with honour, and gives to the world the impartial results of fifty years' experience. Had the above words been written àpropos of the P.W.R.A. they could not more faithfully have described its history, character, or results. We all know how, under the patronage of Lords Cairns and Selborne in the Upper House, and of Sir William Harcourt and Mr. Russell Gurney in the Commons, that notorious measure was to bring about economy in suits, simplification of procedure, expedition in hearing causes, and we know not what besides. None of these things have come to pass; the costs are as heavy as they ever were, if not heavier; the "procedure" is as dilatory, or more dilatory; the legal meshes as many and as finely woven. But one thing certainly has happened: and that is, that a richly-paid judicial appointment has been created and endowed out of Church funds, and the scheme has been called an amendment of the ecclesiastical law. THE "Working Men's Petition" was duly presented to Convocation. Those who were induced to sign it, some fourteen thousand, are a most insignificant minority as regards the hundreds of thousands whom the National Church has not touched with the tip of her fingers, and, under present circumstances, is not likely to touch. It is not, therefore, either a sound principle or a wise policy to appeal to the worst educated and least influential classes; because at such a foolish game many could play; and Catholics, in the end, would not be likely to come off victorious. This Petition, and the correspondence originating and arising out of it, is evidently from the wire pullers of one of our contemporariesa contemporary, strong in anonymous criticism, but very oversensitive if paid off in similar coin, who writes thus:-"We may take the opportunity of noticing a curious slip in the generous speech of the Bishop of Lincoln on the subject of the Working Men's Petition. Dr. Wordsworth said, 'With regard to the references to the passage in Malachi, I would remark that, to be consistent, a minchah of fine flour ought to be offered as well as incense;' but surely the right reverend prelate must have forgotten that one form of the minchah was 'unleavened cakes of fine flour,' or 'unleavened wafers.' (Lev. ii. 4.) Hence the Petitioners were perfectly in the right when they insisted on the literal fulfilment of the prophecy." This means, of course, that the Bishop was wrong, and those who "did the literature" of the Petition were, in their own opinion, right—a self-chosen position from which we will make no attempt to dislodge them. Infallibility is evidently always at home somewhere near High Holborn. THE HE new Parliamentary "Irish Church "-evidently aided and guided from below-has abolished the Athanasian Creed; or, to put it in a true Hibernian fashion, has, after many controversies, solemnly retained it, strictly forbidding its recitation or use. If that valiant individual from Ireland -the Ritualistic personage who has elected himself leader of the younger race of parsons, and who has introduced "Donnybrook-fair" tactics into Church-of-England controversy-had only been good enough to have remained in his own native Communion, he would have, no doubt, been found as competent to guide his Irish friends in their new and magnificent policy, as he modestly holds himself to be to teach the Pope, the Roman Church, the Anglican Bishops, the working men, and English Sisterhoods, what they ought to believe and to do. THE Necropolis Company, whose Cemetery at Woking is, THE as we are credibly informed, so well conducted, and whose needful reforms in the way of conducting funerals have been so widely appreciated, have invented an "Earth to Earth" Coffin, which though possessing the strength, appearance, and other essentials, of a Solid Coffin, is constructed of materials that will not interfere with the resolvent action of the earth, and natural dissolution of the body. In fact it fulfils most effectually all the requirements for carrying out the principle of "Earth to Earth" burial, and that without offending in any way the natural feelings which surround this question. To Mr. Seymour Haden is due the credit of having exposed the evils arising from the practice of burying the dead in Wooden or other Imperishable Coffins. In his series of able letters to the Times, recently re-published in a connected form by Messrs. Macmillan and Co., he points out that at present "the dead are little more than nominally buried, and that the interposition between them and the earth that should resolve them of such media as wood, lead, brick, and the like, interment as a principle is rendered all but nugatory, and as a practice deprived of its raison d'être," and, moreover, "has led us to accumulate in our midst a vast store of human remains in every stage and condition of decay," —a state of things revolting in the extreme, and highly dangerous to the health of the community at large. A visit to The London Necropolis Company in Lancaster Place will prove to all sanitary reformers the excellence both of their principles and action. OUR in UR leading and strong objection to Lord Carnarvon's Bill on Vivisection is that it is a distinctly retrograde movement. Hitherto animals have been protected; and all that was needed in the case of the scientific tormentor was to catch him red-handed, and secure sufficient evidence to punish him. Now, however, Vivisection is to be "restricted; other words it is to be formally legalized :—an act of cruelty and shame which cannot be too highly reprobated. Lord Carnarvon's intentions are no doubt excellent; but the position which the Society of which Mr. G. R. Jesse is the able and energetic Secretary, takes up, is the only true and sound position. And the very persecution to which he has been so adroitly and shamefully subjected, is a proof that he and his revelations are feared. E earnestly hope that the attempt now being made to erect a suitable Church House for the S.P.C.K and S.P.G. may be eventually utilized in order to secure a suitable set of rooms for the meeting of Convocation. Independent of the inconvenience in size and arrangement of those now used at Westminster, the gathering of our representatives under Dean Stanley's nose is very morally damaging. It is apparent in too many ways-specially upon Dean Bickersteth, whose toadyism of his brother Dean, the great Court favourite, is not likely to be very highly admired by independent men. The needless and fulsome Address about Lady Augusta Stanley-for women have nothing to do with Convocation-was in the worst of taste, and shows that deterioration in character, dignity, and independence are, like cancers, eating their way into the hearts and actions of many of the feeble and time-serving men now put into places of dignity, responsibility, and trust,-to keep things quiet as far as may be. THE appointment of Mr. Moorhouse, of Paddington, to the Bishopric of Melbourne is both reasonable and creditable. He is a superior kind of Evangelical, and reported to be earnest, vigorous, and painstaking. An Australian Correspondent, referring to the diocese over which the new Bishop will preside, informs us that "Church influence is at zero: and the place, generally speaking, is a spiritual desert." MR. MACLAGAN who is said to belong to the new school of "Ritualistic Wesleyans "—a school which combines sensible conversion and screaming sermons, with sensible confession and secret enquiry-rooms; and some of the members of which own "the gift of tears," has declined the Bishopric of Calcutta. He was wise in his decision; for though the old Oriental systems are surely breaking up, we doubt whether either Ritualism or Wesleyanism is likely to take their place. Could not Lord Salisbury induce Dean Stanley to go? THE PRESTBURY CASE.-Proceedings in this case have now been pending for a long time, but for some unknown cause have not been proceeded with. We believe, however, that the real secret is, that Dr. Stephens being retained to defend Mr. Edwards, the Church Association were afraid to allow the case to come before the Court. Lord Penzance has got over the difficulty by postponing the case until the Privy Council has given judgment in the Ridsdale Case, and then he will be guided by all other cases by this judgment without further argument. So we shall not hear what Dr. Stephens has to say on the other side. The Catholic Revival at Home. It is rumoured that the Rev. W. H. Milman, Rector of St. Augustine's, City, and Minor Canon and Sacristan of St. Paul's, will be the new Bishop of Calcutta. We are enabled to state that Messrs. H. S. King and Co. will shortly publish a new poem from the pen of Mr. Aubrey de Vere, entitled "St. Thomas of Canterbury." An Association of Priests has been formed, which has determined on celebrating the Holy Communion daily for the space of twelve months, in order to ask a blessing on a scheme for the restoration of an old abbey for a new community. Names of some of the leaders of the High Church party are connected with the scheme. We regret to announce the secession to the Church of Rome of Lady Heywood, wife of Sir Percival Heywood, Bart. The resignation of their spiritual jurisdictions to Lord Penzance by the English Bishops is reported to be the leading cause of her Ladyship's secession. She is connected with the families of three Anglican prelates, viz., the Archbishop of Armagh, the Bishop of Peterborough and the late Archbishop Sumner. CHESTER CATHEDRAL.-Chester Cathedral will probably be closed altogether for a time in order to complete the restorations which have now been in progress for nearly eight years. For some time the services have been conducted in the nave, which was reopened after restoration about four years ago. The reparation of the Cathedral has had to be very extensive as the structure was found to be in a dilapidated state. Heavy screens, which formerly divided the Cathedral into three distinct portions, have been removed, so that the interior will now be seen as a whole. Some valuable gifts have been received for the choir, among which may be mentioned the organ-screen from the Duke of Westminster, the new internal roof from Mr. Robert Platt, the pulpit from the Freemasons of Cheshire, the sedilia from the Freemasons of Lancashire, the lectern from the late Miss Potts, and supplies of oak, cedar, and olive wood from Palestine given by Mr. Henry Lee. £75,000 have been spent on the restoration and £5,000 are still required to complete the work. THE CAPETOWN ASSOCIATION.-The Annual Festival of this associa tion was held in London on the anniversary of the Bishop of Capetown's birthday. The Blessed Sacrament was celebrated in St. Saviour's Church, Highbury at 7.30, at St. Michael's, Paddington, at 8.30, and at St. Peter's, Eaton-square, at 11 a.m., when the Bishop of Lichfield was the preacher. He spoke in the most glowing and affectionate terms of the memory of the late Bishop Gray, saying, "Our minds are full of the life of Bishop Gray, and the duty of the preacher on an occasion like this is to endeavour to draw from life some lasting instruction; not to waste time in praising one who loved only the praise of God, but to take the lesson home to our own hearts, to influence our future' lives. The first great lesson which we ought to learn is faith in the promises of God and that which flows from it-rest of mind in the midst of labours, hindrances, disappointments, scantiness of means, vastness of field. Bishop Gray in his labours fixed a standard to which our minds must be brought up, and we must not be content to work at a lower level, but follow his great faith, by which he worked wonders. DISSENTERS' BURIAL GRIEVANCES.-Sir,-On the discussion which followed on Lord Granville's resolution on the Burial Question, a noble and learned lord is reported to have said "That in large manufacturing and mining populations, especially in Wales, the grievance had been felt heavily." This is an imaginary grievance on the noble and learned lord's part. For upwards of two years I have been rector of a very populous mining parish, where the population consists of nearly fifteen thousand souls, and where there is only one churchyard (a fair specimen of where grievances would be expressed). Hundreds of persons have been buried in the churchyard since my admission to the living, and they have been principally Nonconformists. I never heard any grievance expressed by a single person-they avail themselves of the privilege of hearing the psalms and lesson inside the church, where I have periodically read the service to hundreds of followers, accompanied often by several Nonconformist ministers, and I have with pleasure observed their marked reverence on these solemn occasions. It is sad that political exigencies should drive noble and even learned lords to deal in such misrepresentations. HOWELL HOWELL, Rector of Aberystruth with Abertillery. Blaina, May 16. THE GREGORIAN ASSOCIATION.-On Thursday evening the fourth Annual Festival of this Association (of which Earl Beauchamp is President) was held in St. Paul's Cathedral. The congregation numbered about 6,000, and the service was performed by a larger number of surpliced choristers than have before attended in the metropolitan Cathedral, there being nearly 1,200 present, besides a surpliced orchestra thirty strong. As will be readily imagined it was not easy to keep so large a body in hand; and had it not been for the thorough training and rehearsals to which the various sections had been subjected the result would not have been so gratifying. As it was the processionals were failures. Leaving the south chancel aisle the choir proceeded down the south aisle and up the nave singing the well-known hymn, "Saviour, blessed Saviour;" but the nine long verses were not long enough, and although the three choirs marched double quick at starting, there was a long pause at the close while the end of the procession slowly sought their seats. The choir was divided into a harmony section, and a plain song section: the former being placed under the dome. The Nunc Dimittis bore away the palm from the Magnificat; and to the execution of Dr. Stainer's anthem What are these? "nothing but praise can be awarded. The Rev. T. Helmore, precentor, conducted, and Mr. Warwick Jordan, Mus. Bac., presided at the organ with his usual taste. Canon Gregory preached a very long sermon, which was quite inaudible to half of those present. We cannot help thinking it would be well to omit sermons on these occasions. CHURCHES CONSECRATED, RESTORED, &c.-The Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol last Wednesday consecrated a new church at Marston Meysey, near Fairford.-On Saturday the Archbishop of Canterbury consecrated a church at Beckenham, which has cost £8,000, and will eccommodate 800 persons. The patronage has been vested in five ultraProtestant trustees-amongst others being the Revs. J. C. Ryle and Joseph Bardsley, a Church Associationist lecturer; but in case of any disagreement amongst the trustees, the decision of the Archbishop of Canterbury is to be final.-Christ Church, Maida-bill, formerly a proprietary chapel has been renovated and consecrated by the Bishop of London.- The parish church of Sandhurst, Kent, which was in a most dilapidated condition, has been restored and reopened by the patron of the Living, the Archbishop of Canterbury.-Musbury Church, Devon, after a careful restoration has been reopened. The reredos of Venetian mosaic, a beautiful work of art, is the gift of Sir William Drake, of Oatlands, Surrey, whose family tomb and remarkable monument are a great attraction to the visitors of the neighbouring watering-places. -The church of St. Mary-the-Less, Lambeth, has been restored,-a more correct term, perhaps, would be to say it has been repaired, painted, and decorated, and was reopened on Thursday evening by the Bishop of Winchester, who, in his sermon, expressed a hope that the church would be used not only for public, but private devotion.-On Friday evening the new chancel of St. Saviour's Church, South Hampstead, was opened with Special Services, and a sermon by the Rev. Henry White, Chaplain of the Savoy.-On Friday the parish church of Honiton Clyst, near Exeter, was reopened after restoration, at a cost of £1,000. FRAGMENTA VARIA.-The Bishopric of Melbourne has been conferred on Prebendary Moorhouse, Vicar of Paddington; the See of Calcutta has been offered to the Rev. W. D. Maclagan, Vicar of Kensington, but declined by him on the ground of ill-health.-The completion of the nave of Bristol Cathedral is to be carried out under the superintendence of the Dean and Chapter.-A monument is to be placed in St. Margaret's Church, Westminster, in memory of the late Canon Conway. -£25,548,703 has been spent on Church restoration in England and Wales (including Cathedrals) since the year 1840. The number of has definitely decided to take the Ste of St. Alban's when the separation churches restored and rebuilt has been 7,144.-The Bishop of Roch ster occurs. The Rev. W. H. Lyall, Rector of St. Dionis Backchurch, has been elected President of Sion College for the ensuing year.-The Rev. Peter F. Hony, said to be the oldest clergyman connected with the University of Oxford, died in London last week at the age of 94.--The Rev. C. A. Row, Prebendary of St. Paul's, has been elected Bampton Lecturer for the ensuing year.-The Vicar of Kensington is about to apply for a faculty to erect a new Altar in his church, which is to be given by a parishioner. Mr. Maclagan also wishes to make some other improvements in the chancel of his church.-The National Church points out that the Disestablishment of the Irish Church has been accompanied by a reduction of the clergy from 2,104 to 1,438-in other words, by the ominous number of 666.-It having been represented to the Bishop of Norwich that the assistant-curates of St. Margaret's and St. Lynn-(1) occupy at the Prayer of Consecration the eastward position, (2) practice elevation of the paten and chalice, (3) perform acts of adoration when consecrating the elements, (4) use the sign of the cross when ministering to the communicants-the Bishop has expressed to the vicar, the Rev. J. Durst, his desire that these practices should be discontinued. In communicating this to his parishioners, the vicar expresses his readiness to comply with his Lordship's advice and direction as far as possible. He has abandoned the Eastward Position until the case has been settled by the Privy Council.-Forty branches of the Church Temperance Society are now working in the Diocese of Chichester.-On Sunday week after Evensong £31 was collected in the Priory Church, Malvern, for the Dyke's Memorial Fund.-The Rev. H. M. Barnett, sometime curate of Charlton Kings, Gloucestershire, has joined the Baptist connection. The Annual Festival of the Corporation of the Sons of the Clergy was held in St. Paul's Cathedral on Wednesday, followed by a dinner in the evening in the ball of the Merchant Taylors' Company, under the presidency of the Lord Mayor. The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishops of Winchester, Ripon, Llandaff and Oxford were present. The contributions amounted to £4,797.-The Prince of Wales has contributed £100 towards the restoration of the west front of Norwich Cathedral. -It is proposed to remove Dartington Church, which now stands close to Dartington Hall, and rebuild it in another part of the parish, if the Bishop will grant a faculty for so doing.-The Vicar of St. Nicholas, Brighton, is appealing for funds to enable him to beautify the chancel of his church, which was formerly the parish church of Brighton. Ecclesiastical Art. NEW CHALICE AND PATEN FOR CORK CATHEDRAL.-A new chalice has just been completed by Messrs. Keith and Co., from a design by Mr. Butterfield, in memory of the late Dean Edwards. It is the gift of some of the members of his family, and bears the following inscription:-"In gloriam Dei et in piam recordationem Arthuri Guilielmi Edwards, S.T.B., Decani. Corcag. hunc Calicem cum Patena Ecclesiæ S. Finnbarri Uxor, Filius, Filia, D.D." It stands ten inches high, and is nearly eight inches over the extreme points of the base; it is of silver richly gilt, hexagonal in its detail throughout, except the bowl, which is semispherical. The lower part of the base is a flat Vandyked plate, its outline being formed by six acute angled points springing from as many intersecting arcs. The plinth, an upright moulded band of the same contour as the base plate, displays a series of delicate piercings of quatrefoils and trefoils. The marginal surface of the base plate is enriched by the addition of amethysts, and carbuncles; while the angular points of the plinth are each mounted with a brilliant topaz. The stem is a dwarf panelled pillar, divided by the knop into two equal parts, which are ornamented by tracery of pierced work. The knop or boss is a kind of flattened globe divided into six equal facets, each of which is panelled by means of ridge-wires bounding the angles; the centres of the facets being pierced with circular openings, over which rise large carbuncles supported by radiated wirework diverging in all directions over the surface of the knop. The stem terminates in a well-moulded cup with arched points; on which rests the cup-plate, having six massive jewels each measuring with its setting nearly an inch in length. Into this cup-plate the bowl is fitted, which for convenience of use is quite plain, and which measures five inches across the mouth. The foot hexagonal in plan, rises with a graceful curve to the stem; each of its arched angles carrying a fine moulded pillar springing from the plinth jewel. These pillars are tied by a fine string moulding, and overarched by pediments or canopies of excellent finish. Within each of the canopies is a carbuncle, and in the spandrils above stated, alternately carbuncles and amethysts. Above the spandrils rise a group of finely graduated mouldings, on which there is a row of aquamarines; the whole is surmounted by a battlement from within which rises the stem. Reverting to the foot, the spaces bounded by the canopies above and the running bead of the plinth below, forms panels, two of which are ornamented by foliated designs of conventional character starting from large amethysts as their common centres; the third has the sacred monogram I.H.S. crowned, and surmounted by the vine. The alternate panels are ornamented with repoussè figure-work, having as their subjects the Institution of the Blessed Sacrament, Moses smiting the Rock, and the Spies bearing the Grapes of Eshcol. These panels are worthy of the closest attention, as being very fine specimens of hammered work; altogether this chalice and Paten, the former of which is adorned with no less than seventy precious stones, may well bear comparison with the celebrated chalice of St. Saviour's, Leeds, and that executed for the late Bishop Forbes. Letters to the Editor. "As 'Brevity is the Soul of Wit' so short Letters are certainly more readable than long ones. In my judgment an Editor should not be pestered with any which are not brief, concise, well-written, and to the point; signed openly and honestly, with their writers' names.”—CHArles Lamb. AN IMPORTANT ADMISSION. SIR, I have read with dismay the sickening details of the recent debate in the House of Lords on the Burial Question. I dare not say what I think of the Bishops, who evidently care a great deal more for the feelings of their "Nonconformist brethren" than for any princ ples that they may be supposed to have in the matter; and as to Lord Selborne and Lord Coleridge, I-as one of the wicked" minority of the "lesson clergy," who want a from our betters-am compelled to plead guilty to a keeu feeling of disappointment that men who know better cannot discover any way of consolidating the Liberal party short of handing over the goods of the Church to the many-headed monster of schism! But one thing I am delighted with. We have, at last, a full and ample confession from one of the authors of the disgraceful Act "to put down" the Ritualists. 46 The Public Worship Act has entirely altered the law," quoth His Grace of York! Ingenui vultus puer, ingenuique pudoris! F. C. HINGESTON-RANDOLPH. Ringmore Rectory, Devonshire, May 19, 1876. PARLIAMENT THE DERNIER RESORT IN THINGS TEMPORAL: CONVOCATION IN THINGS SPIRITUAL. SIR, It is inconsistent with the very nature of government that the supreme power of making laws should be in the King with the advice of Convocation, and the supreme decisive power and dernier resort in a Secular Court without either King or Convocation. Thus the supreme power of making laws resides in the King and the Houses of the Spirituality, and the decisive power and dernier resort in a Court of the Temporality, instead of ecclesiastical causes being tried and finally decided according to the laws of this Kingdom by ecclesiastical judges (24 Hen. VIII. c. 12). Therefore the supreme decisive power or jurisdiction and the dernier resort must be where the legislative power is, and because all sovereignty is a thing indivisible, though it passes into different acts, legislative, judicial, and executive. This is in accordance with the law of interpretation as laid down by the greatest masters of civil knowledge in the 143rd Novell Constitution of Justinian-"Legis interpretationem, &c." The rule taken from the law which concisely states the actual doctrine is-" Ejus est interpretari cujus est condere." And it is impossible that it should be otherwise; unless we wholly dissolve the legislative power of Convocation, Archbishop, Bishops, and Priests and put into this Court of the Temporality, which, by means of their supreme judicial power without appeal, and as the dernier resort by delegation of Parliament, can at their will render the legislative power a virtual nullity, and abolish Convocation as a Synod of the Church and an estate of the realm, making the Church a mere department of the State, like the army or navy. How do we make the King supreme in causes merely spiritual? In such a question as administering the Body and Blood of Christ in both kinds, he hath full power to call a Synod of Bishops and Clergy and upon declaration or decision made by them, to compel every Bishop and Priest to administer in both kinds and every layman so to receive under penalty. The truth of the doctrine being resolved by the Synod, and the contrary error condemned for heresy, he hath a coercive power (1 Eliz. i. 17) over every Bishop to compel him to convert and censure delinquents. (From Dr. Thomas Jackson, the glory of the University of Oxford in the reign of James I. -III. Vol. 924-quoted from Bishop Phillpott's Pastoral, A.D. 1857, p. 104). All sovereignty is indivisible. If then, the Secular Court has the supreme judicial power, the supreme jurisdiction without appeal, the dernier resort, then is the legislative power virtually and by consequence there also, or at least the power lodged in the King and both Houses of Convocation can be only a virtual nullity, a mere chip in the porridge. For what if the Secular Court should give judgment against the whole of our Domestic Canou Law reaching from Anglo-Saxon times down to the code of the Reformation statutes? What if they should declare all this null and void? What if the Secular Court has cut the present Church off from the Church before the Reformation, by refusing to recognize anything but the documents of the Reformation as expressive of her faith? What if the Secular Court unchurches the Church? If they have the dernier resort, this judgment must be obeyed and submitted to irremediably, because no appeal lies from their judgment if it be the Supreme Court. The reader might say it cannot for a moment be supposed that the laws of the kingdom have provided no better security for the preservation of the liberties of the Church, or that the Court would repeal the Jus Canonicum of the Church of England if they could. Now what a Court of semi-demi-barbarians would be ashamed of doing, has been actually attempted by judgments of conflicting legal gibberish and legal chicane. There is such an indissoluble connexion between the parts of sovereignty, that if it be supposed that they are in different hands of different persons-much more of different bodies, Church and State-so that either may exercise his functions independently of the other, the result is disruption. "The interpretation of law rests with one body, and the enactinent of law with another." (Archbishop's opening speech, Convocation, the Guardian, April 14, 1875.) To apply this: Suppose, for example, that one body has the legislative, while another has the executive. In this case, the former must be useless, or the latter its slave. For of what use would it be to make laws without the power of executing them. And if the executive be invested with the power of deciding whether the decrees of the legislative (suppose the Domestic Canon Law) are to be executed, the legislative is dissolved and vanishes. For want of unity in the action of the several and separate parts of the sovereignty, they do not tend to one common end, but fall into mutual hostility. We need not go far for an illustration. The parts of the Sovereignty can be separated and distributed, if the different powerslegislative, judicial, executive, appellant-can act each according to its own nature with one will, so as to produce the same unity as if they were all vested in one and the same person or body. If the Crown had no part in the legislative powers it would be at the mercy of the Lords and Commons. Or if the Crown had the whole executive, and the Lords and Commons the legislative, the unity of the sovereign power would be severed and destroyed, and the whole machine of Government would come to a dead lock. If the taxes were at the disposal of the two Houses without the concurrence of the Crown, the Parliament could raise forces, pay officers, and abolish the executive and the Constitution along with the executive. If the Final Appeal and dernier resort were in the House of Lords as the Supreme Court of Judicature and dernier resort, and not in whole full Parliament-King, Lords and Commons--then where the dernier resort is, there is the sovereignty. These principles apply to every society of mankind, every body of trustees and feoffees, and every brotherhood and sisterhood that ever existed, and every corporation throughout the world. A company of brewers do not make rules and regulations for the administration of the affairs of the brewery and there an end, and, like the Archbishop in a similar case, leave the entire executive to a council of shavers to disAppeal, how to make the mash and keep the fox out of the brewery. claim the laws and regulations of the brewery as a Court of Final In this case, who would be the masters, the brewers or the shavers? If things are to go on right the brewers must have the control of the shavers. "We do not make law we only declare law, but we are the Supreme Court of Appeal and dernier resort, and therefore what we declare to be law is law." The fact of there being no appeal from a Court of the State to the Supreme Court of the Church, to restrain the exercise of civil jurisdiction in things Spiritual is made to imply they have no superior. So the judgment does not follow the "law of this Church and Realm," but preposterously the so-called "law of this Church and Realm" follows the judgment. The rule of judgment being no other than the will of the British Public, the discretion of the Bishops and lawyers leads, and law (lex not jus) follows. "Therefore it is not only de facto true in our government, but it is most necessary that the supreme decisive power or jurisdiction and dernier resort must be where the legislative power is." (Jurisdiction of Lords' House. Sir Matthew Hale. P. 207.) Whole full Convocation-Archbishop, Lords Spiritual and Commons Spiritual is the dernier resort in things Spiritual, just as whole full Parliament-King, Lords Temporal, and Commons Temporal, is in things Temporal. Otherwise a body outside the Church, and over which the Supreme Court of Convocation has no control, by their decisive power without appeal and as the dernier resort, may at their pleasure make declarations of Church law against the plainest notions of common-sense and moral justice. I conclude with the last words of Sir Matthew Hale's, "Jurisdiction of the Lords' House," edited by Hargrave, A.D. 1796: "The High Court of Parliament consisting of the King and both the Houses of Parliament are certainly the only Supreme Court of this kingdom, to whom the divolution of the last appeal or dernier resort doth belong. And the Lords are a constituent part of this Supreme Court; without which as no law can be made, so no final unappealable judgment can be given. Though it cannot finally and without appeal be given by them, so it cannot be given without them. If, therefore, the Lords should have jurisdiction, an appeal must necessarily be to the whole Parliament, King, Lords, and Commons. Vicarage, Little Calthorpe, Louth. EDMUND Hury. THE HORRORS OF VIVISECTION. SIR-I have been utterly shocked by reading the "Report of the Royal Commission on Vivisection" (the book of horrors), and finding to what torture animals are subjected. I had no idea there were such people in a civilized country as many who made confession of guilt to the Royal Commission. Is there any religion or morality in choking, half drowning, crucifying, and starving animals to death, in cutting them up alive, forcing out the eyes of frogs, taking out the brains of monkeys, and committing other atrocities? They who practice such things rank beneath what they call the lower animals. Notwithstanding all their boasted science, people die when their time comes. The presence of a surgeon or doctor, who is humane and feeling, is more acceptable than theirs would be to a dying man. From the evidence produced, I infer that vivisection is both worthless and fallacious, and is generally practised from morbid curiosity or for the sake of an unenviable notoriety- and many make a livelihood by it. The torture of animals is contrary to the law of God, and should be to that of man. HENRY BETHUNE, Major. Burton Overy, Leicester, May 16th, 1876. VIVISECTION.-DR. CRICHTON BROWNE. SIR,-I thank you heartily for the noble manner in which you have advocated in your paper the cause of poor dumb animals, and exposed the demoniacal enormities of those scientific Vivisectors who cut up cats, dogs, and monkeys alive: saw off half their skulls, poke their brains about, pinch their nerves with pincers, squirt cobra and other poisons into their opened veins; and this for hours together; sometimes for days, and then leave the poor mutilated creatures to die in agony and torments. I notice that one of these "scientific " people-a person of whom Dr. David Ferrier publicly wrote: "I have to thank Dr. Crichton Browne for kindly placing at my disposal the resources of the Pathological Laboratory of the West Riding Asylum, with a liberal supply of pigeons, fowls, guinea-pigs, rabbits, cats and dogs, for the purposes of my research," has recently been appointed by the Lord Chancellor, and gazetted as, a Visitor of Lunatics in Yorkshire,—pleasant for the friends of the insane, and still more pleasant for the helpless idiots themselves, Can we wonder at the increasing cruelty, and indifference to cruelty in the streets, when we find educated men perpetrating such awful and frightful atrocities as those detailed in the pages of the Report noticed by you? The Society in Jermyn-street often pounces down on halfdrunken and hardened costermongers; but the cruellest blows of the latter are merciful in comparison with the crucifixion of cats and dogs alive on the dissecting board. There is no profession more truly noble than that of medicine,-yet the physicians and doctors (with a few grand exceptions) remain silent and dumb. Only recently one of the Court physicians admitted in my hearing that Vivisection was unnecessary-but when asked to speak out against it thought it "unprofessional" to do so. Can those who believe in God and His Revelation, wonder at the spread of murrain amongst our cattle, or be puzzled at the impotence of officials "to stamp out the cattle-plague "-a most "scientific" way of arresting disease by killing your patient, (like cutting off a man's head to cure the ear-ache,)-when the Vivisectors are allowed to work their diabolical practices unchecked and unpunished? FREDERICK GEORGE LEE. DEMONIACAL TORTURE IN HOSPITALS. SIR,-The cutting open of living animals, and their continued torture in hospitals for days and weeks, by knives, hot irons, and caustic, is so frightfully horrible that were knowledge to be gained, or good to be got by it, the disgraceful butchery could never be justified; and those who persist in such hacking and carving should be made to suffer for their inhumanity. Were but one of the cruelties which are now daily perpetrated by surgeons in the Medical Schools and Hospitals to be done by a poor man who could neither read nor write, no punishment would be thought too great for him, and all England would ring with the horror of it, and wish that "whipping at the cart's tail" were still in force. But "education" steps in-calls the devilish torment by a Latin name, to gull the people, and talks of "science" and "discovery." Discovery! Each fact these wretches say they "wish to prove on animals, by cruelty, was known to me just forty years ago. They all were published, proved beyond all doubt, and had been proved for years, when I then commenced to study my profession; and, being facts, they have stood all tests since then and still are acted on. The falseness, therefore, of such a plea must be apparent. Were the subject less repulsive, and space allowed, I could go through their "experiments" one by one, and prove, by their own reports, their useless nature. But no torture at the stake, no atrocities by Indians, nothing that I have ever read or heard of in the annals of cruelty, can equal them. Fiendish in their finish, merciless in their manner, and unpitying in their detail, such "experiments" makes one's blood run cold, and cause a creep and shudder. It seems incredible that this loathsome business, which would disgrace the lowest type of savages, should be carried on in a Christian country, by persons of education, who are daily entrusted with the treatment of men, women and children, helpless through illness. Are they really quite dead to all home influence? Have they no children, no pets, nothing to love and live for-no belief in God's anger at such wanton cruelty? Must they bring it all to the level of the dissectingroom, and act themselves as demons? They speak of "chloroform that specious plea. Yes, they give it once to save themselves, lest they be bitten by their struggling victims, while fastening them to boards to cut them open. It lulls for half-an-hour, but, if continued, kills. What becomes then of the horrible agony-the constant agony-when, after being cut open, such animals are "used," day after day, to lecture on-allowed to linger till death comes to them? One "survived about a fortnight; and two lingered till the 27th and 29th day." (I quote their very words.) Not one of their experiments, as conducted by their own showing, could have been devoid of torture-not pain, but excruciating torture: agony beyond endurance. I wonder whether, when these merciless men are on their death-beds, they will see those writhing forms on which they looked so calmly. It is all most horrible! Brutal beyond conception, useless beyond belief-the construction of animals being so widely different from that of the human body; not one day longer should the base thing be; for the abominable devilry is so hardening the hearts of the students that when, in a short time, they become practitioners, it will be "God help their patients!" for there will then be no sympathy with suffering. If the advocates of vivisection are really in earnest, let them take it in turn, and operate on each other; but doves, dogs, and pigeons in the shameless way they do is to prostitute to torture some of the gentlest and most lovable of God's creatures- the name of science, and to degrade themselves. Our profession is a noble one, in which mercy and pity should go hand in hand, and a Christian feeling rule it; and it makes my cheeks tingle to find, at the present day, men in it who are a disgrace to it by the brutal deeds they do. I do trust some tangible good will be the result of present efforts; but for legislation to be effective against such diabolical cruelty it can only be by TOTAL ABOLITION. Brixton, 1876. T. WALDRON BRADLEY, Surgeon. ST. SAVIOUR'S HOSPITAL. SIR,-Amid the many good works carried on on all sides, it seems invidious to ask help for one more than another; but I trust you will allow me to plead, in your columns, the cause of an institution comparatively little known or thought about by Churchmen-I mean St. Saviour's Hospital and Refuge, Upper Holloway. The institution was founded in 1864 for the purpose of rescuing women from a life of sin, and providing a refuge for those fallen ones about to become mothers, and a home for their children, to endeavour to avert the sin of infanticide. Upwards of 1,600 cases have been relieved, and an earnest appeal for help to carry on this good work is now made. The management of the Hospital is carried on entirely by selfdevoted ladies; and all the officers who work in connection with the charity (except the Secretary) are entirely unpaid. Subscriptions and donations will be thankfully received by the Hon. Treasurer and the Sister-in-Charge, or may be paid into the London and South-Western Bank (Holloway Branch). T. J. BAILEY. St. Mary-le-Strand, May 18, 1876. [Our valued correspondent's appeal—though practically an advertisement is inserted because we know what a good work is being done at St. Saviour's, and are glad to recommend it to the attention and charity of our readers.—ED. PILOT.] "DO THEY WELL TO BE ANGRY?" SIR,-In your kindly review of my second Letter to Cardinal Manning, your reviewer criticises my silence as to the question whether subsequent reception by the whole Church is not a necessary condition to the infallibility of a Council. I was not unaware of the opinions on this head, but I must confess that there are difficulties in connexion with what for shortness sake I may call "the subsequent reception theory," which dispose me to discard it; however if I state them here, it will be with the object of eliciting information concerning them. First of all, on à priori grounds, does not the "subsequent reception theory" make the authority of the ruler to depend upon the consent of the ruled? does it or does it not make the taught the judge of the teacher? Yet I suppose it is indisputably true that authority travels downwards, especially in the system of the Catholic Church? and that infallibility, if any authority is infallible, must be due to the Divine assistance vouchsafed from Heaven, not to any human consensus contributed from earth. Is not the general tone of Scripture rather in favour of the view that the truth will not be generally received, but will meet with opposition; and this the more, the more faithfully it is preached ? But now to turn from abstract considerations to practical difficulties. Does not the theory of subsequent reception give rise to an infinite number of this latter class? In the first place how would your reviewers define "the whole Church?" I suppose every Council that has ever been held has resulted in manifesting the existence of some dissentients, few or many. May these dissentients, be they few or many, say "we are part of the Church, we do not receive what has been decreed, therefore it is not binding as not being received by the whole Church." Has not this been substantially the attitude of every set of heretics that has ever existed? But how were they wrong, if it be true that "subsequent reception" by the whole Church is necessary to validate the acts of a Council? What a door is here open, not for “subsequent reception," but for “subsequent agitation." Again, what time must elapse before the process of subsequent reception is complete? The questions raised by the definitions and decrees of the Council of Nicea were really not finally settled for two or three centuries after it had been assembled ? Was its authority an open question during all that time? Your reviewer cites the Council of Ariminum well, here we have, more than thirty years after the Council of Nicæa, a larger number of Bishops than were at Nicæa, subscribing & formula which was really contrary to the Nicene definition. Now on the theory of "subsequent reception," does not the Council of Ariminum destroy the authority of the Council of Nicæa? It does seem to me that this theory opens the way for picking and choosing between Councils; and lands us, theoretically, in ecclesiastical Republicanism, (which ought to be abhorrent to the PILOT) and practically, in complete uncertainty as to what is or is not binding on the Christian conscience. All these difficulties which I have enumerated-and of the answer to which, I confess I am ignorant-seem to me to add much force to the position which Roman theologians maintain; that the true test of the authority of a Council is its subsequent reception, or rather confirmation, by the Holy See. Certainly without this clue in our possession, the history of the Councils becomes very perplexing. Suppose the present Liberal minority in the House of Commons to hold a meeting in Hyde Park on the subject of the Queen's Title; and suppose the conclusion to which they arrived to be subsequently received by the people," yet the whole proceeding would lack the authority which belongs to a measure passed in a regular manner in Parliament, and to which the Royal Assent has been duly given. Do we act upon the "subsequent reception" theory in political or social matters? and if not, is it not even more alien to the principle upon which ecclesiastical authority rests? Of course all this points to the necessity of some central authority in Christendom; of there being some visible head for the Christian Church, as there is for every other organized body of men of whatever kind. Do not all our troubles come from our not having such a head whom we could "hold," round whom we could rally? Your reviewer says that my suggestion, that those who deny the Ecumenicity of the Vatican Council should try to assemble another, is not practical: probably; but what then? are the ambiguities of the Bonn Conference, or the negations of the recent declaration (some of the signatories to which are now sorry for having signed it), a sufficient counterpoise to the Vatican Decrees? If, two or three centuries hence, it be found that the Vatican Council has been "subsequently received" by Christendom at large (and there seems every prospect of this); yet it will then be too late for us of this generation then to give in our adhesion. I would therefore make an appeal, through your columns, to any who agree with the course of action which I have suggested-the principle of which is Centripetal not Centrifugal Unity-to take some action in the matter. I think if we could have a confidential conference of those clergy who are free from prejudices against Rome, at least to talk over the possibility of doing anything, it would be a great step gained. If any will communicate with me in confidence, to the care of my publisher, Mr. J. H. Batty, 376, Strand, I shall be glad to do what I can to arrange for such a conference. May 15, 1876. PRESBYTER ANGLICANUS. SIR,-Now that the excitement caused by the appearance of the first Letter of "Presbyter Anglicanus" has found its level, will you allow me to suggest, through your columns, that there may be many, both clergy and laity, who think that, in spite of all written and said to the contrary, there was very much in that Letter worthy of earnest consideration? Would it not be possible for those who in any way sympathize with the sentiments contained in it, to meet together in a Conference, and look our position fairly in the face? Should you allow this letter to appear, I would invite (in strict confidence) expressions of opinion on the subject, which may be addressed to me at St. Mary-le-Strand. T. J. BAILEY. St. Mary-le-Strand, May 18, 1876. PROTESTANTISM, RATIONALISM, AND MONASTICISM IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. SIR,-With your kind permission I shall be very glad to send to you some interesting and useful experiences of these three "isms" in our Church, gathered during the last fifteen years. I pray God that they may be blessed to some of the readers of your most valuable paper. My experiences are of no common order; my very and painfully unique position giving me opportunities which few English Churchmen possess. My article upon "Protestantism in the Church of England," shall, please God, be prepared for your next fortnight's issue. I need hardly say, that as a Christian, a Catholic, and a Conservative, I hail the advent of your journal with feelings of gratitude, interest and hope. I shall do all I can to promote its circulation. I hope you will find a corner for these few lines in your forthcoming paper. I wish God's blessing upon your much-needed labours in the cause of the Gospel, the Church, Morality, and poor dismembered 19th Century Society. IGNATIUS, O.S.B., Monk. Benedictine Priory, Feltham, St. Dunstan's Day, 1876. INVOCATION OF SAINTS. SIR,-Will you give your readers the benefit of the annexed quotation from Sir Thomas Browne's "Religio Medici ?" I refrain from comment. "They that, to refute the invocation of saints, have denied that they have any knowledge of our affairs below, have proceeded too far, and must pardon my opinion, till I can thoroughly answer that piece of Scripture, At the conversion of a sinner, the angels in heaven rejoice.' Ruthangan, County Kildare. ROBERT J. C. CONNOLLY, Priest. BISHOP OF LONDON'S FUND. The annual meeting of clergy and churchwardens in connection with this Fund was held in Sion College on Monday afternoon, the Bishop of London presiding. In opening the proceedings, the Bishop remarked that the Fund had been in full operation for twelve years. When it was established the public were asked to contribute, in round numbers, one million of money, in order to supply spiritual needs in the metropolis, and those for whom he spoke had received and expended more than half the amount for which they had so asked; or about £520,000. Though that was not the sum which they had solicited, he believed it was as much as most of those who were present on the day when a million was asked for really in their inmost hearts expected in the time. In spending what they had received they had already built 120 new churches; five more were nearly ready, the days being fixed for their consecration, and before the year was over there would be certainly two and probably three more completed. An increasing number of mission houses was being built; about 100 new schools had been erected; the number of clergymen in the diocese had been increased by upwards of 200, and the number of voluntary lay agents who assisted them, in addition to those whom they paid, had increased to a degree which far surpassed the expectations he had formed when he came to the diocese, and this he looked upon as one of the most hopeful signs for the future. In regard to that future, they must not rest satisfied with less than at least as much again during the next ten or twelve years as they had received since the fund was instituted. To stand still and not to advance or progress in a diocese where the population was increasing at the rate of from 30,000 to 35,000 a year was really to go back. A very much larger number of mission rooms was required-rooms which could be used for certain religious services, for purposes of instruction, and also for more secular employments; and there was likewise a great and crying necessity for additional parsonages. At present there was considerable difficulty in obtaining sites and money for such edifices. As to living agents, they ought at this moment to have at least 170 more clergymen working in the metropolis; and he supposed that the circumstance of their not having this extra number was due to two causeswant of sufficient funds and want of men. But this lack of funds and men should not exist. With respect to giving grants to additional clergy they could only at present make awards to those who might be called missionary clergymen-that was to say, clergymen who, acting under the incumbents of parishes, had specific districts assigned to them as their spheres of labour, for which they were responsible to the incumbents in the first instance and then to the bishops above. It would be impossible to provide grants for parochial curates unless their funds were largely increased: but they had about 20 missionary clergymen assisted on the understanding he had indicated. They were also desirous of increasing the number of their lay agents. Were their funds large enough they should have from 160 to 200 more such labourers. They were likewise anxious to increase the endowments of benefices. Bishop Claughton said there should be secured for the Church a substantial sustentation fund and residences for the clergy near their churches. The Rev. F. G. Blomfield thought that in addition to the new work which would arise from time to time, those in charge of the funds should aim at assisting existing incumbents in meeting the burdens with which they were unable to bear themselves. Some general remarks were made by other gentlemen, and the proceedings terminated. FUNERAL HYMN. Angels of the King all glorious, Weary was the soul of straying, Exiled from her destined home, In their arms the soul enfolding, On their wings the glory shining, Seraph choirs their faces veiling, Fall before the unclouded Vision, |