1 H. VII. c. 4. repealed.-WHEREAS the present mode of proceeding in causes for the correction of clerks is attended with great expense, delay, and uncertainty, occasioned as well by the number of courts which now have jurisdiction in such causes as by the multiplicity of appeals allowed by law from the decrees of such courts: And whereas it would tend very materially to diminish the evil aforesaid, and to promote a more uniform, speedy, and effectual administration of justice, if one court in each province were appointed to have exclusive jurisdiction in all such causes, subject to an appeal to her Majesty in Council: Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords spiritual and temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, That an Act passed in the first year of the reign of King Henry the Seventh, intituled "An Act for Bishops to punish Priests and other Religious Men for dishonest Lives," shall be, and the same is hereby repealed.

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II. Definition of the terms "Preferment," " Bishop," and " Diocese."And be it enacted, That, unless it shall otherwise appear, from the context, the term "Preferment," when used in this Act shall be construed to comprehend every deanery, archdeaconry, prebend, canonry, office of minor canon, priest vicar, or vicar choral in holy orders, and every precentorship, treasurership, sub-deanery, chancellership of the Church, and other dignity and office in any cathedral or collegiate Church, and every mastership, wardenship, and fellowship in any collegiate Church, and all benefices with cure of souls,

therein comprehending all parishes, perpetual curacies, donatives, endowed public chapels, parochial chapelries, and chapelries or districts belonging or reputed to belong, or annexed or reputed to be annexed to any church or chapel, and every curacy, lectureship, readership, chaplaincy, office, or place which requires the discharge of any spiritual duty, and whether the same be or be not within any exempt or peculiar jurisdiction; and the word "Bishop" when used in this Act shall be construed to comprehend "Archbishop;" and the word "Diocese" when used in this Act shall be construed to comprehend all places to which the jurisdiction of any bishop extends under and for the purposes of an Act passed in the first and second years of her present Majesty's reign, intituled "An Act to abridge the holding of Benefices in Plurality, and to make better Provision for the Residence of the Clergy."

III. Jurisdiction of Ecclesiastical Courts (except Court of Arches and Chancery Court of York) in suits for correction of clerks, abolished.—And be it enacted, That from and after the passing of this Act no ecclesiastical court whatsoever, whether royal, peculiar, or otherwise, now possessing any jurisdietion to hear, determine, or adjudicate upon any suit against any spiritual person below the rank or degree of a bishop, for the purpose of procuring any sentence of excommunication, suspension ab officio or ab officio et beneficio, deprivation, or any spiritual censure, shall possess or exercise any such jurisdiction, save except the Court of Arches [so far as relates to the province of Canterbury, and so far as is hereafter provided to both provinces, and the chancery court of York, so

far as relates to the province of York], which courts shall exclusively possess and exercise respectively original jurisdiction in all such suits in the manner hereinafter directed, subject nevertheless to an appeal to her Majesty in Council, to be referred to the judicial committee of her Majesty's most honourable Privy Council: [Provided always, that no person shall be cited in any such suit into the said Court of Arches or the said Chancery Court until request shall have been made or permission given to institute a suit, or until the security shall have been given to institute and prosecute a suit in one of the said courts as hereinafter provided: Provided also, that nothing in this Act contained shall be construed or held to authorize the judge of the Court of Arches or the judge of the Chancery Court of York, to decree sentence of excommunication or to pronounce sentence of deprivation in any other form or manner than that in which they are now respectively authorized by law to decree or pronounce and sentence.]

IV. Jurisdiction of the Court of Arches and Chancery Court of York. And be it enacted, That in all such suits as aforesaid the jurisdiction of the said Court of Arches [and of the Chancery Court of York, shall extend to all parts of the provinces of Canterbury and York respectively, and all their citations, processes, and sentences shall be executed in every part of those provinces respectively, and with respect to all preferments therein, and may be enforced by the same means as any citation, process, or sentence of the said Court of Arches and the Chancery Court of York respectively may now be enforced; and in case of a suit against any spiritual person holding preferment in both provinces, the jurisdiction of the said Court of Arches shall extend to], and all its citations, processes, and sentences shall be executed in, every part of England, and in respect to all such preferments, and may be enforced by the same means as any citation, process, or sentence of the said Court of Arches may now be enforced.

V. Suits now pending in Ecclesiastical Courts transferred to the Court of Arches and Chancery Court of York.—

And be it enacted, That all such suits now pending in any ecclesiastical court, other than the Court of Arches [or the Chancery Court of York] shall be and the same are hereby removed and

transferrred before the Court of Arches [and the Chancery Court of York respectively]; and the same suits, and all suits for the correction of clerks now pending in the said courts, shall there be proceeded in, either according to the law and forms and in the manner heretofore in force and use in the said Courts of Arches [and the Chancery Court of York respectively], or in the manner directed by this Act with respect to suits hereafter to be instituted, according to the discretion of the judges of the said courts respectively; and the decisions of the Court of Arches [and the Chancery Court of York], in such suits may be appealed from, and such suits proceeded with before the judicial committee of her Majesty's most honourable Privy Council, as if this Act had not passed.

VI. Suits before Judicial Committee to proceed as if Act had not passed.— And be it enacted, That all suits now pending before the judicial committee of her Majesty's most honourable Privy Council shall proceed in all respects as if this Act had not passed.

VII. Before any suit be instituted, a statement of particulars of offence or offences charged to be lodged in Diocesan registry, &c.-[And be it enacted, That before any bishop or other person shall institute any such suit such bishop or other person shall leave or cause to be left in the registry of the bishop of the diocese within which the spiritual person intended to be proceeded against shall hold preferment, or in case such spiritual person shall hold preferment within more than one diocese then of the archbishop of the province, or in case such spiritual person shall hold preferment in both provinces then of the Archbishop of Canterbury, or in case such spiritual person shall not hold any preferment then of the bishop of the diocese within which he shall be inhabiting, a statement in writing, subscribed by such bishop or other person, of the nature and particulars of each and every offence imputed to such spiritual person for which it is intended to institute such suit, and of the

time and place at which each and every such offence or offences is or are alleged to have been committed; and the registrar of such bishop or archbishop shall and he is hereby required forth

with to deliver or cause to be delivered a copy of such statement to such spiritual person, or shall leave or cause the same to be left at the usual residence of such spiritual person.]

Salisbury Diocesan Church Building Association.

THE triennial meeting of this important Association was held on Friday, the 15th instant, in the Council Chamber, Salisbury. The attendance was numerous and highly respectable, including many of the leading families in the diocese, and a great hody of the Clergy. The Marquis of Lansdowne having been unanimously voted to the chair, the Rev. G. P. Lowther, the Diocesan Secretary, solemnly offered up prayer, after which,

The Marquis of Lansdowne opened the business of the meeting in a brief but able address, in which he observed, that the object of the meeting must be well known to all present-it was to receive the Report, and take into consideration the proceedings of a Society which had been established for some time, under the auspices of the Lord Bishop of the Diocese, with the view of promoting the building of edifices for public worship.

The secretary then proceeded to read the report. From this interesting document we give the following extracts:-"During the past year, through the instrumentality of this Association, six new Churches have been built or are in progress in various parts of the Diocese. Two others have been rebuilt on an enlarged scale. Two more have had greatly increased accommodation given to them by the addition of new aisles; and three more

made capable of containing a great addition to their former congregations, by the erection of new galleries, or by a fresh arrangement of the pews. It thus appears, that, since the commencement of this highly important Association, nearly eight thousand additional sittings have been provided in the most destitute parts of the diocese, nearly seven-eighths of which are free and unappropriated. A sum exceeding 30,000l. has been expended, and nearly the whole of it called into action from the encouragement held out by the comparatively small grants that the Association has been enabled to give out of its limited funds." But notwithstanding what had been already done, it appeared that in several parishes in the northern parts of Wilts especially, and in some parishes in Dorsetshire, church destitution to a considerable extent still existed; and a powerful appeal was made to the friends of the Church not to relax their exertions, or withhold their liberality in working out the good that the Society was intended to accomplish.

The Treasurer, J. H. Jacob, Esq., then made his financial statement, from which it appeared, that the Society will have to commence its operations in the ensuing year with a balance of about 17007.-an amount which it is almost needless to observe, will be expended in the course of the next twelve months, as the grants of the last year reached 1400l. and the

calls upon the Society are both numerous and urgent.

The Bishop of Salisbury said, that ever since he had filled the office in the Church which he now did, he had every year undertaken the same task which was now assigned to him, of moving that the Report of the Association be printed, and the officers of the Society elected, and it was a task which he had always much satisfaction in performing. In proposing the reappointment of the Secretary, Treasurer, and members of the Committee, he would not detain the meeting by expressing the sense he very sincerely entertained of the obligations they were under to those gentlemen, as he had repeatedly done so before. He would only advert in one word to the appointment of Mr. Wyatt as diocesan architect-a gentleman of great professional ability, who had very handsomely volunteered to give his gratuitous service to the Society. He conceived that this gentleman and the officers were willing to give their time and talents to this object, for the same reason as made him ready to render his humble support-viz., that they conceived they were engaged in a high and holy work, which, in the imperfect degree in which it had yet been performed, had been the means of supplying to hundreds of thousands the opportunity of religious instruction, and the use of the means of grace; and if it were fully carried out, would do more for establishing the social prosperity of the community, and the present and eternal interests of the people on a safe foundation, than any other work of man whatever.

Our ancestors did not appear ignorant or unmindful of this truth, as was shown by the admirable framework of our parochial system, which provided that no member of the community should want the superintending care of the ordained minister of religion, or ready access to the house of God. They not only supplied their own wants, but raised their buildings on a scale that sufficed for many generations for those of their descendants. But they could not foresee what had come to pass in these days, or the manner in which population has in

creased of late years. The time of the nation's prosperity was the time of its sin. When God, with unexampled goodness, united in our favour the glories of war and the blessings of peace, then it was that the nation forgot God, and allowed a population to grow up, skilled in all the arts of life, but neglected as to all moral training, and destitute of the means of grace.

He conceived that this was a sin of which we were now in some measure reaping the bitter fruits in the social disorders which distracted and terrified the land. He believed it would be found that sedition and treason mainly flourished were the population had been neglected in these respects. We had one melancholy confirmation of this fresh in every one's mind, where sedition had boken out into bloodshed, and which had still to be visited by the offended majesty of the law.

Another frightful feature to which he could not but advert, was the spread of Socialism, with its infidel tenets, openly opposed to all religion, and overthrowing the foundations of all morality. The disciples of this impiety were no longer content with disseminating their doctrines in secret, but now openly proclaimed them. Halls were being built in Manchester, Huddersfield, and Leeds, for lectures in blasphemy and immorality. At Manchester, four persons guaranteed the sum of 5000l. Nor was the contagion confined to the manufacturing districts, for a property had been purchased within twelve miles of Salisbury itself, at East Tytherly, where a colony was to be established on a large scale, as an example of a social system without a religion, and of morality resting on no other basis than the will of man.

So far as these evils were to be attributed to the want of religious instruction, and the opportunity of the means of grace, the remedy was to apply them. This was the work in which this Association had been long engaged, and which it was now seeking for support to carry on. The Report had fully stated what had been done in this diocese, and the necessity for further exertion. He would only add to these details, that, having addressed, on the occasion of his late visita

tion, an inquiry on this subject to every parish in his jurisdiction, he had received an answer from eightythree clergymen, that further accommodation was needed in their respective parishes.

He had never heard but one objection raised to the work in which they were engaged, which was, that they were attempting to do what was the proper business of the State. As a fact he fully admitted this; but denied the argument and inference drawn from it. He held it himself to be the bounden duty of the State to care not only for the temporal but for the moral and spiritual wants of the people, and as a part of this duty, to offer to the whole population the opportunity of the public worship of Almighty God, according to that form which it believes to be true and pure, and as such has received and established. As an individual member of the Legislature, he would always do what lay in his power to advance this work, and hoped to see the day when the obligation of the State in this respect would be recognised and enforced. But in the meantime, if the State neglected its duty, he would not hold back from a work of voluntary charity; both because it was more needful to to do so, and also, because every successful effort of this kind diminished the difficulty of ultimately providing for the want in the only way in which it could be effectually done, as a national work, at the nation's charge. It was with these views and sentiments that he very cordially supported the resolution which had been entrusted to him. The meeting was afterwards addressed by the Hon. H. Pierrepont, the Rev. F. Fulford, Mr. Brodie, M.P., the Ven. Archdeacon Lear, the Rev. N. Smart, and the Rev. J. O. Parr. The Marquess of Lansdowne then quitted the chair, which was occupied by the Bishop of Salisburywhen Col. Baker moved, and the Hon. and Rev. Canon Bouverie seconded, a vote of thanks to the noble chairman, which was carried by acclamation.

The Noble Marquess, in acknowledging the tribute so justly as well as cordially paid him, was pleased to observe that, having presided at the

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annual meeting of the Church Building Association in another part of the county last year, and being, officially at least, equally connected with that part of it in which the present meeting was held, he felt it to be no less his duty to occupy the same post on the present occasion. The last occasion on which his lordship had been called, in the discharge of a public duty, to preside in that room, had been one of a very different character. Then it was to vindicate the justice of the country in the case of misguided persons who, in attacking property, had attacked all the institutions of the country. The present was an occasion of a very different and far more pleasing kind. He saw, however, no very remote relation between those occa sions-not a relation, indeed, of cause and effect, but a relation of bane and antidote. For it was to the enlightenment of the people as to the great principles of their duty to God and man, that we must mainly look for the prevention of such crimes. That enlightenment would emanate from the erection of churches and places of public worship, in which they would receive that instruction in religion and virtue so essential to the security and happiness of society. His lordship observed, that in the course of a recent foreign travel, he had arrived at a spot, where, in a cave rudely hewn out of the heart of a stupendous rock, and capable of containing about sixteen persons, was held the first assembly for christian worship in that country. It was there that, in the sixth century, christianity dawned upon that land. When he came to compare that first rude temple, scooped out of the rock by the hands of its scanty congregation of christian worshippers, with those magnificent edifices, consecrated to the same purpose, now every where spreading over the land, he was struck with the reflection, with what small means truth and virtue can arrive at the greatest ends. His lordship concurred in the sound policy of those who had sought to connect the internal spirit of religion with the attractive elements of external grandeur and beauty. He thought it a wise policy to associate the impressions of reli

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