After the oath has been administered to the clerk by a justice of the peace, or some other duly authorized official, the election by ballot of a moderator is in order. An affirmative majority vote, of those present and voting, in favor of incorporation is sufficient. This having been secured, some person or committee may present a series of by-laws for the proposed corporation, which, after discussion, should be voted upon article by article.

Then follows the election, by ballot, of the officers, including a "Standing Committee" of not less than three nor more than seven members, and any others required by the by-laws, the oath being administered to the permanent clerk.

The call for the meeting (with the sworn statement of the subscriber that the legal requirements had been fulfilled), the records of the meeting, including the by-laws adopted and the officers elected (with the sworn statements of the temporary clerk and of the permanent clerk as to their accuracy), and a formal application for incorporation, signed by a majority of the "Standing Committee" elected by the corporation, should be sent to the Commissioner of Corporations in Boston, with five dollars. In due time the papers of incorporation will be forwarded.

The church can become a corporation without any action on the part of the "society," even against the wish of the "society," but cannot possess itself of the property nor assume the society's privileges and obligations, until the latter by a three-fourths vote of those present and voting at a duly called meeting has sanctioned the transfer. One church was quietly incorporated, and in about a year the "society" voluntarily gave place to it; and another incorporated church now is waiting patiently and expectantly for the "society" to abdicate, that the church may become the temporal and spiritual sovereign in her own domain.

Unless by-laws specifically state restrictions and conditions of membership, all resident church-members of twenty-one years of age and upward are, in virtue of that membership, members of the corporation; and though not present at the meeting, share all the privileges and responsibilities of the corporation. The property of the corporation alone, and not that of its members, is liable for its financial obligations.

All papers, for some of which there are blank forms, should be drawn and all steps taken under the direction of legal counsel.

Most churches, thus far, under this act, have incorporated the ecclesiastical body, thereby making all its acts corporate. This method presents serious objections. A corporation should have certain technical restrictions which would embarrass a church. Every corporation meeting, for example, should be announced one week previous by a posted written notice. A church, however, should be free to transact business at any of its regular gatherings. How often invitations to councils and other such matters present themselves and demand immediate action! A corporation allowing the transaction of business on all such occasions, without previous notice, would be sadly defective; but a church, restricted as a corporation should be, often would be hampered.

But another more serious objection presents itself. If the church is thus incorporated, all church-members under twenty-one are excluded from voting in the calling of a pastor, the election of spiritual officers, and in the settlement of every ecclesiastical as well as financial question. If any limitation in church suffrage is necessary, spiritual qualifications rather than age should be made the test.

How many earnest consecrated Christians, some now efficient officers, some faithful teachers, would be excluded from active participation in deciding the action of the church! Such exclusion is inexpedient, unfair, and fortunately not necessary.

The Eastern Avenue Church of Springfield, being without a "society," desired incorporation, but objected to such restrictions.

Counsel having been consulted, it was found that all the advantages of incorporation without these disadvantages could be secured by the following plan. The ecclesiastical organization is left intact, as in any church having a "society," with its customary privileges and responsibilities, and with its own officers, by-laws, and records.

As in the other plan of securing incorporation, a meeting is called of resident church-members of twenty-one years of age and upward. They vote however not that the church shall be incorporated; but that a corporation shall be formed with its own by-laws, officers, and records; that its membership shall consist of all resident members, of twenty-one years of age and upward, of that particular church; that its object shall be to hold the property and manage the temporal affairs of that church; and that it shall have only such powers as the church intrusts to it. The result is, an ecclesiastical church and a corporate church, which really are identical the former transacting all ecclesiastical business according to customary methods and allowing all church-members full privileges, the latter managing the financial affairs according to legal requirements and withholding the ballot from minors.

No confusion need arise, even in daily conversation, the one being termed the church and the other the corporation. Nor is this plan, whereby the same individuals act both as an unincorporated ecclesiastical body and as an incorporated financial company, without precedent. In one case in Springfield it has worked satisfactorily several years without friction or confusion.

Thus all the advantages of church incorporation can be secured without these disadvantages, and the law proves to be eminently satisfactory. Edwin H. Byington.

SPRINGFIELD, MASS.

NOTE. Since writing the above I came across the following, which shows that the plan under consideration is not new, but falls in the line of the development of Congregational polity. Rev. H. M. Dexter in the "Congregational Quarterly" of October, 1864, in an article on the Church and Parish, says: "There are three methods under which the ordinary work of an ecclesiastical organization in any given locality may be performed, its offices sustained, and its labors upon the world around managed.

I. The Church, simple and alone. This is the New Testament plan.

II. The Church, for all secular purposes acting as a parish. This would involve the existence of a legally formed "society" or parish, whose constitution should identify its membership with that of the church. The result would be that the same individuals would constitute both the Church and Society, and when acting in one form and under one set of by-laws would be the church, and when acting in another form and another set of by-laws would be the parish.

III. The Church and Parish, the common method of the present time.”
E. H. B.

NOTES FROM ENGLAND.

THE religious element affects two great questions in British politics, our national education, and the Church of England as a political institution established by law. Both of these questions have been prominent lately. The position of the national education question is in brief this: that the schools and colleges under the control of Anglican clergymen demand additional money grants from the Government, which the House of Commons is unwilling to allow unless the education given is more efficient, or unless popular control takes the place of the management of the clergy. The Government some months ago introduced for the approval of Parliament a new Education Code, regulating afresh the requirements expected of schools entitled to state aid: this code was generally admitted to be a great advance from an educational point of view; but it was unsatisfactory to the clergy, because it demanded better instruction, better schools, and wider range of subjects, without giving what they considered an adequate increase of grant. The result is that this new code has been withdrawn, and educationalists must be still content with a lower standard of instruction till the quarrel between the parties of clerical and popular control can be settled, or the government of the day is strong and determined enough to displease one or both of them. In like manner, a bill introduced into Parliament to promote technical education has failed to become law, chiefly owing to this same rivalry between the clerical and popular parties. It is certainly a deplorable fact that national ends of admitted utility and value are sacrificed to ecclesiastical jealousy of the people or popular jealousy of the church.

The constitutional aspect of the religious problem, the question of retaining a state church, was prominent at the general election of 1885, since which it has retreated into the background. But it is now beginning again to excite attention. This is partly due to a motion in favor of the disestablishment of the church in Wales having been brought forward in the House of Commons: the motion, though lost by fifty-three votes, was supported by the official members of the Liberal party, which is now pledged to carry out this reform when it again attains to power. It is true that Mr. Gladstone, the great Liberal leader, took no part in the debate nor in the voting, but he has since explained his action, and his adhesion to disestablishment for Wales has been given. At the same time Mr. Gladstone spoke of the claim of the Scotch to the disestablishment of their Kirk, which he considers an easier, if not a more desirable, object. He even referred to the disestablishment of the church in England with qualified approval, but viewing this as an event which would not be in his lifetime.

Though the disestablishment of the Church of England may not be at present within the range of practical politics, it is not far outside that range, and it might easily be brought within it. The trial of the Bishop of Lincoln for ritualistic practices, to which reference has been made in previous "Notes from England," continues to progress very slowly; but the progress made during the last three months gives encouragement to those whose sympathies are with the prosecution: the Court of the Archbishop decided that it had jurisdiction to try him, and decided against the plea that a bishop is not included in the word "minister," a plea

which if established would have succeeded in preventing his condemnation. If, as seems quite possible, the Bishop be finally condemned and commanded to desist from these ritualistic ceremonies in question, the position of the Church of England may become very critical. The Bishop has the sympathy of a majority of the clergy, and of a large number of very vigorous and enthusiastic laymen, who desire to have freedom, as their leader, Lord Halifax, lately said, "to celebrate the Holy Communion, the Mass in English, in the old traditional way." This party claims that “it is impossible to dissociate ritual from doctrine." Consequently, if the Bishop of Lincoln is condemned for celebrating the "Mass" in the way which he deems absolutely essential, one cannot say how the position of the disestablishment question may not be altered or improved, possibly even by a large number of churchmen favoring freedom from state control as their only means of attaining what they consider essential truth.

Another question, semi-political and semi-ecclesiastical, which is a constant bone of contention, is the question of tithes. There is at present before Parliament a bill which aims at making the collection of tithes more easy for the clergy and other possessors of tithes. The bill is likely to be dropped before long; but discussion upon it has shown what a complicated and dangerous subject this is. Tithes are paid in England on the value of land at a rate varying with the average price of corn; in some places the land is tithe free; but in most parishes, especially in agricultural parts, it is a serious burden. Generally the tithes go to the clergyman of the parish, and in these cases the payment may be a grievance if the people are dissatisfied with their clergyman, or the tithepayer is not a member of the Established Church. In some parts the tithes go to persons or corporate bodies at a distance; for instance, some parishes in Wales pay their tithes to colleges of Oxford University, from which they derive no benefit whatever, or a very distant and uncertain benefit: here tithes are felt to be intolerable, and the demand is for a radical reform which shall hand over the tithes to local objects, such as educational institutions or relief of local taxation. The whole question is one of extraordinary complexity and difficulty, and time alone will decide whether it can be satisfactorily handled apart from, or in conjunction with, the disestablishment of the church.

During the last month a social event has excited interest among all classes, the betrothal and marriage of the eldest daughter of the Prince of Wales to the Earl (now the Duke) of Fife. Of course any event of this kind gives endless opportunities for gossip and rumor, and is a godsend to the illustrated papers. But it has also roused a political controversy, as the announcement of the betrothal was accompanied by a message from her Majesty the Queen to the House of Commons requesting that provision be made for the eldest son and eldest daughter of the heirapparent. As the total cost of the royal family is nearly one million sterling per annum, some members of Parliament have been unwilling to sanction any further grant to the royal family, and considerably over one hundred members were willing to undergo the unpleasant reproach of want of loyalty by voting against any further grant. This is taken to show that, if at the beginning of another reign the Liberal party are in power, the present method of paying the royal family will be altered.

A large sum is now voted from the Consolidated Fund for what is called the Civil List, which provides for the cost of the court officials, the maintenance of the royal palaces, parks, yachts, etc. Besides this, the Queen has sixty thousand pounds (300,000 dollars) annually for her own privy purse, and sums over from the Civil List are transferred to the privy purse of the Crown. Owing largely to the comparative retirement in which Queen Victoria has lived for several years, large sums are known to have been so handed over to her privy purse, and it has been stated, and not denied, that her private savings amount to upwards of three millions. The secrecy which shrouds the actual truth, and the suggestions and suspicions thereby aroused, are no doubt unfortunate, and the cause of some discontent. This feeling has been aggravated by the fact that a number of the daughters and granddaughters of the Queen have married German princes, more or less impecunious, and have received through them allowances or dowries, which have come from the English tax-payer's pocket. All this may possibly be altered at the beginning of a new reign, when the money arrangements for the maintenance of the royal dignity are revised and determined afresh. Any objection to our monarchy on the mere ground of its expense is felt by all serious politicians to be of very little weight; but in a democracy, such as Britain is now more and more becoming, such objections may have a sinister influence. Open republican ideas are rarely expressed among us; and it is felt that a monarchical constitution is well adapted to preserve the sense of unity and solidarity, which is not readily understood in all parts of a vast empire on which the sun never sets, and which contains so many differences of climate, language, race, religion, and institutions.

Mention may be made of two books, which are both hopeful signs of the times, and which show the desire to understand the historical and political development of other countries as well as of our own. "The Swiss Confederation," by Sir F. O. Adams and C. D. Cunningham (London, Macmillan, 1889), describes the growth of the Swiss Republic and its present political and social life. An Englishman reading it longs for his own country to learn from the Swiss how the public services may be economically as well as efficiently carried out, and the lesson of a simple, harmonious, and most thorough system of national education. The study of Swiss politics ought to be of value to our statesmen, and the recent Swiss experiment of making the liquor traffic a Government monopoly, which is only just noted in this book, may be productive of very good results. Americans ought to find this work of value, if only because it contains a chapter on the comparison of Swiss and United States political institutions.

Dr. Sophie Bryant's "Celtic Ireland" (London, Kegan Paul, 1889) is a study of the Celtic racial element in the history and customs of the "sister isle," and indirectly suggests that a solution of the Irish Question in politics must start by recognizing the national sentiment of the Irish people. The book does not lay claim to original research, but is remarkable in connecting antiquarian and historical learning with the life and problems of to-day: as such it is a type of book not yet sufficiently Joseph King, Jr.

common.

HAMPSTEAD, LONDON.