The Tablet informs its readers of the extraordinary cure of the Roman Bishop Grant, of Southwark :- For long months he had not been free from violent internal pains. On the 14th of November he began Mass at the altar of the B. Sacrament at six o'clock, in preparation for his journey to Rome. Before the Mass was over the pain which had so long tormented him had entirely left him, and he has been free from it ever since."

The Manchester Courier states that the late Bishop Lee held 68 Ordinations, at which 558 Deacons, and 499 Priests were ordained; that he consecrated 130 new Churches, erected at a cost of upwards of £542,000, 52 Churchyards, 24 public Cemeteries, 62 additional Churchyards. licensed 270 rooms for Divine Service, 2 Clerks in Orders, 365 Perpetual Curates, 1.478 Stipendiary Curates, Preachers, Chaplains, &c., and 5 Masters of Grammar Schools; instituted 2 Chancellors of the Diocese, 6 Canons, 65 Rectors, 28 Vicars, and collated 2 Archdeacons, and 26 Honorary Canons.

A dispute which has been pending for thirteen years between the Rector of Stoke Newington and his Churchwardens in reference to the disposal of the offertory in that Church, has at length been decided by the Bishop of London. He has ordered that the money shall be devoted to the Bishop of London's Fund, Home and Foreign Missions, and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, in such proportions as the Rector and Churchwardens may agree upon. He also states as his reason for not allowing any portion to be appropriated in aid of the Curates' Fund, that he does not believe the Benefice to be ill-endowed. The Rev. B. M. Cowie writes :-" Will you allow me a corner of your paper to invite the Clergy and Laity, who take an interest in the South African Church, to Service at St. Lawrence on Feb. 2, the Feast of the Purification, at 12 o'clock? Holy Communion and Sermon by Rev. F. Galton, of Exeter. There is urgent need of our united efforts in prayer and offerings, to help the Church in that Province. Its temporal and spiritual calamities have been great. "Remember them which suffer adversity" (Heb. xiii. 3). I will gladly be almoner of friends at a distance who may be willing to add to our Offertory, if they will send me their gifts to 27, Gresham-street, E.C.

On the 13th inst., the mortal remains of Mr. Henry Robarts, who has for many years acted as lay-assistant to the three parishes of St. Mary Magdalene, St. Thomas, and S. Stephen's, Launceston, were borne to their resting-place in the quiet grave-yard of St. Thomas, in which Church the deceased was choir-master. Nearly all the choir attended the funeral. The responses were said in monotone, and the Amens were hrmonized. The Incumbent, Rev. S. Childs Clarke, is about to present to each of the choir an acrostic composed by him in remembrance of their respected leader, and bearing above it a striking photographic

likeness of him.

The Church of Cotton, a township of the parish of Alton, Staffordshire, which had fallen into a state of dilapidation and decay, having been restored by the Rev. W. Fraser, D.C.L., Vicar of Alton, aided by the liberality of the two principal landowners in the parish, the Earl of Shrewsbury and Mr. Charles Bill, was reopened for Service on Sunday week, and the interior being thoroughly refitted, with a judicious use of colour, it presented a pleasing contrast to its former condition. The Rev. Dr. Fraser, the Rev. C. W. Cartwright, and the Rev. J. H. Killick took part in the opening Services, which were attended by a congregation almost inconveniently crowded.

The Carlisle Patriot says that a controversy regarding the value of religious examinations in the Church of England schools in Cumberland and Westmoreland has arisen in a very remarkable way. Mr. Fearon, formerly one of the inspectors of that district, lately stated that religious examination was a farce," and that "the inspector never dares venture upon those parts of religious teaching which may be supposed to influence the heart of the child." The assertion was challenged by several gentlemen, so he fell back, saying, what he did not; say at first, that his remark was confined to certain districts only, of which he had a personal knowledge." Thus, the stone was thrown at Cumberland and Westmoreland, and two gentlemen have written letters repudiating the statements.

There is in the Diocese of Oria, in the Kingdom of Naples, a woman who is looked upon as a Saint, and is said to have wonderful and supernatural knowledge. She speaks of Purgatory, of persons of whom she has never known in life, and of Bishops prominent in the present Council. Three Englishmen have visited her, and we have received letters from each of them, which our space obliges us to hold over till next week. We have no opinion to pronounce upon her, except that their accounts are very wonderful; that we believe in the existence of Saints, of miracles, and of extraordinary graces even at the present day-but we do not believe without proof of good evidence. There can be no doubt but that the power and mercy of God are being manifested in the most extraordinary manner in these our days.-Tablet.

We understand that the Royal Commissioners on Ritual, in the report on the Lectionary submitted for the approval of the Queen recommend that the Lessons from the Apocrypha which for Saint's Days number 26, shall be reduced to four, but that for ordinary days 40 shall be still retained out of the 106 Lessons. A second series of Lessons for evening

on Sundays is provided, so that they may be used either as alternative Lessons at the second Service, or at the third Service if thought desirable. According to these alterations of the Lectionary the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles are to be read once in the year at Evensong, and the Revelation of St. John the Divine in Advent. The Books of Chronicles are also to be admitted into the new Lectionary, and the divisions of Chapters which are now in force are not in all cases to be followed. A chapter from the Song of Solomon is to be read on one of the Festivals-that of the Purification we believe, but we write from memory.

In the life of the late Bishop of Salisbury we read :-"He laid it down as a binding obligation upon the conscience of the Clergy that the Morning and Evening Service should be daily said in private, if not in public. His own practice was most scrupulous. 1st, Morning Prayer in the Cathedral at 7.30: 2nd, Morning Service again at 8.45 in the Palace Chapel; 3rd, breakfast; 4th, continuous occupation in interviews or correspondence with the Clergy till Afternoon Service; 5th, Afternoon Service; 6th, a short ride or country walk before dinner; 7th, frequently retiring to his study to read or write till 10 p.m.; 8th, Evening Prayers in the Palace Chapel. After that he disappeared, not seldom to read and write again till a late hour in the night." To all this we must add a strict observance of all the fast days, which were commonly said to have told severely on his health, especially in Lent, and possibly to have shortened his days. His attention to the daily business of his Diocese was most exemplary."

In reference to the vacant Living of Wonston (worth 1,0007. a-year), the Hants Chronicle says,-It would appear that the next presentation will not be made by the new Bishop, as it has been claimed by the Crown. After reference to the law officers, who have decided that as the deed of restitution of temporalities was not completed by the Queen till the Wednesday succeeding the death of the late Rector, the Rev. A. R. C. Dallas (who died on the preceding Saturday), the next presentation falls to the Crown, on the principle thus laid down in Burn's Ecclesiastical Law:"-" And upon the filling of a void Bishopric, not the new Bishop, but the King by his prerogative hath the temporalities thereof, from the time that the same became void to the time that the new Bishop shall receive them from the King." The Living has been conferred by the Premier upon the Rev. Prebendary Owen. The John Bull says he is a sound Churchmen and a Conservative.

The Standard says:-"The kind of Service with which most of us were familiar twenty years back grew out of the dulness and deadness of the Georgian era, together with Churchwarden architecture, threedecker pulpits, shabby chancels, tall parlour pews, once a week Services, non-resident Incumbents, and Greek particle Bishops. Where this was the rule, the spirit of innovation was a healthy spirit, and the imputation of Romanising views with which it was too often encountered was ungeof Churches in which the Services are characterised by an amount of nerous and unjust. In the City of London to this day there are dozens slovenliness and irreverence which is positively scandalous, and yet, as the Incumbent of St. Lawrence, Old Jewry, has found, any attempt to bring about a better state of things brings down a tempest of antiRitualistic denunciation, confounding the effort to do things "decently and in order" with a deliberate intention to enthrone Popery in the temples of the Protestant Church.

News from Bishop Tozer, of the Central African Mission, up to October 29th has been received. Mails had sadly failed. no letters from England having been received of a later date than June 12th. The Bishop says, "Our party is very small for the work in hand, and yet it is important just now to push on with the view of preparing the mainland ground for our elder boys, who will soon have enough feathers to leave the nest. Experience shows me daily how large a part of somebody's time will in future be absorbed by the children's ailments. Since my return from the Shamba, I have some mornings been two hours dressing ulcers, putting on poultices, and the like, and quite half that time again in the evening. A medical Missionary would be an invaluable addition to our staff. A schoolmaster and a printer might also do good service. Pennell and Abdal'Aziz have begun a translation of St. Luke. Time only will show whether the Sheikh will have patience to continue his aid to the end." A schoolmaster sailed for Zanzibar on December 22nd, but the want of more Clergy for the Mission is very pressing and very serious.

Friday's Record contains a long account of the Annual Islington Clerical Meeting, which was held on the previous Monday. Two ex-Colonial Bishops graced the meeting with their Episcopal presence, and there was a fair sprinkling of Clergy and Laity of the now almost defunct Record-ite school of thought. The Vicar of Islington, the Rev. Daniel Wilson, was the Chairman, and the subject for discussion was "Is our Church in difficulties? Is its present position one which justly creates anxiety and alarm?" The Chairman said he thought the question must be answered in the affirmative. Amongst the speakers there was certainly a tone of despondency, so much so that it called forth a protest from the Revs. E. Hoare and H. Barne, the latter remarking that the Evangelical Clergy ought to inscribe "hope" on their banners. Mr. Barne also made a good suggestion which we trust the Evangelicals" will carry into practice. "He would suggest that during the

season of Lent they should. imitating the example of Daniel, meet together in their respective Diocese, and. falling on their faces before God, acknowledge their past faults, and ask Him to pour out His Spirit among them." The meeting occupied several hours, and the speeches provided matter for a supplement for the Record. Then the various speakers retired to their country Vicarages, having talked a good deal, but alas! having done nothing to stem the ever-increasing tide of sin and misery. The Revs. S. C. Malan, R. G. Swayne, and R. F. Wilson, were installed on Wednesday as Prebends of Salisbury. One of the Minor Canons, the Rev. H. W. Pullen, protested against the proceedings, and has since printed his objections under the title of " Medieval Mummery in 1870; a Few Words about Cathedral Installations." He says:With the deepest reverence towards the Lord Bishop of this Diocese, by whom the present appointments have been made; and with sin cere personal respect towards the newly installed Prebendaries themselves, I feel it my duty to protest against their appointment, and against the special ceremony by which it has been accompanied; against the ceremony because I regard it as profane; and against the appointment, because it is the assertion of a principle which I believe to be mischievous and false; because each successive conferring of a dignity in this Cathedral seems to me to be a fresh insult to the body of Minor Canons, and-what is of far greater consequence to the solemn acts of worship entrusted to their care. And I believe that this insult will only suffer aggravation every day until the Minor Canons, as Priests and Graduates, are recognised as at least on an equal footing with the rest of the Cathedral Clergy; sitting with them, as brethren, in the stalls; taking precedence among them on the only principle which the English Church admits-that of seniority in years or length of service; and having, as musicians, a voice in the regulations of those musical serv ces, which are now, I am bound in conscience to declare, for the simple reason that they are in the hands of unmusical men, nothing short of a dishonour to Almighty God, and a disgrace to this Church and country."

The scandalous behaviour of the choir of St. Paul's Cathedral, Lay and Clerical, does not appear to have much improved under the supervision of the new Dean, if we may judge from the following sent to the City Press by a correspondent: At the morning Service, the organ did not play, for some cause or other best known to the organist, and the choir consisted of two only out of the nine gentlemen; with the ten boys you may form an idea of the efficiency of the music. This afternoon five gentlemen were present. When Minor-Canon Lupton ascended the lectern to read the lessons the candles were not lighted; when he had read about five verses a verger brought a light, he had to stop while they were lighted; the organist struck up the Magnificat, the choir were not ready, and he keeping on they took up the words at the third or fourth verse. So ended the First Lesson. Now some of your correspondents complain of the men of the choir standing irreverently, and also of their sitting through the prayers. A shot might as well be fired at higher game, for I have repeatedly seen several of the Minor-Canons, and also one Canon (the Ven. Archdeacon), do the same; therefore they show a bad example; and as for leaning on the cushions and talking together during the Service, that is notorious. When will the Dean and Chapter wake up to their duty and set matters right? Two Minor-Canons have not been at their post for several years; one Vicar Choral, also, year after year, pays a deputy a small pittance, and pockets something like 2004. per annum for doing nothing. If the Dean and Chapter cannot remedy such abuses, it is time a remedy was applied for the system altogether."

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A local paper speaking of the work done at Honiton by the late Vicar, Dr. Mackarness, says: "Through his exertions new national schools, of excellent character, have been built; the ancient grammar school has been revived; a new Chapel has been provided at the Union Workhouse; St. Margaret's Hospital Chapel has been renovated; and many improvements have been made in the fabric and the Service of the Parish Church. There is now an excellent choir, and Holy Communion is celebrated weekly, the number of communicants approaching 500. The amount of success achieved in connection with Allhallows Grammar School is very remarkable. When Bishop Mackarness came to Honiton it had fallen utterly into decay. He became Headmaster (that post being a thorough sinecure, inasmuch as the only endowment consisted of the school building and 101. a year, and there were no scholars) with the determination, if possible, to restore its prestige; and with that object called to his aid an old friend, the Rev. T. Izod, then VicePrincipal of the Oxford Training College. The first day the school was reopened no boy presented himself. Now, thanks to the untiring energy and abilities of Mr. lzod, and the active interest and supervision of Dr. Markarness, it is in a most flourishing condition-having ninety pupils and has been warmly praised by Mr. Stanton. By the removal of the Bishop, Mr. Izod, who has long been practically the Headmaster, becomes so in reality. The Clergy connected with the school have, so far as their other duties would permit, heartily co-operated with the Rector and his Curate in parochial work.

The Vicar of Christchurch, Southport, and a few other narrow-minded Low Churchmen have taken offence at the English Archbishops having sent representatives to the consecration of the Greek Church, Liverpool.

The Vicar of Christchurch having taken the Archbishop of York to task for the part be took in the ceremony, has received from his Grace the subjoined reply:- Reverend Sir,-In answer to your inquiry whether a printed report which you send me of the consecration of a Greek Church at Liverpool is co rect, it is in substance correct. At the consecration of an English Church at Constantinople, the Patriarch of Constantinople sent a representative to the consecration, in token, not of agreement with the formularies and doctrines that would be set forth in that Church, but of loving-kindness and charity felt by him towards all those who call upon the name of Christ. I thought it right to commission two Clergybrother Archbishop had shown to our Church. I hoped that no one would men to render to the Archbishop of Syra the same courtesy which his understand such an act as meaning more than the act of courtesy which called it forth. And though I find that I was mistaken in that respect, I am still unable to express any regret that I have done this simple act of kindness. I have many personal and family reasons for showing kindness to any member of the Greek Church who may come within my reach. But these have nothing to do with your present question; and I quite admit that the case must be judged as the public act of a Minister of our Church. As such, I leave it to be judged."

We are able to state on good authority that the London Free and Open Church Association will next Session obtain the introduction into the House of Commons of a Bill "to declare and enact the law as to the rights of parishioners in respect of their Parish Churches." The draft of the Bill has been settled by Dr. Mertins Swabey, and its provisions are briefly these :-That, as the entire area of every Parish Church is for the equal use of all the parishioners, Ordinaries and Churchwardens shall provide equal accommodation for all parishioners "without regard to their respective degrees and qualities;" that it shall be illegal to allot, assign, or appropriate seats for "continuous use," but that the power under the Church Building Acts to let seats shall not be affected by this Act; that all existing faculties and existing or future claims by prescription, appropriation, allotment, assignment, or otherwise shall be held null passing of this Act it shall be unlawful for any Archbishop, Bishop, or and void except for the natural lives of owners; that from and after the Corporation whatsoever to issue any faculty granting the exclusive use of a seat to any person whomsoever; that the Ecclesiastical Commissioners may accept site for free and unappropriated Churches; that this Act shall not affect any rights of officiating Ministers and others to Chancels for the conduct of Divine worship, or to private Aisles, Chapels, or Chantries; that the Act shall be intituled the Parish Churches Act 1870.. A conference of Members of both Houses of Parliament, who are also members and Vice-Presidents of the London Free and Open Church Association, will be held shortly to decide on the best means of securing the passing of the Bill. Over 200 Members of Parliament are supporters the Association's ultimate success. of the Free and Open Church movement, and there can be little doubt of

A correspondent of the Church Review gives the following account of the choral use at the fine old Gothic Cathedral at Dieppe :-At Vespers, the officiant, vested in cope, sat on the south side of the sanctuary, attended by two acolytes. To use the Sarum expression, the Office was cum regimine chori, and probably "Quadruple Invitatory," for the eagle or lectern being placed in the centre of the choir, facing East, there sat behind it "four conductors" ("rectores chori") in copes; besides a chorister, in black cassock and hood and surplice, who accompanied much of the Office on a brass instrument; and several acolytes in red cassocks and hoods and surplices. It seems a great mistake that, during the whole time, choirmen and boys are coming in and going out, apparently for the most frivolous reasons, or for none at all. The office was begun by the officiant singing the Deus in adjutorium. At every antiphon, the two outside conductors go in front-i.e., to the east side of the eagle; and alternately the one and the other goes to the stalls of his own side of the choir, and gives the antiphon to the precentor and succentor sitting on opposite sides of the choir, who intone it; and it is taken up and sung through by the choir, while the conductor joins the other conductor in front of the eagle, and both genuflecting stand there till the Psalm is begun, when they return to their places on the west side of the eagle. At Gloria Patri the choir boys, in red cassocks and hoods and surplices, stand up and turn to the East, sitting down at sicut erat; but the Clergy only bow and remove their birettas, remaining seated. The congregations were very large, and one was pleased to find all, men, women, and children, sing aloud and most heartily-many seeming to have the Psalms by heart. I never saw an English congregation in which the singing was so universal. For the hymns and Magnificat, a number of Clergy and choristers were grouped behind the eagle, as was the use of St. Ninian's Cathedral, Perth, till suppressed by Bishop Wordsworth."

On the Consecration of Bishop Temple we quote the following from a leading article in the John Bull:-"It was as the representative of the Free-handlers' that he was made a Bishop, and Bishop of the Freehandlers he plainly means to continue. The licence, the encouragement, extended to unbelief by his position, not his own personal unbelief (of which he knew nothing), was the objection to his elevation to the Episcopate; this objection is not touched by the somewhat threadbare appeals to earnestness and conscientiousness which seem to captivate the Devonshire county gentlemen. But we have done with the Bishop of Exeter; we hope never to mention his name (except for commendation)

again. What we can never acquiesce in, never cease to reprobate till the scandal is wiped off, is the abnegation of all Catholic principle contained in this deplorable Allocution. The Church of England has rested her Episcopate since the Reformation on primitive Christianity. Her principle has been, in Hooker's words, that the King places but does not make Bishops. While rendering to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's, she has repudiated with all her might the calumny of Papists and Puritans, that she fails to reserve for God the things that are God's. This calumny the Archbishop of Canterbury, by the mouth of the Bishop of London, has now publicly accepted as the law to which his obedience and our own is due. Trampling alike on Canons, protests, and arguments, these Prelates have imposed on a particular statute a private interpretation abhorrent to the fundamental notion of an Apostolical Succession. The very Statute which was enacted to release the Church from an uncanonical usurpation by a foreign Patriarch, they have adjudged, on no authority but their own, to create an absolutely unchristian supremacy in the House of Commons. An Act which requires the Chapter to elect, the Metropolitan to confirm, and the Bishops to consecrate "with all due circumstances "every one of these processes being a well-known step in the canonical appointment of a Bishop-these two Prelates, on the advice of some unknown lawyers, in the teeth of nine protesting or refusing Comprovincials, have interpreted to repeal all Ecclesiastical power whatever, and create in its place a succession of shams odious to every lover of truth. They have asserted for the Prime Minister an authority which Henry VIII. and Queen Elizabeth thought it unchristian to claim for the anointed Monarch. The Statute is bad enough, the new interpretation is intolerable. We have always maintained the bark of the law to be worse than its bite. A Dean with a little more backbone in his Puritanism, and a Chapter less Gladstonised than was discovered at Exeter, would have braved the snap with perfect impunity. But the Allocution in the Jerusalem Chamber goes to the bone, and is full of poison. If its deadly fangs cannot be extracted when Convocation meets in the same place next month-actum est:

"In that Jerusalem shall Harry die."

On Friday an address, signed by nearly 400 of the Clergy of the Diocese, was presented to the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol, thanking him for the stand he made against the consecration of Dr. Temple. The Bishop replied as follows:-" My dear Brethren,-I return to you my heartfelt thanks for the important address that you now present to me. I thank you, first, for the generous expression of your approval of the course which lately I felt it my solemn duty to take; I thank, you, secondly, and especially, for the sympathy that your friendly words convey to me on this recent and most responsible act of my whole ministerial life. I thus thank you-but no words of mine can adequately express the sense of helpful support which this record of your concurrence with me in my suspended assent to the late consecration to the See of Exeter, now ministers to me; no present expressions can do justice to the deepened consciousness I feel of the reality of the sympathy that thus unites us in love to our common Lord, and in vital belief in the inspiration of His blessed Word. I welcome the long list of familiar signatures; in each I see not only the hand of a friend, but a manifestation of that zeal for Evangelical truth, and that reverence for the voice of our Church, as expressed by the judgment of one of her Synods, that form the best and truest bonds that can unite the Bishop and the Clergy of a Diocese. I see this and deeply feel it, and now permit myself humbly to rejoice that, reluctant as I was to do anything inconsiderate or unbrotherly, I did not shrink from clearing myself, by written words, from all complicity with the most serious and responsible act, on the part of those concerned, that has been performed in the Church during the present century. I cannot close these words without one further expression of my thankfulness that you deem my dissent to have been not only seasonable but, temperate. It was my especial care that it should be so, both in its terms and even in the manner in which it was recorded. I simply expressed the desire that the document should be shown to the Bishops appointed to consecrate. I neither published it myself nor sought publicity; yet I cannot but be thankful that, owing to the publicity which was given to it, I have received from you all, my dear friends and fellow labourers, this most welcome and most sustaining assurance of your confidence and sympathy. I will now say no more, nor will you, perhaps, desire me to say more than this-that I humbly ask you to join with me in the prayer that it may please God the Holy Ghost so to order the issues of this our trouble and trial, that we may be permitted to see them overruled to the glory of our God and Father, and the furtherance of the kingdom of Jesus Christ.

Last week's Choir contained a good article upon the "Protesting' Parishioners of Camberwell. We give an extract:-" In order to give a fair idea of the facts of the case which, from the strong expression of opinion it evoked from the Bishop, has more than a local interest, it will be well first to call attention to the state of the Church in the neighbourhood. Here as in the majority of the South London parishes, vestrydom has until recently been the chief power. The mere mention of chanting the psalins has been sufficient to raise a storm in a tea cup on which local orators who are in the hab.t of talking themselves hoarse until the small hours of the morning have dilated with enthusiasm, while the introduction of a surpliced choir in the place of the mixed body of ladies and gentlemen who occupy the organ loft, has been regarded with

that intense horror which can only be accepted as the proof of an extremely ill regulated mind, and of a chronic state of colour blindness. Anything in the way of Ritual has in the Sunny South been a thing unheard of except in a few notable instances. The vestments have it is true been numerous, but the chief variations permitted have been in the shape of the Testimonial black gowns presented at correct intervals to favourite pastors, by the ladies of their flocks. In the arrangement of the buildings equally strange customs prevail, and we have heard of four Churches within a short distance of each other in which the chancel, or the apology for it, is placed respectively at the four points of the compass. The architecture is as a rule decidedly nondescript,' or to adopt a happy phrase from a recent publication, Ebenezeresque.' Proprietary Chapels, over the buying and selling of which there is occasionally no slight tumult, are to be seen dotted about in this favoured neighbourhood, while there is scarcely a Church which is not well fitted with the Bishop of Winchester's abomination- galleries.' In the supply of that erratic class of ecclesiastical functionariesVergers-there is the utmost liberality; while the fashion and flowing nature of their robes sometimes puts to shame the less ample folds of the preacher. In parish clerks, again, the district is rich; and we venture to predict that if these estimable functionaries could be gathered together in one room and ordered to repeat the Athanasian Creed, each remembering that he is (or is considered to be) the mouthpiece of the congregation, the result would be a general demand for monotonic recitation. The musical arrangements are scarcely less quaint. Kyries are sung to the most extraordinary specimens of so-called Church music, with variegated accompaniments: while in one Church in Lambeth this favourite opportunity for musical display is only taken advantage of after the Tenth Commandment, the petition after the others being relegated to the ordinary mumble. In attitudes, the aspect of some of the congregations would present a study worthy of a Hogarth; while if there is another point in which the South is unequalled, it is in the dismal character of its solitary Church bells."

THE CLERGY FRANCHISE DEFENCE ASSOCIATION.-Lord George Hamilton presided at a meeting of this Association held at Sion College on Wednesday. It was resolved that a letter should be sent to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, calling their attention to the decision of the Court of Common Pleas on the recent appeal from the ruling of the Revising Barrister for Middlesex, which disfranchised a large body of the Beneficed Clergymen, and intimating that the meeting, considering the law to be one of great hardship, deemed it their duty to place the facts before the Commissioners for their consideration.

CHURCH PEWS.-On this subject the Rev. J. L. Fish, Rector of St Margaret Pattens, sends the following interesting communication to the City Press:-"Sir,—I am able, by a reference to the Churchwarden's accounts of the parish of St. Margaret Pattens, to confirm the view taken by Aleph' in his interesting article on Church Pews,' that enclosed and appropriate sittings existed in our Churches long before the Reformation. Our accounts begin about A.D. 1507. They are of great interest, and, combined with the inventories, the earliest of which is dated 1470, make up an ecclesiastical history of the parish. In the year 1511 is the following entry :- Item, paid to Simon Goldsmith for dressing of the irons of the shriving pew, ld' This was, of course, the Confessional; and the next entry does not indicate appropriation: Item paid for making of the pew at St. Katharine's altar side, 4d. ;" but next year we find a veritable parishioner's pew :- Item, more received of him for the making and garnishing of his pew, 15s.' ln 1514-Item, paid to a carpenter for the mending of the pew that Sampson sitteth in, 6d. There is no doubt about the appropriation of the next pew mentioned, in 1516:- Item, paid for a key for Master Waddell's pew door, 2d. 1518:- Item, paid for making of two pew doors for John Geoffry and Robert Sale, and for a piece of wainscot to one of the same doors, 3s.' 1520-Item, paid for mending of Master Monmouth's pew, 1525:-Item, paid for the mending of Master Sampson's pew door, 4d.,' &c. But I cannot believe that these pews were in form and size anything like the omnibuses and cattle pens now in the Church, which vary in height from 6 ft. to 4 ft. 6 in., and are the delight of ill-behaved children, and even ill-behaved adults. Most probably they faced one way, and were of moderate height. There are plenty of such examples in the Churches on the coast of Normandy, notably at Dieppe and Rouen. Aleph' says that pews are an eyesore. So they are, and a

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heartsore too.'

1d.'

THE ROMAN COUNCIL AND THE A.P.U.C.-The Rev. C. H. E. Carmichael, General Secretary of the A.P.U.C. sends to the Daily News the annexed letter:-"Sir,-My attention has been drawn to a paragraph in your Roman Correspondent's letter, printed in your impression of the 12th inst., which contains an erroneous statement regarding the Association for Promoting the Unity of Christendom. I am the more anxious to rectify this error because the correspondent of the Daily News has, in general, been honourably distinguished by refraining from too easy acceptance of the thousand flying rumours too often embodied in letters from Rome at the present time. Your correspondent has, however, certainly been misled on one point of importance. He says, "It is understood that a well-known English Clergyman has been engaged by the Society for the Union of Christendom to discharge the task of spokesman for a party-assuredly not for the higher authorities-in the Anglican

Church before the Roman Committee on Anglican Orders." To this I beg to reply, that whatever number of "well-known English Clergymen may be in Rome at this moment, there is no one authorised to represent the Association for Promoting the Unity of Christendom, or deputed by that Association to plead the cause of Anglican Orders before a board composed, in great measure, of members of that portion of the Latin Episcopate which would be the least likely to give an impartial verdict on the merits of the case. Had names like Ketteler, Hefele, Dupanloup. in conjunction with some Italian Prelates not committed to any view of the question, appeared on the list, Anglicans might have entertained more hope that the Council of the Vatican would render itself famous by allowing them that fair hearing of their side of the case which they have never ceased to demand during three centuries of separation and mutual misunderstanding. In the interest of that peace and unity for which we pray daily, the question which your correspondent supposed the Association for Promoting the Unity of Christendom to have raised before a Committee of the Council must be discussed sooner or later, and it were much to be desired that men's minds could be prepared for its calm and sober discussion. I shall be much obliged by your early insertion of this letter, to prevent any further misconceptions such as your correspondent's statement may have given rise to, with regard to the position taken up by the Association for Promoting the Unity of Christendom."

A NONCONFORMIST ON BISHOP TEMPLE'S DOCTRINE.-The following letter is from the English Independent ;—“ I read with great care the report in the Times-apparently a very full and accurate one-of Dr. Temple's Sermon on the occasion of his enthronement in Exeter Cathedral; and I see not how any one could form a different judgment of the discourse from that which you have expressed, very calmly and with much discrimination, in this week's Independent. You have caught, as it seems to me, the very essence of the Bishop's doctrine as to the means and process of salvation, when you represent him as teaching that the true cure for sin" is to be found in the contemplation of the life of our Lord Jesus Christ." Let your readers previously ask themselves what such contemplation" will do as "a cure for sin," if it be dissociated from the great transaction of pardon, of which the Bishop says nothing, and from the equally great transaction of regeneration, of which he says as little." But there is another sentence in your remarks on this important deliverance on which I would seek to fix the attention of your readers. It runs thus-" that he (Dr. Temple) does not believe in the Atonement or in Justification by Faith, the omission in his Sermon of the least reference to these cardinal doctrines emphatically proves." The sentence deserves to be read and re-read with the most thoughtful care. You, Sir, are only too well aware how the Broad Churchism which admits of this loose theology is masked over; how it is extenuated and clothed with plausible names; and in what manner it is approaching and advancing upon ourselves under cover of antiCalvanism, freedom from the bondage of Creeds, &c., &c. Meanwhile the ordinary cry from the watchtowers of Zion is "Peace! Peace!" We are assured that old truths are only putting on new shapes-that public teachers are but adopting a less technical phraseology-while nothing that deserves to be considered as fundamental is in danger at all. Here, Sir, is a very popular Bishop-"a Broad Churchman" if there ever was one-enthroned in the face of protest after protest, who, the first time he opens his lips after he is securely entrenched in his position emphatically proves (as you have stated it) that he does not believe in the Atonement, or in Justification by Faith. Surely, Sir, this is a very serious matter for the interests of truth in general; and especially for the spiritual welfare of that large Diocese over which Dr. Temple is henceforth to spread his influence. True Protestants, and Evangelical believers of every section of the Church may well view it with the deepest pain. According to the first, without Justification by Faith, Protestantism is gone; and according to the second, without the Atonement, Salvation is gone.

"My dear Lord-As it is reported that the canonical validity of the consecration of Bishop Temple will be denied, I shall be glad if you will allow me to anticipate the objections in a few words addressed to you. "I know that you will join with me in sincere respect and affection for those of our Episcopal brethren who thought fit to protest to you at the last moment; I cannot, however, help feeling much regret that that protest came at a time when it could only give pain to the four Bishops, who were commissioned to consecrate, but could have no canonical validity whatever. The 4th Canon of Nicæa, to which appeal has been made, was drawn up in consequence of the excesses that resulted from the Milesian schism, the origin of which was the irregularity committed by a single Bishop, in consecrating other Bishops by his own will, without any valid election, and without consent of the Primate. For the avoiding of this danger, the Council of Nicæa decreed that in future Bishops should be elected (not only by the Clergy and people of the Diocese, as heretofore, but also) by the Bishops of the province, and should be confirmed by the Metropolitan; after which election and con

firmation consecration should take place. It is shown by Bingham* and others that this was not to supersede the ancient custom of election by Clergy and people, but to enforce the additional security of the consent or suffrages of the Comprovincial Bishops, and especially the confirmation or ratification of all by the Metropolitan. That to which all this refers, however, is election, not consecration. Both Balsamon and Zonaras show this conclusively, and it is apparent from the word usedviz., καθίστασθαι. The Bishop was to be appointed, constituted or elected by the Bishops of the province, at least three being present, then he was to be consecrated; and it is shown by Zonaras that this Canon of Nicea does not conflict with the first Canon of the Apostles, which allows two Bishops to consecrate, because the Canon of Nicæa refers to election, that of the Apostles to consecration, the ratification or confirma tion of all-ro kupog Tv yiyvoμevwv-being by the Metropolitan. "The first Canon of the fourth Council of Carthage indicates very plainly what the real principle of these elections was; for it decrees that consecration shall be with the consent of Clergy and Laity, with the convention of the Bishops of the whole province, and especially with the authority or presence of the Metropolitan.'

The Canons which follow and almost repeat the Canon of Nicea all equally concern election, not consecration, as the 19th Canon of Antioch, A.D. 341; the 12th of Laodicea, circ. A.D. 365; the 13th of Carthage. A.D. 398. So they are interpreted by all the ancient canonists. firmation. The word xepororia is ambiguous, as any one may see who The word ratioraclar (Latin, constitui) is used of election, kupog of conwill consult Suicer on the word, or the notes of Zonaras on the first Canon of the Apostles and the fourth of Nicæa.*

"The changes which took place in the mode of election are well known. Popular tumults early induced the Emperor to intervene, and choose a Bishop and impose him on the Church, and to this the Church quietly yielded. At one time the people were displaced by the chiefs or nobles (primates). From about the time of Innocent III., in the thirteenth century, the Clergy of the Diocese were superseded by the Chapter of the Cathedral. In many countries (after the breaking up of the Empire) the right of election and nomination was given to the Sovereign. Especially this was the case in Spain and Portugal, the Sovereign having been esteemed the founder of the See in countries won back from the Moors. That right was vested by Concordats with the Pope in the Kings of France. In our own country, even the Saxon Kings appear to have appointed, of their own will, to Bishoprics. I believe that in some European Churches the very form and shadow of election has disappeared. In England, the Capitular election has retained the resemblance of the ancient suffrage of the Clergy; the nomination by the Crown represents the voice of the people; the confirmation by the Archbishop (which for a long period was usurped by the Pope) is still as it was in the earliest days, and gives the sanction of the Province. It is true the election is now really in the Crown; but it is difficult to say when it was otherwise, except that for a time, the Pope succeeded in in himself alone. absorbing and vesting all powers of electing, confirming, and instituting

"What I wish to insist on, then, is this: that the 4th Canon of Nicea really gives to the Bishops of the Province a voice in the election. If therefore, any of the Bishops of the Province of Canterbury felt bound to protest, in the case of the Bishop of Exeter, they ought to have protested at the election, or, at all events, before the confirmation. The protest afterwards was not canonical, and was altogether out of place. "In all parts of Europe, now, the Bishops have ceased to have ordinarily a voice in the election of their brother Bishops. That election is everywhere either in the Chapter, or the Crown, or the Pope. It is very doubtful if the Comprovincial Bishops ever joined with the Metropolitan in confirmation; for probably confirmation was the last act previous to consecration, and was performed by the Metropolitan (or the Pope) alone. But it is quite certain that their intervention and protest, after both election and confirmation, cannot be defended on any sound principles. Consecration follows immediately on nomination, election, and confirmation; and the consecrating Bishops merely act ministerially for the whole Church, which has thus three times uttered its voice.

"Probably never (since Saxon times, at all events) has an election been more strictly in accordance with Canon than that of Bishop Temple. The laity spoke by the Crown and by a Minister chosen by the people; the laity of the Diocese have been (as I learn) singularly unanimous in approving the choice, thus giving a moral weight to the legal nomination; the Chapter elected, not formally, but after much debate, and by an actual division; the Archbishop confirmed, having previously taken

E. A., Bk. iv. chap. ii sec. 11. Thomassinus (Pt. ii. lib. ii. c. i.) appears to argue, that from the first the Bishops elected, and the people only approved; but Van Espen, De Marca, Barboso, Ferraris, Beveridge, Bingham, and most canonists, Roman and Anglican, hold that originally the election was in the Clergy and people. • In classical language in the New Testament, and in the earlier Christian writings, it always means election. See Schleusner, s. v.; Wetstein in Act xiv. 23 ; Bingham, E. A., Bk. iv. chap. vi. sec. 11.

In the 6th Canon of the Council of Toledo, A.D. 681, the right of the Crown to appoint suo nutu is recognised.

See Bede, H. E. iii. 28, where Alfred appoints Wilfrid, and sends him to France for consecration. So Edward the Confessor removed the See of Crediton to Exeter, and appointed Leofric the first Bishop. (Councils by Haddan and Stubbs p. 694). The mode of appointing was by delivery of a past ral staff and a ring. See Ayliffe (Parergon), 126), who quotes Ingulphus, Abbot of Crowland, as saying that for many years there had been no canonical election, but that Bishoprics were

donative of the Crown.

part in the anxious discussions. After this there was no ground for the dissent of the Comprovincial Bishops.

The consecrating Bishops were simply chosen by the Primate to act for him and for his whole province, and our functions were ministerial only. Protests sent to us, to which we had no power, by any law of Church or State, primitive, medieval, or modern, to give heed, placed us in a painful and invidious position; but they did not really relieve the responsibility of those who made the protests, for they were made illegally, uncanonically, and when they could not take effect.

"I am not attached to the present system of patronage, whether of Livings or of Bishoprics; for both it could probably be much improved; but I think it would be very hard to point out any period in English history when it was really better. In the middle ages Bishoprics were fought for by the Pope and Crown, and the elections of Chapters were invarial set aside by Pope or King (according as either was in the ascendant) unless they corresponded with the wishes of the sup eme power. The people had no voice in them, nor had the Bishops of the province, nor even, for the most part, had the Metropolitan. We have now at least the shadow of better things; and there is a freedom of specch, which may easily be abused, but which may also be used lawfully and for good ends.

"I have expressed myself plainly enough, perhaps too plainly, to the Bishop of Exeter, and I could much have wished that he had spoken out his own sentiments, as was the laudable custom in ancient times with Bishops, when first entering on their Sees. I have never thought that he was an unbeliever in the chief verities of the Christian faith. If I had so believed I should have been bound to say so (supposing that I had any voice in the matter) before every canonical step had been taken, and every legal voice of Clergy and people had pronounced for his consecration. If even, at last, it had been proved to me that he was a heretic, I might have withheld my hand from his head, but I should not then have thought it right to protest. The high and conscientious motives of those who have protested cannot admit of doubt. I only impugn the canonicity and validity of their protest. May I venture to add an expression of my earnest hope, that now at least all will be willing to try fairly one who is unquestionably, and with full canonical right, Bishop of a most important Diocese, and who has secured the warmest affection and esteem of everyone who has hitherto been associated with him or placed under him.

"I am, my dear Lord, your affectionate brother,

"E. H. ELY."

THE BISHOP OF GLOUCESTER AND BRISTOL ON

INTEMPERANCE, &c.

There was a large gathering of working men on Thursday evening at Colston Hall to hear an address by the Bishop explanatory of the objects of the Bristol Church Aid Fund. The Mayor presided, and the Bishop took the opportunity of saying a few kind words to working men on the dreadful crime of intemperate habits:

"In his humble judgment, what they had wanted had been rather a more comprehensive arrangement, in which there might be a good organisation, which should include in it total abstinence, and which should also favour and help what he would call temperance; what they earnestly wanted was some general movement that should have a single aim and object-how best to put under this dreadful, growing, terrible evil. He was speaking for himself, and he was certain for the good men who stood behind him that should it please God to put it in the hearts of any of them to bring forward the subject in a comprehensive way before this city, he would humbly ask to take a part in so great a movement. He might now point out how this dreadful evil of intemperance worked. They must remember it was not only that it worked evil in the poor creature himself, but it influenced and affected his whole family. He did not mean as withholding from them the necessaries of life. It did that he knew bitterly. Go to some of the courts in Bristol, and see, perhaps, the bare, gaunt woman in rank starving attitude, wistful, and with marks of sorrow in her face; and if they asked they would find that the man went to the public-house round the corner, took away the money, and left the wife and the children to destitution and despair. But it was more than that came from the dreadful evil; it was that the man rendered the woman and the children also destitute of the means of grace-poor creatures with sorrow in their hearts, pinched with want. If they were to say to such, My poor woman, I wish you would go to Church,' what would her answer be? An answer of the sorest agony-Sir; I go to Church! Look at my rags! The Church is for other than 1.' But look at your children. "My children! Look at that boy. He has begged the wretched bread he has got in his hands now. Do you think I can go to Church? I have not a heart to go anywhere. There is but one rest for me, and that is the churchyard yonder.' It was intemperance that was breaking that woman's heart, and making her reckless and despairing.

Having analysed some of the reasons why the people did not go to Church, the question arose

"Was it altogether their fault?" He answered, "No." To an extent it was the fault of the Church of England. Having spoken frankly and firmly on the one side, he must speak frankly and firmly on the other. First of all, he believed the working classes had been alienated by the coldness they had seen, not, he thanked God, in the Church of England

of the present, but in the Church of England of the past; but that influence lingered in memory, though it might not actually linger in reality. It was the memory of the past that had alienated thousands. They had seen, it might be, Services hurried through; they had seen, perhaps, a cold and dead spirit; they had, perhaps, had their warmer feelings chilled; they had turned away from the Church of England as a cold, cold mother, and they had sought comfort elsewhere, or, alas, sometimes perhaps nowhere. This coldness of the past had cas forward long shadows. It had made men call many things into question. Some of them, far-headed, thinking men, he had no doubt, had often thought over this, "Is the Church of England a place where a man may receive certain money without doing the duties that that money implies?" Many a man perhaps has asked the question. "Is that Living what they call a freehold, or is it freehold on trust?" No doubt they were all now alive to the serious truth that they held what they received from the Church of England on trust that they performed the duties. But this neglect of the past had opened up all these serious questions. It had opened up the whole serious question of endowments. He need not say much on that question, but he was one of those who thought that on the whole it was better for the cause of religion that its Ministers should be endowed, that they should not be tempted of men, it might be to say what in some degree might be against their consciences, for the sake of standing well with congregations. He was one of those who were in favour generally of endowments, but only regarding them as held as solemn trusts with duties to be performed. In the past, he was sorry to say, these duties were very imperfectly performed; people felt their hearts chilled, and they drew away from the Church. They said, "It is only a Church of endowments; vital religion is not there; we must seek it elsewhere, in a voluntary system; there is something dead in these endowments." And so they turned away. He was afraid there was another reason why the working-classes had slipped away-they (the Church) had not kept pace with the population. He was afraid he could not go round the city and point to a congregation that was on the increase. Another reason which kept men away was that they could not find seats; in the Church there was perhaps nothing but pews, and he thought that the Church of his mother land was a free Church. The pew system, carried on to the extent it had been in some places, had alienated thousands. They felt that the Church was for the rich, and they had gone elsewhere, or perhaps nowhere.

Notes, Literary, Archæological, &c.

Mr. Richard Morris is writing a short historical English Grammar for the use of King's College School.

1,228,000,000 souls. Of this number 552,000,000 belong to the MonAccording to a recent estimate the population of the globe is about golian race; 360,000,000 to the Caucasian; 190,000,000 to the Ethiopian; 176,000,000 to the Malay; and 1,600,000 to the Indo-American race. The annual mortality is over 33,000,000.

The ground is being cleared for the new library at Guildhall. Dr. Saunders's Committee of the Common Council has visited Oxford, Cambridge, Liverpool, and other places to examine the best existing libraries in England, an. it is hoped that the building for which the Corporation voted £25,000 and gave a site worth £40,000, will be ready within two years.

The South Kensington Museum will soon be enriched by a series of reproductions of early wall-paintings and mosaics, to be used to decorate mentation. Among the examples already in hand are copies from parts of the museum which were designed with a view to such ornapictures found in the subterranean basilica of San Clemente, Rome, during the excavations conducted by Prior Mullooly, of that Church. These comprise (1) a male bust, of distinctly antique character, circa 300 A.D.: (2) a female saint, with a nimbus, circa 410; (3) a Crucifixion, the earliest known representation of that event, circa 646, 50 A.D.; (4) "The Maries at the Sepulchre," The Descent of Christ to Hades," and "The Marriage at Cana," circa 650 A.D., "The Assumption of the Virgin," and five others of equal importance. Two fac-similes of mosaics of the greatest interest have been reproduced :-(1) "The Good Shepherd," seated, with his flock; a lunette, from the tomb of Galla Placidia, Ravenna; this has been delivered by Messrs. Salviati, but remains at present under judgment, pending the production to the authorities of certain stipulated proofs of its fidelity to the original; the obvious importance of such proofs need not be stated, and without challenging the copy in question, we cannot wonder at the determination of the officials to withhold the work for the present. (2). A fine upright figure of Christ, on a gold ground, with attributes, froin San Marco. This is a very striking and grand picture. The scheme for reproducing such decorations is comprehensive, and may embrace invaluable examples which date from the Sylvanus," from Ostia, now in the Lateran Museum, which is so strikingly like pictures of The Good Shepherd,' in the Catacombs, Rome; the so-called Battle of Issus,' now at Naples; works from San Lorenzo, Milan, the Baptistery at Ravenua, San Paolo fuori le Mure, Rome, SS. Cosmo and Damiano, San Vitale, Ravenna, with others, to Ghirlandajo's work on the exterior of the Duomo, Florence, and later examples in St. Peter's, Rome.