ANGLICAN CHURCHES. 



11 



income of the society for the year had been 

 109,572, the largest sum it had ever raised 

 in the same time. The remittances for for- 

 eign parts had been increased by nearly 20 

 per cent. An examination of the society's 

 records lately made showed that it had ex- 

 pended on the foundation and development of 

 the church in Australia, 225,850 ; in Africa, 

 512,704; in British North America, 1,627,- 

 601; in the West Indies, 571,726; in New 

 Zealand and the Pacific, 97,301; in Asia, 

 1,582,486; and in Europe, 82,505. The 

 number of ordained missionaries on the soci- 

 ety's lists was now 520. 



The Church Pastoral Aid Society. The forty- 

 eighth meeting of the Church Pastoral Aid So- 

 ciety was held May 8th. The Earl of Shaftes- 

 bury presided. The ordinary income of the 

 society for the year had been 54,688. During 

 the past ten years it had contributed 84,000 

 toward ministerial work in the poorer parishes 

 of the metropolis, employing on an average 

 seventy curates and thirty-six lay agents yearly. 



The Church Army. The " Church Army " is 

 an institution that has been organized to op- 

 erate, on the plan of the Salvation Army, 

 among the great masses of the people " who 

 are outside of all religion." Its first great 

 meeting was held May 28th, under the presi- 

 dency of the Bishop of Oxford. A report was 

 read by the Rev. W. Carlisle, giving a sketch 

 of the rise of the organization. It had started 

 about two years before, almost simultaneously 

 at Richmond, Oxford, Bristol, Tunbridge, and 

 Kensington. It had now a general organiza- 

 tion, but worked in districts under the guidance 

 of the local clergy. It was now the largest 

 part of the lay department of the Church Paro- 

 chial Mission Society, and had the patronage of 

 many of the bishops. It had fifty-nine sta- 

 tions, fifty of which were in active operation, 

 in addition to which Church Army missions had 

 been conducted, and more than three thousand 

 adult converts had been confirmed. A train- 

 ing-house had been established at Oxford in 

 October, 1883, at which thirty - nine officers 

 were under instruction. The work of the 

 Church Army had been carried on with small 

 expenditure, and the poor themselves had sub- 

 scribed to keep the stations open. The chair- 

 man, the Bishop of Oxford, made an address, 

 commending the enterprise. 



The Liberation Society. The annual meeting 

 of the Society for the Liberation of Religion 

 from the Patronage and Control of the State, 

 was held in London, May 7th. The report of 

 the Council stated that the income of the so- 

 ciety for the year had been 8,898, and its ex- 

 penditures 8,541. The report also reviewed 

 the progress that had been made during the 

 year toward the accomplishment of the object 

 that the society is trying to promote. It set 

 forth that, as the Government had prepared, 

 and would, if practicable, introduce a bill still 

 further to amend the burial laws, it was hoped 

 that it would be unnecessary to proceed with 



Mr. Richard's Cemeteries Bill. The Govern- 

 ment had acceded to the request of the Execu- 

 tive Committee of the society in appointing a 

 Nonconformist as one of the Charity Commis- 

 sioners; and a Select Committee on the opera- 

 tion of the Charitable Trusts Acts had been 

 appointed, whose inquiry the society's friends 

 were urged to assist in making complete and 

 effective. The report of the Royal Commis- 

 sion on Ecclesiastical Courts was criticise/! as 

 showing that the members of the Establish- 

 ment were indulging in dreams of obtaining 

 spiritual independence without relinquishing 

 the favors of the state; whereas, it was de- 

 clared, freedom could only be obtained by the 

 abandonment of privilege. Resolutions were 

 adopted condemning the recommendations of 

 the Royal Commission on Ecclesiastical Courts ; 

 concurring in the motions of which notice had 

 been given by Mr. Richard, Mr. Dillwyn, and 

 Mr. Peddie, for the disestablishment of the 

 Church in England, Wales, and Scotland, re- 

 spectively ; expressing satisfaction at the result 

 of Mr. Willis's motion for the removal of the 

 bishops from the House of Lords ; and urging 

 the extension of the efforts of the society 

 among the rural population, in view of the 

 enfranchisement of the agricultural laborers. 



The Ritualistic Controversy. Baron Pollock de- 

 livered judgment, January 22d, in the Queen's 

 Bench division of the High Court of Justice in 

 the action of quare impedit, brought by Sir 

 Percival Hey wood against the Bishop of Man- 

 chester, for refusing to institute Mr. Cowgill to 

 the living of Miles Platting. The justice re- 

 cited the facts of the case, which were not 

 disputed, stating that the bishop had assigned 

 as his reason for not instituting Mr. Cowgill, 

 that that clergyman had, as curate of Miles 

 Platting, committed various breaches of law, 

 for which he might have been subjected to 

 ecclesiastical censure ; that he did not think it 

 right to run the risk of Mr. Cowgill's repeating 

 those offenses as incumbent, and had therefore 

 sought an interview with him, and asked a 

 series of written questions, the intention of 

 which was to ascertain whether Mr. Cowgill 

 would desist from those breaches of the law if 

 instituted to the living; and that the result of 

 the interview was to assure the bishop that it 

 was exceedingly unlikely that he would so de- 

 sist. This, Baron Pollock regarded as a legiti- 

 mate exercise of the discretion confided to the 

 bishop to refuse to institute an incumbent whom 

 he could reasonably and lawfully regard as un- 

 fit for the office. Baron Pollock did not hold 

 that the bishop was in any way obliged to re- 

 fuse institution to Mr. Cowgill. He intimated 

 that if the bishop had chosen to regard the rit- 

 ual offenses committed under another incum- 

 bent as insufficient grounds for assuming that 

 they would be repeated by Mr. Cowgill as in- 

 cumbent, he might in his discretion have done 

 so ; but that he had a discretion in the matter, 

 and that he had exercised that discretion on 

 grounds that the law would hold to be suffi- 



