deaneries. It will not be sufficient merely to talk about the revival of Convocation. If the end is to be attained, we must act. Our course is obvious. The bishops will receive the representations of their clergy: they will be submitted to the archbishops: and the result may be anticipated.

The present time too is most favourable, from the circumstance that her Majesty and Ministers are anxious to promote the interests of the Church. The Crown could act of itself; but we cannot expect that it will take any step without the approval of its responsible advisers. Sir Robert Peel would not oppose a step recommended by the heads of the Church. It behoves us, therefore, to take advantage of these circumstances, and call upon the Crown to allow the Church to act once more in a synodical manner. Of course neither Dissenters, nor Whigs, nor Radicals, could complain: for the Convocation would deliberate only on things connected with the Church. No opposition therefore could arise from any quarter; and were the Crown induced to grant the necessary license for business, the Ecclesiastical Commissioners need no longer assemble. Sure we are, that the episcopal members of that board would much rather see all such matters as are brought before them settled in the Convocation. Nothing is more simple than the constitution of the Convocation; nor is anything more easy than the revival of its sessions for business. Some persons object altogether to large clerical assemblies; but a considerable portion of the business would be settled in committees. We, indeed, see no objection to the delegation of certain powers to the bishops with, of course, the liberty of appeal to the synod. At all events such matters would be easily adjusted. Should even the worst predictions of the opponents of the restoration of the Convocation to its full powers be verified, the evil would be far less than is now experienced from the management of Church affairs by the two Houses of Parliament. Some of the bishops have openly declared themselves in favour of the measure which we are now recommending; and none, we are convinced, would offer any opposition. The Bishop of Exeter has published his views; and the Bishop of Llandaff is evidently of opinion, that the time is arrived for allowing ecclesiastical affairs to be settled in an ecclesiastical assembly. Some persons there are who express their apprehension of disputes and collisions; while others imagine that the views of the writers of the Tracts for the Times would be dominant, and that consequently the Church might attempt to modify her articles, and to make additions to her rites and ceremonies. All such fears, however, are groundless. With respect to collisions, we believe that there would be none; why indeed should they be expected? And as it regards the peculiar views advocated in the Tracts for the Times, they would, we are convinced, not only be discouraged, but condemned. At the same time, nonconforming Churchmen would not be permitted to proceed in their present inconsistent course. No doubt some few things, which from various causes are become obsolete or impracticable, would be modified or altered; but one of the first things to which attention would be

directed, would be the correction of all those irregularities which are practised by men who disregard their ordination vows. It is somewhat singular that the opponents of Convocation are generally men of this class-men who wish to follow their own inclinations, and who would be very unwilling to be bound by any new enactments, by which our bishops could more easily enforce a compliance with the rubrics and canons. Now our conviction is, that both extremes would be corrected by Convocation: we mean those who would add to, and those who would disregard, the ceremonies and regulations of the Church. Undoubtedly there are among the clergy two extreme parties, who might be inclined to innovate; the one by way of addition to the rites and ceremonies of our Church, the other by way of diminution. These are the advocates of the peculiar views of the Tracts for the Times, who might wish to introduce certain ceremonies: and those loose and inconsistent Churchmen, who would be glad of an opportunity of mutilating our formularies. Few, however, of those parties would find their way into the Convocation house; while the majority would pursue that wise and moderate course which is followed by the great mass of the clergy, who would be content that such matters only should be discussed as obviously require the interposition of synodical authority. In our opinion, therefore, no danger need be apprehended from the meetings of the Convocation; while, on the other hand, our present position, without any synodical deliberations, is both anomalous and dangerous. What, for example, can be worse for the Church than Parliamentary interference? Not a few lukewarm Churchmen deprecate the assembling of the Convocation; but they have no scruple at the interference of the House of Commons! They would rather see the Church managed by an assembly in which Papists and Dissenters have considerable influence, than by a body of our own members lawfully constituted. Such persons are Churchmen only in name. To prevent the evils, then, which must ensue from Parliamentary interference, let the Convocation meet; and to effect this object, the clergy must bestir themselves. They must make known their wishes to the bishops; the bishops will appeal to the archbishop; and his Grace will represent the feelings of the clergy to the Crown. By such a course the end will be attained; but things will assuredly continue in their present unsatisfactory state unless the course which we have recommended be adopted. If the clergy concur in calling for the revival of the regular synodical assemblies of the Church, no power will be inclined to resist their unanimous voice.

DISSENTING VIEWS OF CHURCH AFFAIRS.

Under this head we shall present our readers with one or two extracts from the Nonconformist: the animus which they display will need no comment. First, then

"The Reward of Clerical Intolerance.-It seems that a very unfriendly feeling exists between the Rev. Lovick Cooper, vicar of Empingham, near Stamford, and his parishioners. A marriage was

recently postponed because the rev. gentleman would not allow the church bells to be rung, and in order to make assurance doubly sure, he actually removed the ropes. The Stamford Mercury says: -The wedding ceremony was, however, performed on Tuesday, at Langtoft; and at night, to the amazement of the Rev. Lovick Cooper, the bells of Empingham burst into a peal, notwithstanding his strong injunction to the contrary. With mixed emotions of astonishment and resentment, his reverence ran to the church, and found that, whilst he kept the doors fast locked, the ringers had made an entrance through one of the windows, and having borrowed bell-ropes from a neighbouring parish, had struck up a merry round on the wedding night. In vain for some time the vicar stormed and raved against these contemners of his authority; at length he was admitted to the sacred edifice; and the offending tintinnabulists, contriving at the same time to slip out of the church, turned the key upon the Rev. Lovick; and having so gratified his desire to get in, they compelled him for an hour to go to every outlet, exclaiming, like Sterne's starling, 'I can't get out!' until the arrangements of a large party, who enjoyed the turn of affairs, being completed, he was allowed to walk forth, and was then received with a shower of missiles of the most offensive description, and compelled to run back to the parsonage house in a condition not to be named to' ears polite.' We regret to say that the outrage went even further than this: the windows of his reverence's house were smashed with stones, an effigy of him was burnt in the street, and a night of such lax order was never before known in the large and respectable village of Empingham. A reward of 501. has been offered by the Rev. Mr. Cooper for the discovery of the ringleader in these violent proceedings.'

We have not the least doubt as to the "laxity" of a parish where such events can take place; but we do very much doubt that it all arose from the rector's refusal to celebrate a marriage, for which refusal (if made at all) he had doubtless legal and justifiable grounds.

What follows is partly true and partly false-true as to the parish of St. Marylebone, and false as regards the others. Sion College, as the meetings there are at all times strictly private, and as no reporter is ever present, it is not to be wondered at that our "nonconforming friends" find it more easy to invent than to discover. We are, however, authorized to say that the present instance is fictitious from beginning to end :

"The Bishop of London's Charge and the Metropolitan Clergy.The directions contained in the recent Charge of the Lord Bishop of London are complied with by a large number of the metropolitan clergy. On Sunday morning the Rev. Dr. Spry, rector of St. Marylebone, preached for the first time in his surplice. The bishop, it will be remembered, recommended that the clergy should preach in their surplices in the morning, and in their academical gowns in the afternoon and evening. At the close of the communion service the Rev. Dr. Spry ascended the pulpit, and proceeded to the delivery of his sermon without the introduction of the usual hymn or psalm, for which no provision is made in the rubric or canons.

At Trinity church, in the same parish, notice was given that in future the recommendations of the bishop on the subject of preaching would be adopted-that all notices would be read by the clergyman from the reading-desk, instead of by the clerk, as heretofore; that the sacrament of baptism would be administered immediately after the second lesson in the afternoon, and during the week at ten o'clock, and every afternoon at four. The Dean of Carlisle, who is the rector of St. George's, Hanover-square, Dr. Dibdin, Mr. Walpole, and some other preachers of eminence at the west-end of the town, have refused to comply with the proposed alterations. In the city the incumbents had a meeting at Sion College, and a deputation obtained an interview with the Bishop of London. They expressed the apprehension of the clergy that the alterations pointed out for their adoption would give great offence to the laity, but at the same time, if he, the bishop, would order them to adopt them, they would obey. The bishop replied he would not order, but it was his charge; the city clergy have, therefore, with few exceptions, made no alteration."

So much for Dissenting integrity in reporting clerical meetings.

THE BISHOPRICS OF BANGOR AND ST. ASAPH.

The proposed union of these sees will not, we hope, be carried into execution. Among the many voices raised up in condemnation of the projected sacrilege, we notice that of the Rev. R. W. Evans, who in an able pamphlet has set forth the necessary evil consequences of such a step. Speaking of the unfair position in which hitherto the Welsh clergy have been placed, he says:

"Can we wonder that their own native clergy, put in a position which so much diminished their influence, were unable to retain them in the Church? Thus Dissent, in addition to all its means of hold in England, which are many and strong enough, had more and still stronger in Wales. It has gained at least two-thirds of the people, if not a much greater proportion. These causes of alienation have indeed been much abated of late. The prelates who fill the sees, although still exclusively English, give every encouragement to the native clergy. But it is easier to set a stone in motion down the hill, than to stop it. The extent and scattered population of the Welsh parishes render pastoral visitation an overwhelming labour, if attempted to any effect. The clergy are widely separated from each other. They are poor. They are poorly supported by resident gentry; and communication with their bishops is necessarily unfrequent."

We are well aware that it is intended to place a bishop in Manchester by the union of these two sees, and we also know that no place on earth needs a bishop more than that crowded and populous town. The present exemplary and truly apostolical Bishop of Chester is oppressed by his too great labours, and ought to be, at least, somewhat relieved: but, on the other hand, Manchester, of all places in the world, is best able to support a bishop for herself.

"Let not a people (says Mr. Evans) who have suffered so much

already in their Church from our negligent and partial hands, be deprived of the means of remedy which they still possess; but let us approve ourselves the servants of the Master who would not break the bruised reed nor quench the smoking flax. Nor let any one excuse his apathy to the welfare and character of his Church, by saying, I know nothing of Welsh matters: they do not concern me. They do concern him. For this is essentially an English matter. A spoliation of the Welsh Church is proposed, in order to enrich the English Church. It deeply concerns, therefore, every generous and just Englishman, as he would be a good and wise Christian. Will he be content that the Church of England, stepmother as she is historically to the Welsh people, having supplanted their own mother, the British, shall become such proverbially also, and rob, and starve, and harshly treat her adopted children? the judgment of God is at hand. A deep tragedy is opening. The first scene lies in the silent and solitary mountains of Wales: the last will be in the crowded and agitated streets of London.

COLONIAL BISHOPRICS.

Then

We turn naturally here to the Bishop of Jerusalem, in the first place, as most interesting from its locality, and from the point of union which it affords between the Prussian government and the Church. The Jewish Intelligencer observes, with reference to the proceedings of a certain day:

"It is deeply interesting to observe that, by that day's solemnities, the nucleus of a Hebrew Christian Church in this city is now complete in all its offices, as well as functions. There is now here a bishop, a priest (Mr. Ewald), and a deacon also, all Hebrews of the Hebrews;" a fact in the history of Jerusalem which has not been realized since its final destruction by Adrian, in the second century; and which thus completes also the chain of restored connexion between the first Hebrew Church here and its present distant, yet genuine off-shoot. It is interesting to recall here the fact, that the first Gentile ordained here is already gone on a mission to Ethiopia; the next is ordained to the ministry in her Majesty's navy and the first Israelite is to labour with us amongst his still unbelieving brethren in this country. The same afternoon Mr. Tartakover entered upon his sacred office by reading service for me in German; and in the evening of the same day Mr. Whitmarsh also, by reading service at the Bishop's house in English, where several travellers attended with us. This morning Mr. Tartakover also took his turn in reading Hebrew prayers for the week; and Mr. Whitmarsh will do the same this evening, and will continue to do so until his return to his larger congregation in one of the floating bulwarks of England."

We hope soon to see a bishop appointed to the Cape of Good Hope, inasmuch as two memorials have recently been received from the district of Fort Beaufort and Sidbury in Cape colony, praying for the early appointment of a bishop.

An appeal has also been received from the colonial chaplain of St. Helena, in which he points out the expediency of including that

L