trust that the time may come when we may all say the "affairs of our Church," for we have the same ends in view and have all to fight the same fight against sin and vice and unbelief. At present it is so that we must work on separate lines, but we hope that we may one day be one in body as well as one in spirit. We can assure you of the Church's desire to offer every facility we can to bring about that union. We would gladly enlarge our borders and concede everything we can on true scriptural and primitive principles. We would gladly give up everything not absolutely essential to unite with you of whom, seeing what you are, we wish heartily that you were ours. At present, however, we must work on different lines, but we hope those lines shall not be parallel lines, never meeting through eternity, but converging lines-converging in Christ, and in the Holy Spirit, and in the hope of His eternal kingdom. I wish you every blessing that God can pour down upon you. The PRESIDENT then delivered the following

INAUGURAL ADDRESS.

My first, and one of my pleasantest duties is to welcome the many honoured guests who have come to us from all parts of Great Britain and Ireland, from our Colonial Churches, and even from the Church of America, whose Prelates came over to us last year to celebrate the Centenary of the Consecration of their first Bishop. To all I bid a hearty welcome in the name of this ancient and historic Diocese of Winchester, from this greatest of the naval cities of the world, and from the county of Hants-at one time the rival of London for the Metropolitan dignity of its chief city. My next duty, and I perform it very heartily, is to thank the three eminent Prelates who have preached to us from the pulpits of our three largest churches, and to express a confident hope that their words of earnest wisdom will take root in the hearts and lives of all that heard them, and bring forth fruit abundantly.

I must turn next to speak of the entertainment which we have provided for those who visit us. I need not say that the Committees, and especially the Secretaries, have devoted time and labour, and that ungrudgingly and cheerfully to this work, far more than those who have not been likewise engaged could possibly imagine. I shall venture to identify myself with them, though they have spared me as much as possible, and only consulted me when my co-operation was needed. Well, we have tried not simply to "fight our battles o'er again," but to introduce as much variety in the lists of subjects as we could reasonably do. We have also sought for new speakers and readers, lest by constant repetition we should weary you. And we must crave pardon from old and tried friends, if some may seem to have been neglected by us. It

is not that old friends are less honoured than new, or that their words are less weighty. Far from it. But it was thought that in both men and subjects there were "things old and new," which we should do well to bring out of our treasure. Circumstances, both of time and place, have naturally weighed with us. I had the honour last May to present the Revised Version of the Old Testament to the Convocation of Canterbury. I should like to say, as Chairman of the Committee of Convocation, and also of the Old Testament revisers, that, when 15 years ago it was resolved to begin the work of revision, there was no intention on the part of those who moved in it to force it on against the will of the Church or of the people, or to force it when finished upon their general acceptance. On the contrary, it was thought, wisely or unwisely, that, whereas so much light had been thrown on the criticism and on the languages of Holy Scripture, an attempt should be made to let the Church at large share in that which was, till then, the exclusive possession of a few, and that, when the work was done, it should be freely laid before the Church and the world, for their criticism and, if it might be, for their emendations. A Church Congress seems a fitting opportunity for discussing its merits and its defects. I should gladly say something as to the principles on which we acted and the method of our action, but time will not permit me to do so, and I should perhaps anticipate what will be better done by those who will speak about it presently.

The sitting of the Cathedral Commission, whose Chairman we are happy in having amongst us, and its reports concerning our own and other cathedrals, naturally suggested one subject. The strong feeling in favour of making our service books more suitable to the present wants of our people, the need of supplementary services, the somewhat unsuccessful efforts to produce them, and the more promising labours of our brethren in America on what they call "The Book Annexed," have suggested one of the discussions for this evening. "Clergy Pensions" is another matter of present pressing importance. So certainly is the "relation of rich and poor-employers and employed." It is a relation which will "never cease out of the land," but it tells specially now on all our interests and our hopes. "The Church and the Printing Press" is another subject of the day. The Printing Press has been a great blessing to the world, chiefly because it has enabled the Church to circulate freely the written word of God. But every instrument of man has a double edge. We are feeling

keenly now the stabs, often stabs in the dark, of those who use the Printing Press for evil. Unless we are awake and at work, the preponderance of power may be on the side of evil, unbelief and sin. The "Influence of Art on Religion and of Religion on Art" is another question of the day. So again "Legislative proposals for the repression of Intemperance" has become a political, as well as a moral question.

"The attitude of the Church towards movements in foreign Churches' has assumed new proportions since the Vatican Council in 1870. It has been frequently discussed since then, but it loses nothing of its interest yet, and, as having been now for more than 20 years President of the Anglo-Continental Society, which has busied itself not unfruitfully in this matter, I ask your brotherly sympathy with those of our fellow Christians, who are striving under difficulties to maintain the Catholic faith free from Roman usurpation and from rationalising error. It was not, however, the design of the Committee in choosing this subject, to promote a general discussion of the Roman controversy. Our attitude to Foreign Churches in general, and especially to recent movements in Foreign Churches, may be, I trust it will be, one of brotherly (or sisterly) solicitude and affection and of desire to help, if help be possible, rather than one of criticism or antagonism.

There are again considerations which arise out of the almost appalling increase of our home population. Emigration is the only safety valve which yet fails to relieve the perilous pressure. A population equal to that of a county leaves our shores yearly, and is spread abroad in our Colonies and over the open continent of America. How do we help them? What becomes of them? What shall be their future, as living, perishing, never-dying souls? But then, again, if emigration scarcely relieves the pressure of our teeming population, what shall we do for those who remain at home? This diocese may speak for all. When I came here 12 years ago, I found the London portion of it growing at the rate of 25,000 a year. What a few years ago had been a green country, of fields and market gardens, was covered with thickly-crowded streets and alleys of small tradesmen, costermongers, and working men. In three or four years time I succeeded in raising funds to divide the diocese. It threw off a portion, small in area, but dense in houses and inhabitants, so that we lost a population of nearly a million souls. Yet still the Diocese of Winchester, after losing this million of men, has 200,000 more than the whole undivided

diocese had when Bishop Sumner entered upon its episcopate not 60 years ago. The very town in which we are met may furnish us with a similar argument. The great parish of Portsea has increased in about 40 years from about 40,000 to 120,000. The district of the mother Church, St. Mary's, Portsea, seven years ago contained 21,000: it now contains 30,000. It is estimated that by the end of this century it will reach 45,000. The Vicar is one of your indefatigable secretaries, Canon Jacob, who can find time to minister to 30,000 souls and yet to work for the Church Congress here.

The parochial system, which worked so well for our forefathers in quiet times, needs now to have its hands strengthened by evangelising agencies of all kinds, by ordained and unordained men and women, if it is to reach the hearts of the people, to civilise and reclaim them to Christ, hid as they are in the deep recesses of dense cities and scattered like sheep upon the mountains, which the shepherds cannot gather into folds.

Cognate with these questions is that of "Church Defence." Those whom we have lost, or whom we imperfectly retain, are apt to look on us with the eyes of strangers, and to look on the Church of England as a stepmother, a stepmother to be cast out like the bondwoman with her children. Every unscrupulous effort is made to defame and ruin her. Have her children no words nor will to defend her? Undoubtedly the best defence is earnest, well organised and united work, springing from faith in God and from love to man; but when that which is the truest heritage of the poor is threatened on all sides, it is but well that the poor themselves should learn how great their inheritance is, and how to preserve it. It is indeed true of the Church, and we may well trust in that truth, that "no weapon which is formed against her shall prosper." She is as safe in adverse, as she can be in prosperous, times. But the people which casts off its national faith may, and very certainly will, be the loser. Possibly it may be found that every such people will lose in worldly as much as in spiritual prosperity.

Many causes have of late called attention to special work among men. It is always easier to reach women. They are more at home. They are more dependent. Their sensitive nature is more open to religious impressions. Men have to be sought out and waited for; but if you once win the strong man, he becomes an efficient warrior for the faith, a centre of strength and power. We have also become painfully

alive to the fact that purity of life cannot be maintained by purity of female life only, and that our failure hitherto has been great in the efforts to train up Christian boys and men from early childhood in habits of purity and self-restraint and holiness. Terrible revelations have been made which cannot be neglected. How to deal with men, so as to save

us from the evils which are rife in the midst of us, is almost the problem of the day. I will only say that here I am sure we shall not treat such questions, so that, under show of probing the wound and healing it, we only lay it open, aggravate its ghastly horrors, and spread it onward to healthier surroundings.

The work of women in the Church is of universal interest, and of peculiar interest in this diocese. Local and other causes have produced this interest amongst us. We have nearly the most flourishing branch of the G.F.S. in England. We have deaconesses doing work of incalculable good in Portsmouth, and other parts of the Diocese. We have devoted women working in our Penitentiaries and elsewhere. We have Penitentiary and Rescue work on a large scale, and on systematic principles working throughout the diocese. Our deaconesses have homes for little children rescued from evil surroundings. We have homes, too, for rough girls, and other like agencies. And so we have both a local and general interest in all. We wish to tell you something of what we are doing; we want to learn from you how to do it better: so we may all help and be helped.

There are other subjects suggested to us locally. It has been the privilege of this diocese, within the last five years, to raise funds for founding a new Indian diocese, the Diocese of Rangoon, and its first Bishop was a Parish Priest from amongst ourselves. We have been led by the thought of this to ask your attention to the Church in India, in preference to inviting you to wander over the whole wide mission field of the world.

Once more we have the greatest naval station of the greatest of maritime nations, where we are met to-day. We have great military garrisons here and elsewhere, and also the camp at Aldershot, where from 10,000 to 25,000 soldiers are constantly massed together. Thus we have naturally thought of directing your attention to the delicate and difficult question, "The doctrine of Holy Scripture and the attitude of the Church with respect to war." We want, too, to ask your counsel, and to elicit your opinions on the spiritual interests of those brave men, who fight our battles for us, and who, by being always