The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-11-10
GLOOMY VIEWS FROM ENGLAND.

4s GLOOMY VIEWS FROM ENGLAND.
 Under the present system in the gov- ernlnent of the church, as in that of the nation, the evasion of responsibility is fatally easy. Our administrative meth ods at the present day are, in many in- stances, quite Chinese" in their ab- surdly cumbrous and suited archaism, and the result, as luridly illustrated in the late Boer war, and in a less stirling, perhaps, but even more lamentable fashion in the history of the Anglican church, is chaos, confusions.and failure. The bishop of London has just issued a series of practical questions to be discussed by the clergy of the diocese at their various conferences, especially with regard to clerical poverty. The most important is that relating to the appointment of committee of laynlen to undertake financial inquiry into the fairs of the church, for no less a sum than SS5,000,000 is involved, and it is probable that mismanagement more than anything else hs helped to bring about that clerical poverty which is ad- mitted on all hands to be the problem of the hour.
 ! More than passive resistance is mo- ticed as needed to the continued ex- 1 istence of "slums" in London and oth- l CT large towns in the United Kingdom, for they are nothing really more than schools of crime and centers of corrup- tion. The terrible state of things urs-
 doubtedly prevailing in the East End
 of London, especially at the present time, is much aggravated by the un- ceasing influx of undesirable aliens.
 The royal commission appointed to ii-
 vestigate the whole matter has just is-
 sued it's report and advises instant ac- tion in view of the nomentousness of l the issues involved. .&. The Bishop of Hereford has recently I spoken very strong and weighty words
 against the national sin of gambling. The betting mania pervades every class
 of society, and is rapidly developing in
 to a really serious social evil An other social evil has recently been most
 powerfully exposed. Immoral ''litura-
 ture'' is being scattered broadcast over l the land and the minds of the young 1 polluted.
 I Time was when the bishop and scol- ar were synonymous terms, but nowa-
 days the tendency seems more toward l the selection of men of affairs to fill all
 the high places of the church.
 The bishop of Newcastle is experience
 ing the same difficulty in his diocese as
 troubled the archbishop of Canterbury
 and the bishop of London only a few
 months ago in connection with the re-
 marriage of divorced persons. A H. cense for such remarriage to take place | in Hexham Abbey church has been issu-
 ed by the chancellor of the diocese and
 sealed with the bishops own seal, so
 that the license actually goes out in his name and under his authority. "As a
 matter of fact" says the bishop, T
 have no authority. If I had I should
 prevent the issue of the license" The
 vicar of Hexham has refused to per- form the ceremony, and the bishop eX- presses the strongest hope that no clergyman in the diocese will ever be found to lend himself to such an act. ''The state," he continues, "has made
 such marriages possible, but the most fitting place for them to be performed
 is at the registry offices of the state.
 would add that In my mind whether or no the divorced person is innocent the marriage should not take place in any church"
 ! While one may not be disposed to &C., cept the Daily News census of church
 attendance in London as entirely relia-
 ble, it would be idle to deny that it pos- sesses some value and that there are 1 important lessons to be gathered there from. One most significant fact that
 emerges is the decline of the prayer meeting as a church institution, as also of the week night service In the popu-
 lous borough of Chelsea, for example, only thirty people were found to be in
 attendance at prayer meetings-30 out of 7O,0O0 or AS per cent, of the total ! number of inhabitants It can scarce l ly be denied tht the facts seem to point
 strongly to the rapid decline of that
 time honored institution, the prayer meeting. Of course, London may be as
 religious as before, nay, even more so, only in a different way, but then, on ! T 5n11