ANGLICAN CHURCHES. 



such franchises were offered at public sale, and 

 the proceedings were interrupted or stopped 

 in consequence of the demonstrations against 

 them. A like fate attended some attempts to 

 enforce the payment of vicars' rates by the 

 sale of goods levied upon for the purpose. 



DIOCESAN CONFEEENCKS. The plan of hold- 

 ing diocesan conferences in the several dio- 

 ceses, at which the clergy and laity could meet 

 together for free, informal discussion of all 

 questions affecting the interests of the Church, 

 which was first started in the diocese of Ban- 

 gor, has worked so satisfactorily that such 

 conferences have now been founded in all the 

 dioceses of England and Wales, except those of 

 "Worcester and Llandaff. The success of these 

 meetings has suggested the establishment of 

 some kind of connection between them, and 

 accordingly the organization of the Central 

 Council of Diocesan Conferences has been com- 

 pleted. The object of the organization is 

 stated in its constitution to be " to give greater 

 unity of action to diocesan conferences by con- 

 sidering, through representative members, the 

 resolutions at which such conferences may have 

 arrived, and other matters concerning the in- 

 terests of the Church which the council may 

 deem it expedient to suggest for discussion by 

 the conferences ; and so the general opinion of 

 the Church at large may be obtained on mat- 

 ters affecting its welfare, with a view to their 

 being brought prominently, if thought desir- 

 able, before the convocations and Parliament." 



It is further provided that the action of the 

 Central Council shall be free from political 

 bias. The council is composed of represent- 

 atives from the diocesan conferences; while 

 other persons, though not representatives, may 

 be present by special invitation, and speak, but 

 not vote. At the meeting of the Council in 

 March, when the organization was effected, 

 representatives were present from seventeen 

 dioceses, while the dioceses of Oxford and 

 Rochester had not yet chosen representatives. 

 Mr. Cecil Raikes, M. P., was chosen president 

 of the counci! for the year. 



A diocesan conference for the diocese of 

 London was organized in March, and, its consti- 

 tution and standing orders having been agreed 

 upon, received the approval of the bishop in 

 May. The conference is to consist of 102 cler- 

 ical and 204 lay representatives, two of the lat- 

 terthe lord-lieutenant of the county and the 

 chancellor of the diocese and six of the for- 

 mer being ex-officio. All clergymen in priest's 

 orders will, under certain conditions, have a 

 vote in the election of representatives ; while 

 the lay electorate will consist of members of 

 the Church of England, residents or rate- 

 payers in their respective parishes. The lay 

 representatives in the conference must be com- 

 municants. 



THE CHURCH CONGRESS. The twenty-second 

 annual Church Congress met at Derby, October 

 3d. The attendance was large, exceeding two 

 thousand persons. The opening sermon was 



preached by the Archbishop of York. The 

 Bishop of Lichfield presided, and, in his open- 

 ing address, described one of the objects ac- 

 complished by the Congress to be the bringing 

 of the several parties within the Church into a 

 position where they could compare their views 

 and attain a better understanding of each other, 

 and to prepare the way for the toleration of 

 differences of opinion. The Church had been 

 free from differences of opinion in no age, not 

 even in apostolic times ; and it would, in fact, 

 "not be impossible for a scoffing spirit even 

 to affix our modern party names to some 

 of the apostolic writers themselves." The 

 principal subjects discussed were : " Unity of 

 Belief in Relation to Diversity of Thought," in 

 connection with which a tendency toward the 

 encouragement of greater toleration was ap- 

 parent in the leading speakers ; " The Church 

 and Modern Thought," considered as to the 

 limits of authority and free thought, the har- 

 mony of science and faith, and the dependence 

 of morality on revelation ; " The Causes and 

 Remedies of Neglect of Public Worship " ; and 

 topics relating to the beneficed and unbeneficed 

 clergy, home evangelization, the Church and 

 paupers, the Church and state, the Church and 

 laborers, the Anglican and Roman Catholic 

 Churches, and the Church and the Noncon- 

 formists. 



IRISH EPISCOPAL CHURCH. A statement of 

 the sums payable to the Irish Church Tempo- 

 ralities Fund was published in a parliamentary 

 paper in April. The total amount payable to 

 the fund was set down at 36,961, and was 

 made up as follows: Tithe-rent charge, 22,- 

 932 ; tithe-rent charge annuities, 9,267 ; per- 

 petuity rents, 884; yearly and other rents 

 and stipends, 88; interest on simple mort- 

 gages, 1,518 ; land annuities, 2,049 ; interest 

 on mortgages (converted leaseholds), 223. 



The twelfth annual session of the Synod of 

 the Church in Ireland was opened at Dublin 

 April 18th. The report of the representative 

 body recorded a distinct advance in financial 

 prosperity, notwithstanding the agitation and 

 depression of the past year. The fund devoted 

 to parochial sustentation amounted to nearly 

 3,500,000; but that sum would still hardly 

 provide 120 for each curate and less than 

 200 for each incumbent, while three hundred 

 incumbents were obliged to be content with 

 much less. The various investments of the 

 church body were producing a total income of 

 280,503. A resolution was adopted express- 

 ing sorrow and shame at the wide-spread law- 

 lessness prevailing in the country, and urging 

 upon every one the necessity of maintaining 

 the principles of order and good government, 

 of justice and honesty. Much of the time of 

 the synod was spent in the discussion of edu- 

 cational interests. The report of the Temper- 

 ance Society showed that the whole number of 

 members of the organization was 60,000, and 

 that the accessions had been about 1,400. 



The average income of the clergy of the 



