THE

BRITISH AND FOREIGN

REVIEW.

ARTICLE I.

1. First, Second, Third and Fourth Reports from His Majesty's Commissioners appointed to consider the State of the Established Church. 1835, 1836.

2. An Act to carry into effect, with certain modifications, the Fourth Report of the Commissioners of Ecclesiastical Duties and Revenues. August 11, 1840.

WE propose to resume the subject of English Cathedral

Music. What it was, and what it is, has been already made apparent: we have now to contemplate its future prospects and position, and to show that, as surely as any result can be predicted from an adequate cause, so certainly may the fate of Cathedral Music be forescen and foretold. Those who live long enough-and not many years will be required-may witness this consummation. As regularly as the sand of the hourglass diminishes and at length runs out, so will the music of our churches progressively decline and come to an end, unless some adequate expression of public feeling shall induce our legislators to review their decisions and retrace their steps. Meanwhile the unchanged policy of its assailants may be stated in a word-silence. As long as the abolition of Cathedral Music was sought as a matter of principle the controversy was long and severe, but now (to repeat our own words*) "conflict there is none; the attacks of Capitular bodies have "been directed against weak and helpless inferiors, while the

• The British and Foreign Review, No. XXXIII. p. 107. VOL. XVIII.—No. XXXV.

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"remonstrances which have been at various times addressed "to them through the press have been met by a discreet "silence." Our former article on this subject has attracted the attention of persons well informed on the subject of which it treats; but we have looked in vain for any impeachment of the correctness of our statements: they are uncontroverted, and, we believe, incontrovertible. Our case was, that the English nation possesses "the richest collection of devotional "music in the world, and the amplest endowments for its "efficient performance; while their Cathedrals, the deposito"ries of this store of genius and learning, the inheritors of "all these munificent bequests, exhibit at this moment too "generally the most helpless decrepitude or the lowest vulga "rity." The first part of this statement rests upon historical and documentary evidence, of which enough, in our judgement, was quoted (though much more was at hand) to establish it. Of the second part, the inhabitant of any city is able to judge for himself. We cited the Statutes which prescribe the numbers and define the qualifications of every member of a choir: the evidence of his senses will suffice to satisfy any inquirer whether they are obeyed or violated.

We proceed to trace and record the measures which have placed the Cathedral Service in its present position. These are, in fact, the recommendations of a body called Ecclesiastical Commissioners, which have in due time received the assent of the Legislature and become the law of the land. Although these recommendations, embodied in successive Reports, bear the alternate signatures of Whig and Tory ministers, they all bespeak a common origin; they all aim at the same end, they are all cast in the same mould, "their unanimity is wonderful." There is another curious circumstance connected with the proceedings of this body,-they appear to have satisfied only their contrivers: every section and party in the Church has, in turn, denounced and attacked them. But with the general scope and design of the changes which they propose to accomplish, and which are yet but partially visible, we have at present no concern. It is not our intention to survey the new episcopal map of England and Wales, but simply to examine the design and spirit of the Reports and Act of Parliament which stand at the head

of this article, as far as they relate to and affect Cathedral Choirs and the Cathedral Service.

This formidable Commission was created in 1835, consequently in the reign of William IV., and comprized, in addition to the Lord Chancellor (Lyndhurst), Sir Robert Peel, Mr. Goulburn, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, the Bishops of London, Gloucester, Lincoln, and a few persons of less note. Among other powers, they obtained the authority (worded with convenient latitude of phrase) "to consider "the state of the several Cathedral and Collegiate Churches "in England and Wales, with a view to the suggestion of such "measures as may render them conducive to the efficiency of "the Established Church." The first part of the first Report is devoted to a statement of the episcopal "territory" and "revenue" of the kingdom, and the proposed new apportionment of both; and then, under the head "Patronage," appears what the old divines called "the practical improvement of the subject."-"It will be expedient that the Bishops shall possess a certain portion of patronage, in "order that they may reward deserving clergymen within "their Dioceses." This principle being asserted and assumed, ample provision is made in subsequent reports for giving it effect, the Bishops claiming to be the sole judges of what constitutes desert. In this Report the state of the several Cathedral and Collegiate Churches is dismissed, with a promise that it shall be taken into consideration forthwith.

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In a few months from the date of the first Report the ministry was changed; a new Commission was appointed, and the names of Lord Cottenham, Lord Melbourne and Lord John Russell appear in the place of those of their official predecessors; but there remain Charles John, Lord Bishop of London, and his brothers of Gloucester and Lincoln, and there remains also the spirit of the former Report. The change of ministry effects no change in this measure, and Whigs are here found by their episcopal guides ductile and docile as Tories.

The Commission whence these parties derive their authority, and under which they act, enjoins them "to consider "the state of the several Cathedral and Collegiate Churches "in England and Wales with reference to ecclesiastical du"ties and revenues;" that is, it would be supposed, to ex

amine their foundations and their statutes, and to ascertain whether these were strictly adhered to and faithfully administered,-whether their "state" was such as these required and enjoined,-whether their revenues were appropriated to their designed uses,-whether the persons filling the various offices necessary to carry on the Cathedral Service were competent to the discharge of their various and prescribed duties, and in point of fact whether they did discharge the duties required of them by statute,-whether the numbers of the Choirs (that is, the number of persons who perform the Service) conformed to the legal requirement,-whether in the schools attached to Cathedrals the statutary course of instruction was adhered to,-in short, whether the capitular members of Cathedrals were faithful and honest administrators of those laws which they had sworn faithfully and honestly to administer, and trusty guardians of those revenues of which the distribution, through their hands, was defined and prescribed; or whether they had forgotten and violated their duty as administrators of the law, and assumed the power of law-makers. To these points it would be imagined that any persons to whom such a power was delegated would have necessarily addressed themselves. This was no case in which the design of a founder had to be made out by infe rence, or concerning which there could be even a shadow of doubt; nor was there any change in the form or structure of the Service concerning which the inquiry was to be made. The buildings, the Book of Common Prayer,-the Rubric,—the officers, the music, not only in form but in substance,— the statutes, the revenues,-were all what they were centu rics ago, save that time had given them its added sanction and increase. Nothing had needed change,-nothing had been changed. The fitness of the building for the service, and of the service for the building, had been tested and proved: it had been abolished, but it had never been patched and mutilated. It had been the theme of admiration of the wisest, most devout and most learned men in the Church.

"I crave only," said Bishop Taylor, "that I may call to mind the pleasures of the Temple, the order of her services, the beauty of her buildings, the sweetness of her songs, the decency of her ministrations, the assiduity of her priests, the daily sacrifice, and that eternal fire of devotion that went not out by day or by night. Those were the pleasures of our