her members. The great increase of the devotion and zeal which have, I am told, become one of the characteristic marks of many of her younger members, under even our present circumstances, would make the condition of a free Church a very hopeful one. "The remedy for our present ills and the escape from our present danger may, I think, be included defensive policy into a constructive one-the under the one large head of changing our past taking and wielding the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left; not only the shield for defence, but the sword and spear of the spirit wherewith to contend against all who oppose themselves.” moment into any question of doctrine, or into any theological discussion, and he had only read the words of the Petition in order that their Lordships might be made acquainted with the nature of the complaints. He felt that he had no right to say to their Lordships that the opinions held by the right rev. Prelate were right or wrong For himself, he believed that what each man thought right that he had a right to hold. But their Lordships would not be surprised to learn that great consternation had been caused in the diocese of Salisbury, because it was generally believed that no Bishop in the Established Church had pre.viously put forth such doctrines as belonging to the Protestant Church of England. He was anxious to avoid saying anything which could be offensive to the right rev. Prelate, because all those who were acquainted with the right rev. Prelate, as a Christian man and apart from his LORD PORTMAN said, his only object position in the Church, held him in great was to save their Lordships' time. In the esteem and regard. His business now, 120th page of the Charge the right rev. however, was not to enter into anything Prelate warned the clergy not to be afraid personal or individual, but simply on be- of the "offence of priestcraft," or of the half of these Petitioners to speak of the ignominy which in the present day atright rev. Prelate in his official capacity. tached to the word "sacerdotal." Those And he thought it but fair to the Peti- were matters they could all understand. tioners that he should read to their Lord- A great many who knew very little about ships one or two paragraphs in the Charge matters of doctrine were still scarcely preto show that they were not making state-pared to submit to a constructive system ments unadvisedly. The right rev. Prelate, in pages 74 and 75, said- "And what, my brethren, is that effect which our Church teaches us to look for from the consecration of the elements in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper? I answer without hesitation, because I think the evidence I can produce is very clear, that our Church witnesses that through consecration the body and blood of Christ become really present, and by this I mean present with out us,' and not only in the soul of the faithful receiver'-objective and not subjective only." He (Lord Portman) would now come to another matter-for he was anxious to avoid as much as possible all discussion on matters of doctrine. In pages 108 and 109 were the following passages: "The Church of England may be disestablished, and when she has lost all the manifold blessings (and they are priceless ones) of her present position, she may be driven by her very weakness to throw herself upon other principles of a better strength; and then conscious of the soundness of her ecclesiastical position, and resting her claims both on authority and on her oneness in doctrine with the undivided Church, she may trustfully, tenderly, and yet with the firm authority of one whose Magna Charta is that large and unconditional promise which our Lord added to His commission, employ, and direct, and control the energies of the eager faith and the ardent love of THE BISHOP OF SALISBURY said, he was perfectly prepared to discuss the whole matter, paragraph by paragraph; but he thought it scarcely fair that the noble Lord should cull extracts from the Charge, as he had been doing, without alluding to other passages by which they were balanced. of priesteraft-such a system as would be calculated to bring us back to the dominion of the Church of Rome. He did not know whether the right rev. Prelate desired to inaugurate such a system; but judging from the statements contained in his Charge, it might be inferred that he was about to embark in a constructive policy upon an extended sacerdotal system which was commonly called priestcraft; but as the right rev. Prelate had signed the document which had emanated from the Pan-Anglican Synod, he trusted that he had seen fit with time and reflection to modify some of the views expressed in his Charge. Now, the right rev. Prelate in the autumn of last year did that which to many of them appeared to be scarcely prudent-he answered a letter which was published in The Times, signed "S. G. O.," in which the question arose as to the claims of the clergy, and a comparison was made as to the rights which the clergy of the Eastern and Western Churches claimed for themselves. He claimed the same powers which the Priests of the rest of the Catholic Church, both in the East and West, have ever claimed as their inheri tance. That answer of the right rev. Prelate sounded the first alarm in the diocese of Salisbury, and a meeting was held in the western part of the diocese to protest against the position which their Bishop had taken up, and which had so much alarmed the clergy and the laity of the district. The answer given by the right rev. Prelate was that when the proper time came he meant to explain more fullyand this he had done in his Charge-what he really meant. The next step was the publication of the Charge, and he believed the right rev. Prelate had had the opinion of a great body of clergy expressed to him on the subject. He was not aware that the Bishop had endeavoured on any occasion to force his clergy to accept his views; but there were men who always yielded to one in authority, and who would endeavour to do what was agreeable to the Bishop, even though it might bring into his parish discord and confusion; and therefore it might become absolutely necessary that steps should be taken to ascertain the soundness of the positions which had been put forward by the right rev. Prelate, or else novelties introduced into parishes might lead to discord and strife, without the possibility of obtaining any legal decision to guide the parties. The great grievance of those who entertained views contrary to those held by the Bishop was that there was no tribunal in existence wherein the questions raised might be speedily and inexpensively decided. The process in the existing Ecclesiastical Courts was so ruinously expensive and so slow that no one, except under the most extraordinary pressure, would think of commencing proceedings in them in relation to subjects similar to that he had brought under their Lordships' notice. The right rev. Prelate had furnished his diocese and the country with an example of the working of the Ecclesiastical Courts by instituting proceedings in them against one of the authors of the book which was well known under its title of Essays and Reviews. Probably if less had been said about that work it would have been forgotten much sooner than it had been; and, had it not been for other matters mixed np with it, perhaps it would have been better to have left the right rev. Prelate's Charge without further comment being made upon it; for in his (Lord Portman's) opinion it, in truth, was worth little more than the paper and ink spent upon it. The Charge delivered by the right rev. Prelate had caused great grief and sorrow; but it was impossible that the religion of the people of this country, which was founded upon the Rock of Ages, could be affected by such a Charge as that of the right rev. Prelate: the Charge would, in all probability, lead to discord and strife in many parishes, and some persons have already expressed their doubt whether they could conscientiously approach the Holy Table when the right rev. Prelate was officiating, lest it might be supposed that they participated in the opinions he had promulgated. Under these circumstances, the Charge could not be passed over altogether without notice. He would refrain from saying more upon this part of the subject. But there was another point, not affecting the right rev. Prelate, to which he wished to draw the attention of their Lordships, and more particularly that of the noble and learned Lord upon the Woolsack. The Petitioners prayed for the establishment of a tribunal which could do justice speedily and inexpensively. He did not pretend for a moment that any suggestion he could offer to their Lordships would be of the least value; but he thought it right to lay before the noble and learned Lord on the Woolsack for his calm consideration his proposition, that the noble and learned Lord might consult with the members of the right rev. Bench as to the possibility of establishing some such tribunal as he was about to indicate. Both the civil and the criminal laws were administered by such tribunals, and facilities had been provided that after a cause had been heard in a lower Court, it might be brought before the supreme tribunal, so that it might be disposed of with promptitude, and he could not see why the same system should not be established in the case of the Ecclesiastical Courts. In civil and in criminal matters the case was first brought before an inferior Court, which ascertained the facts and gave the best judgment it could upon those facts; but if that judgment were called in question, it was reviewed, on a case carefully stated, by the Court above, which decided upon the question of law, and then sent the case down again to the inferior Court to deliver the judgment as directed by the superior tribunal. The whole matter was thus reduced to a nutshell, and the case was decided speedily and inexpensively. If such a system were good in the administration of the civil and the criminal laws, why should not it answer On Question, that the Petition do lie upon the table, in the administration of the ecclesiastical | lution, confession, the ceremonial or ritual law? The fact was that the rules govern- of the Church-he adhered to every syllaing the Ecclesiastical Courts were esta- ble he had expressed in his Charge. After blished some 200 or 300 years ago, and the gravest consideration he could give to were not fitted for the present time. Men's the subject since the notice of the noble eyes were beginning to be open to the Lord had been given to bring this subject condition of things, and they were no before their Lordships, he most distinctly longer prepared to submit to them. He re-asserted that he adhered, as a strong felt that he had occupied more of their English Churchman, to the whole exposition Lordships' time than he was justified in he had given in his Charge. He withdrew doing; but he hoped that he had said no- not one single statement. The noble Lord thing which was personally offensive to particularly objected to that part of his the right rev. Prelate, or that was not Charge which related to the policy of the strictly relevant to the subject he had Church of England-what she ought to brought under their Lordships' notice. do under her present difficulties. And he thought he had reason to complain, that while there were many passages touching that subject, the noble Lord had quoted only a single sentence. He was most anxious that their Lordships should be enabled to form their own opinion on this point; and he therefore purposed sending to each a copy of the Charge, with an earnest request that they would do him the justice to read it and form their own judgment in regard to this particular portion of it. But there were one or two other points to which he desired to call the attention of the House. A Petition had lately been addressed by a number of clergymen and church wardens in his diocese to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and he had informed his Grace, who had just left the House, what remarks he intended to make upon it. One of the complaints there made was that he, as Bishop, had used the opportunity of his Charge of making authoritative declarations of what were called erroneous doctrines. But he had not done so. tirely denied that a Bishop's Charge was an authoritative declaration like that of a synodal decision pronounced by the Bishop. He always kept distinctly before his clergy and churchwardens, when addressing them, that he was speaking to their consciences; that he was doing what every clergyman did every Sunday of his life—namely, witness what he believed to be the truth of God. Then there was another pointnamely, the state of his diocese. Their Lordships might suppose that his diocese was in a constant state of turmoil and of disaffection towards him, instead of which there was not a more peaceable diocese in the kingdom. Nor had he allowed anything to be done in vindication of himself which might disturb this state of quiet and peace. He was quite content to bide his time, persuaded that Englishmen would deal by him honestly, read his Charge, and THE BISHOP OF SALISBURY said, the noble Lord (Lord Portman) had not raised the question whether this was or was not a matter of heresy, and their Lordships' House a fit tribunal for trying it, and he himself should not seek to do so, because he was sure that he should be doing what would be very distasteful to their Lordships; at the same time, although he entirely denied that their Lordships' House was a Spiritual Court of Heresy, he was perfectly prepared, if their Lordships desired it, to enter into a discussion of the whole subject before them. He must say that he felt some pain that during his not very long episcopate their Lordships should have been called upon by the noble Lord on two occasions to investigate charges against him. On the first occasion their Lordships appointed a Committee to investigate the complaints which had been made against him, and the result was that the House had been convinced that they were groundless. And here he could not refrain from reminding the noble Lord opposite that he had not helped him to carry out the resolution come to by that Committee. But, on the other hand, there were reasons which made him glad that this discussion had been brought forward. In the first place, the noble Lord had not mixed up personal matters in the question he had brought before their Lordships' House; and, in the next place, he was glad to have the opportunity of giving some explanation, not on particular points of doctrine which, as he said, he felt would be distasteful to their Lordships, but on several other matters which did not touch doctrine. But before he did so, he must take the opportunity of stating most distinctly that with regard to points of doctrine-such as the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, abso He en judge for themselves. His Grace, in answer | unseemly, and determined to remove such to the address already referred to, used these words "In conclusion, I must express a hope that the novel variations from the established usage of our Church, which you intimate have caused the alienation of many of its attached members in the diocese of Salisbury, will not be continued after the Report of Her Majesty's Commissioners." Now, he asserted most solemnly that he did not believe that there was another diocese in the kingdom where there was so little Ritualism as in his. He stated most distinctly that in only one small parish, with about 150 people, or not so many, had there been any attempt at what was now generally understood by the word Ritualism. He had lived thirty years in Salisbury, and he had never made one single alteration in established usage in the cathedral, or parish churches in the cathedral city; he had never done anything to disturb the minds of the people on this subject. Yet it was said he had caused the alienation of many of the Church's attached members by these novel variations. A wrong issue had been raised in his diocese. There was less "Ritualism" in his diocese, he repeated, than in any other diocese in the whole kingdom. With regard to his teaching, he honestly professed he was a very High Churchman. He had never disguised it. Any one who regarded him as other than a very High Churchman would thoroughly misrepresent his deepest convictions. But though he was a very High Churchman he appealed to the noble Lord to say whether during his episcopate he had ever shown any want of toleration. Of course, it was very painful to speak of himself; but he was perfectly satisfied that not one single clergyman, not one single layman, in his diocese, could say that he had ever shown any want of tolerance or consideration for the opinions of others. [Lord PORTMAN said, he had not said so.] He believed the noble Lord would. give him credit for allowing others to maintain their own principles even as he desired to maintain his own. But he must now give their Lordships some account how any disturbance of the peace of his diocese which had occurred had been brought about. One instance was as follows:-When he became Bishop of the diocese and went to consecrate a new church, or one renovated or re-built, he not unfrequently found everything very carefully arranged for, except the Communion Table. This he considered most offence at his own cost. He accordingly wrote to an excellent friend of his-an architect-asking at what rate he could supply a new Communion Table, not a very expensive one, but a solid one-intending to make a present of one to any new or reconstructed church where it might be acceptable. This excellent architect having provided him with plans, he had for many years had the privilege of giving these Communion Tables to church restorers and builders, whether High Churchmen or Low Churchmen. But this year he was charged with attempting to introduce through such offerings new doctrines, and to his very great surprise he found that a pamphlet was being circulated throughout his whole diocese, warning Churchmen against his Communion Tables. Surely that was a very paltry way of carrying on warfare. However, the result was that for the future he should withhold, unless urged to give it, any such aid. Another means used to oppose him had been to organize a Lay Association, and he could supply the House with some remarkable details of the workings of this society, but he would not trouble their Lordships with them. But he protested against parties going into every parish and stirring up every kind of illfeeling. Many of these persons came to Salisbury; but as he had lived so many years there, and was well known, agitation against him was not countenanced by the inhabitants, and the use of the Council Chamber of the city as a place of meeting was refused to them. Those parties came to the place in order to make his residence as uncomfortable as they could; but he was happy to say that the attempt was an entire failure. He had, on every public occasion, met with every mark of respect and dutiful attention which a Bishop could desire to receive from the residents of his cathedral city, and they thought it wrong, after he had acted with the greatest consideration to the feelings of all, that parties should come down and try to disturb him in his home there. The noble Lord had referred to a letter, published in The Times, with the well-known signature of "S.G.O.," and which he had felt bound to notice. Now, if there was one man more than another to whom he was bound by feelings of the deepest affection personally, it was the writer of that letter, who, in the private relations of life, had done him acts of kindness which he never should forget, and had he not been moved by a feeling of the highest sense of duty to vindicate the honour of his clergy, whom the writer of the letter had tried to caricature, nothing would have induced him to take the line he did in reference to one he loved. But he did not regret what he had done, for it was done not without consideration and under the influence of honest convictions. Now, all he had to say, in conclusion, was that he intended to persevere in the course he had hitherto adopted, because he was satisfied that the teaching of the High Church party gave what was the most natural and plain and honest exposition of the meaning of the formularies of the Church of England; but the principles on which he intended to administer his diocese he had expressed in a few words in the following passage of his Charge: "I have more faith in another and a simpler remedy, and that is the remedy of patience and charity. I would not question the loyalty of those Churchmen, be they what is called High or be they what is called Low; but I would cling to the belief that continued fatherly kindness on the part of those in authority, and the careful abstinence on all sides from bearing false witness, would do very much to lessen our difficulties, by constraining with the cords of love all, and especially the young, to deal with others, whether above them or below them, with consideration and sympathy, and to temper zeal for God's truth, even when purified of all dross of mere human passion, with the healing waters of charity." He had nothing more to say in his defence, and had only to repeat that he would take the earliest opportunity of sending to each of their Lordships a copy of his Charge. from the House at the moment he regretted, for the purpose of framing any measure for the establishment of fresh Ecclesiastical Courts, in order that spiritual suits might be multiplied to any extent. The multiplication of such suits might be, in the opinion of those who signed the Petition, and in the opinion of the noble Lord who presented it, advantageous to the Church; but he (the Bishop of St. David's) thought that few of their Lordships would think it an unmixed good. In his humble opinion, it would be an unmixed evil. LORD PORTMAN said, that it had pained him very much to hear the right rev. Prelate state that he adhered to every word he had written, and that he intended to persevere in the course he had adopted. This made it the more necessary to improve the procedure in the Courts, as the remedy would be needed. He would warn the right rev. Prelate to beware how he continued to support the plan to consecrate a second Bishop in the diocese of Natal. Bishop Colenso cannot be deposed from his temporalities, and it is believed that Bishop Hamilton cannot be deprived of those of Salisbury; but if he succeeds in his efforts to obtain a second Bishop in Natal, the Petitioners may claim a second Bishop in the diocese of Salisbury-what is good in a colony may be equally good at home; but in the opinion of most men, in which he (Lord Portman) agreed, it would be an unmixed evil. In reply to what had been stated in reference to the establishment of new Courts, he explained that he did not ask for the establishment of any new tribunal. All he asked for was that what was permitted in Criminal and Civil Courts might be done in Ecclesiastical Courts. THE BISHOP OF LONDON said, he should feel sorry it should be supposed that the right rev. Bench generally were desirous of perpetuating legal processes which were at once cumbrous and expensive. He heartily concurred with his right THE BISHOP OF ST. DAVID'S said, he did not think that there was more than one single point raised in the course of the discussion with which it could properly be said that their Lordships' House had anything to do. So much was admitted by the noble Lord who presented the petition, and doubtless the noble Lord therein expressed the general opinion of the House. But there was one single point, and one of great importance, with which their Lord-rev. Friend who spoke last but one (the ships could very properly deal, and there- Bishop of St. David's) in the opinion that it fore he rose to express his earnest hope would be a very great misfortune if a numthat the noble and learned Lord on the ber of cases involving questions of doctrine Woolsack would not yield to the temptation should be continually coming before our which had been held out to him of illus-Courts; but he could not, at the same time, trating, as it was termed, his term of office in the way suggested by the noble Lord who presented the Petition, and that he would not apply his great abilities or take counsel with the most rev. Prelate (the Archbishop of Canterbury), whose absence help thinking that to make such cases cumbrous and expensive was an inconvenient mode of restraining them. While, therefore, he was as anxious as his right rev. Friend could be to prevent the multiplication of those cases, he trusted rather |