ANGLICAN CHURCHES. 



13 



and four young women, had been accepted for 

 missionary work, and twelve young men were 

 in training. Among the special features of 

 the missionary work mentioned in the report, 

 was the contemplated sending out, in the fall, 

 of a special mission to India, for the purpose of 

 holding services for the native Christians akin 

 to those of the parochial missions at home. 

 The society returns 230 ordained and 58 other 

 European missionaries, 11 ordained Eurasian 

 and 250 ordained native missionaries, 25 Eu- 

 rasian teachers, 3,789 native helpers and teach- 

 ers, 42,717 communicants, and 185,878 ad- 

 herents. 



A review of the work of the society during 

 the past fifty years, embodied in the report, 

 showed that during that period more than 900 

 missionaries had been sent out, 355 native 

 clergymen had been ordained, and 80,000 adult 

 converts, and tens of thousands of their chil- 

 dren, had been baptized. 



Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, The 

 annual meeting of the Society for the Propa- 

 gation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts was held 

 on Feb. 19. The Lord Bishop of Roches- 

 ter presided. The receipts of the society for 

 the year had been 105,712, of which 86,966 

 had been for the general fund, and 18,743 

 for special funds. A further sum of 1,678 

 had been received for certain invested trust 

 funds. The society employed 595 ordained 

 missionaries, of whom 128 were natives of the 

 countries in which they were laboring, and 

 1,700 lay agents, the majority of whom were 

 natives, at 461 stations, situated in 75 colonial 

 dioceses. The missions of this society are di- 

 rected to the Christian subjects of tlie British 

 colonies as well as to the Mohammedan and 

 heathen subjects of the empire, and nearly half 

 of its income is devoted to missions in India. 



The Liberation Society. The annual meeting 

 of the Society for the Liberation of Religion 

 from the Patronage and Control of the State, 

 was held on May 4. Mr. G. Osborne Morgan, M. 

 P., presided, and in his address urged vigorous 

 agitation of the principle of disestablishment, 

 whether a "practical question " be offered or 

 not, and invited special attention to the move- 

 ment for disestablishment in Wales. The an- 

 nual report of the society said that the year 

 had not been a favorable one for its agitation. 



The Case of Mr. Bell Cox. The case of Mr. 

 Bell Cox, to which reference is made in the 

 proceedings of the Convocation of Canterbury, 

 had been before the courts for nearly two 

 years, and originated in a process for ritualism 

 instituted against him by a gentleman not of 

 his parish. At any early stage in the proceed- 

 ings, a series of monitions had been addressed 

 to him by Lord Penzance, directing him to dis- 

 continue the practices complained of. He paid 

 no attention to them, and in June, 1886, an or- 

 der was issued suspending him from his office 

 for six months. This he likewise disregarded. 

 Then, in August, Lord Penzance declared him 

 contumacious, when a complication arose, based 



upon the fact that the order of suspension had 

 been issued, not by Lord Penzance himself, but 

 by his surrogate in York. Mr. Bell Cox there- 

 fore applied to the Queen's Bench Division to 

 prohibit the issue of the writ de contumacio 

 capiendo, resting upon this informality. The 

 case was decided against him, by both the 

 court of first instance and the court of appeal. 

 In the mean time, however, the order of sus- 

 pension had run out, and it was no longer pos- 

 sible for him to be contumacious. Neverthe- 

 less he was imprisoned. Upon the ground, 

 however, as shown, that the cause of action 

 against him had already expired when the 

 order for his imprisonment actually took effect, 

 an order for his release was issued on the 

 20th of May, and he was at once discharged. 



The Church Congress. The twenty - seventh 

 Church Congress met at Wolverhampton, Oc- 

 tober 3, and was opened with a sermon by 

 the Bishop of Durham. The Bishop of Lich- 

 field presided over the sessions, and in his 

 inaugural address reviewed what the twenty 

 years that had elapsed since the Congress had 

 previously met at Wolverhampton had done 

 for the Church, and what lessons they had 

 left behind them. The Education Act, which, 

 it had been feared, would work disastrously to 

 the schools of the Church, had had an oppo- 

 site effect, in quickening its zeal in behalf of 

 religious education. The Burials Act had not 

 resulted in the prevalence of irregularities, 

 which had been apprehended. The period had 

 been signalized by the meeting of the Lam- 

 beth or Pan- Anglican Conference, at which 

 one hundred bishops had assembled from all 

 parts of the world, under the presidency of 

 the Primate of England. Five new bishoprics 

 had been created within the Church of Eng- 

 land, " an event without parallel during the 

 last three centuries." Ancient churches, such 

 as those of Assyria, Armenia, and Egypt, were 

 beginning to come into relations with the 

 English Church. The revision of the Holy 

 Scriptures had been begun and completed. 

 The discussion of the relations of the Bible 

 and science, which had gone on unceasingly, 

 was continued, but with changed character 

 and under changing conditions. The time of 

 loud assertion and of angry controversy was 

 passing. Timid minds were still staggered by 

 the discoveries of science, but they were be- 

 ginning to remember that all truth is of God. 

 The honest doubter was no longer regarded as 

 a criminal, but as an invalid. It was even 

 admitted that there might be a considerable 

 religious element in doubt. The Archbishop 

 of Canterbury followed with an address on the 

 influence of the Church upon society. The first 

 subject for formal discussion was "The Church 

 and History," which was considered under 

 the three heads" The Evangelization of Eng- 

 land," by the Rev. H. Hensley Henson ; " The 

 Relations of the English Church with Rome 

 in the Middle Ages," by the Rev. Canon Creinli- 

 ton and the Rev. J.D. C. Cox; and "The Ref- 



