APPENDIX TO THE REPORTS OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS ON PUBLIC PETITIONS. SESSION 1845. 16 PUBLIC PETITIONS.-APPENDIX TO THE FIRST REPORT. Delivered 19th February. That your Petitioner is no less by inclination That your Petitioner and his clerical brethren are bound, not only by their ordination vows and by canon, under penalty of having ecclesi- astical censure, to reverently obey their Ordi- nary in all things lawful and honest, but are also liable to be indicted at the assizes, held before my Lady the Queen's justices, in the county where the offence is committed, by any layman or other person whatsoever for not complying with the rubrics in the Book of Common Prayer, in every particular, even to the minutest point, under the Statutes of 2 and 3 Edward VI., c. 1, and 1 Elizabeth, c. 2; and if con- victed thereof by verdict of twelve men, ac- cording to the laws of this realm, or according to their own confession, or by the notorious evidence of the fact, will have to suffer heavy fine and imprisonment, and for the third offence deprivation of all ecclesiastical pro- motion, and imprisonment for life; and the archbishops and bishops are equally liable to the same indictments and penalties as their Petitioner is, and always has been, very desirous to perform his clerical ministra- That, in the opinion of your Petitioner, the Church of Book of Common Prayer and its rubrics are arranging nearly in a state similar to that on the return Differences). Your Petitioner also, with all due deference, ventures to remark that Parliament has, with- out the consent of convocation, altered a ru- bric, namely, as to the publication of banns of marriage, by passing the 26 George II., Your Petitioner, therefore, humbly prays your honourable House to take the subject into your gracious and serious consideration, to cause the Statutes of 2 and 3 Edward VI., c. 1, and 1 Elizabeth, c. 2, to be repealed, and to adopt such measures as to your wisdom may seem fit to procure a calm, moderate, and tem- perate review of the Book of Common Prayer, rubrics, and canons of the United Church of England and Ireland, as may have the effect of settling those differences of opinion and prac- tice which now exist among those who have all subscribed before their respective bishops, and published to their parochial congregations, the declaration that they will conform to the liturgy of the United Church of England and Ireland, as by law established. And your Petitioner, as in duty bound, will WM. CARWITHEN, D.D., Rector of Stoke |