to a return just issued it appears that the increase in the average attendance in Church schools last year was 57,828; that there were 650 additional schools, and that the subscriptions had increased by £58,108.

NEW CHURCHES CONSECRATED, &c.-The Bishop of Ely has consecrated a handsome new church for the parish of Coldham. It is dedicated to St. Etheldreda, Lord Overstone has presented the site, and the sum of £1,000 towards the cost of the building, which has been £2,450.-The foundation stone of St. Peter's, Parkside, Dorset, was laid on the first inst. by Lady Cornelia Guest. There had been a church on the spot since the year 1833, but after it had undergone more than one rearrangement of its interior, it was felt to be too small and ugly; and the Rev. E. E. Dugmore, Vicar of the parish, undertook to build the chancel at a cost of £3,000, while something like £2,200 more has been raised for the transepts and one bay of the nave, which is all that will be undertaken at present. Parkstone Church is the only one in the Diocese of Salisbury which has a daily celebration of the Blessed Sacrament. On Monday the Bishop of Chichester laid the foundation stone of a new church to be built at Alderington, near Brighton, on the site of the ruins of the old edifice. The inhabitants of the parish only number about twenty at present, but extensive building operations are anticipated in the neighbourhood.

FRAGMENTA VARIA.-Prince Leopold has expressed his willingness to accept the office of Vice-President of the Salisbury Diocesan branch of the Free and Open Church Association.-The Rev. A. Robins, on the completion of his third year as Rector of Holy Trinity, Windsor, took the opportunity of reviewing the work effected in the parish. The parish church and schools had been restored, and a church consecrated. They had also had 800 sermons preached to them.-The Bishop of Exeter has issued a Pastoral to his clergy wherein he intimates the impossibility of one man carrying on efficiently the work of such a gigantic diocese, and calls upon them to stir up the laity to do all in their power to get it divided, and to raise funds for the endowment of the new Bishopric. In a letter to the Dean, the Bishop of Durham refuses to preach at the reopening of the Cathedral, after restoration, in October next, on the ground that the Dean and Chapter have expended too much money on the ornamentation of the Cathedral, instead of being satisfied with "substantial repairs." We imagine no one will regret the Bishop's absence.-The National Society has received a donation of 500 guineas from the Corporation of the City of London.A curious effect of the great heat has been witnessed at West Monkton Church. Some bees have for years made their home under the roof, and during the service on Sunday morning the honey, which had been melted by the heat, found its way through the ceiling and trickled down to the seats beneath. No less than two pounds of honey were thus collected. A very successful choral festival was held at Bromsgrove on Wednesday. It is said that the trustees of Hampstead parish church are about to transfer the altar from the east to the west end of the church.-A lych-house of flint with stone dressings has lately been erected in the churchyard of Grazeley, Berks, from designs by Mr. J. T. Morris. The cost has been defrayed by a parishioner.-At a meeting held recently at Brighton, it was resolved that a memorial be raised to the late Archdeacon Otter, in the form of a pulpit in Cowfold Church, and that in addition to such personal memorial funds be raised for founding some benefaction at Otter College, Chichester.-The foundation stone a new church has been laid at Morecombe, where, with an increasing population, there is a great deficiency of church accommodation, by Mrs. Ripley.-A lady of fortune has presented the Rev. Flavel Cook, late incumbent of Christ Church, Clifton, with £2,000. Altogether more than £6,000 has been given to Mr. Cook, independently of the law costs,

which have also been paid.-The Government has agreed to buy Winchester House from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for £45,000.-The new bells just placed in the parish church of Thame were rung_on Friday for the first time. Mr. Lee engaged the Appleton ringers to give upwards of 5,000 changes.-On a recent Sunday the Rector and Curate of St. George's, Isle of Portland, preached what are called flower sermons, and both Rev. gentlemen decorated themselves with large bouquets, which they carried about the church.-The quaint old parish church of West Stafford, in Dorsetshire, was recently turned into a miniature Exeter Hall, by the holding within its walls of a missionary meeting, at which, however, but few attended. After the singing of a hymn, one of the clergy "offered prayer," while another took the chair, and after a few words of his own read an address from the rector who was too unwell to come. Other local clergymen addressed the small assembly of deputa70 persons, idols were exhibited and duly laughed at, and a tion" from India was introduced who made a long speech in glorification of the work of the Church Missionary Society. There was liberal hospitality subsequently at the rectory. The collection at the doors included some handsome donations sent by absentees, and amounted to £42, a falling off of £11 from the previous year.-The choir of St. Thomas's. Hemingford-road, were vested in surplices for the first time on Sunday week. This is the fourth church in Islington in which a surpliced choir has been introduced during the present year.The Bishop of St. Asaph, speaking at a meeting held at Denbigh last week, remarked that while Government gave large sums to promote higher education in other parts of the United Kingdom, not a shilling was granted for similar purposes in Wales, the consequence being the deficient education of candidates for holy orders.-The late Archdeacon Sinclair's Charges have been published in a collected form, with a preface by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

REOPENING OF CHESTER CATHEDRAL.

An octave of services have been held in Chester Cathedral to celebrate its reopening after restoration, which took place on Wednesday. The restoration has occupied eight years, and has been divided into successive parts as funds have come in. The first four years were employed principally in groining the nave roof, restoring the tower, and in refacing and underpinning the Lady Chapel and choir. At the conclusion of this work a commemoration service was held on St. Paul's Day, 1872. Immediately after this the restoration of the interior of the choir was begun, and while that part of the Cathedral was under alteration the nave was used for services both on Sundays and week days. The deal boarding which was temporarily erected between the nave and the choir was taken down a few weeks ago, thus leaving the whole length of the Cathedral open from end to end. Formerly the length view was intercepted by a heavy stone screen, as at King's College, Cambridge, upon which the organ stood. The laster instrument now stands at the opening of the north transept, in a new case of oak supported by twenty-four monoliths of Italian marble, the gift of the Duke of Westminster. The south transept, known as St. Oswald's Church, is also laid entirely open, though not as yet restored. One of the most noticeable features of the restoration is the rich red tint of the sandstone, which was formerly covered with a thick layer of whitewash. The tabernacle work, famous for its delicacy and beauty, has been repaired throughout with the utmost care. The lighting of the crossing is effected by a brazen corona, the work of Mr. F. A. Skidmore, of Coventry. It weighs two and a half tons and carries 365 lights. The choir roof is decorated with painting and illumination. The choir pulpit is of oak; the upper part is divided into which three panels, on are represented in relief three scenes from the Bible-the building of Solomon's Temple, John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness and the city of the New Jerusalem. At the Eastern end of the choir there is to be a mosaic of the Last Supper, executed by Messrs. Salviati, after a design_by_Messrs. Clayton and Bell, who are also decorating the choir roof. The Four Greater and Twelve Lesser Prophets will be shown in the two eastern bays, while angels with musical instruments are in the western bays of the roof, immediately over the choir seats. Wood from Palestine has been employed in the retable which frames the mosaic, and in the altar itself. The forms of some plants connected with our Lord's Passion have been carved upon this by Mr. G. F. Armitage, of Altrincham, after a plan suggested by the Dean. On the broad western step is a representation of the Passover, in incised marble. On the open space of the floor below this step are heads of the Apostles round the lectern. In the corners are heads of two Doctors of the Western and two of the Eastern Church namely, Ambrose, as representing Church Music; Augustine, for Theclogy; Athanasius, for the Creeds; and Chrysostom, for Preaching. The Bishop's throne and the pulpit, on which are carved the building of the Hebrew Temple, the preaching of St. John the Baptist, and the vision of the Heavenly Jerusalem are the work of Messrs Farmer and Brindley. The north transept is a part of the building to which the large number of American visitors who frequent the city pay particular attention, as the handsomely sculptured tomb of Bishop Pearson, to which Americans contributed, is contained within it. The window at the end of this transept is one of seven lights, which will be filled with stained glass, representing the Seven Deacons and the Seven Churches of Asia, so as to be indicative of Church work and Church union. The alterations and researches consequent upon the restoration have brought to light many interesting relics connected with the early or monastic history of the buildings. Among these discoveries may be mentioned a subterranean passage, the entrance to which was from the inside of the Cathedral, near Abbey Court. In a line with the vestibule of the chapter house are vaulted rooms or passages, which have long been used as coal-cellars. The beauty of the stonework in these is worthy of a better occupation; and they have been turned into vestries for the accommodation of the minor canons, lay clerks, and choristers. The Bishop of Rochester preached on Wednesday, and, referring to the £75,000 spent on the restoration of that Cathedral, said that more than £20,000,000 had been spent on Church restoration and building in the

last forty years, but asked what that sum was compared with the wealth of this great country. The other preachers during the octave have been the Bishops of Chester, Manchester, Salisbury, and St. Andrew, the Deans of York, Ripon, and Bangor.

CANON LIDDON ON BULGARIAN “ATROCITIES."

Canon Liddon, preaching on Sunday afternoon at St. Paul's Cathedral, referred at considerable length to the outrages committed by the Turks upon the Christians in Bulgaria, and condemned in the strongest language any action on the part of this country which should tend to support the Turk. Having illustrated his text, "Let their table be made a snare to take themselves withal, and let the things that should have been for their wealth be unto them an occasion of falling," by a reference to the history of this country, whose "table" of mercies had been bountifully spread, the Canon proceeded to warn his hearers of the responsibilities resting on a people thus blessed, and of the penal consequences involved by a failure to recognize and discharge their obligations, not only at home, but abroad; in such a case their table would be made a suare to them, and the things that should have been for their wealth would be unto them an occasion of falling. Admitting that it is better as a rule for the ministers of Christ to avoid references to political questions, and to refrain from language which may tend to increase the difficulties of those who are charged with the responsibilities of government, the Canon said that there are times when silence is incompatible with the law of Christ, when issues are raised which are above any considerations of expediency, when the question is not what is politically expedient, but what is moral, Christian, humane. Such a time had now come in reference to recent events in Eastern Europe, and to the tragedies there enacted, which he believed were without parallel in the history of modern times. The public was beginning to realize the true state of the case. The heartless epigrams with which the subject was at first referred to were now silenced in fact, people no longer uttered the word “exaggeration " in regard to the reports received, for they knew that when all deductions had been made there must be a remainder of solid fact of unspeakable horror. A century hence the massacres in Bulgaria would stand out in tragic relief, for they were no ordinary repetition of the horrors of war. Not merely armed men, but women and girls and helpless babes were subjected to the refined cruelties and the harsh indignities of the victorious Turk; and while they were listening in that sacred building the loud cry, the bitter wail of anguish and despair was rising to Heaven from thousands of desolated homes, from mothers and daughters whose whole future life would only be one long memory of agony and shame. He did not desire to appeal to sentiment, but to elementary morality, for it was a question whether the Sixth and Seventh Commandments should be violated on a gigantic scale. It might be said that the Power by which these crimes had been perpetrated knew not Christianity. Be it so; but what made the voice falter in speaking of the subject was the consciousness that the Government to which that Power was turning for support was not that of one of the historical homes of despotism, but, alas, to free, humane, Christian England. The Turk believed, and not altogether without reason-that he was leaning on our country's arm and was sure of its smile. There might be materials, if the history of the past were ransacked, for a telling retort; but if Christians had done wrong they could afford to confess it, but they could not afford to be dragged back into the past only to serve abstract political theories about the balance of power in Europe. Some countries might be forced to act against the will of the people, but it was not so with England; and they could not put the responsibility on the Government, which represented them as much as it ruled them, nor upon that abstraction called the nation. To all who heard him the Canon appealed to make their wishes known on the matter, and he urged that it was for them to say whether the race which had ever been the same in character should rivet the bonds of millions who, with all their imperfections, had as much right as Englishmen to freedom and liberty. It was said by the latest advices that the Turk had granted an amnesty, but if so, it was the work of fear, not of remorse, and Dr. Liddon affirmed that it ought not to satisfy the English nation. "If God is the same that He has ever been," said the preacher, "He hates cruelty and will punish those who enact it and those who abet it now as of old. The sorrowful sighing of the prisoners still comes before Him, and right dear in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints; and if we, who have been highly favoured, are willing to sacrifice elementary moral obligations to supposed political or commercial necessities, then our "table" will become a snare, and our position, which should have been for the wealth of our own and other races, will be the occasion of our utter and humiliating fall."

Letters to the Editor.

MR. OWEN LEWIS AND THE GUARDIAN NEWSPAPER. SIR,-As you were good enough to insert my correspondence with Mr. Gladstone, and expressed your approval of what I said, I venture to ask you to give a place in your columns to the accompanying letter, which with characteristic fairness has been refused insertion in the columns of the Guardian, the paper which reported the scandalous falsehoods of M. Loyson at such length and with such minuteness. OWEN LEWIS. 19, Seymour-street, Portman-square, August 9th, 1876.

To the Editor of the Guardian. Sir,-Although you announce your intention of not allowing any further correspondence upon this subject in your columns, I cannot believe that the Guardian will refuse me a few lines in reply to the letter of Mr. Bandinel. The discussion was not commenced by Catholics, and if you think it unsuited for a newspaper, it was surely inconsistent

to report at such length the speeches of M. Loyson, as it was hardly to be supposed that we should allow such grave charges against our clergy to pass unanswered. I am aware of the state of things in Madeira, which, though exaggerated by Mr. Bandinel, is surely bad enough, and will in addition, if it affords you any gratification, admit that in parts of South America a low tone of morality prevails among some of the priesthood. Now, for the explanation. In these countries the religious orders, so necessary for keeping alive and fostering the spiritual life, have been banished, the Bishops are too often worthless men, mere tools of the State, who render unto Cæsar the things that are God's, while the influence of the Holy See, the fountain and source of all jurisdiction and discipline, is crushed and stifled by an infidel and Freemason Government, which, while making capital out of the crimes of the clergy, prevents the Head of the Church from applying a remedy. If in such places a zealous and saintly prelate arises, who sets boldly to work to reform abuses and denounce the laxity of clerical morals, every impediment is thrown in his way, and if he has the grace to persevere in his course, he is either cast into prison or banished the country, a procedure which is in due course announced in respectable English newspapers with undisguised satisfaction as another instance of resistance to the encroachments of Rome. Under these circumstances to lay the blame of clerical immorality upon the Pope and the Jesuits is as just and as fair as it would be to forbid a schoolmaster from exercising any discipline or inflicting any punishment upon refractory scholars and then blame him for the bad state of his school and the unruly character of his boys. To charge the evils in question upon the practice of clerical celibacy is shown to be unreasonable by the fact, that in these countries the married laity are no better than the unmarried priests, a proof that marriage does not necessarily, according to M. Loyson, "save souls." A propos of this question I remember a passage where St. Paul speaks of those who wax wanton against Christ and marry, and were I to quote his opinion of the future lot of such persons, I fear that you might consider him uncharitable. To judge fairly of the results of celibacy, and to form a just idea of the working of Catholic discipline, it will not suffice to examine countries where the Church is bound hard and fast in Masonic chains, where the Pope is forcibly prevented from applying any remedy whatever to abuses as they arise, and where worthless Bishops (some of whom are even whispered to be Freemasons themselves) are appointed by the Government contrary to the wishes of the Holy Father. You should look to places where the Catholic Church is free and unfettered, where intercourse with Rome is unimpeded, where the religious orders exist and flourish, constantly giving missions and retreats where the Bishops are faithful men, both able and willing to punish abuses, where, in a word, the Catholic system is properly carried out, as it is for example in England, Ireland, France, Belgium, Holland, and the United States. Such are the countries which men would examine if anxious honestly to judge of the working of the Catholic Church, and the results of clerical celibacy. Anywhere where the Church is free an immoral priest could not, does not exist. Black sheep may in individual cases be found, but they are summarily and speedily got rid of. I did not assert that every individual priest in the world was virtuous; what I did say was that they were so as a body, with infinitesimal exceptions, and to that statement, after admitting all I have done, I deliberately adhere. I regret that Mr. Bandinél has met with such "hardness of feeling and coarseness of thought towards the weaker sex." On the part of the priesthood my own experience of English, Irish, Scottish, French, Italian, Spanish, and American priests has been the exact reverse. The question whether the conduct of the Russian Government in Poland and Siberia, or that of the Turkish Government in Belgaria is the most humane, and which of the two it is the interest of Catholics to support, is perfectly irrelevant to the charges of M. Loyson, or the results of clerical celibacy, and I must decline to be drawn aside from the matter at issue. OWEN LEWIS.

"WHERE ARE WE?"

SIR,-Absence from England has prevented my seeing your very able and high-principled paper till the other day. I hope now to take it in regularly. There is great need in the present day for an outspoken paper, which, without "fear or favour," will deal with pressing questions of the day in Church and State, on the basis of the old text, "Fear God and honour the King," in other words, reverence to Authority, too much lost sight of in the present period. I agree with much that your correspondent "Perplexed" says. I have always been at a loss to understand how High Churchmen, who profess to deplore the destruction of the religious houses in England by Henry VIII. and his daughter Elizabeth, (for it must not be forgotten that Mary restored some, at least, of the Abbey lands), can support and approve of the Government of the present King of Italy, who has obtained his present position by the help of the revolutionary party, and the deposition of the legitimate heirs of so many thrones. Depend upon it, we cannot play fast and loose with principles in this way. I confess, I, for one, have no sympathy with the (so-called) Old Catholic movement in Germany, and would advise anyone who is in doubt on the question to send the articles which appeared on the subject in the (now, I regret to write, defunct) Union Review for 1874. I consider the support given by a section of the High Church party to that movement, an unfortunate mistake, which I fear has done much to hinder Re-union. I think it would have been far better if we had conducted our negotiations with the Eastern Church directly through our own Convocations; individual submissions to Rome are to be deplored as standing in the way of Corporate Re-union. They are not, indeed, to be justified, but can hardly be wondered at after the language of some of the Bishops. I believe that if we had had a statesman as Archbishop of Canterbury, the present troubles would never have occurred. The High Church clergy are loyal and obedient to the law of the Church, (who is, if not they?) not, indeed, that of the new Court which meets at Lambeth Palace. Though the times are dark, yet we have much, very much, to be thankful for. The Catholic Revival has spread in a wonderful manner, and we ought not and cannot doubt that God will continue to bless us, as in the past, if we only remain true to our principles. J. REGINALD DOWSON,

THE RESURRECTION BODY.

SIR, Mr. Earle has referred to a letter of mine on the subject of the Resurrection of the Body, which was published in the Church Review of the 25th of last March. He quotes a few words of mine, but not sufficient to do me justice. My argument was, that till supposed scientific necessity arose for the new theory, all people believed in the Article of the Creed in its natural sense, and I endeavoured to show, and I venture to think successfully, that the natural sense is the Catholic and Scriptural sense. When our Lord told Martha that Lazarus should rise again, she said she knew he would at the Last Day: but our Lord caused him by a miracle to rise at once. Now Martha bore witness that her brother had been in the grave four days, and that therefore his body had already become greatly decomposed, the gases had escaped, yet at the word of the Lord he rose again in his natural human body. God had said by the Psalmist that He would not suffer His Holy One to see corruption; therefore the sacred Body of our Lord did not begin even to decompose and resolve into gasses: yet when the holy women visited the tomb they found it, save for the presence of angels and the grave clothes, quite empty.

The Jews boldly accused the disciples of having stolen His Body by night; and if it is only the spiritual Body which arises, and that, as Mr. Earle says, arises at the time of death, then, unless the Jews were right, I ask, What became of the non-decomposed natural Body of our Lord? and what ground have we for our faith in the Resurrection as a dogma of the Church? No one denies that our Lord's Body was not subject to the ordinary laws of matter, as our bodies now are, though He ordinarily subjected Himself to those laws; but still His Body was conceived by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary; He took man's nature in the womb of the Blessed Virgin of her substance; He was in all things like unto us, sin only except. As in Adam all died so in Christ all shall be made alive. If our natural bodies are not to arise at the Last Day, what is the meaning of the vision of the Prophet Ezekiel regarding the dry bones? But against the many passages of Scripture which speak of a general Resurrection at the Last Day, Mr. Earle thinks he can bring one long passage to contradict their obvious meaning. Well, the Church of God has left it to Mr. Earle to discover that St. Paul's teaching explains away what undoubtedly the Catholic Church has ever held as the true meaning of Holy Scripture regarding this cardinal dogma of our Faith. For my own part I can see no difficulty in reconciling St. Paul's teaching with the pre-Christian tradition of the Resurrection of the Body. He himself more than once teaches, and professes his belief in, the Resurrection of Jesus Christ; in the very passage Mr. Earle appeals to, he proclaims his belief that Christ has risen as the first fruits, and that they that are Christ's shall rise hereafter at His coming. But Mr. Earle says that, St. Paul contrasts the present natural body with the future spiritual body. Exactly, but manifestly St. Paul's spiritual body and Mr. Earle's are two different entities; for mark, Mr. Earle says, "We carry about with us a spiritual body, which will rise from the grave of the natural body at the moment of dissolution to be the envelope and organ of the immortal spirit; but St. Paul's teaching is that, the body is sown in the grave a natural body, whence it arises a spiritual body just as the grain which is sown, is not quickened till it die, and then springs up after its kind." How the body sown a natural body is raised a spiritual body I do not know, but I believe it is so because I believe God has revealed it as a fact to His holy Church. But can Mr. Earle tell me how Christ fed many thousands with a few loaves and fishes, and how the fragments which remained exceeded many times in bulk the loaves and fishes when He blessed them and gave them to the disciples to distribute? It is, as St. Paul says, a mystery and a very glorious one. But some say that St. Paul says flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. St. Paul does say so it is true; yet it is of Faith that "Christ did truly rise again from death, with flesh, bones, and all things appertaining to the perfection of man's nature; wherewith He ascended into Heaven. Blood as well as bones must surely appertain to the perfection of man's nature; and if the precious blood did not at the Resurrection return to the veins of our dear Lord, how can it be argued that the Ascension was typified by the High Priests entering with the blood into the Holy of Holies to sprinkle it before the Mercy Seat? if that Blood is not in existence how can we be said to be washed in It, in Sacraments of Baptism and Penance, and above all what have we in the chalice at Mass? For how can the substance of what is no longer in existence be present under the form of wine? And as Christ rose, so are we to rise, if Scripture be truth!

The word "natural" may be used in two senses, and I think Mr. Earle confuses them together. The future life of the body will be a supernatural life, not a natural one; the body will be spiritualized, not subject to the laws of matter as it now is, and it will be incorruptible; in other words it will not be subject to the present laws of nature, and in that sense it will be a natural body; but in the sense of identity it will be the natural body restored to life. Again I say I do not know how, I only believe the fact. But may it not be that the substance of the body remains while the accidents are passing away, and that at the Resurrection that substance will again be clothed by accidents gathered from the earth around the body? The body remains through life the same body, yet we know that the particles of which it is composed are continuously passing away and being succeeded by others. Now those particles are derived from the blood which is formed out of the food we take; all food comes either immediately or derivatably from the earth. Out of the earth God made the first man: why should we think it impossible for Him to reclothe the substance of our bodies at the Resurrection from the earth? The converse of this happens in the Blessed Sacrament; there the substance of the Bread and Wine are destroyed, and the accidents remain without an informing substance. Why should not the informing substance of the body remain in the grave while the accidents perish? I only throw this out as a suggestion, and I submit it to the judgment of Holy Church. Mr. Earle say, he accepts the statements in the Creeds of the Church regarding the Resurrection; is it unfair to ask him whether he believes those statements because the Church teaches them, or because he has satisfied

himself that they are capable of being used by men who accept his theory? Many heretics are kind enough to accept the Creeds in their own sense, but not in the Church's, and of course that is really no acceptance at all. There is one article of the Creed which heretics always forget, viz., "I believe the Holy Catholic Church," for they refuse to accept her interpretation of her own Creeds and Scriptures. Finally, I think Mr. Earle might have spared his sneer at the earnest and holy men who have taught the Faith to the lowly and ignorant, as Wrist-pinchers." As Mr. Earle has introduced me to your readers, in spite of your ordinary rule I trust you will permit me to sign myself as SPECTATOR. Madras, St. Alban's Day, 1876.

The Rev. H. N. Oxenham writes to us that there were two misprints in his Letter on Vivisection. "I spoke of Mr. Hutton's retirement,' not his reprimand,' from the Senate of London University. And I said that Dr. Sibson's evidence showed how easily persons (not "surgeons") persuaded themselves to believe what suits their views. It is, no doubt, a fault to which all of us are liable, though I believe that the absorption of mind in scientific pursuits greatly intensifies the temptation. As Mr. Hutton puts it: an eager mind with a great appetite for knowledge, has an immense power for overleaping the considerations which obstruct its search.'

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Endications of Current Opinion.

FAITH, AUTHORITY, AND FREEDOM.

(From the Tablet of August 5, 1876.)

That there is no connection whatever between true science and unbelief, or between pure reason and revolt against God, is now sufficiently evident. We have said nothing of the testimony of such mighty intellects as St. Innocent, St. Gregory, St. Thomas Aquinas, and the angelic school of which they were luminaries, because we desired to refer only to men in whom even unbelievers recognize the masters of human thought. But enough has been said to establish certain practical conclusions to which we desire now to call attention. If faith, as such men believed, and as millions have ascertained by using it, is an intellectual power, competent to deal with questions which, as Leibnitz said, lie outside the range of our natural faculties, it follows that men who do not possess that gift, even in its inchoate form, not only belong, in spite of their trivial boasts, to a lower order of intelligent beings than those who do, but are inevitably doomed to abide for ever in what Reid called "absolute darkness." They may be esteemed by men of their own class as wise and learned, but are, in fact, that abject thing which the Holy Scripture calls "blind leaders of the blind." They may congratulate themselves that they have escaped from the tutelage of the Church, but have as much reason to do so as the unfledged bird which has fallen out of its nest, and lies on the ground bruised, naked, and unfed. For if Faith is God's remedy for the impotence of reason, and the teaching of the Church His gracious correction of its aberrations, the knowledge of the highest truth and intellectual liberty must ever be the exclusive appanage of those who possess the one and are subject to the other. Faith is simply the light of the soul, and submission to the Church is alliance with God. The fruit of both is true science and supernatural freedom. And for this reason, the least rational of all the delusions of heresy and unbelief,-which are two plants growing on one stem, and having a common root in the same foul spirit of revolt,is the delirious conception that the authority of the Church in the sphere of faith and morals involves the limitation of true liberty. It is, in fact, God's way of preserving it. Even the unbeliever will admit that, if there be any power in the world able to defend natural reason from false conclusions, it must be a gain to accept its guidance. Even the heretic will admit the modest proposition of James Forbes, a man versed in natural science, that "as we accept the eminent lawyers on points of law and astronomers on astronomy, so the convictions of theologians ought to have the greatest weight with every one not inflated with vanity." (Life, p. 415.) It is true that what the Scottish savant understood by theologians" are men who all contradict one another, and for whom religion is as much a matter of "opinion"-i.e., of the private interpretation of the Scriptures-as for avowed unbelievers; so that the widest differences of lawyers and astronomers, however envenomed, coalesce in melodious harmony compared with the irreconcileable discords of a so-called theology which every man makes for himself. But if the only authority to which Forbes could appeal speaks with a hundred different voices, and never with the same for two consecutive hours, there has been in the world, from the hour in which the Most High said to one of His creatures, "Feed my sheep," an authority resembling that of God,-permanent, immutable, infallible, of which men who are now princes in the court of Heaven have said, with St. Bernard: "He must go out of the earth who would find anything not subject to the Roman Pontiff." And this authority has done, through a long course of ages, exactly what God intended to do. If it had been a fiction or a usurpation, it would have shared the impotence of all human things, and would long since have been laughed out of the world as a detected impostor. The pretence of authority on the part of its earth-born rivals, the swarming sects which dishonour the Christian religion, only provoke a smile, and, as a matter of fact, has utterly lapsed, or been absorbed, as in England and Russia, into the allembracing imperium of the civil power. But the authority founded by God, and of which the Roman Pontiff is the supreme representative, has always been claimed by the heirs of Peter, and always admitted by the flock of Christ. And its history proves, by a better than any geometrical demonstration, that it is what it professes to be. By its action countless millions of the children of men, divided in all else, have been literally, in the face of heaven and earth, of "one heart and one mind " in all which relates to the highest truth. No other power, old or new, has been able to work this miracle. And this fact suffices to condemn, as Pascal said, those whom it fails to convince. It is unique in the annals of our race. And this is not its only evidence. Wherever

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