while others might be enlarged without any unreasonable call upon the attention of a single prelate. The most eligible mode, unquestionably, of dealing with such anomalies would have been the erection of new bishoprics in addition to all those already existing; efficiency of supervision and reference obviously depending very much upon the number of individuals employed upon such duties. But an increase in the number of sees, with bishops admitted to parliamentary rank and privileges, would have been found impracticable from the temper of the times. To institute, however, permanently a secondary order of prelates, with civil distinctions inferior to those of the first order, would have been to endanger these advantages altogether, and thus to risk the church's dignity, efficiency, and independence. It was, therefore, determined to make as good a provision for existing difficulties as the times allowed, by uniting two of the smaller dioceses with others contiguous to them, and by founding in their places two new dioceses in the populous districts of northern England. The sees marked out for union, were those of Bristol with Gloucester, and St. Asaph with Bangor. In the former case, however, the jurisdiction of Gloucester was only to be augmented by that over Bristol city, with its contiguous parishes. The detached county of Dorset, which Henry VIII. had severed from the sce of Salisbury to place under the new bishopric of Bristol, was to be restored to its ancient prelate, and Berkshire was to be transferred from his supervision, to the see of Oxford. An opening was made for completing these arrangements, by the death, in September, 1834, of the learned Robert Gray, the last holder of the see of Bristol separately. That see was united with Gloucester, in October, 1836. The union of the two north Welsh dioceses encountered great and persevering opposition: in consequence of which the project was abandoned. The sees most disproportionably burthened with business were those of York, Lincoln, and Chester. To diminish this evil, new sees were to be founded at Ripon and Manchester, each of these towns being sufficiently well seated for the heads of new dioceses that are much needed, and each of them being furnished with a collegiate church suitable for a cathedral. Ripon was converted into an episcopal see by an order of council, dated October 5th, 1836, the day on which Gloucester was united with Bristol. This union made the required vacancy. The erection of Manchester

into a bishopric was to wait for a vacancy in one of the North Welsh sees, but the project for uniting them being given up, an act, passed in 1847, legalised that alteration, and a new see was immediately created at Manchester. Thus a twenty-seventh English prelacy was called into existence in the autumn of 1847. But the act, which authorised this addition to the episcopal body, restricted the parliamentary privilege to the old number of twenty-six prelates. It was provided that the prelate last appointed should not have a sect in parliament, until the next vacancy among his brethren, unless he should have been consecrated to one of the archbishoprics, or to London, Durham, or Winchester. Whatever may be thought of this new feature in the episcopal arrangements of England, no difference of opinion is likely to arise upon that particular in the prelatic reform, which assigns an adequate endowment to every member of the episcopal body, and hence removes the old necessity to make up incomes for bishops by allowing them to hold, in commendam, benefices intended for the inferior clergy. The whole reform, indeed, seems to require nothing for making it permanently satisfactory, but the transfer of estates of a certain estimated value, from the wealthier sees, to those that are newly founded, or need augmentation of emolument. Stipends are a new feature in the prelatic endowments of England, and one that may fairly be looked upon with some degree of suspicion.

§ 17. In 1836 was passed an Act for the Commutation of Tithes into a variable rent-charge. The ancient tithe endowment of the church had long been violently opposed in many quarters, often palpably from interest. By objectors whose motives were above suspicion, it was considered very injurious to the religious interests of men, by producing serious disagreements between pastors and people. That such objections to it were not without foundation is unquestionable, but they were grossly exaggerated. A very large proportion of the most obstinate contentions to which clergymen were exposed by the tithe system arose from persons who had lands but not residences in their parishes, and who, therefore, had especial facilities for shifting stock, and managing crops, so as to baffle the tithe owner. Many others of his more acrimonious opponents were dissenters; so that really the spiritual evils arising from this most venerable of clerical remunerations were much smaller than persons imperfectly acquainted with rural affairs commonly

believed. But although religion suffered but slightly from the tithe system, it brought clergymen into disputes as to the value of their property, which were commonly a great drawback from their personal comfort, and for which their previous habits generally fitted them very ill. The tithe commutation was, therefore, a boon of considerable value to the clerical profession upon the whole. It cuts off, however, from the church that prospect of improved income which the progress of national prosperity and enlightenment may open. Had a similar measure been carried into execution some centuries ago, commuted tithes in the present age would be little else than a quit-rent. The commutation also acts unequally, from laying down the principle of estimating tithes according to the net receipts of their several owners upon an average of seven years to be computed backwards from Christmas, 1835. Thus properties will become permanently chargeable with this payment, in proportions varying according to the laxity or strictness used by individuals within a small specified term.

§ 18. In 1838 an act was passed to restrain pluralities. A clamour against them, more or less violent according to the circumstances of the times, had been raised almost uninterruptedly downwards from the Reformation. Men commonly did not stop to consider the poverty of the great majority of benefices, the small extent and population of many parishes, and the justice of enabling clergymen to fill a middle station with comfort and respectability. Nothing was thought of but the advantage of obtaining for every parish efficient clerical services, and the expenditure of a well-conditioned family. Those who accurately know the church are well aware that both these unquestionable advantages cannot be attained with any certainty, in a very large proportion of cases, from inadequacy of endowment. The Pluralities Act, accordingly, merely forbids those indiscriminate accumulations of preferment by which some few persons of great interest had hitherto abused the law. No clergyman but an archdeacon can take in future more than two benefices of any kind. A reservation was made in favour of archdeacons, because their office, although highly useful, had been generally requited by a very trifling payment, seldom enough to cover the expenses that it entails. Two parochial benefices also are not to be taken when distant more than ten miles from each other, nor where the parishes contain

a large population, nor when the joint incomes exceed the yearly value of one thousand pounds. Thus all the most objectionable facilities of the old system are effectually removed, and the reasonable expectations of the clerical order receive that fair attention to which every class of men is justly entitled.

§ 19. In 1840 an act was passed for the reduction of cathedral establishments. Great clamour had, at intervals, assailed these also, ever since the rise of puritanism. That they might, however, be rendered highly serviceable to the church, is obvious. They might serve for the encouragement of ecclesiastical and religious literature, for making needful additions to the incomes of parochial ministers inadequately remunerated from their cures, and for providing with refuges in old age deserving clergymen grown unequal to more active duties. All these services had been rendered by cathedral preferments, though far less frequently than either justice or expediency required. But even if abuses of chapter patronage could hereafter be prevented, it is not certain that the preservation of capitular bodies in their full integrity is more desirable than the partial direction of their funds into other channels. The population of England has greatly overgrown, in certain districts, the parochial provision anciently made for its religious wants. Chapter property affords means of remedying this evil to a considerable extent; for that purpose, therefore, such a portion of it may reasonably be asked, as would neither sacrifice the country's magnificent cathedrals, nor the sublime ministrations performed in them, nor all the facilities for encouraging and rewarding clerical exertions which their endowments supply. These objects are contemplated by the act of 1840. It provides for the reduction of canonries to the number of four in each cathedral, unless there are special circumstances requiring a larger number, and for taking from non-residentiary dignities all right to their old endowments. The appointments themselves were to remain, and there was no interference with the duties imposed upon them. Thus, although the future performance in the older cathedral establishments of anything required by the statutes of the church from its non-resident dignitaries was to be gratuitous, in most other respects the chapter was to continue on its ancient footing. This preservation of these venerable institutions in. their full integrity was not originally intended, but many persons were very desirous of it, and thought that fit holders might be found for offices of such high antiquity even without emolu

ment. The mass of property set at liberty by the various diversions of capitular estates from their original destinations, is to be vested in a board of commissioners, by whom it is to be applied to relieve the spiritual necessities of the country at large. From this disposition great advantages undoubtedly will flow to the people of England. Perhaps nothing is to be lamented in the plan but its approach to the stipendiary system. Certain dignitaries are to pay away such portions of their revenues as will reduce their incomes to a particular amount; others are to be placed upon one uniform scale of receipts. In all these cases the scale adopted seems unexceptionable, but a reasonable partiality for arrangements that have stood the test of long experience, and an allowable distrust of a principle, far from unlikely to suggest other plans of a similar kind, may raise a hope that ultimately, estates will be transferred from dignities which will bear curtailment to such as need augmentation.

§ 20. There are few subjects upon which a religious Englishman can think with less pleasure than upon the slight attention long paid by his country to the spiritual wants of her colonies. When Romish governments plant any considerable number of their people upon some distant shore, they have rarely omitted to establish an episcopal see among them within a very short period. The English government long rooted valuable and extensive colonies in almost every quarter of the globe, without making any religious provision for them beyond the supply of a few unconnected and unsupported clergymen. The first individual of weight and influence who successfully drew attention to this discreditable and impolitic omission was the religious and high-minded Shute Barrington, then bishop of Salisbury, but who died at a patriarchal age, bishop of Durham. This admirable prelate, in 1786, offered to the notice of Mr. Pitt's administration, a valuable and judicious paper, entitled Thoughts on the Establishment of the Church of England in Nova Scotia. In this he recommended the appointment of a bishop, a provision for the established clergy, and a seminary for clerical education. All these recommendations were eventually adopted, and in 1787 a bishop was appointed to the diocese of Nova Scotia, being the first colonial bishop that the church of England ever commissioned. An endowment for this new prelacy

Harford's Life of Bishop Burgess, p. 394, Lond. 1840.