ANGLICAN CHUKCHES. 



cient. He therefore gave judgment for the de- 

 fendant, the Bishop of Manchester, with costs 

 against Sir Percival Heywood. 



Baron Pollock pointed out that Mr. Covvgill 

 had virtually been deprived of his living for 

 acts which, if they had been brought before an 

 ecclesiastical court, would not, in the first in- 

 stance at least, according to recent usage, have 

 involved deprivation, but only a monition to 

 abstain from them. He also implied that Mr. 

 Cowgill's mere refusal to answer the bishop's 

 questions could nut have been made a lawful 

 ground for refusing to institute him ; but that 

 the true ground was his persistent breach, as 

 curate, of the ecclesiastical law as laid down in 

 the recent judgments of the Court of Appeal, 

 and the presumption so set up that he would 

 continue in the same course of conduct. On 

 this view, the questioning was regarded only 

 as opening up to the bishop a chance of escape 

 from the assumed duty of refusing to institute 

 Mr. Cowgill, and not as constituting the ground 

 of refusal. 



The (on vocation of anterbnry. The Convoca- 

 tion of Canterbury met February 13th for the 

 dispatch of business. Protests were present- 

 ed against the projected organization of the 

 " Church of England Middle-Class School Com- 

 pany," which proposed to adopt the conscience 

 clause of the Education Act, under which any 

 person can withdraw his child from the reli- 

 gious instruction of the school. The contem- 

 plated adoption of the conscience clause was 

 condemned in the Lower House. The arch- 

 bishop, in bringing before the Upper House 

 the report of the Ecclesiastical Courts Commis- 

 sion, advised careful deliberation in considering 

 it, suggesting that the first opinions on the 

 subject were not likely to be the final ones, 

 and advised that the House await the action 

 of the Committee on the Relations of Church 

 and State of the Lower House, upon whom it 

 would fall to act as the advisers of Convoca- 

 tion. The Committee of the Lower House on 

 this subject reported the results of a conference 

 it had had witli the Committee of the Convo- 

 cation of York, and submitted several recom- 

 mendations, several of which were of a tech- 

 nical character. One of the recommendations 

 says that "in accordance with the constitu- 

 tion of the church and realm, the right of ap- 

 peal for the maintenance of justice in all eccle- 

 i<\al cases lies to the Crown"; but the 

 committee, while fully accepting the principle 

 laid down by the commissioners, that "the 

 function of such lay judges as may be appoint- 

 ed by tho Crown to determine appeals is not 

 in any case to determine what is the doctrine 

 or ritual of the Church," feared that their rec- 

 ommendations failed to give sufficient security 

 for carrying this principle into effect; and they 

 were convinced that any attempt to settle ques- 

 tions of doctrine or ritual by such lay judges 

 in possible opposition to the determination of 

 the spirituality would lead to results dangerous 

 to the truth and to the best interests of the 



Church and realm. In the Upper House, a pe- 

 tition was presented from army officers on the 

 subject of making more liberal provision for 

 the instruction of soldiers, who, it was urged, 

 were by their training and discipline partic- 

 ularly amenable to religious influences, and 

 might, after the expiration of their term of 

 service, become useful to the Church among 

 the classes from which the army is recruited. 

 The Convocation of York was asked to appoint 

 a committee, for the joint action of the two 

 provinces, on the subject of "the spiritual need 

 of the masses." A report was made recom- 

 mending that the Church should accept the 

 services of a class of persons to be called " read- 

 ers" and "assistant readers," who. should ex- 

 pound the Scriptures to the best of their abili- 

 ty, and read such part of the service as " can 

 with propriety be read by a layman," or other 

 approved service, in unconsecrated buildings, 

 or, after the services of the day, in consecrated 

 buildings. 



The Houses of Convocation met again, May 

 13th. The Bishop of Lincoln, in the Upper 

 House, called attention to the subject of the 

 translation of the Book of Common Prayer 

 into foreign languages, and urged that, in view 

 of the extensive character of the missions of 

 the English Church, it was important that such 

 translations should be authorized only when 

 they had been made in conformity with the 

 principles of the Lambeth Conference of 1878, 

 when resolutions were approved declaring that 

 " authority " should not be affixed to transla- 

 tions unless they were approved first by a local 

 board, and then by a general board. The arch- 

 bishop showed that the rules of the Christian 

 Knowledge Society provided for all transla- 

 tions being made honest and true. The Arch- 

 bishop of Canterbury was made responsible, 

 directly or indirectly, for the translations of 

 the Scriptures and of the Book of Common 

 Prayer, and he had to appoint the committees 

 who translated, by whom every care was taken. 

 The resolution of the Bishop of Lincoln was 

 ultimately withdrawn. The subject of provid- 

 ing measures by which the Church could be 

 saved from scandals like one which had re- 

 cently occurred, where a clergyman just re- 

 leased from penal servitude for a heinous 

 crime had been enabled to appear in the pul- 

 pit as a locum tenens, or occasional supply, 

 was referred to a committee. In response to 

 a gravamen from the Lower House, a com- 

 mittee was appointed to consider the subject 

 of procuring a church house for the province, 

 in which the Convocation might meet. The 

 bishops were requested to inquire into tho 

 matter of complaints that had arisen, that in 

 some instances church people had been bur- 

 ied in the unconsecrated parts of cemeteries 

 because the fees in the consecrated portions 

 were exceedingly high. The House omitted, 

 from the regulations it had adopted concern- 

 ing the appointment and employment of lay 

 readers, the provision allowing the readers to 



