14 



ANGLICAN CHUKCHES. 



Caffraria was mentioned as the first instance 

 of a Catfre admitted to the priesthood. The 

 work of the missionaries in China had suffered 

 from the famine, that in South Africa from the 

 Caffre insurrection, and that in the West Indies 

 from the struggle with the difficulties of dis- 

 endowment. Favorable reports were made of 

 the condition of missions in Australia, New 

 Zealand, and Japan. The anniversary meeting 

 of the Society, which is usually held in April, 

 was postponed till the last of June, so that the 

 colonial and American bishops who were then 

 to be present at the Pan- Anglican Synod might 

 attend it. 



The Home Reunion Society is the name of 

 an organization which has been formed for the 

 purpose of presenting the Church of England 

 in a conciliatory aspect toward those who re- 

 gard themselves as outside of its pale, and of 

 promoting the corporate reunion of all Chris- 

 tians holding the doctrines of the Trinity and 

 the Incarnation and Atonement. The Bishop 

 of Winchester is president, and several other 

 bishops are members of the council. The 

 Society professes that, although it can not sup- 

 port any scheme of comprehension which 

 compromises the three creeds or the Episcopal 

 Constitution of the Church, it "is prepared to 

 advocate all reasonable liberty in matters 

 not contravening the Church's faith, order, 

 or discipline." The annual meeting of the 

 Society was held in London, July 10th, when 

 a report was presented of its progress during 

 the year, and addresses were made by the 

 Bishop of Winchester, the Bishop of Louisiana, 

 and others. 



The annual meeting of the Society for the 

 Liberation of Religion from State Control was 

 held in London, May 15th. Mr. Henry Lee of 

 Manchester presided, in the absence of Sir 

 Wilfred Lawson, Bart., the actual president. 

 The income of the Society for the year had 

 been 16,000. Nine hundred and thirty meet- 

 ings and lectures had been held under its 

 direction during the year, and 2,320,000 copies 

 of publications had been issued, of which a 

 considerable number had been circulated in the 

 agricultural districts. Suggestions had been 

 published as to the mode in which disestablish- 

 ment could be effected. The organization for 

 promoting the objects of the Society had been 

 advanced in London by the formation of a 

 council in each of the metropolitan constituen- 

 cies. The movement for disestablishment in 

 Scotland had made great progress, notice of 

 which was taken in one of the resolutions 

 adopted at the meeting. Another resolution, 

 referring to the repeal of the Corporation and 

 Test acts, whose fiftieth anniversary was near 

 expressed thanks to Earl Russell and "to 

 others associated with him in that great strug- 

 gle who still survive," for their successful ex- 

 ertions " to diminish the civil disabilities in- 

 flicted or maintained in the interest of the 

 Church Establishment." 



The Right Rev. George Augustus Selwyn, 



Bishop of Lichfield, died in April. The Rev. 

 William Dalrymple Maclagan, vicar of Ken- 

 sington, prebendary of St. Paul's Cathedral, 

 chaplain to the Bishop of London, and hon- 

 orary chaplain to the Queen, was appointed 

 to succeed him as Bishop of Lichfield, and 

 was consecrated to that office on the 24th of 

 June. 



A final decision was given by the Queen's 

 Bench Division of the High Court of Justice in 

 the case of Martin vs. Mackonochie, which has 

 been in the ecclesiastical courts of England for 

 several years. The original suit in this case 

 was begun in June, 1874, in the shape of a 

 prosecution under the Church Discipline act 

 (3 and 4 Viet., c. 86), against the Rev. Mr. 

 Mackonochie, of St. Alban's, Holborn, for 

 breaches of the ecclesiastical law, principally 

 in the use of ornaments by the minister and 

 in the church. The case was heard in Decem- 

 ber of the same year, and the defendant was 

 suspended from his office for six weeks. Con- 

 tinuing his alleged breaches of the law after 

 his return to his church, he was served in 

 March, 1878, with a notice to appear before 

 Lord Penzance in the Court of Arches ; and 

 paying no attention to this, he was served in 

 the same month with a second monition, warn- 

 ing him to abstain from the practices mention- 

 ed in the former notice. He was also served 

 with a further notice to appear in the Court 

 of Arches on the llth of May, but did not ap- 

 pear. Lord Penzance thereupon proceeded to 

 deal with the case in his absence, and in time 

 issued a decree suspending him ab officio et a 

 ~benejicio for three years, as a punishment for 

 his contempt of the decree of the Dean of 

 Arches and the monition of Lord Penzance, 

 warning him to pay obedience to the previous 

 monition. Mr. Mackonochie then applied to 

 the Queen's Bench Division for a writ of pro- 

 hibition to restrain Lord Penzance from pub- 

 lishing and proceeding with the decree of sus- 

 pension. The decree of the Court was given 

 by a majority of one of the judges, and was 

 based upon technical grounds having no ref- 

 erence to the merits of the case. The Lord 

 Chief Justice and Chief Justice Mellor, form- 

 ing the majority of the Court, and whose opin- 

 ion carried the decision, held that the monition 

 issued to Mr. Mackonochie in the first instance 

 was in the nature of a penalty, and ended the 

 proceeding against him ; and that, therefore, 

 no further penalty could be inflicted upon him 

 without beginning a new suit. The sentence 

 of three years' suspension, being in form a con- 

 tinuance of a suit that had been closed, was 

 upon this view void. 



A general conference of the bishops of the 

 Church of England, and of the American and 

 colonial churches affiliated, with the mission- 

 ary bishops, currently spoken of as the Pan- 

 Anglican Synod, or Conference, met upon in- 

 vitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury at 

 Lambeth Palace, July 2d. The council had no 

 authority, but was a purely voluntary meeting 



