tain contingencies, which however have never occurred, such as the possession of the Principalities by Austria, Russia would feel bound to call into question some of the provisions of the Treaty of 1856. But I am ignorant of any occasion on which Russia, the party most interested, has proposed in any way to this country that a relaxation of the Treaty should be taken into consideration. I cannot therefore admit that the Imperial Government can justify this proceeding by the failure of efforts which have been never made. The courteous language in which Prince Gortschakoff's despatch is written, his assurance of the manner in which he would have preferred to open this question, and his declaration of the strong desire for a confirmation of good relations between the two nations, particularly important at this time, encourage Her Majesty's Government in the belief that the obstacle to such relations will be removed. They observe that His Excellency describes the declaration which has been made by Russia as an abrogation of a theoretical principle without immediate application. If these words are to be construed into an announcement that Russia has formed and stated her own opinion of her rights, but has no intention of acting in conformity with it without due concert with the other Powers, they go far to close the controversy in which the two Governments have been engaged. Her Majesty's Government have no objection to accept the invitation which has been made by Prussia to a Conference, upon the understanding that it is assembled without any foregone conclusions as to its results. In such case Her Majesty's Government will be glad to consider with perfect fairness, and the respect due to a great and friendly Power, any proposals which Russia may have to make. You will read and give a copy of this despatch to Prince Gortschakoff. I am, &c., (Signed) GRANVILLE. V. THIRD REPORT OF THE RITUAL COMMISSION. TO THE QUEEN'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY. 1. In this third Report, which we have now the honour of presenting to your Majesty, we desire humbly to offer our recommendations on a separate but highly important portion of the work which your Majesty has been pleased to assign to us. 2. In your Majesty's Commission we were commanded to inquire into the subject of the "Proper Lessons appointed to be read in Morning and Evening Prayer on the Sundays and Holy days throughout the year" and "the calen dar, with the Table of First and Second Lessons contained in the Book of Common Prayer," with the view of suggesting and reporting "whether any and what alterations and amendments may be advantageously made in the selection of Lessons to be read at the time of Divine service." We now desire to lay before your Majesty the result of inquiries and deliberations which have been specially directed to this subject for upwards of two years. 3. We felt it incumbent upon us carefully to consider the many schemes which have been published or have been privately submitted to us upon this subject. After much deliberation, we have come to the conclusion that it is expedient to read, as now, at each service on ordinary days, one Lesson from the Old Testament and another from the New Testament, generally according to the order of the Books. 4. On a careful revision, however, of the present Table of Lessons, we have thought it desirable to vary and shorten many of them. We have disregarded to some extent the present division of chapters when the continuity of the subject seemed to render such a course desirable. And while we have not felt ourselves justified in recommending any omission in the passages selected, we have endeavoured so to arrange the Lessons as to include whatever might be most conducive to edification when read in the general congregation. 5. In the Schedule to this Report will be found the Revised Table of Lessons Proper for Sundays, the Revised Table of Lessons Proper for Holy Days, and the Revised Table of Daily First and Second Lessons. 6. It will be seen from this Schedulo that, on the one hand, we have introduced many passages of Scripture (e. g. from the Books of Chronicles and from the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel) which are not now read in public worship; on the other hand, we have largely reduced the number of Lessons taken from the Apocrypha, so that, instead of 26 Lessons taken from it for holy days, there will now be only four, and, instead of 106 for ordinary days, there will now be only 40. The New Testament Lessons are so arranged that the whole of that which is now read three times will be read twice in the course of the yearonce in the morning and once in the evening. The yearly calendar will be closed with 22 Lessons from the Book of the Revelation of St. John the Divine. 7. For the Proper Lessons on holy days many passages have been chosen which we think will be found more appropriate than those in the existing table. Lessons for Ash Wednesday are provided, and the series of Lessons for the Holy Week is now made complete. 8. A second series of Lessons for evensong on Sundays has been also provided, to be used either as alternative Lessons at the second service, or at a third service if such service be thought desirable. Where there is a third service, we propose to leave to the minister discretion to read for the Second Lesson any chapter or appointed Lesson out of the four Gospels which he may think it expedient to select. We further propose that upon occasions to be approved by the Ordinary other Lessons may, with his consent, be substituted for those which are appointed in the calendar. 9. We feel it our duty to state to your Majesty that we deemed it expedient to submit privately the Tables of Lessons thus revised by us to the Archbishops and Bishops of England and Ireland, to the Deans of Cathedral Churches, and to the Theological Professors of the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Dublin, and Durham. To the suggestions which we received we have given full consideration, and we have adopted those which seemed to us to be improvements on our original proposals. 10. We cannot conclude this Report, which we now submit to your Majesty's consideration, without expressing our humble but earnest hope that it may please Almighty God to bless our labours to the advancement of His glory, and to the fuller knowledge of His most Holy Word and Will. A. C. CANTAUR. M. G. ARMAGH. STANHOPE. CARNARVON. HARROWBY. BEAUCHAMP. S. WINTON. C. ST. DAVID'S. C. J. GLOUCESTER AND BRISTOL. HARVEY CARLISLE. EBURY. SPENCER H. WALPOLE. A. J. B. BERESFORD HOPE. THOMAS WALTER PERRY. * As I understand the terms of Her Majesty's Commission, I consider that this Report should not have been presented until after our inquiries on all the other matters referred to in the Commission had been completed. Subject to this observation, and in deference to the view taken by my colleagues, I have added my signature to this report. JOSEPH NAPIER. W. F. Kemp, Secretary, Jerusalem The Schedule contains a Revised Table of Lessons Proper for Sundays, occupying 14 pages. VI. FOURTH REPORT OF THE RITUAL COMMISSION. TO THE QUEEN'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY. 1. We your Majesty's Commissioners for inquiring into the "differences of practice" which "have arisen from varying interpretations put upon the rubrics, orders, and directions for regulating the course and conduct of public worship, the administration of the Sacraments, and the other services contained in the Book of Common Prayer, according to the use of the United Church of England and Ireland, and more especially with reference to the ornaments used in the churches and chapels of the said United Church, and the vestments worn by the ministers thereof at the time of their ministration, with the view of explaining or amending the said rubrics, orders, and directions, so as to secure general uniformity of practice in such matters as may be deemed essential," humbly beg leave to lay before your Majesty this our Fourth and final Report. 2. In obedience to this Commission we have thought it right to examine and consider all the directions contained in the Book of Common Prayer. 3. In the greater number of the rubrics we have proposed no alterations. 4. In the alterations which we have proposed, we have endeavoured, according to your Majesty's commands, to explain and amend rubrics so as to secure general uniformity of practice in those matters which may be deemed essential: on other matters we have recommended alterations which may give facilities for adapting the services of the Church to the wants and circumstances of different congregations. 5. Our recommendations on these matters are contained in the annexed Schedule. 6. We submit this Report to your Majesty's favourable consideration with the earnest prayer that our labours may be blessed to the maintenance of decent order in public worship, to the promotion of the peace of the Church, and to the glory of Almighty God. A. C. CANTUAR. (L.S.) M. G. ARMAGH. (L.S.) STANHOPE. (L.S.) HARROWBY. (L.S.) BEAUCHAMP. (L.S.) JOHN LONDON. (L.S.) S. WINTON. (L.S.) The adoption by the Commissioners of this explanation seems to me to admit of two things, 1st. That it was within the power of the Commission to deal with the use of the Athanasian Creed. 2nd. That the use of the creed in public worship was liable, from the wording of these clauses, to objection. I should, therefore, have deemed it a wiser course, had the Commission decided that the creed in question, valuable and most important as are its direct doctrinal statements, should not retain its place in the public service of the Church. A. C. CANTUAR. I desire to state to your Majesty my dissent on one important subject from the result at which the Commission has arrived. In the course of our deliberations the propriety of retaining the Athanasian Creed in the public services was frequently discussed, the objection being felt more especially as regards its socalled damnatory clauses. It seemed to very many among us that these clauses are both a blemish on our beauti. ful Liturgy and a danger to our na tional Church. However they may be explained to the satisfaction of learned men conversant with the terms of scholastic divinity in the Greek and Latin languages, it is certain they are a stumbling-block to common congregations; forming a service which is wholly misunderstood by some persons, and in which it is observed that others decline to join. Various proposals were made in our body to meet the general and growing objections which these clauses in the Athanasian Creed, and consequently on them the entire creed, have raised. It was moved that in the preceding rubric the word "shall" should be changed to "may." It was moved to omit the preceding rubric by which the use of that creed is prescribed. It was moved to limit the use of that creed, and that permissive only, to our public services in collegiate and cathedral churches. It was moved to enjoin it for only one Sunday in the year. To several of us it would have appeared a still preferable plan, which, however, was not formally brought forward, to declare in a new rubric that although the Church retained this creed as a confession of our Christian peril of those who wilfully reject the Catholic Faith." faith, the Church did not enjoin its use in any of its public services. It was found, however, upon divisions, several of which took place at divers times in the course of our proceedings, that no one specific proposal could commend itself to the approval of a majority among us. We have, therefore, left untouched and without any suggestion for discontinuance in the appointed ser vices, a creed which, nevertheless, so far as regards its popular effect upon others, I imagine that scarce any churchman contemplates with entire satisfaction. Nor am I at all satisfied with the note which our Report proposes to subjoin. Under these circumstances, which I most deeply regret, I altogether dissent from the very anomalous state in which, to my judgment, this question has been left. STANHOPE. I, the undersigned member of your Majesty's Commission, concur in the opinions above expressed. PORTMAN. We humbly express to your Majesty our regret that we feel ourselves precluded from signing the Report, because, whilst far from disapproving of all the recommendations in the Schedule upon which it is founded, we entertain doubts as to some, and dissent from others. CARNARVON. ROBERT PHILLIMORE. I assent to the statement of facts in regard to the Athanasian Creed put for ward by Lord Stanhope, and agree generally with the opinions he has expressed. I only disagree so far, as that I do not dissent from the conclusions come to by the Commission, In spite of the objections which I entertain to the language of certain clauses of the so-called Athanasian Creed and to its use in public congregations, I have felt it my duty to concur with the majority of the Commis sion in retaining it as it now stands in the Prayer Book, on the ground that it seemed to me to be beyond the purpose of our Commission to remove a confession of faith from the position of authority in which our Church has hitherto placed it. I further take leave to record, that I acquiesce with difficulty in the proposed alterations in the new directions for the Burial Service. They seem to me to be of very doubtful expediency in themselves, as applied to the three classes specified in the rubric,-those who have died unbaptized, those who have been excommunicated, and those who have laid violent hands upon themselves,and in no way to touch the difficulty arising from compelling the officiating clergyman to use expressions of joyful hope, not suited to other cases than those referred to in the rubric. But, as in the case of the Athanasian Creed, I have felt myself obliged to respect what appeared to me to be the limits of the Commission. But for this, I should have desired to see adopted an alteration in the service itself, such as is found in the Prayer Book of the American Episcopal Church, and which offends no feeling, while it in no degree diminishes the comfort or edification afforded by the service of our own prayer book. HARROWBY. In signing this Report we feel bound to qualify our signatures in some particulars. We regret the adoption of the prefatory note : "The directions concerning the daily use of the Church services are retained, not as a compulsory rule, but as a witness to the value put by the Church on daily prayers and intercessions, and on the daily reading of the Holy Scriptures." We are of opinion that the Church of England, in adopting at the Reformation a short vernacular form of morning and evening prayer to be used daily, if possible publicly in church, or otherwise privately, by its ministers, in lieu of the long Latin services of the breviary, desired to make (and has to a considerable extent succeeded in making) daily common worship a congregational privilege, and not merely a clerical obligation. At the same time, while retaining for the clergy the general obligation of using the daily services, the Church of England lightened the burden both by reducing these services in number and in length, and by the adoption of the wise and liberal indulgence given in the expressions, "not being let by sickness or some other urgent cause,' and "not being otherwise reasonably hindered." We willingly accept the fullest and freest sense of these words, but we cannot accept the lax interpretation placed by the new note upon the ancient rule of daily service, which is a practice in our opinion both pious in itself, and edifying alike to minister and to congregation. We also humbly desire to express to your Majesty our dissent from the new rubric in the order of the administration of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, which permits the Holy Sacrament to be given to a number of communicants without addressing to each the words appointed to be said to each. The Christian religion teaches that the blood of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ was shed for the everlasting life of each individual body and soul, and the Church of England has chosen the moment when the heart is most susceptible of such high doctrine to set it forth to every individual worshipper. We cannot but fear that the teaching of the Church as to this great truth will be less distinctly apprehended, if the practice is sanctioned of sharing the words of delivery among a group of persons instead of bringing home to each the solemn comfort of the address. The delay occasioned by a large number of communicants it is alleged renders necessary the practice referred to, which is of no ancient date; but, on the other hand, the new rubric would grievously wound the consciences of many excellent persons, without conferring proportionate benefit upon any one, for the inconvenience complained of does not appear to be very widely felt. Many clergymen with a large number of communicants experience no difficulty in observing the present law; and it cannot be doubted but that the proper method of meeting the inconvenience is to be found in the more frequent celebration of the Holy Communion, the one form of common worship instituted by our Lord Himself. Thus, not only would the crowding be avoided which may occur if in large parishes the opportunities of receiving Holy Communion are comparatively rare, and this would be no small gain, but the sacrifice of the death of Christ would be more continually remembered. We therefore dissent from a recommendation to give legal sanction to a practice which is a legacy of the indif ference of the last generation. BEAUCHAMP. A. J. B. BERESFORD HOPE. In reference to the words added to the rubric concerning the bread and wine, "But wafers shall not be used," I must observe that although all use of unleavened bread, to which western Christendom has attached importance as more immediately corresponding with the example of our Lord when the Jewish Passover gave place to the rites of the new law, is not hereby prohibited, there can be no doubt but that the addition now made is at varience with the purpose with which the rubric was originally |