the existing order of things, more characterised by candour than compliment. "A bird of the air carries the voice" to the palace, for no such remarks ever escape reaching the episcopal ear. And we have another element in our calculation. Here is a discontented curate, almost starving, and here is a displeased bishop who, in the midst of his splendour, lodged in a palace, clothed in purple and fine linen, and faring sumptuously every day, cannot help feeling that the condition of his brother is a reproach to himself. Every thing is prepared for a rupture between these sadly discordant parties. A.B.'s rector is a well beneficed clergyman, he becomes under such unhappy circumstances almost unavoidably an object of envy to his less fortunate curate, and an undefined coolness arises between them. A question arises in which a difference of opinion is involved: the curate, soured by disappointment, perhaps hardly qualified to judge accurately of all the bearings of the case, so conducts himself as to offend his rector irretrievably; the latter appeals to the bishop; his case is listened to and the curate reprimanded. Alas, it is but too likely that the reprimand is ill received, and perhaps the bishop's authority set at defiance. A suspension follows, as a matter of course, and the ruin of the unhappy man is complete. He would gladly obtain a curacy in another diocese, but there is a rule against him; no other bishop will licence him, and any engagement in his sacred vocation has become impossible, the avenues not only of preferment but even of employment are hermetically closed, for who will send a son for education to a man whom his bishop has expelled from the pulpit? This is an extreme case, but unfortunately not a very uncommon one. Yet our bishops are, with few exceptions, men of kind hearts and forgiving spirits; they do, for the most part, make their rule felt as a paternal one; and if the social difference between the lordly prelate and the humble curate, make the latter unwilling, save in cases of extreme necessity, to intrude upon his diocesan, he is, when he does appear, received with marked kindness, and his views as far as possible forwarded. There are few persons who could be safely trusted with such power as the English bishops possess, probably none who would exercise it so well; but it is too great to be lodged in any hands; and the Bishop of London does no good to the Church in general, or his own order in particular, by his constant attempts to render it still greater. What is imperatively required is that, in one respect at least, THE POSITION OF A CURATE. 27 it should be very seriously diminished. At present a bishop can, suo mero motu, withdraw the licence of any curate; he is not bound even to give a reason for so doing; the consequence of this step we have seen; and we ask is it right that this power should exist? Ought any man, no matter how excellent and amiable, as we rejoice to believe the great majority of our prelates to be, to have this unquestionable power of ruining without redress a whole class of young men just entering on the most sacred of callings? Is it not inquisitorial in its character and totally contrary to the very spirit of the English constitution? Neither is it competent to the upholder of existing institutions to say there are few instances in which this vast and irresponsible power is oppressively used. If it were otherwise it would not, nay could not, be endured for a moment. But if there be one example, it is sufficient for our purpose; and though taking the clerical body as a whole the cases are rare, yet they are strikingly frequent in certain dioceses. We have a remarkable instance before us. The incumbent of a district, from which he lives, by the permission of his diocesan, at a considerable distance, engaged a curate to whom he gave a title. Anxious to do his duty, the young man required more of his superior's advice and direction than the latter was willing to bestow, and his dislike was soon excited towards his too diligent curate. Although purely evangelical in doctrine, the assistant curate had an unfortunate habit of crossing his arms, which roused the righteous indignation of the incumbent; and, after a while, a formal complaint was lodged against him, that he used Popish gestures, read Popish books, and, lastly and chiefly, that he had actually left the desk while the incumbent was preaching and gone into the vestry. His defence was that he was sorry for the gestures, that they were not intentionally Popish, and that he would diligently try to overcome them; that, as to the Popish bookshe wished to make himself master of the sacramentarian controversy, and that he had thought it necessary to read Wilberforce's book as containing an intelligible summary of the views held by the Popish party; that as to his leaving the reading-desk, it was quite true; but that it had been far from an act of disrespect to the incumbent-he had been extremely unwell and had been overtaken by a sudden faintness, which rendered it absolutely necessary that he should obtain a glass of water, and that if he had not left the desk he should have fallen down in it, occasioning a disturbance among the congregation far greater than by gently leaving it for a few To this meek and apologetic defence the astounding reply of the bishop was: "I do not believe you, sir!”— followed by a suspension!! This case will be thoroughly investigated: and, probably by the time these lines appear in print our readers will know the names of all the parties concerned. We cite it here only to show how overwhelming is the power of a bishop over a stipendiary curate, and how recklessly it is sometimes exercised. We are far from wishing to withdraw the unbeneficed or beneficed clergy from the power of discipline; we only claim for them the benefits of law, that they shall not be delivered over to any inquisitorial authority, and that an unfair use shall not be made of the gentleness and kindness of our bishops in general to perpetuate a power so capable of abuse. We have now gone through a few of the chief points of many projected schemes of reform. We have endeavoured to show how futile some of them are, and how far others, while most useful in themselves, will prove from cleansing the Church of her present manifold corruptions. Let us conclude by pointing out an object for consideration which has strangely escaped the notice of all who have written about the Church. Her union with the State makes the Establishment not only a national but also an aristocratic institution. The great inequality of her endowments; the hands into which, from the time of Henry VIII. downwards, the disposition of her benefices has fallen; the fact of her chief pastors being Lords in Parliament; and the continual transfer, by sale, of her richest patronage, so as to keep her highest posts ever in the hands of wealthy persons, all tend to keep up this character; but while the Church is thus kept aristocratic as to her hierarchy and most splendidly endowed preferment, she is attempting to provide for the wants of the time a supply of unaristocratic labour. She has created a host of benefices, (?) which alone are within the reach of her working curates, and which will not raise them above the most grinding penury. She is thus"Keeping the word of promise to the ear While breaking it to the heart—” But can this state of things continue? While our merchant princes are gathering together and declaring that a few families shall no longer govern or rather misgovern this country; while they are insisting that ability and integrity shall be the qualities sought for in those who are to hold high office; while the system of purchase in our army is so closely pressed that we can all see that its days are numbered; shall the THE CHURCH ARISTOCRATIC. 29 Church alone keep her real fundamental abuses untouched? Shall the Civil Service be so reformed that any man entering upon it as a profession shall have before him the prospect of competence, and the Church alone offer a life of labour and no better future than £150. per annum can supply: no superannuation allowance; no power of retiring; nothing in old age but penury, "the Sons of the Clergy," and left off apparel ? 66 But even this is not all. The question is seriously asked, and in quarters where the question is ominous :-"Are we to have an aristocracy at all?" This is not put in a red republican spirit. It does not mean: Are we to hear in our streets the carmagnole, and the cry "les aristocrats à la lanterne." It does not mean: "Are we to abolish the House of Lords and discontinue the use of titles ?" No; but it means "is the House of Peers to be regarded in any other light than as a court to register the decrees of the Commons?" Is our aristocracy to retain its present legislative power? Are we to have any governing classes? And we should be blind indeed did we not see the tendencies of our age are towards answering all these queries in a democratic sense. While then the country is becoming daily more democratic, and the Church remaining exactly as it was, the discordance between the spirit of the one and the spirit of the other is constantly on the increase. The government have refused to grant Queen's Letters for certain Church societies, and the general voice of the laity approve their decision. The Church Missionary Society can do without such aid; why not the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel? The new Educational Society is prospering without Queen's Letters; why should not the National Society? The truth is that these societies, and one or two more, are in the hands of the stationary, the aristocratic party. They have lost the confidence of the people; and the moment the aid of a Queen's Letter is withdrawn their hollowness will be displayed. "You see this globe of caoutchouc," said an accomplished governess to a very practical little boy: "if I were to puncture it, it would collapse." "Yes" was the reply, that is an India rubber ball; if you prick it, it will go squash!” We fear there are more than one or two very dignified and solemn societies which if the air of public opinion could get inside them would, like the India rubber ball, “go squash!" 66 Now, in all this we are not arguing as though the condition of the Church were hopeless, or even as if she were really de clining far from it. She still retains so strong a hold on the popular affection, that were she but rendered more effective by a few moderate and judicious reforms, she would be found admirably adapted for the requirements of the time. As it is there is no outcry against the Church. The working clergy were never more honoured nor more popular than they are at this moment; they are regarded as unfairly treated in the disposal of preferment; and it is more than probable that the reforms which are now imminent in many other branches of the public service will be brought to bear upon them also. Church Reform has not been in proper hands, it has had no proper organs, it has been advocated on insufficient grounds, and party feeling has had too much to do both with its assailants and its defenders. It is difficult to get any man to agree in the condemnation of a system by which he has personally prospered; and equally difficult to obtain the assent of those who see and feel abuses, that those who have profited by them should be left in possession of their advantages; and thus Church Reform has looked like an onslaught on all dignities and dignitaries; and the opposition to it like a generous and conservative feeling. But the public mind is awakening, and we trust that ere it be too late the ecclesiastical mind will awake also, and effect those changes from within which will otherwise be far more rudely effected from without. ART. II. 1. Charities of London. By SAMPSON Low, 2. Reports of various Hospitals. London. 1854-5. OF the various families of the genus book none, perhaps, possess a more extensive utility, or render a more general subserviency, than the species Handbook. This law obtains under different dispensations: whether considered as a class, or viewed as an individual; whether consulted for advice, or read for amusement; whether studied by the man of letters, or skimmed by the man of pleasure, the Handbook becomes to all and to each a friend and an intimate. These sentiments are barely removed from truisms; since few works, if any, by the use of a figure of speech not very involved, or by the abuse of language not very culpable, are able to escape the sweeping, the comprehensive title of Handbook. In the modern, and altogether anomalous acceptation of the word, |