GOVEENMENT AND ADMINISTRATION. 



481 



Fi^. 235. — Distribution of the Roman Catholics. 



Out of thirty-one bishops connected with, English sees only twenty-four 

 have a seat in the House of Lords, though all alike are " Lords " by courtesy. 

 Nor are the seven bishops of the Episcopal Church of Scotland, and the two 

 archbishops and ten bishops of the Church of Ireland, admitted to the House 

 of Lords. There are also sixty-two colonial and eleven missionary bishops 

 in connection with the Church of England. 



In Scotland the Established Church is Presbyterian in principle, and is governed 

 by Kirk Sessions, Presbyteries, 

 Synods, and the General Assembly, 

 which consists of both clerical and 

 lay deputies from each of the pres- 

 byteries, and representatives from 

 the universities and royal burghs. 

 This Church, since 1843, has ceased 

 to be the Church of the majority, 

 for in that year the enforcement of 

 an obnoxious patronage act, since 

 repealed, led to the formation of 

 a Free Church, whose adherents 

 are nearly as numerous as those of 

 the mother Church. 



Foremost araonorst Dissenting- 

 bodies are the Wesleyan Methodists, 

 the Independents or Congregation- 

 alists, the Baptists, and (in Wales) 

 the Calvinistic Methodists. Not 

 very numerous, but influential 

 through wealth, education, and 

 cohesion, are the Quakers. 



It is only during the last fifty 

 years that full political rights have 

 been granted to Poman Catholics 

 and Jews — to the former in 1832, 

 to the latter in 1858. The Jews 



are nearly all to be found in the large towns, four-fifths of them living in 

 London.* The number of Poman Catholics has very much increased in the 

 course of the century. f In the reign of Queen Elizabeth they are said to have 

 constituted one- third of the total population, but in 1699 they had dwindled 

 down to an insignificant fraction. These were the times of penal enactments, 

 and although after 1787 the laws were not very rigorously enforced, and an 



Over 10 per cent. .5 to 10 per cent. Under 5 per cent. 



* Number of .Jews in Great Britain (1877), 51,250, of whom 38,880 live in London. Jews in Ireland 

 (1871), 258. 



t Roman Catholics in England, 1699, 27,696; 1767, 67,916; 1845,284,300; 1851, 758,800; 1861, 

 927,500; 1880, 1,120,000. 



