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sions were established as follow: Bengal, 1815; Northwest Provinces, 1813; Punjab and Sindh, 1852; Bombay and West India, 1820; Madras and South India, 1814; Travancore and Cochin, 1816; Ceylon, 1818; Telugu, 1841; South China, 1850; Mid China, 1844; West China, 1891; Japan, 1869; Egypt, 1882; Palestine, 1851; Persia, 1875; Turkish Arabia, 1882; Equatorial Africa, 1844; Uganda, 1876; Northwest Canada, 1822; British Columbia, 1856; Sierra Leone, 1804; Yoruba, 1844; Niger, 1857; New Zealand, 1814. A preliminary sermon to the celebration was preached in St. Paul's Cathedral by the Bishop of Derry, April 9. The first day's meeting was held April 10 in St. Bride's Church, Fleet Street, when addresses appropriate to the occasion was delivered. In the evening the Archbishop of Canterbury preached in St. Paul's Cathedral upon The Beginning of the Catholicity of the Church, in the setting apart of Barnabas and Saul, from which he passed to a review of the growth of the society. The second day's meetings were held in Exeter Hall, and were devoted to a review of the history of the society. Among the special topics and departments of missionary activity that came under notice in the addresses were Mohammedanism as an obstacle, the mission to Uganda, missionary and evangelical methods, educational work as an aggressive force and a defensive agency, women's work, medical work, literary work, and The Story of the Society at Home during the Hundred Years. In connection with this subject it was represented that since 1887, when the executive committee had resolved never to reject on financial grounds any candidate who was spiritually and mentally and physically fit for the work, the revenue had increased from £221,000 to £322,000, and the number of missionaries from 309 to 777. On the third day, April 13, the actual anniversary day, resolutions were adopted expressing thanks to God for the successful career of the society; acknowledging much on the part of the society that might cause sorrow and humiliation, confessing with shame the grievous disproportion between what the Church had done during the past century and what it ought to have done, lamenting indifference shown by many to the conversion of the world, and deploring the vast areas still unevangelized; and, looking to the future, expressing the belief that "in the scriptural doctrine and primitive order of the Church of England, in the history and character of the English people, and in their commercial and political power there are peculiar privileges which constitute a divine call to the Christians of the empire to missionary enterprise in a far larger and bolder spirit than has ever yet been manifested." The fourth day of the celebration was devoted to a review of Church and Protestant missions other than those of the Church Missionary Society, in which the Universities' Mission in Central Africa, the Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States, and the South Sea and Australian Missions were represented. Two sessions were given to Scottish, foreign Protestant, and nonconformist missions, when representatives of the Established and Free Churches of Scotland, the Paris Missionary Society, the Basel Mission, the British and Foreign Bible Society, the Wesleyan Missionary Society, and the London Missionary Society spoke of the operations of those bodies. On the fifth day subjects relating to the extension of the work of the society and fields for new missions were discussed. The last day's meeting, April 15, was for boys and girls, when medals were distributed.

Propagation Society. The public meeting in connection with the one hundred and ninetyeighth anniversary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts was held May 4, the Archbishop of Canterbury presiding. The year's income of the society had been £132,355, of which £17,994 were from legacies. The missionary force comprised 787 ordained ministers, 12 of whom were bishops, and 2,900 lay teachers, with 3,200 students in the society's colleges and 38,000 children in the Asiatic and African schools. More than the usual number of offers of service abroad had been received, and a large increase was shown in the number of clergy placed on the society's list and in the native ministry, as well as an increase of £2,000 in the voluntary gifts. The society had a church car in Mashonaland running over 500 miles of railway to Bulawayo. In Guiana the Chinese had built a handsome and substantial church for themselves. A bicentenary celebration of the society is appointed to begin on June 16, 1900, the one hundred and ninety-ninth anniversary of the granting of its charter, and to close on the same day of 1901.

The

The Universities' Mission.-The report of the Universities' Mission to Central Africa, presented at the annual meeting, June 6, showed that mission work of the ordinary kind was scattered over about 250,000 square miles. nurseries, schools, homes, and workshops included more than 300 children, while 780 were entirely supported by the mission. Thirty-three men were required to raise their staff to a minimum pitch of efficiency. Occasion having arisen by the departure for England in 1898 of the European ladies, the bishop had felt able to give the entire management of the girls' school at Likoma to a native woman teacher, with the result that the average attendance had risen from 50 to 75, and had been steadily maintained throughout the year. The suppression of the slave trade by the German Government had acted in a way that was not altogether for the advantage of the mission. The people, instead of gathering in large numbers, were now separating into small communities, and the missionary, instead of having one center, where he could work with comparative ease, found himself in charge of a number of small hamlets. A steamer had been built for Lake Nyassa, and £3,000 were needed in order to send it there.

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The Bishop of London's Fund.-The Bishop of London's fund for church building in the metropolis made grants during the year for 187 permanent churches, of which 171 were parochial churches and the others chapels of ease." It was represented at the annual meeting of the subscribers, May 1, that, while the provision of sufficient churches for themselves seemed hopeless to the growing populations of the outskirts of London, where the bishop's fund furnished the nucleus, the people of the neighborhood took heart and joined in the work. A resolution was adopted affirming the need of increased efforts to meet adequately the spiritual needs by means of the supply of mission clergy, mission rooms and churches, and additional curates and lay agents.

The Church Army.-The seventeenth annual report of the Church Army, presented at the anniversary, May 2 and 3, describes a large variety of operations which were conducted by about 150 evangelists, colporteurs, nurses, rescue workers, pioneer and tent missionaries, social officers, and other agents. Sixty-five mission vans were at work in 33 dioceses. The work done in the

72 labor homes and other institutions had realized £25,000 in the past year, and nearly £14,000 had been paid in wages to the inmates. Grants had been received from a number of boards of home guardians, and practical sympathy from the home office, the prison commissioners, judges, magistrates, and other authorities. In the lodging houses 80,000 beds had been let, 3,480 men had passed through the Thames Embankment Rescue Home, and more than 600 women and girls through the London homes provided for them. The general and evangelical accounts showed an income of £40,208, and an expenditure of £39,027; the accounts of the social departments an income of £46,246, and an expenditure of

£46,405. The balance sheet showed an excess of £28,442 in assets over liabilities.

The Church Union.-At the annual meeting of the English Church Union, June 15, it was represented by the presiding officer that 7,850 persons had joined the union since June 1, 1898, of whom 5,450 had joined during 1899. The present whole number of members, 37,900, included 4,370 clergy. Never in the forty years of its existence had the union been more united or more determined to protect the doctrines and privileges of the Church. An address by Lord Halifax, president of the union, was read in his abon account of illness, criticising recent proceedings. The resolutions unanimously agreed to by the union in 1877 were unanimously reaffirmed. They deny that the secular power has authority in matters purely spiritual.

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The Liberation Society.-The Council of the Society for the Liberation of Religion from the Patronage and Control of the State at its annual meeting determined to seek to have disestablishment made a plank in the Liberal platform at the next general election, and the society at the public meeting held the same day adopted a resolution approving of the step.

Woman's Help Society. The Church of England Woman's Help Society has for its objects the cultivation of personal purity and of religion, and works among the roughest girls. The report made at its anniversary, May 3, showed that it had made considerable progress, and was doing much good in a quiet and unobtrusive way. Ecclesiastical Procedure. At a meeting of all the bishops, held at Lambeth Palace, Jan. 17, it was resolved that a bill for the reform of the ecclesiastical courts, drawn on the lines laid down by the Royal Commission in 1883, should be submitted to the convocations at their meetings in February. The Royal Commission referred to was appointed in May, 1881, at the instance of Archbishop Tait, of Canterbury, to inquire into the constitution and working of the ecclesiastical courts. It presented its report, after two years of consideration, in August, 1883. It was understood that the proposed measure would recommend that complaints against a clergyman be heard and pronounced upon first by the bishop. If the respondent failed to submit, the case should be brought before a diocesan court consisting of the bishop with a legal and a theological adviser. From this court an appeal should be to the provincial court of the archbishop, and from this court a final appeal to the Crown, represented by a permanent body of lay judges.

Convocation of Canterbury. At the meeting of the Convocation of Canterbury, Feb. 8, the Bishop of London said in the upper house that he had received a petition, signed John Kensit, for presentation to the house. His grace the president had, however, expressed the opinion that it was not desirable that the house

should receive it, as it contained reflections on the conduct of the bishops. The archbishop said that the petition ended with a very improper sentence, implying a sort of threat against the bishops, which it would be very unseemly indeed for that house to allow to appear on its records. He had, therefore, requested the Bishop of London to be good enough not to present it, and he could, if he thought fit, tell Mr. John Kensit the reason why.

The text of this petition as it appeared in the newspapers was as follows:

"To the Most Reverend the President and the

Right Reverend the Bishops of the Upper House of the Convocation of Canterbury: The honorable petition of John Kensit, of 18 Paternoster eth that since your petitioner has approached Row, in the city and diocese of London, showyour right reverend house there has been throughand indignation at the prevalence in very many out the country a widespread feeling of alarm churches in every diocese throughout the country of practices distinctly Roman in their origin and use, and that to the ordinary layman there seem to have been few, if any, changes in ritual acknowledged to be legal; that, nevertheless, your lordships and divers organs of the press allege that the evil is of very restricted characothers, believes this statement to be utterly unter; that your petitioner, with multitudes of founded; and he therefore humbly prays that your grace and your right reverend brethren, without delay, will furnish to the Church at large a statement of the number and names of churches in which, by your godly admonitions in private, excesses have been abandoned and unsound doctrines are no longer taught from the pulpit, and Romanizing manuals have ceased to be circulated. That your petitioner, at the request of his diocesan, the Lord Bishop of London, has scrupulously refrained from any attempt to interfere with or protest against the services in the churches to which this petition alludes; and that he would deeply regret if, through episcopal supineness, he has to resume on principle a form of protest distasteful to himself, but which seems the only course which really arrests public attention. And your petitioner will ever pray.

"JOHN KENSIT, 18 Paternoster Row. "Feb. 8, 1899."

After the remarks on Mr. Kensit's petition the archbishop made a statement in regard to the bill for the reform of the ecclesiastical courts, to the proposed court of the archbishops for the interpretation of the rubrics, and to a joint meeting of the two convocations which was contemplated to be held in the ensuing April.

The lower house adopted a resolution of thanks to the archbishop and their lords of the upper house for proposing to rehabilitate the ecclesiastical courts of the country, "which as at present constituted do not command the confidence of the clergy as a body, and will do their utmost to consider fully the measure sent down for consideration. At the same time they desire to express their loyalty to the bishops and the directions of the Prayer Book, and their determination to do all that lies in their power to secure obedience to both the written and living voice of the Church of England, thereby assuaging the prevailing anxiety.' An article was adopted requesting the bishops to institute measures looking to the relief of the clergy from burdens imposed upon their consciences by certain provisions of the marriage act of 1897. The house by resolution expressed its dutiful desire to uphold the

authority of their lordships of the upper house, and its readiness, on their direction, to give its careful consideration to subjects that concern the ritual and doctrine of the Church. "At the same time, having reasons to fear lest individual clergymen may be led to make changes on their own responsibility, this house feels constrained to exhort its brethren in the ministry to entertain with caution modes of thought and action which may weaken not only the rightful authority of the synod, but the very independence of the Church itself."

In the House of Laymen a resolution was adopted declaring that the house, while welcoming the noble effort now making to elevate and instruct the people of the Soudan and Upper Egypt through the means of the Gordon College, at Khartoum, is nevertheless of the opinion that no effort to perpetuate the memory of Gen. Gordon can be considered adequate which does not include the direct proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ to all the races inhabiting the upper basin of the Nile, which has recently been brought under the control of England. They would express their earnest hope that at the earliest moment consistent with public safety the Government of the Soudan will remove the restrictions at present existing upon the entrance of missionaries into Khartoum."

At a joint meeting of the upper and lower houses and the House of Laymen, held on the first day of the sessions, the archbishop made a full statement in regard to matters affecting the existing crisis in the Church. He spoke first of the offer of the archbishops to hear cases of disputed ritual. Next he explained the nature of the bill which they proposed to introduce into Parliament. A bill had been drawn up about ten years previously by Archbishop Benson and introduced into the House of Lords, but not proceeded with. It was now reprinted, in order to make it a basis of consideration for any such reforms as would be desirable for them to introduce into Parliament and endeavor to induce Parliament to accept. If that was to be of any use, it must be considered with very great care. They ought not, however, to be in any great hurry, but should thoroughly look at the bill from all points of view previous to putting it before either house of Parliament. The arch bishop felt very confident that they would be able to get things straight if only they could get the clergy and the laity to second their endeavors to proceed quietly and gently, and to seek, above all, not each his own particular fancy or predilections, but the good of the Church as a whole.

administered in the way which is easiest to the sick and dying, and that in the cases mentioned the custom of taking the sacrament to the sick ought to be specially permitted, as in former times, to the end that these very real difficulties and dangers may as far as possible be avoided." The experiment having been recently begun by the proprietors of two of the daily newspapers of London of publishing their journals on Sunday, as well as on the week days, the house took occasion to express its regret at the action, and its trust that the innovation, which would put a great pressure upon other journals to take a like course, and which, if allowed to spread, will lead to a great extension of Sunday labor and an obliteration of the distinction between the Lord's Day and other days of the week, may be emphatically and effectually discouraged by public opinion, and that Churchmen will take an active part in the protest."

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A resolution was passed in the lower house with reference to a license from the Crown or a declaratory act authorizing the draft of a canon for the more adequate representation of the clergy and laity in convocation. In another resolution the house expressed its opinion that "the present difficulties in the Church will be most permanently met by finding a fuller expression, consistently with the union between Church and state, for the principle of corporate Church action in the conduct of Church affairs, and its trust that a larger measure of freedom in the management of her internal affairs may be accorded to the Church, acting in and through her duly constituted assemblies, regard being had to the respective responsibilities of clergy and faithful laity," and requested the archbishop and bishops constituting the upper house to take such steps with a view to securing these objects as in their wisdom they might think fit.

Resolutions were passed in the House of Laymen asking the archbishop to take into consideration the desirability of a service being provided by authority to be used in cases of cremation; expressing the hope that the Government would speedily see its way to carry out a policy for conferring greater autonomy on the Church; and declaring that, while deploring the practice of any observances which could not fairly be held to be within the comprehensive limits of the Church of England, the house strongly protested against the Church discipline bill as inconsistent with the episcopal government of the Church.

At its meeting in July the Convocation, in all its three houses, discussed the ecclesiastical procedure bill.

At the meeting of Convocation, April 25, the Convocation of York.-The Convocation of Bishop of London in the upper house presented York opened, Feb. 9, with a joint meeting of the a petition, signed by 768 medical practitioners two houses, when the archbishop spoke concernfrom all counties in England and Wales, upon ing the crisis in the Church, and particularly conthe subject of the communion of the sick. The cerning the arrangement with the Archbishop petition represented that there were many ex- of Canterbury for the archiepiscopal hearing of ceptional cases in which the office for that serv- cases of disputed ritual and of the contemplated ice provided in the Prayer Book was too long, ecclesiastical courts bill. The upper house havand its use detrimental and even occasionally ing resolved that the increasing practice among dangerous to the sick person. Such exceptional the clergy of encouraging habitual, systematic, cases were acute disease; long-standing wasting or compulsory private confession demanded the diseases, such as the latest stages of consump- serious attention of the bishops, a committee tion and cancer; infectious diseases, when the of the whole house was appointed to consider the priest and others are unnecessarily exposed to subject. A resolution was adopted approving the infection and liable to spread it; cases of sudden assembling at an early date of the synods of the emergency, in which there is no time to consetwo provinces in one place. A resolution similar crate the elements; and where there is no con- to one adopted in the lower house of the Convenient place in which the sacrament can be vocation of Canterbury thanked the archbishop reverently celebrated. As professional men the and bishops for proposing to rehabilitate the signers thought that "the sacrament should be ecclesiastical courts of the country, and expressed

loyalty to the bishops and the directions of the existing Prayer Book.

At the session of the Convocation, May 3, a petition was presented from members of the medical profession urging that there were many exceptional cases in which the office for the communion provided in the Prayer Book is too long, and its use detrimental and occasionally even dangerous to the sick person. The discussion of the petition related to the difficulty of providing such a service as was called for in it, and was terminated by an observation by the archbishop that he thought it would be very much better if, after prolonged consultation, they were to endeavor to devise some means of meeting the difficulty, instead of leaving it, as they did at present, to the bishops and clergy very much to adopt their own means. A report was unanimously adopted on the fasting reception of the holy communion, which the bishop said he hoped would be a valuable help not only toward relieving consciences that were spiritually perplexed when such demands were made upon them as were made in the insistence upon fasting communion, but also in emphasizing the spiritual character of the preparation which was required for the holy sacrament. Resolutions were adopted in both houses condemning the issuing of newspapers on seven days in the week.

Joint Meeting of the Convocations.-The upper and the lower houses of the Convocations of Canterbury and of York having severally resolved themselves into committee, the four houses met in the Church House, London, in joint session, July 6. The archbishops presided jointly, but the Archbishop of Canterbury took the lead in the proceedings. The meeting was held with closed doors. Resolutions were submitted as "propositions for consideration as regards the appeal to the Crown and to the perpetual court": 1. That an appeal to the Crown for lack of justice shall be allowed in all cases. 2. That the subject of the appeal shall be limited to the question whether the defendant has done or taught what the Church of England has directly or by necessary implication forbidden, or omitted to do what the Church of England has expressly enjoined. 3. That the right of appeal shall be allowed to both parties, but only when there has been a difference in the judgments of the diocesan and provincial courts, unless the Crown shall give leave to appeal. These resolutions were approved. A fourth proposition" that the Crown shall refer the appeal to a permanent committee of the Privy Council learned in the law, being also members of the Church of England "-raised discussion, in which important differences of opinion were made evident. After the conclusion of the joint session on the second day the Archbishop of Canterbury gave out as its ultimate finding a resolution, unanimously carried, that "the meeting of the committee of the whole houses of the Northern and Southern Convocations, after considering the various propositions which have been discussed during its sessions, is of opinion that further consideration of these propositions is necessary before practical steps are taken in the direction of legislation, and that the archbishops be requested, in accordance with the law and custom of Convocation, to bring the matter before their respective convocations at their next sessions." A resolution was also passed declaring that "in the interests of the Church it is desirable that a joint meeting of the two convocations should be held in each year." The resolutions adopted by the four houses were con

sidered by the houses of laymen of the two convocations in joint convention, which, while thanking the archbishops for submitting the propositions, expressed the opinion that "it is undesirable to press forward new legislation for courts to deal with questions of doctrine and ritual when opinion is so much divided upon the form which it should assume, and when the archbishops are taking steps to place church discipline upon a better footing by the establishment of better relations between the episcopal bench and the parochial clergy." The laymen also resolved that, in the interest of the Church, it is desirable that a joint meeting of the two convocations be periodically held, and that power should be given them for that purpose, and letters of business be issued for their action as the representative body of the Church of England"; that "it is desirable that the houses of laymen should have a more recognized position as consultative bodies of the Church, and should meet jointly when the two convocations do so "; and that "it is desirable in the interests of the Church that a joint meeting of the two houses of laymen should be held from time to time at Westminster."

The Ritualistic Crisis.-The controversy over ritualism was the predominant topic in all circles of the Church during the whole year. Mr. Francis Peek, in the Contemporary Review for January, charged certain of the bishops with ordaining candidates whom they knew, from the character of the colleges whence they came and of the churches to which they were to be appointed, would violate their obligations to use in service the forms prescribed in the Prayer Book and no other. Regarding the distribution of patronage by the present bishops, he claimed to show that they had appointed 28 supporters of ritualism as archdeacons, 25 to residentiary canonries, and 318 to honorary canonries; and 70 members of the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament to livings, with a pecuniary benefit to the ritualists of £47,000 a year. The writer further called on all friends of the Reformation to withhold contributions from those religious societies on whose boards members of the English Church Union are represented, and from the building of all churches "which are not protected from ecclesiastical patronage." A Churchmen's Council was formed in Liverpool, compris ing about 100 clergymen of the dioceses and about 200 laymen, many of whom held the office of church warden; and a laymen's league, under the direction of which meetings were held in various parts of the city, and which had a bill drafted for the suppression of illegalities in the Church. A similar bill, drafted by the laymen's league, and approved by a committee of the National Club in London appointed to consider legisla tion in the Protestant interest, and also by the Church Association, dealt specifically, under the head of offenses, with the word mass, the issue of mass books, everything like compulsion in regard to confession, and all unauthorized rites, ceremonies, and services, and made them cognizable under two comprehensive clauses; contemplated the abolition of the episcopal veto, while granting the bishop not less than a month during which he could bring his own disciplinary powers to bear upon the offender; after the lapse of which period, upon the repetition of the offense, proceedings might follow before a lay judge, with an assessor appointed by the bishop. The bill provided that the trial be held at the nearest place to the one where the offense was committed. Any two members of the Church of England resident in the diocese might be the

complainants, they giving security for costs. The bill further provided that if judgment be obtained inhibition should follow immediately, except the offender give a written undertaking to discontinue the offense or offenses complained of. Failing such undertaking within three months, inhibition should result upon three judgments obtained against the same person within five years. An appeal to her Majesty in Council was given, and all power of imprisonment was abolished by the bill.

At a meeting held at the Church House, Jan. 11, under the auspices of the National Protestant Church Union, a memorial which had already been signed by many peers, members of Parliament, and clergymen, was adopted for presentation to the Queen. It affirmed that certain of the clergy had been engaged in the avowed purpose of undoing the work of the Reformation, and that mediæval doctrines and practices which have no place in the formularies of the Church had been introduced, and appealed to her Majesty to take steps to correct the evils complained of and prevent the reimposition of the sacerdotal yoke. (This memorial, signed by 3,900 Churchmen, of whom 31 were peers, 50 members of the House of Commons, 2,000 justices of the peace, and 1,300 clergy, was presented to the Queen on March 9.) A resolution adopted by the meeting declared that the persistent efforts widely made to bring back into the Church of England doctrines and practices which had been deliberately rejected at the Reformation, and were identified with the Church of Rome, constitute grave danger, both to the country and to the Protestant reformed religion established by law." Another resolution suggested that should the bishops prove unable, by an exercise of the powers already intrusted to them, to remedy these evils, recourse should be had to further legislation. At a meeting of about 10,000 persons held in Albert Hall, London, under the auspices of the Church Association and about 50 other general and local Protestant societies, a demand was made for the application of the present laws to the suppression of lawless ritualism, and for new legislation to compel obedience to the law by removing the veto of the bishops and giving the laity free access to the courts of the realm. Notice was also taken of a book entitled The Secret History of the Oxford Movement as an offensive one, describing practices to which the attention of the Queen and Parliament should be given. At this meeting Lord Overtoun suggested that in the act of union England had pledged itself to Scotland to maintain forever the Protestant religion, and that Scotland would insist upon England fulfilling its part of the contract.

A conference of Churchmen was held April 28, the Bishop of Hereford presiding, for the purpose of forming a common basis of action between moderate High Churchmen, Broad Churchmen, and Evangelicals. Co-operation was pledged in maintaining by all lawful means the Protestant and comprehensive character of the Church, and in guarding "the great heritage of religious freedom and progress secured to the English people at the Reformation." The real presence believed in was declared to be purely spiritual, and no other to be recognized in the formularies of the Church. The doctrine of the ritualists was denounced as unscriptural and materialistic, and their ritual as hardly, if at all, distinguish able from the Roman mass. Opposition was pledged to the introduction of habitual confession to a priest and to the doctrine of the confes

sion, and the bishops were appealed to to prevent clergymen from taking advantage of their positions to teach it, as well as to prohibit the reservation of the sacrament. The meeting expressed the opinion that the final determination of ecclesiastical cases should continue to rest with her Majesty in Privy Council, and declared opposition to the pretension put forth by some of the clergy that the law of the Church in spiritual matters is to be authoritatively interpreted by the clerical order alone. A representative committee was appointed to carry out the objects of this movement.

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A resolution was adopted at the conversazione of the Church Association in May expressing astonishment and alarm at the failure of the archbishops and bishops to take action and at their inadequate treatment of the whole question. A Ladies' League for the Defense of the Reformed Faith of the Church was formed in May. It saw the chief danger of the Church in the teachings rather than practices of ritualism, and, disclaiming all partisan or political views, purposed to approach the great questions at issue from the religious side and by educational means. Letters of Sir William Harcourt.-An important feature in the controversy was the publication in the Times of London of a series of letters by Sir William Harcourt, dealing with the various aspects of the discussion, and giving prominence to legal points involved in it. In the first of these letters the writer criticised the proposal made by the archbishops to have disputed cases argued before them personally or by counsel as insufficient, because such a would deal only with questions of rubric and not of doctrine; because the decisions of the archbishops would have no binding power; and because the cases, having to be carried there by the bishops, would probably never get before the archbishops. In a second letter he marked out a line of action to be taken in dealing with lawless clergy. His plan was first to ascertain the facts and to establish the real nature and extent of the operations of the "Catholic revival" by obtaining specific statements from each parish of what practices were in use which had been declared illegal by the courts or condemned by the bishops; by the establishment in each diocese of a regular organization for obtaining trustworthy reports on these, and then pressing these reports on the attention of the bishop, and demanding his action, or, in the alternative, liberty to proceed. The plan also contemplated that the diocesan organization should secure reports not only on the services in churches, but also on the publications circulated among congregations, and especially among children of the Church schools.

Claims of the Ritualists. At a meeting connected with the anniversary festival of the English Church Union, Feb. 23, the Rev. T. O. Marshall, organizing secretary, spoke of the situation as being the case of the Church being governed by the man in the street-by public opinion"but they could not submit to that." The Rev. G. Bayfield Roberts, vicar of Gloucester, said "they wanted it to be remembered that they were the Catholic Church of England, and if the assertion of that principle was dependent on bringing the bishops out of the House of Lords and bringing about disestablishment and disendowment, then in God's name let the bishops go out of the House of Lords; let disestablishment and what they called disendowment come; but let them still hold true to the Church of Christ."

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