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If, by refusing to accept Mr. Mackonochie's resignation, I had defeated the late archbishop's dying desire and effort to promote the peace of the Church, I could never have forgiven myself; nor could I have expected the forgiveness of the great bulk either of the clergy or of the laity of England, whether within the Church or without it. I am not aware that the bishop has the power to require from a duly qualified clergyman, the sufficiency of whose learning he has no reason to doubt, any conditions of admission to a benefice, when presented by the rightful patron, other than the production of testimonials signed by three beneficed clergymen and the oaths and declarations prescribed by law. If there are those who, knowing as I do the good and self-denying work done among the poor and ignorant by such men as Mr. Mackonochie and the late Mr. Lowder, are yet, on account of differences in discipline and doctrine (the seriousness of which I do not wish to extenuate), unable to appreciate or afraid to acknowledge it, I can not sympathize with them-I can only pity them.

A memorial was addressed to the bishop by the Canons of Durham, Peterborough, Carlisle, and Ripon, and others, in which exception was taken to the institution of Mr. Mackonochie, because by reason of it the recent legal decisions against ritual (ritual openly acknowledged to be preparatory to the restoration of the sacrifice of the mass) had apparently been rendered nugatory; because by it disloyalty to the formularies, articles, and homilies of the Church of England had received tacit encouragement from her highest officers; because his lordship's action in the matter would appear to the public to be inconsistent with law and order; and because the illegalities of ceremony which had been practiced at St. Alban's would seem to them to have received episcopal sanction and approval. Hence a most injurious effect would be produced upon the Church and nation, and a strong weapon placed in the hands of the enemies of the Church of England, for the furtherance of their designs to procure its disestablishment.

Mr. Mackonochie was formally installed in the benefice of St. Peter's, London Docks, on Jan. 21st, when he read himself into the vicarship and subscribed to the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England.

The suit against Mr. Mackonochie, which had been before the law courts in various phases for nearly fifteen years, was continued, notwithstanding the exchange of benefices which it was hoped would lead to a cessation of proceedings. The final judgment in the case, by Lord Penzance, was given July 21st. The question before his lordship was now whether Mr. Mackonochie should be deprived of all ecclesiastical promotions in the province of Canterbury. The defendant had been admonished by the Court of Arches repeatedly for his illegal ritualistic practices at St. Alban's, Holborn, and had treated the orders of the court with contempt. He had therefore been ordered to be committed. In the mean time an exchange of livings had been effected between Mr. Mackonochie and the Rev. Mr. Suckling, incumbent of St. Peter's, London Docks. The case was remitted to the

Dean of Arches by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council for a "definitive sentence" to be passed, it having been decided that a sentence of suspension would be inadequate, because it had once before been pronounced, and Mr. Mackonochie had discharged it, and that a sentence of deprivation was the only one applicable. In the present case, however, the issue was more complicated than usual, the ordinary form of sentence being inapplicable in consequence of the defendant having ceased to hold the living of St. Alban's, Holborn, in which the offense had been committed. The court had to consider whether a decree of deprivation had become impracticable by the course the defendant had adopted of resigning the benefice with respect to which the suit had been instituted. After a careful ex

amination of authorities, Lord Penzance came to the conclusion that it had not. A depri

vation of the defendant was then decreed from

all his ecclesiastical promotions in the province of Canterbury, among which is included the living of St. Peter's, London Docks. An appeal may still lie to the Privy Council.

The parish of St. John's, Miles Platting, having become vacant by the deprivation of the Rev. S. F. Green for contumacy in ritualism, the patron of the benefice presented the Rev. Mr. Cowgill, Mr. Green's former vicar, for the incumbency. The Bishop of Manchester refused to institute Mr. Cowgill unless he would obligate himself to conform to the cathedral standard of services, and this Mr. Cowgill, in turn, refused to do. The patron notified the bishop that if he persisted in his refusal to institute Mr. Cowgill, he (the patron) would be driven to one of two alternatives: either to seek in a court of law to protect his right of patronage, which he had exercised to the best of his judgment, or to ask Mr. Green to receive back his resignation, the bishop having refused to accept it, and to take his old place at the rectory. The bishop replied that he saw nothing in the patron's letter to modify or change the resolution he had come to not to institute Mr. Cowgill, and added: "I deeply regret that it should be so; but there is a peace which may be too dearly purchased, and in my opinion it would be so in this instance if it were purchased by the surrender of all law and authority in the administration of the discipline of the Church of England." Addresses expressing sympathy with him, and satisfaction at his course, were sent to the bishop from different sources, to one of which he replied:

With you, in the course which I have felt it my duty to pursue, I" desire no party triumph." But the declared, seems to me to need to be vindicated; and principle of obedience to law, when authoritatively again I agree with you in thinking that to institute to a benefice a clergyman who would continue the same illegal ceremonial acts for which the former incumbent had been deprived, would be a stultification of the law which the common sense of the country would not tolerate. If I am wrong in my conception of my duty, the law, which is appealed to, will set me right,

and to its decision, when duly pronounced, I am prepared to bow. Meanwhile, I am anxious, as far as may be, without raising partisan passion or animosity, calmly to await that decision.

To another address he replied:

My course of action has not been dictated by any desire to strain the principles of episcopal authority, but simply to secure obedience to the law, as the only guarantee of the stability of our beloved church, and, Indeed, of the rights and liberties of churchmen.

In May, the Archbishop of York issued a monition to the Rev. G. C. Ommanney, Vicar of St. Matthew's, Sheffield, directing him to discontinue eight specified ritualistic practices. The archbishop's requirements were as follow:

1. To use pure wine, and not wine mixed with water, in the holy communion. 2. To use ordinary wheaten bread in all celebrations of the holy communion, and not bread pressed so as to resemble wafer bread. 3. So to proceed in the acts of the holy communion that the congregation may see his acts. 4. To refrain from prostrating or bowing low over the elements at the time of celebration. 5. To refrain from making the sign of the cross over the elements at the time of celebration. 6. To discontinue the ceremonial of elevation of the paten and the cup. 7. To permit no person not licensed by the archbishop to officiate in any manner at the holy communion, whether such person be called server or by any other title; and 8. That the washing and cleaning of the vessels used in the holy communion shall not take place in the service, but in some place apart.

The observance of these rules was demanded in virtue of the vicar's promise of canonical obedience. Mr. Ommanney, in a published letter, declared that he did not intend to abandon the eastward position, the mixing of water and wine at the communion, and the washing of the chalice; but that, in order to promote peace in his parish, he was willing to give up making the sign of the cross and other practices that did not interfere with his conscientious convictions.

The Archbishop of York, in a letter to the church-wardens of the parish on the subject of the monition, pointed out that no person had a right to interfere and put a stop by force to ceremonies in churches.

Reorganization of Ecclesiastical Courts.-A royal commission was appointed in May, 1881, to inquire into the constitution and working of the ecclesiastical courts under existing statutes. The principal object of its work was to frame a plan for such a reconstitution of the courts having cognizance of ecclesiastical matters as would remove the objections entertained by a large party in the Church to having questions of doctrine and ritual decided by lay judges. An analysis of the report of the commission was published in August. The essential features of the scheme proposed in it are the establishment of an exclusively ecclesiastical jurisdiction in the courts of first instance and the postponement of the intervention of lay authority to the court of final resort. Under its provisions, the Diocesan Court and the Provincial Court, which were practically destroyed by the Public Worship Regulation Act, will be restored to their original vitality.

While by the Public Worship Regulation Act the co-operation in prosecution of three aggrieved parishioners was required as initiatory to the beginning of proceedings against a clergyman charged with offending in doctrine or ritual, the act proposed by the commission makes the right to begin an action open to any one, and unrestricted. It is then left discretionary with the bishop whether he shall allow the complaint to be prosecuted or shall stop it at once. If it is allowed to proceed, the bishop may, with the consent of the parties, deliver a final judgment; if this consent is not given, the case is carried before the Diocesan Court. This court will consist of the bishop, with the chancellor of the diocese, or some other person learned in the law, as legal assessor, and a theological assessor to be chosen for the occasion by the bishop, with the advice of the dean and chapter. From this court an appeal may be taken to the Provincial Court, where it may be heard, at the discretion of the archbishop, by the official principal of the province, or by the archbishop himself, with the official principal as assessor, in which case the archbishop is empowered to appoint any number of theological assessors, not exceeding five, to sit with the court. The theological assessor must be either a bishop within the province, or a professor, past or present, of one of the English universities. From the Provincial Court an appeal will lie to the Crown, which is to exercise its prerogative through an entirely new court, composed of "a permanent body of lay judges, learned in the law," of whom not less than five shall be summoned for each case, by the lord chancellor, in rotation. In doctrinal cases, this court may, only on demand of one or more of its members, consult experts, namely, the archbishop or bishops of the province, or of both provinces. The court shall not be bound to give the reasons for its decisions; but, if it does state its reasons, each judge shall deliver his own judgment separately; and only the bare words of the decree shall be legally binding. On this feature of the proposition, the report furnishes the explanation: "Considering how widely different a matter the legal interpretation of documents must often be from the definition of doctrine, we hold it to be essential that only the actual decree, as dealing with the particular case, should be of binding authority in the judgments hitherto or hereafter to be delivered, and that the reasoning in support of those judgments and the obiter dicta should always be allowed to be reconsidered and disputed." Should a clergyman refuse to obey the sentence of a church court, he is to be punished, not by imprisonment, but by a temporary suspension. A second disobedience shall be followed by another suspension, and disobedience for the third time by suspension until the court is satisfied. Disobedience to a sentence of suspension may be visited, after three months' notice, with deprivation; and any cler

gyman who, during suspension or deprivation, attempts to conduct divine service in a church forbidden to him, may be charged with disturbance of public worship. The practical effect of the act, if it is adopted by Parliament, will be to repeal the Public Worship Regulation Act, and restore the old courts to their pristine vigor. By its provisions, the Dean of Arches is to be elected, and to be required to qualify in the ancient way. All spiritual sentences are to be pronounced by the bishop in person in the Diocesan Court, and by the archbishop in the Provincial Court. And the two primates are to be empowered, if they think fit, to appoint the same person as official principal for both provinces.

Some of the features of the scheme of the commission have been criticised in the discussions to which it has been subjected. Eight of the 23 members of the commission itself expressed objections to the power of vetoing the continuance of proceedings given by it to the bishop. Among these are the Lord ChiefJustice and the Archbishop of York. The archbishop remarked, in expressing his dissent, that under the operation of this rule the courts might be entirely closed to laymen. The Lord Chief-Justice, while he admitted that the power of prosecution might be liable to abuse, if no trammels were put upon it, thought it better to run the risk of abuse than to override the rights of the laity, and expressed himself perfectly confident that "competent judges, with absolute power of costs, would very soon restrain, and indeed altogether put an end to nerely frivolous litigation." Similar objections were made by the Church Association, which devoted the entire session of its autumnal conference in October to the discussion of the report. Besides this point, a number of speakers at the Church Congress, and the chairman of the Church Association, offered objections to the feature of the constitution of the final court of laymen. The Executive Committee of the Liberation Society has published a statement of objections to the proposed measure. It deprecates the investment with judicial authority of bishops and judges appointed by the archbishops, so long as the Church continues to be a national establishment, and protests against the recommendation that the members of the courts shall declare themselves to be "members of the Church of England as by law established," as involving a civil disqualification on ecclesiastical grounds, as placing members of the Church of England on a different footing from Nonconformists in regard to the administration of justice, and as being inconsistent with the position of that Church as a national institution.

The Liberation Society.-The triennial conference of the Liberation Society was held May 1st. Mr. H. P. Richard, M. P., presided. The report represented that the friends of religious equality, who had waited during the abnormal pressure on Parliament, now claimed that the

question of disestablishment should be dealt with by the Legislature. The educational work of the society during the past three years had been carried on on a large scale. As many as 3,074,000 publications had been issued, and 1,247 meetings had been held. During the course of the meetings Mr. John Bright made a speech censuring the Established Church for inefficiency. He discussed the questions, Is the state the better for its union with the Church? or is the Church the better for its union with the state? The theory of many supporters of the union was that the Church tends to make the state_more Christian—that is, more just and gentle, more merciful and peaceful. That theory the speaker declared to be "unsound and baseless." The bishops of the Established Church in the House of Lords had never exercised their influence in behalf of Christian and generous legislation. In respect to the criminal code, when it was most barbarous, the bishops and the clergy never raised a voice against the cruelty of the laws. The Church had provided no check, and uttered no denunciation of the country's incessant wars. "I complain, then," he added, "of the Established Church in this broad manner, that it does nothing to guide the state in the way of righteousness; that it is, in certain respects, the bond-slave of the state; that, in all the great matters which must affect our country, the bishops and the clergy are dumb, and their activity is shown only when any comparatively small measure is discussed which they think treads a little upon their position and their supremacy." He predicted a better future for the Church as a church, and as an object of popular affection, after it shall have been disestablished.

The Church Congress.-The Church Congress met at Reading, Oct. 2d. The Bishop of Oxford, being the bishop of the diocese in which the congress was held, presided, and delivered the opening address. He spoke of the subjects which would engross the attention of the meeting as being such as men of academic culture, serious thinkers, and ardent seekers after knowledge might properly discuss. The statement of them implied no foregone conclusion, and assumed no contradiction to exist between the great generalizations of science and the Chris tian faith. Believers in the one source of truth and life, the members of the congress could not conceive of any physical discovery which should destroy that faith; but they did not, therefore, separate themselves from the votaries of science, or ask them to be untrue to themselves; but rather believed that the seeming contradictions would disappear. The president also spoke of the subjects relating to social morality that were upon the programme of the congress, particularly on the one concerning the proposition to repeal the prohibition of marriage with a deceased wife's sister. He knew, he said, the bishops were threatened with expulsion from the House of Lords because they refused

to support a measure of which its friends could not give an intelligible account. He was not tenacious of temporal honors, and he hoped they would not forfeit their place by cowardice, political corruption, slavish adherence to a party, or subserviency to a court. He, however, should feel no sense of shame if the bishops gave the vote which was fatal to themselves in defense of the purity of English homes, and the teaching of the word of God." Papers on "Recent Advances in Natural Science in Relation to the Christian Faith were read by Prof. Flower, the Bishop of Carlisle, and the Rev. Aubrey Moore. The general expression of the discussion was to the effect that the newly developed theory of evolution, irrespective of its scientific value, which was regarded favorably, had nothing in it contrary either to the idea of an intelligent Creator or to the Bible. The Bishop of Carlisle affirmed that recent advances in natural science do not lead logically, and therefore ought not to lead at all, to either unbelief or atheism. The Rev. Aubrey Moore asked whether it is too much to believe that the time will come when we shall see in evolution, modified perhaps by wider knowledge-conditioned certainly by truths drawn from another sphere-a fuller revelation in nature than now seems possible for man of the wonderful works of God? On the subject, "Recent Advances in Biblical Criticism in their Relation to the Christian Faith," papers were read by the Rev. T. K. Cheyne on "Old Testament Criticism," by Prof. Sanday on "New Testament Criticism, and by Colonel Sir C. W. Wilson and Canon Rawlinson on "Historical Discovery."

Special interest was taken in the discussions on "the Marriage Laws," in view of the pending applications for relaxing the restrictions upon marriages of affinity. The speakers all opposed the relaxation sought.

The subject of "Ecclesiastical Courts" was discussed during two sessions, with especial reference to the report of the commission on the reorganization of those courts. Among the speakers were Dr. Hayman, Canon Trevor, Mr. Sydney Gedge, Lord Edward Churchill, the Rev. Dr. Porter, Prof. Burrows, of Oxford, the Bishop of Winchester, Mr. W. G. F. Phillimore, the Rev. Dr. Hay, of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States, and Mr. Beresford-Hope, M. P. Two points elicited differences of opinion. They were the proposed constitution of the Court of Final Appeal of Laymen, and the provision in the plan projected by the commission for allowing the bishop a veto on the initiation of proceedings in the courts. Other subjects discussed in the congress were the prevention of pauperism, "personal religion," education in the universities and in the public schools, and "the relations of the Church at home to the Church in the colonies and in missionary dioceses."

Woman's Work.—A session was given to the subject of woman's work in connection with

the Church. A suggestion by one of the speakers that women engaging in organizations for dealing with sorrow and misery should take vows of celibacy, was met by a proposition by the Bishop of Lincoln that the ceremony should be postponed till the women are sixty years old. The subject of the promotion of personal purity, and the prevention of the degradation of women and children, was considered in a private session.

Episcopal Synod of Canada. — The Anglican Church of British North America is divided into two provincial synods, one of which is composed of the Dioceses of Canada and the Maritime Provinces, with the Bishop of Fredericton as metropolitan; and the other, constituted in 1873, includes the Dioceses of the Northwest Territories, with the Bishop of Rupert's Land as metropolitan.

The Provincial Synod of Canada met in triennial session in Montreal, September 12th. The Dioceses of Nova Scotia, Quebec, Toronto, Fredericton, Ontario, Montreal, Huron, and Niagara, were represented by their bishops and by delegates. The Rev. Charles Hamilton, of Quebec, was elected prolocutor of the synod. The Central Board of Domestic Missions presented its first triennial report. It showed that the eight dioceses had during the past three years contributed $34,396 to the work of domestic missions, and $23,878 to the mission fund. The principal objects of missionary work were in Algoma and the Northwest. The Central Board of Foreign Missions reported that its receipts for the past three years had been $6,743. The report of the board closed with a recommendation that it be amalgamated with the Board of Domestic Missions; and a proposition was introduced for the organization of a Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Church of England in Canada. A memorial from the Diocese of Niagara requested the enactment of a canon for the promotion of greater uniformity in the rubric worship of the Church. The committee to which the subject was referred reported that it was at present impossible to frame in the dogmatic form of a canon what should be considered legal or illegal in the private ministrations of ritual, but that clergymen should be advised to submit to the ruling of their bishops in all matters connected with worship as to the legality of which doubts are entertained, or controversy shall have arisen. The Diocese of Montreal sent in a memorial, setting forth its claims to be the metropolitan see, averring that it had never ceased to protest against the action of the Provincial Synod in appointing another than the Bishop of Montreal as metropolitan, as illegal, and asking for a reconsideration of the question. No change was made in the present rule, which vests the selection of the metropolitan in the House of Bishops. A committee appointed to consider the subject of the employment of women in the work of the Church reported,

recommending the recognition of deaconesses and sisterhoods. Objection being made to the feature of sisterhoods, the synod, "adopting the principle of the desirability of making arrangements for the better employment of Christian women in the work of the Church," but without binding itself to the provisions of the report, referred it back to the committee to prepare a canon on the subject to be presented at the next session. Satisfaction was expressed at the success of the recent Church Congress, with the declaration that the organization and conduct of such bodies ought to be free from any synodical action.

The first Church Congress of the Episcopal Church in Canada was held at Hamilton in June. The Bishop of Niagara presided, and the meeting was attended by a number of clergymen from the United States. Among the subjects considered were those of clerical education, the attitude clergymen should occupy toward popular literature and recreation, "Lay Co-operation," "the Revised Version of the New Testament," "Modern Doubts and Difficulties," "Woman's Work in the Church," and "Church Music."

Anglican Churches in South Africa and Australia.— The question whether the Diocese of Natal, South Africa, shall be continued has been raised by the death of Bishop John William Colenso. Bishop Colenso was, in 1863, declared by the Bishop of Cape Town to be deposed from his office for certain heretical doctrines which he was found to have published. The validity of the act of deposition was not established, and the Colonial Assembly of Natal, in 1872, passed an act vesting in Bishop Colenso the property belonging to the See of Natal. In the meantime, the Diocese of Maritzburg had been founded in 1869, with jurisdiction extending over the colony of Natal, and conflicting with the jurisdiction claimed for the Bishop of Natal. If the bishopric of Natal were allowed to lapse, the conflict of jurisdictions would be quietly terminated. The authority of the Bishop of Maritzburg is recognized by the other South African dioceses, while that of the Bishop of Natal is acknowledged only by those immediately connected with the diocese. The Diocese of Natal includes seven clergymen, all but two of whom were ordained by Bishop Colenso after he was excommunicated, with fifteen churches, three of which are closed and two are connected with native work, while two are in the hands of the Diocese of Maritzburg. The latter diocese has thirty-four clergymen, seven of whom are missionaries to the heathen, while three others have native work, superintended by themselves, going on in their parishes; and thirty-two churches, seven of which are devoted to native work.

The bishopric of Sydney, which includes the metropolitanate and the Episcopal primacy of Australia, having become vacant, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York and the Bishops of Durham, Rochester, and Liverpool have,

on request, recommended the Rev. Canon Alfred Barry, D. D., Principal of King's College, London, as a suitable candidate for the office.

Anglican Church in Norway.-The foundationstone of an English Episcopal church has been laid in Christiania, Norway. The ceremonies were superintended by Sir Horace Rumbold, the British minister resident at the court of Norway and Sweden, and were witnessed by the Norwegian Minister of State and other members of the royal government, and the ecclesiastical, military, and civil authorities. ANTISEPTICS. See SURGERY.

ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. Area.-Since the settlement of the boundary question with Chili, in October, 1881, the Argentine territory embraces an area of 1,168,682 square miles. Before that settlement, the republic was credited with but 841,000* square miles (including the undisputed portion of the Gran Chaco), Patagonia having then been treated as a separate region.

Population. In no other country in the western hemisphere, save the United States, has the population grown so rapidly as in the Argentine Republic. From 620,730 in 1836, it had reached 1,526,738 (an increase of 146 per cent.) in 1869; and in an official publication issued in September, 1882, it was estimated at 2,942,000, as follows:

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Of the total number of inhabitants, as given in that table, the classification by nationalities was as follows: 2,578,255 Argentine citizens; 123,641 Italians; 55,432 French; 59,022 Spaniards; 8,616 Germans; 17,950 English; and 99,084 of various other nationalities.

* Details concerning territorial divisions, population, etc., may be found in the Annual Cyclopædia" for 1872, 1877, and 1878.

The new capital of this province, La Plata, was founded Nov. 19, 1852, on the banks of the river of the same name, having been constituted the Federal capital by the law of Sept. and thirty miles southeast of Buenos Ayres, the latter city 21, 1850.

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