20 



ANGLICAN OHUECHES. 



protest against the disestablishment of the 

 Church was adopted by the Lower House, 

 unanimously, while, in the Upper House, the 

 Bishop of Down objected to it as unnecessary. 

 As to finance, all parties seemed to be agreed 

 that the remainder of the old possessions 

 of the Church which may be retained will re- 

 quire to be largely supplemented by private 

 liberality, if the Church is to be made effi- 

 cient. In the matter of government, the Synod 

 adopted a " Scheme for the Keform of the 

 Provincial Synods, with a view to a union of 

 the bishops, clergy, and laity of the Church of 

 Ireland in General Synod." It proposed that 

 the clergy of each diocese should meet in a 

 Diocesan Synod, and elect a certain number of 

 their brethren to represent them in a General 

 Synod, with whom were to be included one 

 dean and one archdeacon for each diocese, 

 who, with certain officers of Trinity College, 

 Dublin, were to sit ex officio. The latter part 

 of the scheme excited much discussion, and an 

 amendment, proposed by the Dean of Cashel, 

 omitting the ex-officio members, was carried, 

 after an earnest debate, by 107 to 29. It was 

 also unanimously agreed that all parochial 

 clergy, whether beneficed or not, should be 

 entitled to vote for clerical representatives, 

 and that the representation should be in the 

 proportion of one to ten in the clergy. These 

 amendments were accepted by the Lower 

 House. 



In October, there was a three days' conference 

 of lay delegates of the Irish Church in Dublin. 

 The Duke of Abercorn presided, and some 

 four hundred delegates were present, including 

 a number of noblemen, members of Parlia- 

 ment, and other influential and wealthy mem- 

 bers of the Irish Church. One of the resolu- 

 tions adopted was to the effect that the clerical 

 and lay representatives should sit and discuss 

 all questions together in the General Synod, 

 with the right to vote by orders, if demanded 

 by three of either order at the meeting. It 

 was explained that this recommendation of the 

 Conference was not to apply to Diocesan Syn- 

 ods, but to the General Convention, which is 

 bo be afterward formed. On the question of 

 the relative proportions of the representatives 

 of the dioceses, and also of the clergy and the 

 laity, a resolution was adopted, that the num- 

 ber of lay representatives for the respective 

 dioceses should be partly based on population 

 and partly on the old parochial system. As 

 regards the proportion of clergy to laity, the 

 following resolution was carried by an over- 

 whelming majority : 



That, in the opinion of this meeting, it is expe- 

 dient that the number of lay representatives in the 

 General Synod should be to the clerical in the pro- 

 portion of two to one, 



The clergy also had a private meeting, in 

 October, under the presidency of the Arch- 

 bishop of Dublin, at which it was resolved, by 

 a large majority, that the laity should have a 

 common right with the clergy to decide on 



matters of doctrine and discipline in the future 

 councils of the Church. The bishops, at a 

 meeting held in November, resolved to sit and 

 vote as a separate order, when they deem 

 proper ; or, in other words, to have the power 

 of vetoing any proposal with which they dis- 

 agree. This view of the bishops is, however, 

 by no means acceptable to a large portion of 

 the laity. At a meeting of lay delegates, held 

 at Nenagh, and presided over by Lord Eosse, 

 it was moved by Lord Dunalley, and agreed to, 

 that the meeting greatly regretted the resolu- 

 tion of the bishops, and understood "voting 

 by order " to mean, that a majority of bishops 

 and clergy together and a majority of lay rep- 

 resentatives should be sufficient to pass any 

 motion. The meeting also strongly protested 

 against the bishops having the power of a veto 

 in Diocesan Synods. 



The judgment in the case of Martin against 

 Mackonochie has been the cause of much ex- 

 citement among the advocates of ritualistic 

 doctrines and practices in the Church of Eng- 

 land. The views they have taken of the course 

 that it would be proper for them to pursue 

 have been various. Shortly after the judg- 

 ment was rendered (January 12th), a meeting 

 was held, at which Archdeacon Denison pre- 

 sided. Its action was limited to the passage 

 of resolutions, protesting against the condem- 

 nation of Mr. Mackonochie to the costs in the 

 case as " a course of unusual and exceptional 

 severity," and declaring that the meeting did 

 not consider the existing Court of Final Appeal 

 " qualified to declare the law of the Church of 

 England upon either doctrine or ceremonial ; " 

 but that, with respect to the particular judg- 

 ment of the court in Mr. Mackonochie's case, 

 the meeting, " feeling the great difficulty of the 

 present case, thinks there are many reasons 

 why those who have used the ceremonials or 

 practices now condemned by the judicial com- 

 mittee of the Privy Council may be anxious to 

 wait rather than to give immediate effect to 

 the decision so pronounced, and considers it is 

 a matter best left to the individual judgment 

 and circumstances of each priest who has been 

 accustomed to use the ceremonials in question." 



The course was generally adopted of con- 

 forming to the explicit directions of the judg- 

 ment under protest, and with the manifestation 

 of such outward signs of adherence to the the- 

 ories on which their practices were based as 

 should not directly conflict with the terms of 

 the decision. A few, of extreme views, deter- 

 mined to set the decisions at naught, regarding 

 it as their duty " explicitly to obey the law of 

 the Church on those points where it differed 

 from the law of the land, as expounded by the 

 High Court of Appeals." The English Church 

 Union adopted a resolution, offered by Dr. 

 Pusey, calling upon all churchmen to unite 

 and defend the principle on which the English 

 Church was based "namely, the appeal to 

 Catholic and primitive antiquity," and to ad- 

 dress a memorial to the convocations of both 



