"IX. The Bishop may require the party to appear before him; and may pronounce judgment on admission.-And be it enacted, That it shall be lawful for the bishop, by writing under his hand, to require the party to appear, either in person or by his agent duly appointed, as to the said party may seem fit, before him at any place within the diocese, and at any time after the expiration of fourteen days, and to make answer to the said articles within such time as to the bishop shall seem reasonable; and if the party shall appear, and by his answer admit the truth of the articles, the bishop, or his commissary specially appointed for that purpose, shall forthwith proceed to pronounce sentence thereupon according to the ecclesiastical law." "XII. Sentence of the Bishop to be effectual in law.—And be it enacted, That all sentences which shall be pronounced by any bishop or his commissary in pursuance of this Act, shall be good and effectual in law; and such sentences may be enforced by the like means as a sentence pronounced by an ecclesiastical court of competent jurisdiction." "XIV. The Bishop empowered to inhibit party accused from performing services of the church, &c.-And be it enacted, That in every case in which, from the nature of the offence charged, it shall appear to any bishop within whose diocese the party accused may hold any preferment, that great scandal is likely to arise from the party accused continuing to perform the services of the Church while such charge is under investigation, or that his ministration will be useless while such charge is pending, it shall be lawful for the bishop to cause a notice to be served on such party at the same time with the service of a copy of the articles aforesaid, or at any time pending any proceedings before the bishop or in any ecclesiastical court, inhibiting the said party from performing any services of the Church within such diocese from and after the expiration of fourteen days from the service of such notice, and until sentence shall have been given in the said cause: Provided that it shall be lawful for such party, being the incumbent of a benefice, within fourteen days after the service of the said notice, to nominate to the bishop any fit person or persons to perform all such services of the Church during the period in which such party shall be so inhibited as aforesaid; and if the bishop shall deem the person or persons so nominated fit for the performance of such services, he shall grant his licence to him or them accordingly; or in case a fit person shall not be nominated, the bishop shall make such provision for the service of the Church as to him shall seem necessary; and in all such cases it shall be lawful for the bishop to assign such stipend, not exceeding the stipend required by law for the curacy of the church belonging to the said party, nor exceeding a moiety of the net annual income of the benefice, as the said bishop may think fit, and to provide for the payment of such stipend, if necessary, by sequestration of the living: Provided also, that it shall be lawful for the said bishop at any time to revoke such inhibition and licence respectively." Such are the large powers given by this act to the Bishops. May they be enabled to use them mildly and wisely. We proceed with ecclesiastical law matters so far as they are important to the general reader: and we therefore extract, from the charge of Archdeacon Wilberforce, the following remarks on Church Sittings. All the pews in a parish church are the common property of the parish, except such as are held by prescription, or by a faculty from the bishop. A prescriptive right to a sitting can be established only by an imme morial use of it, as appurtenant to a particular mansion and by reparation of it when repairs were needed. By a faculty a pew is appropriated, sometimes to a person in respect of a house, whilst he and his family continue to occupy it; at other times, so long as he continues an inhabitant of the parish, and member of the Church of England. If a house to which a pew is appurtenant be let, the tennant is entitled to the pew. A grant of a seat to a man and his heirs is bad. The distribution of all seats, which are not held by faculty or prescription, rests with the ordinary: the churchwardens are his officers, and they are to allot them to inhabitants of the parish, taking care to afford suitable accommodation to as many as possible. In these arrangements the advice of the minister should always be taken. When a person has been placed in a particular seat by the churchwardens, or been suffered for some time to occupy a sitting quietly, he is said to have a possessory right in it ; but he is liable to be displaced by the churchwardens, when occsaion shall require, with the sanction of the ordinary. The erection of a seat by an individual at his own charge, even with the leave of the minister, the churchwardens, and all the parishioners, gives him no permanent interest in it; such interest can be obtained only by a faculty. Churchwardens must not permit seats to be altered in size or form, or the sides thereof to be raised to an improper height, at the mere pleasure of individuals; nor are they on any account to allow open sittings to be converted into close pews without the consent of the ordinary. A seat cannot legally be let or sold: nothing can authorize the letting or the sale but an Act of Parliament: and a person residing out of the parish can in no way retain to his own use, or acquire a right to a seat in the body of a church. If church accommodation be wanted, the churchwardens may make a But if they different distribution of the sittings, so as to meet the want. do so capriciously, or without just ground, the ordinary will interfere. The Church-rate Martyr is no longer a Prisoner.-John Thorogood has been discharged from the county gaol, Chelmsford, having been in prison about twenty-two months. After having seen the proceedings in the Ecclesiastical Court, he addressed a letter to a London paper, in which he said "I urge my friends, wherever they may be found, never to pay one farthing of either one rate or the other; and for their costs, I am confident that none but the greatest enemy to me and the principles I entertain, which I am determined, by God's grace, to stand on till death, will ever either pay one or the other-either rate, or costs, or any such thing." It appears, however, that at the time this was written, the rate and costs had been paid by some unknown hand, and the same day a letter was forwarded to him by Mr. G. Sowray, of 13, Chapel-street, Belgrave-square, stating that he had sent to the gaoler a warrant for his release, but was only an agent in the matter, and not at liberty to disclose the name of the party who had paid the costs, &c. A discharge from the registrar of the Ecclesiastical Court was received by the gaoler, and this was communicated to Thorogood, who paused a short time after to complete the arrangements for his retreat, and about eleven o'clock he evacuated his old quarters, and marched towards his home. appeared much gratified at his release, and did not evince a great degree of wrath at the "enemy "who had paid the money for him. It seems he The following is a clause of 4 Geo. 4, c. 76, commonly called the New Ecclesiastical Report. Marriage Act, which is, though highly important, not generally known to Trinity In College. In Lodgings. Total Resident. 219 229 448 St. John's 239 103 342 Corpus Christi 113 Queen's 48 63 111 Caius .. 96 Catherine Hall 83 St. Peter's 75 Emanuel 73 Christ 72 Pembroke 44 16 60 Jesus 60 Clare Hall 59 Magdalene 50 50 King's 34 34 Sidney 33 34 Trinity Hall 30 33 Downing 11 11 Matriculations (Michaelmas Term).. 392 Incorporated Society for Promoting the Enlargement, Building, and Repairing of Churches aud Chapels.-A meeting of the committee of this Society was held at their chambers, St. Martin's-place, on Monday, the 16th of November, 1840, the Rev. Dr. D'Oyly in the chair. There was also present, the Revs. Dr. Shepherd, J. Lonsdale, Benjamin Harrison, and J. Jennings; H. J. Barchard, A. Powell, J. Cocks, N. Connop, jun. Esqrs. Among other business transacted, grants were voted towards building a Chapel-of-ease at Tean, in the parish of Checkley, Stafford; re-building the church at Cressage, in the parish of Cound, Salop; building a new church in Every-street, Manchester; building a chapel at Bexhill, Sussex; building a new church in the parish of Allhallows-on-the-Wall, in the city of Exeter; the purchase of a building, to be rendered appropriate for an Episcopalian Church, at Falmouth, Cornwall; building a new church in the parish of St. George, Southwark; building a chapel at Knighton, in the parish of Hannock, Devon; enlarging, by re-building, the church at Rogate, Sussex; re-building the church at Old Swinford, Worcester; enlarging, by re-building, the chapel at Tibberton, in the parish of Edgmond, Salop; re-building the chapel at Whittington, Worcester; re-pewing the church of St. Peter, at Ipswich, Suffolk; re-arranging seats and re-building galleries in the church at Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire; re-arranging part of seats and building gallery in the church at Battisford, Suffolk; re-building the church at Norton Bavant, Wilts. These are the chief matters of interest at home. Before, however, we turn to the colonies, we will give a brief list of testimonials of respect to various clergymen since our last report went to press. Testimonials of Respect.-Rev. E. Archer, Leominster; Rev. W. B. Bradford, late curate of Croscombe, Dorsetshire; Rev. T. Fennel, D.D., late fellow and tutor of Queen's College, Cambridge; Rev. John Guthrie, vicar of Calne; Rev. H. J. C. Harper, conduct of Eton College; Rev. Dr. Hook, vicar of Leeds; Rev. Jos. Hordern, vicar of Rostherne; Rev. W. Howorth; Rev. J. Howson, Rathnell, parish of Giggleswick; Rev. T. Image, rector of Stanningfield, Suffolk; Rev. G. W. Marriott, one of the curates of the parish of Stoke-upon Trent; Rev. S. Nosworthy, curate of Widdecombein-the-Moore, Devonshire; Rev. D. Seddon, Trinity chapel, Salford; Rev. T. Shelford, late curate of Croxton Kerrial, Leicestershire; Rev. J. S. Stockwell, Wilton; Rev. W. Stone, rector of Christ-church, Spitalfields; Rev. J. L. Worship, St. Nicholas, Ipswich; Rev. J. Ramsden Wollaston, late P. C. of West Wickham, Cambridge. ECCLESIASTICAL NOTICES. The Lord Bishop of Lichfield will hold his next ordination at Eccleshall, on Sunday, January 10, 1841. The Lord Bishop of Norwich will hold his next ordination at Norwich, on Sunday, the 10th of January, 1841. The candidates are to attend at the place for examination at a quarter hefore ten o'clock in the morning of Wednesday, the 6th of January next. The Lord Bishop will hold his next ordination at Ripon, on Sunday, January 10, 1841. The Bishop of Peterborough proposes to hold his next ordination on Sunday, the 7th of March. Candidates are requested to make known to his lordship their intention as soon as possible. The Bishop of Salisbury will hold his next ordination at Salisbury, on Sunday, the 7th of March. Candidates for Deacons' Orders are required to be at the palace, in order to a preliminary examination, on Tuesday, the 39th of December, at ten o'clock. We have much pleasure in announcing that it has been determined to proceed, without any further delay, with the plan proposed in the Bishop of London's letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, for providing a fund for the endowment of bishoprics in our colonies and foreign possessions, and we hope that our next number may contain more particular details respecting it. Her Majesty, the Queen Dowager, has announced her intention of contributing the magnificent sum of 2,000l.; the Archbishop of Canterbury, 1,000l.; the Bishop of London, 1,000l.; the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge has voted a grant of 10,000l.; the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, 5,000l.; the Church Missionary Society has declared its intention of contributing to the same object: the Colonial Church Society has subscribed 4001. We have reason to believe that the first objects to which the fund will be applied, will be the endowment, or part endowment, of bishoprics in Malta and in New Zealand. With regard to Malta, it may be stated, that an address to Her Majesty has been signed by nearly every English clergyman in the Mediterranean, praying that a bishop may be appointed for the care of our churches upon its shores; and the recent events which have occurred in the Levant, together with the difficult question of intercourse with the churches and communities of the East, have rendered this a measure of the greatest importance. The New Zealand Company have set apart 4,000 acres of land, as an endowment for the bishop of that island. In New Brunswick, there is reason to hope that the colony itself will prove a suitable maintenance for a bishop. It is understood that subscriptions may be given for the endowment of any particular bishopric, and that all contributions of a certain amount may be paid by four annual instalments, as in the case of the Metropolis Churches' Fund. Mr. The cause of education and the church is also making satisfactory progress in India'; the accounts from Bombay are particularly cheering. Candy gives the following statement of what he has done, and what he proposes to do on his own station : "I. Objects accomplished. "1. A site of ground has been secured, in an eligible situation, for erecting on it a chapel, school-houses, and a dwelling for the missionary. "2. A neat and substantial chapel has been built, capable of containing a congregation of about 400 persons, and opened for divine service under an episcopal license, and is now well attended by those for whose benefit it was erected. "3. A school has been opened, at which 100 children attend; and of these, between thirty and forty are boarders. "4. A fund for the endowment of the mission has been formed, and now amounts to rupees 5,795, or about 5797. 15s. "5. Subscriptions for the buildings have been made, to the amount of rupees 30,758, or about 3,7581. II. Designs in progress. "1. The erection of suitable school-houses, containing apartments for a master and mistress, and accommodation for (seventy) boarders, chiefly orphans, or children otherwise destitute. 2. The building a house for the missionary on the premises. "3. The estimated cost of the school-houses, plans of which have been approved, amounts to rupees 24,454, besides rupees 6,000, for the purchase of a small plot of ground adjoining the premises. "4. The probable expense of a house for the missionary has been estimated at rupees 12,000. These together make a total of rupees 42,454, for contemplated expenditure. "5. These designs are necessary parts of the mission. The condition and circumstances of the Indo-British in this place render them so; and the Diocesan Committee cannot contemplate the possible non-completion of them, but as a most serious detriment to the efficiency of the IndoBritish mission. For completing their designs, the Committee have at their disposal the sum of rupees 21,000, leaving a balance of rupees 21,454, to be collected from the liberality of their Christian brethren. This sum the Committee cannot expect to collect in India; and as the entire expenditure of the Indo-British mission has hitherto been defrayed without drawing upon the Parent Society, they the more confidently trust that such assistance may be obtained from them as will enable them to carry out the good work which has been successfully commenced." It will be observed, from all that we have stated, that claims, ever F |