ANGLICAN CHURCHES. 



33 



commission ; nnd Unit, if this right were taken 

 away, grave injury would result to the Church 

 tVum power being given to foolish, frivolous, 

 or vindictive persons to set the law in motion. 

 The Court decided, March 8th, that a manda- 

 mus should bo issued directing the Bishop to 

 issue a commission of inquiry. The Lord Chief 

 Justice, iu giving the judgment of the Court, 

 said that two questions were raised by the pro- 

 ceedings : first, whether the language of the 

 Church Discipline Act imposed a duty on the 

 Bishop which he was bound to fulfill, or mere- 

 ly gave him a discretionary power which he 

 might exercise or not at his option ; and, sec- 

 ondly, whether the Church Discipline Act had 

 been superseded by the Public "Worship Regu- 

 lation Act of 1874. In regard to the meaning 

 of the Church Discipline Act, it was a settled 

 canon of construction that, where an act au- 

 thorized the doing of a thing for the sake of 

 justice and for the public good, the words " it 

 shall be lawful" were to be road in a compul- 

 sory sense. The statute in question was passed 

 with the view of enforcing the rights of pa- 

 rishioners to have the service of the parish 

 church performed according to law, and the 

 power given to the Bishop to issue a commis- 

 sion to inquire into the matter was certainly 

 one to be exercised for the sake of justice and 

 the public good. The statute had reference to 

 the administration of justice in ecclesiastical 

 offenses; and the maintenance of the doctrines 

 and ritual of the established religion, for the 

 uniformity of which so many acts have been 

 passed, could not be other than a matter of 

 national interest and concern. Moreover, it 

 was the undoubted right of every inhabitant 

 of every parish in the kingdom, who desired to 

 frequent the parish church, to have the services 

 performed according to the ritual established 

 by law, without having his religious sense 

 shocked and outraged by the introduction of 

 innovations not sanctioned by law nor consist- 

 ent with usage, and which appeared to him in- 

 consistent with the simplicity of worship of 

 the Church of England. Reading the whole 

 of the act together, and looking at the state 

 of the law previous to its being passed, their 

 lordships were of the opinion that the act im- 

 posed a duty upon the Bishop which he might 

 be compelled to exercise. Their lordships 

 were further of opinion that the Church Dis- 

 cipline Act was still in force, and had not been 

 superseded by the later act. The Bishop ap- 

 pealed against this decision to the Supreme 

 Court of Appeal, which decided, May 30th, in 

 his favor, reversing the decision of the Court 

 of Queen's Bench. The decision was given by 

 Lord Justice Bramwell, who held that prima 

 facie the words "it shall be lawful," in the 

 third section of the Church Discipline Act, con- 

 stituted a discretion. In the present case, he 

 thought, the discretion had been erroneously 

 exercised. 



The eightieth anniversary meeting of the 

 Church Missionary Society was held in Lon- 

 VOL. six. 3 A 



don r May 5th. The total available income of 

 the Society for the year had been 187,285, 

 and the total expenditure had been 204,186. 

 The total deficit for the last two years, which 

 had to be taken from the Society's working 

 capital, was 24,757. The sum of 35,000 

 had been deposited with the Society in trust 

 for the development of an evangelistic native 

 agency in connection with the native churches 

 in India, and 10,601 had been given for oth- 

 er special objects, making the whole amount 

 intrusted to the Society during the year 232,- 

 836. Fifteen qualified laborers had been ac- 

 cepted for the work of the Society, and four- 

 teen others had been accepted a* suitable to be 

 trained in the missionary college. 



The Board of the Society for the Propaga- 

 tion of the Gospel in November, 1878, adopted 

 a resolution altering the rule respecting the ex- 

 amination of candidates, so that candidates se- 

 lected by a colonial bishop or his commissioner 

 need not be required to pass the Board of 

 Examiners. The resolution was regarded as 

 being in the interest of ritualism, since the im- 

 mediate occasion of its being offered had been, 

 the rejection of a candidate by the Board of 

 Examiners on the ground, as was alleged, of 

 his being a member of the Society of the Holy 

 Cross ; and dissatisfaction was excited among 

 officers and members of the Society by its pas- 

 sage. The Bishops of Gloucester and Bristol 

 and of Peterborough declared that they would 

 resign their offices as Vice-Presidents of the 

 Society if it were not rescinded ; and animated 

 discussions were had over it at the meetings 

 of the Board. At a meeting of the Society 

 held February 2, 1879, the resolution in ques- 

 tion was rescinded, and a committee was ap- 

 pointed to consider the by-laws bearing upon 

 the subject and all matters affecting their 

 working. 



The annual meeting of the Society for the 

 Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Partt 

 was held in London, April 29th. The Arch- 

 bishop of Canterbury presided. The receipts 

 of the Society had been 145,223, or about 

 3,000 less than the receipts of the previous 

 year. There had been employed during the 

 year, in various fields of labor, 567 missiona- 

 ries, as follows: In Asia, 135 ; in Africa, 121 ; 

 in Australia and the Pacific, 61 ; in America 

 and the West Indies, 248 ; in Europe, 2. The 

 force of the Society also included about 1,200 

 catechists and lay teachers, mostly natives in 

 heathen countries, and about 250 students in 

 colleges abroad. 



The Rev. Dr. Baring, Bishop of Durham, 

 having resigned his office in consequence of ill- 

 ness, an address was sent him by 531 of the 

 clergy of the diocese, in which it was stated 

 that during his eighteen years' administration 

 of the diocese 119 new churches and 188 paro- 

 chial schools had been erected, 130 churches 

 and chapels of ease restored, 102 new parishes 

 formed and endowed, and 186 added to the 

 number of the parochial clergy. The Rev. 



