14 



ANGLICAN CHURCHES. 



the following resolutions, which they have now the 

 honor to submit as their report, viz. : 



1. That no settlement of ecclesiastical judicature 

 will be satisfactory which does not proceed upon the 

 principle that the ancient canonical courts oe pre- 

 served, subject to such amendments as may be 

 deemed necessary, and shall receive synodical ap- 

 proval. 



2. That all ecclesiastical judges be, as far as pos- 

 sible, canonically qualified and commissioned. 



3. That the Archdeacon's Court be retained, and 

 strengthened if necessary. 



4. That all questions relating to doctrine, ritual, 

 and discipline, except such as come under the juris- 

 diction of the archdeacon, be referred, in the first in- 

 stance, to the bishop, who may stay all proceedings, 

 or hear the cause either in camera or in his court, as 

 he may determine. 



5. 'f'hat the ancient provincial courts of Canterbury 

 and York be retained with their separate jurisdic- 

 tions. 



6. That, in accordance with the constitution of this' 

 Church and realm, the right of appeal for the main- 

 tenance of justice in all ecclesiastical causes lies to the 

 Crown. 



7. That, in cases of appeal to the Crown for the 

 maintenance of justice in questions involving doctrine 

 or ritual, the judgment of the spirituality shall be re- 

 quired on the precise points of doctrine or ritual 

 which are involved, and that such judgment of the 

 spirituality be made public. 



8. That for the purpose of the seventh resolution 

 the term " spirituality " be taken to mean the Upper 

 Houses of the two convocations, assisted, if they 

 think fit, by learned divines of the Church of Eng- 

 land. 



9. That when those who are appointed to hear the 

 appeal are not unanimous, they shall give their opin- 

 ions seriatim. 



10. That when a clerk has been acquitted, no appeal 

 be allowed. 



11. That when on appeal to the Crown the judg- 

 ment of the Church court is to be varied, the cause 

 should be remitted to the court the judgment of 

 which is appealed against, in order that justice 

 may be done therein accoraing to the order of the 

 Crown. 



12. That, in accordance with canon 122, whenso- 

 ever in any cause the sentence is of a spiritual charac- 

 ter ? such as exclusion from the Church, excommuni- 

 cation, or degradation, or of a mixed character, such 

 as suspension ab officio et beneficio, or deprivation, the 

 sentence be pronounced by the archbishop or the bish- 

 op himself in open court. 



13. That it is desirable that, in addition to any 

 statutory enactments which may be recommended, her 

 Majesty be requested to grant to the clergy in their 

 convocations her royal assent and license to enact 

 such canons as may be found necessary. 



Measures concerning pluralities and the 

 union of benefices, the performance of ecclesi- 

 astical duties, the constitution and manage- 

 ment of Queen Anne's Bounty and Patronage, 

 were also discussed ; and a large share of the 

 attention of both bodies was occupied with the 

 consideration of the case of the Rev. S. F. 

 Green, Vicar of St. John's, Miles Platting, 

 who was lying in prison for contumacy in re- 

 fusing to obey an admonition of court ordering 

 him to discontinue ritualistic practices. 



At the meeting of the Convocation of Can- 

 terbury in May, a committee was appointed to 

 make inquiries for the purpose of ascertaining 

 the tenets and practices of the members of the 

 Salvation Army, and to consider how far it 

 was possible to attach that body to the 



Church, and "generally to advise the clergy 

 as to their duty in the matter." 



CASE OF REV. S. F. GREEN. The case of 

 the Rev. S. F. Green, of Miles Platting, the 

 clergyman imprisoned for contumacy, con- 

 tinued to occupy the attention of the public, 

 the clergy, and the convocations, without de- 

 veloping any incidents of striking novelty. 

 Early in the year, Mr. Green replied to a num- 

 ber of letters of sympathy which he had re- 

 ceived, saying: 



There are three great principles involved in our 

 present struggle, and all alike are matters of the first 

 consequence : 1. The rights of the Church. 2. Our 

 rights as citizens to the benefit of the law. 3. Our 

 rights as men to religious liberty. "What the end may 

 be we can not forecast, but surely, if we be faithful to 

 God, the future must be in our own hands. 



All hope that the Government could be in- 

 duced to intervene in behalf of the prisoner 

 under the existing conditions was cut off by 

 the Home Secretary's replying to a request for 

 such intervention made by some of Mr. Green's 

 friends, that " the powers of the Crown to dis- 

 charge persons from custody would not be 

 rightly or even constitutionally exercised in 

 the case of a person imprisoned for contempt 

 of court, committed by a persistent disobe- 

 dience to a competent tribunal." The case of 

 Mr. Green was brought to the attention of the 

 Convocation of Canterbury at its session in 

 February, in the form of a gravamen adopted 

 by the Lower House expressing the universal 

 feeling of regret and uneasiness at his con- 

 tinued imprisonment, and praying the bishops 

 to interfere for his release, either by memorial 

 to the Crown, or in any other way which they 

 might think desirable. In the discussion fol- 

 lowing the presentation of this petition in the 

 Upper Hou!?e, the Bishop of Lincoln ?poke of 

 the pain with which the whole body regarded 

 the imprisonment of Mr. Green. The Bishop 

 of Peterborough controverted the plea that 

 Mr. Green was entitled to consideration be- 

 cause he was acting conscientiously, saying that, 

 " if they once allowed a man to set up a plea 

 of conscience against the authority of law, of 

 course there was an absolute end of law. 

 When a man sets up the plea of conscience 

 against law, one of two things is certain to 

 happen. The community must either feel the 

 law to be unjust, and repeal or amend it; or, 

 the community, considering the man's con- 

 science ill-informed, must retain the law, and 

 the man must suffer." He, however, con- 

 demned the manner in which the Church As- 

 sociation had undertaken to enforce the law, 

 intimating that they had acted very unwisely 

 in locking the defendant up when other reme- 

 dies less violent and less liable to provoke 

 sympathy were provided ; and when by wait- 

 ing three years they might have deprived the 

 offending clergyman of his living ; and insisted 

 that the course taken by the promoters of the 

 suit against him was diametrically opposed to 

 the whole spirit of the Public Worship Regu- 



