abolition of the Cathedral Service. The subject of Cathedral schools is no novel one to the Bishop of London; it has been unwelcomely thrust upon him in all its length and breadth. He knows full well what they ought to be, and what they are, and is therefore aware that without some such provision the race of competent Minor Canons must cease; he knows that it has ceased, and he knows why. Hence on the present state of the Cathedral schools he looks with a complacent smile. Here, again, he sees that the Deans and Chapters have played his game. No longer can they assert, with Dean Hacket, that "the principal grammar-schools in the kingdom are maintained by these churches," and that they also "bring up musicians that come to great perfection in that faculty." He takes care, accordingly, to leave them as they arc, observing a profound and politic silence even with regard to their existence.

We have thus examined these several Reports,-fit preludes to the forthcoming Bill,-Reports containing such an array of principles, precedents and practices as might be anticipated from the principal mover in the affair. To these, as we have stated, are subscribed the names, among others, of Lord Chancellor Cottenham, Lord Melbourne and Lord John Russell, in connexion with that of "C. J. London." These Whig ministers, in their ambition of legislation and in the fullness of their ignorance, commit themselves into the hands of their episcopal overseer, and proceed, just as he urges, in their helterskelter attack upon Cathedral establishments. They seek no information-they heed no warning; they stop not to ask what will be the effect of this measure (inter alia) upon the Cathedral Service, which any boy from Westminster Abbey could have explained to them: they know not-they care not. It might have been anticipated that Lord Melbourne's knowledge of the world would have led him to pause, to doubt and to examine, before he committed himself into the hands of a man whose constant aim and object had been priestly power and domination, and to hesitate before he gave countenance to a measure of which the avowed purpose was to centre patronage in episcopacy, and virtually to make one Bishop the author and giver of all good things,-to create that most

odious of all jurisdictions an ecclesiastical commission, and to uproot and destroy those venerable institutions which piety had founded, which munificence had endowed, and which learning and genius had adorned. On this occasion the Premier's usual discernment forsook him: the Bill was brought into the House of Lords by the Bishop of London, who explained, as suited him, its provisions. He was master of his subject, he knew all its operations and effects, immediate and remote: no other peer seemed to do so, or probably did. It passed: the Bill became law. With its numerous transfers and alienations of Prebendal stalls we have now nothing to do: they are a series of very sufficient precedents for some future Sir Edward Dering, but our present concern is with its effect upon Cathedral Music and the Cathedral Choirs. The first clause which relates to these is the 45th :

"Be it enacted that from henceforth the right of appointing "Minor Canons shall be in all cases vested in the respective "Chapters, and shall not be exercised by any other person or "body whatsoever; and that, so soon as conveniently may be, "and by the authority hereinafter provided, regulations shall "be made for fixing the number and emoluments of such "Minor Canons in cach Cathedral and Collegiate Church; "provided that there shall not, in any case, be more than Six "nor less than Two."-Act of Parliament, p. 1113.

As "the authority hereinafter provided" is the Ecclesiastical Commission, of which the Bishop of London is the reputed chief and director, this clause must, in order to a right understanding of its intent and designed interpretation, be taken in connexion with his comment. In the speech with which he introduced the bill his Lordship said, "It is not our intention to tax the musical powers of the Minor Canons,”—a commentary which, it seems, provoked "a laugh" from his noble hearers. Taken in connexion with this significant hint, we may be assured that the lowest will be the future real number of Minor Canons. In fact, if they are not to sing, two is one too many. If the subject were not too serious in itself and in its consequences for a jest, the coolness with which a bishop of the Church of England could thus, and in such terms, propose to abrogate a vital and essential portion of the

Statutes of all our Cathedrals, to overturn those provisions whose wisdom and efficacy had been proved for centuries, and to convert the Cathedral Service into a shapeless ruin, might have provoked us to echo the laugh of his hearers. But this is no subject for unseemly mirth. We rather desire "to "claim our right of lamenting the wrongs of the Church, "when others, that have ventured nothing for her sake, have "not the honour to be admitted mourners." We may not live to see it, but this clause seals the doom of the Cathedral Service; it lops off the right arm of every Choir and terminates its efficiency. Those who ought to be, those whom the Statutes expressly require to be, those who for centuries were, the mainstay of every choir, are now to be for ever silenced; the music of Purcell and Croft is henceforth, by warrant of law, to be committed to day-labourers at a shilling a time. A few of these hirelings will crawl into their stalls and utter some kind of sounds,—the organ will play, and the Dean and his verger will keep their wonted state; but the Cathedral music of the English Church is gone. The effect of this clause is not immediate,-no Minor Canon is to be ejected; death is to accomplish the Bishop's object, gradually and imperceptibly; one by one Minor Canons will drop off, and none will be allowed to supply their places. A few years, and the work will be done. Mute for ever will be the heavenly voices of Purcell and Gibbons, of Boyce and Battishill; unheard, unsung will be their matchless harmonies. When this time. arrives, look round from your episcopal throne, Lord Bishop of London, and say, "This is my work!"

As

The abuse by which Minor Canons are compensated for the alienation of thejr revenues by livings, instead of being rectified, is legalized and perpetuated by this act of Parliament, so that even the two will be found to dwindle down to one. if in mockery, it is enacted "that no Minor Canon hereafter "to be appointed in any Cathedral or Collegiate Church shall "be allowed to take and hold together with his Minor Canonry any benefice beyond the limit of six miles from such church." If he is not present and performing his statutary duty in the Cathedral, what matters it whether he is in the adjoining street, six miles or six hundred miles off? The duties of a Minor Canon and those of a parish priest are wholly incompatible,

they had been declared to be so by the Commissioners themselves*: what new light had now dawned upon them?

The immense yearly income arising from the confiscation of Cathedral property of all kinds, it is enacted, "shall accrue "and be vested absolutely in the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, "without any conveyance thereof or assurance in law other "than the provisions of this Act;" and this not as a trust of which they are to render an account as a public and responsible body, but absolutely and entirely, "for the cure of "souls, in such manner as shall, by their authority, be deemed "most conducive to the efficiency of the Established Church." Truly a most convenient, loose and comprehensive arrangement of words, so skilfully put together as to mean anything, and to sanction any kind of expenditure which this secret ecclesiastical conclave may think fit to order! There is no abuse which this clause will not legalize; the door is open to oppression, jobbing, trickery, prodigality, profligacy of every kind; and, since the existence of the Star Chamber, no such fearful tribunal has exercised its power in England. Secrecy, immense influence and yearly augmenting wealth, extending to every parish, irresponsibility, virtual self-clection, such are the attributes and powers of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners.

This mighty machine will, in fact, be worked by a few hands. In addition to the Archbishops, Bishops and two Deans, the Commissioners consist chiefly of persons appointed by themselves, or of functionaries who, they well know, are already overburdened with public duties,-the Lord Chancellor, the Secretaries of State, the Chief Justices of the courts of Queen's Bench, Common Pleas and the Exchequer; the Judge of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury and the Judge of the Court of Admiralty. Six laymen are appointed by the Queen and the Archbishop of Canterbury. The working of this part of the act is already visible. The Bishop of London (always on the spot) and a few obedient laymen, practically make up the Ecclesiastical Commission. A strange face is now and then seen: occasionally a stray Bishop or two wander into the room,-the Judges never,-the

See quotation from the Second Report quoted above at page 13.

Ministers never, when they can avoid it. We cannot doubt that all this was foreseen, designed, arranged: it was plainly intended by the author of this Act that ecclesiastical patronage and power should center in himself, and it does. The effect is only partially visible at present, although every subsequent session of Parliament has brought to light some new and unexpected result, at which legislators uplift their eyes in wonder and their voices in indignation. Its operation, as designed, is gradual and stealthy: death silently and regularly transfers wealth to the hands of its new distributors, who "will pay none but such as they find conformable to their "own interests and opinions; and the clergy will too often. "frame themselves to that interest and those opinions which "they see best pleasing to their paymasters." The operation of this piece of legislative impiety and folly may be stated in the answer of the Bishops of a former reign to a somewhat similar attempt*:

"It overthroweth the foundation and statutes of all cathedral and collegiate churches, and taketh away the principal reward for learned preachers.

"It taketh away daily service used in these churches (which were impiety), unless it be said and sung by such as are no ministers, which is absurd.

"It will breed a beggarly, unlearned and contemptible ministry. It is the very way to overthrow all colleges, cathedral churches and places of learning, and to breed great confusion in the church and commonwealth." That the effect of this Act of Parliament was but imperfectly understood by the Legislature and the public is certain. They committed themselves into the hands of Bishop Blomfield, and are now alarmed and angry at the consequences. These are significant evidences of a prevalent conviction, that the plea of church extension was only urged with the design and for the purpose of transferring an enormous addition of Church patronage to the episcopal bench. We take the following passage from the Times' of March 30, 1844, as one among many illustrations of this state of public feeling:

"The Bishop of London had immense patronage on his promotion to the see of that name: but the suppression of the Minor-Canonries, we are assured, has vastly increased his patronage, as well as that of the other

* Answer from the Bishops to the Book of Articles offered to the last Session of Parliament. (Eliz. Anno 23, 1580.)