The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1867-02-26 00:00:00

ealtsiastical Intznignut.

Tug RICH? OP Butricipg TO 821113112 IssTiyTios.-
The House of Lords, sitting us Court of Appeal, have
had before them an ecclesiastical case of the highest
poisible impoitaoce to the great body of the clergy,
inasmuch as it involves the pow.. of bishops to refuge
to institsts clergymen presented to them for institution
to benefices. The action was brought by the Rev. Mr.
Marshall sgairst the Bishop of Rester and the Rev.
John Borwell to recover the presentation of a rectory
and vicarage in Cornwall, of which Mr. Marshall was
patron. The church in question became eaosnt by
the resignation of Mr. Marshall, and he presented the
Bev. John Reid to the living. The Bialoy of Rester
declined to admit Mr. Reid to the incumbency, and after
ihme time proceeded to present the Rev. Mr. Borweli to
the benefice, on the ground that the presentation had
Ispsid, it being the law that when a private patron
fails to present a clergyman to a beudiee within six
months of • vacancy, the nomination goes to the Bishop
of the diocese. Mr. Marshall institutej proceedings,
and obtained a &ado° in the court below, and the
Bishop of Exeter now brings the present appeal, the
result of which will probably tend to settle a long-
vexed question in connexion with ecclesiastical patron-
age. At the c.inclusion of the arguments for the
appellant their lordships postponed the furthir hearing
ine die.

RITUALISM. —On Tuesday his Grace the Archbishop
of Canterbury received • deputation of the members of
the National Club, which professes, among other
general injects, to preserve the United Church of
Ragland and Ireland in its true Protestant faith as the
established religion of the country. Among thine eons
!Sawing the deputation who waited on his Grace for
the purpose of presenting an address on the now widely.
in temuog subject of ritualism, were Sir Brooke Bridges,
Sir Thomas Philips, sir R. F. S. Stanhope, Rev.
Sir N. Cbinoery, Rev. bit H. Thompson, Mr. C. N.
Newdegate, Mr. W. Bramston Beach, Lr., ke.,
She Brooke Bridges, in introducing the deputation, said
that it consisted of a number of gentlemen, principally
laymen, who were fully cognisant of the imminent
dangers which were now threatening the National
Church. He had to thank his Grams for his con.
deacension in receiving no promptly and courteously
the members of • private ixstitution. The address
adopted by the National Club was then parented
to his Grace. It set forth that some of the clergy
bad revived Roguish practices in tlie Reformed
Church, among which habitual confession to • priest,
the wearing of Romish vestments, the use of looenes and
of candles lighted in the daytime, the mixing of water
with wipe, and the offering of the Holy Sacrament as
the propitiatory sacrifice were particularly specified.
It appealed to his Grace to use his great infirienoe as
Maraca of all Ragland to discourage and suppress these
innovations. His Gracie, in reply, said he was fully sen-
sible of the:dangers which threatened the Church. On
• former occasion he had been 'Meese of a similar ten-
dency, when Bemis& rites were sought to be introduced
and many of the clergy showed themselves in their true
colours by seceding to the church of Rome. He had
great satufaeLoo in being able to state that there was
not a single instance in the diocese of Lanterbury in
which the changes in the usual mode of administering
the Lord's Supper, enumerated in the address,at present
exieted, and in the only two cases of which be was cog.
Meant Sat the intention of introducing these practices
was entertained, the respective incumbents has yielded
at once to has wishes, and abandoned their purpose. They
had, therefore, a sufficient guarantee that whatever his
iolluence or authority could avail they would be exer-
cised to disparage and represathose innovations. Bishops,
however, were judges, and could not be expected to be
partisans. Whatever was symbolical of erroneous doe-
trine he would resolutely diecountemince, but Ile could
not promise any interference with that legitimate
latitude which is permitted in the ordering of the services
if the church. He did not consider those who had been
habituated from youth to following irregular customs
equally deserving of censure with Rinse who introduced
innovations foreign to the spirit and latter of the formu-
laries. He reminded that portion of the clergy who
either by intentional omission, or laxity and neglect,
were offending in the opposite direction to that of axons
how much they were thereby weakening the aide of
order and embarrassing the administration of even-
handed justice by their own shortcoming. They were
all, doubtless, acquainted with the deliberate judgment
in matters of ritual passed by the two Houses of Convo-
cation of the diocese of Canterbury, and he Loped that
that judgment would soon be ratified by the Convoca-
tion of the province of York. He would not do the
advoiates of the extreme ritual the injustice to suppose
that they would persevere in their present course in the
face of such authority. He rather anticipated their
promptly yielding, and prayed that harmony would
soon be restored, and that the servants of the Church
would serve the Almighty in godly quiet. Sir Brooke
Bridges, N.e., then thanked his Grace for the kind
courtesy be haA soown to those who accompanied him,
slier which the Archbishop pronounced the Benediction,
and the deputation withdrew.