The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1851-02-11 00:00:00

UNIVERSITY AND CLERICAL NEWS.

The address to the bishops emanating from Cambridge,
and praying to be relieved from the necessity of using
the burial service over all corpses without discrimination,
has been signed by nearly four thousand clergy', and more
names are still coming in.

The friends of the Reformed Romanist Priests' Protec-
tion Society will be glad to learn that the stun of £l,OOO
has been collected, and vested in government stock ; and
thus the conditional bequest of the late Dr. Heron, to the
amount of another £l,OOO, is now secured.
CONVOCATION OF 'THE CtERGY.—As many as 150
years have elapsed since Convocation was allowed to meet
for the exercise of its legally recognised Dodgers ; and,
although many attempts- have recently been inadelor a
revival of the synodal action of the Church, another ses-
sion has now passed away without that object having been
attained. On Wednesday at noon, the two Houses were
formally opened at the Jerusalem Chamber, adjacent to
Westminster Abbey. The members of the Upper House
present were the Archbishop of Canterbury and the
Bishops of Exeter, Oxford, Salisbury, Bath and. Wells,
and Chichester. Amongst the members of the Lower
House were Archdeacon Harrison, the Dean of Canter-
bury, the Rev. W. H. Hill, D.D:, the Rev: G.'E. Gillett,
&.; The Lord Archbishop having taken his seat-in the
Upper House, the usual preliminaries were gone through,
when the. Bishop of Chichester rose and presented a
petition from the clergy and laity of the province of
Canterbury in favour , of- the restoration to " the church
the freedom of her synodal action, as in ancient, times."
The petition was read, and ordered to lie on the table.
While these proceedings were going on in the Upper
House of Convocation, the Lower House had:assen-ibled
in an adjacent chamber, under the presidency of the Very
Rev. William Rowe Lyall, D.D., Dean of Canterbury.
The Venerable Archdeacon. Thorpe presented a petition
similar to that submitted td the Upper House by the
Bishop of Chichester; and after some dismission,. the
petition was received, and an order for recording it was
made. The Lower,House was about proceeding to the
consideration of other business when the members were
formally summoned to the Upper House, and, on being
admitted into the chamber, the Archbishop of Canter-
bury directed Mr. Francis Hart Dyke to read, the follow-
ing document :
" In the 'name of God,, amen,—We, John. Bird, by Divine
Providence, Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of all England,
and Metropolitan, President of the present Provincial Synod
or Convocation of the Bishops and Clergy of the province of
Canterbury, do by this present writing continue and prorogue
the said Sacred Provincial Synod or Convocation, lately to,
and until this day and place, continued and prorogued, and all
and singular the certificates or returns already made and
delivered, in the same state in which they are 'now, until
Thursday,. the 28th day of August next ensuing, to a certain
upper chamber, commonly called the Jerusalem Chamber,'
situated in the deanery belonging to the collegiate' church Of
St. Peter, Westminster- with•further continuation and-Proroga-
tion then following and places, if it shall be necessary to be
done in this behalf., J. B. CA.NIATAR.".
The reading of this document created considerable sur-
prise among the members of the Lower House, who were'
of course prevented' from entering upon any further
topics of discussion. There was, of course, no alterna-
tive, and both houses were then formally, adjourned. . •