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REVIEWS AND NOTICES.

The Charges of Bishops Gregg, Jeune, Ellicott, Jackson, and Sumner. 1867.

The

BISHOPS' Charges once printed and offered for sale, or reported in newspapers and circulated throughout the country, we hold to be matters publici juris and fairly open to at least literary criticism. above are now before us, as pamphlets or in some other form, and we have been sorely tempted in course of their perusal to review with unsparing hand the many points which struck us in each one of them, as deserving severity of censure. Most English Churchmen would admit the propriety, and urge the necessity of this treatment, in the case of the Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross. But if the right or principle be conceded in a single instance, where, and at what point is it to stop in its application? Bishop Ellicott complains somewhat loudly at the little amount of deference, and still less of obedience, which is now paid by the clergy to Episcopal utterances. Would he enjoin any amount of deference or obedience to the doctrinal statements or ritual injunctions of Bishop Gregg? If not, cadit quæstio, as far as principle is concerned, and it becomes a matter of personal, not official respect. The truth is, that to hold that the private opinions of any one or ever so many Bishops are to be judged apart from their merits, and to receive an implicit deference and obedience on the part of the inferior clergy, is to arrogate to the Episcopate precisely the ultramontane claim for Papal infallibility and authority, even in matters of opinion.

And yet every one of these charges is simply filled with the private opinions of the several Bishops who delivered them. Surely then they are to be taken for just so much as they are worth, and no more. The private opinion of a Bishop is of no more value than that of an ordinary priest, or even layman, except so far as depends on his personal knowledge of the subject, experience, and wisdom. The utmost respect and courtesy, of course, are due to his office. In that sense he should be listened to with deference; though it is difficult to concede even this much in the case of Bishop Gregg. Protestant clergy and churchwardens could not concede it, even in the case of Bishop Hamilton. But the obedience that is due is canonical obedience, the obedience demanded by the Church's law, and by the Bishop as its exponent. When Bishops go on in their charges, for example, to set forth and argue their own private opinions about Church doctrine or practices (such as Evening Communions, or females singing in the choir) or again, as to any proposed alteration of the Church's law, and charges we repeat, scarcely ever consist of anything else than such matters-their opinions are no more binding in foro conscientiæ than those of a leader in any daily journal, or of a paper in any volume of Essays and Reviews. The sooner this is recognised and acknowledged by the Bishops themselves, the better for the credit of the English Church. For at present

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the wonderful medley and incoherence of the subject-matter of Episcopal charges are made the laughingstock of Non-conformists. The charges above quoted have been pointed at by a clever organ of the Scotch establishment, as a sufficient proof, if any were needed, in favour of Presbyterianism. The strange contrasts and positive contradictions of opinion which they present, when read together, may fairly be used, we think, by ourselves, as a very cogent argument against the visionary idea of making the mind of individual Bishops, instead of the Church's law, the regula of doctrine and ritual in their several dioceses. In scarcely a single particular do the witnesses agree together. Bishops Jeune, Ellicott, and Jackson, indeed, appear to coincide in their convictions that the present Ritual movement is an expression of Eucharistic doctrine, but they evidently disagree among themselves in the definition of the true doctrine, and in the mode of dealing with the ritualists. Dr. Jeune, with logical consistency, acknowledges the absurdity of suppressing the ritual, and allowing the doctrine which it represents to run rampant in other ways.

It is difficult to say, as it commonly is, what Bishop Jackson's opinion on the subject is. Bishop Ellicott propounds the most extraordinary remedy for present perplexities that we ever remember to have met with, and supports it by arguments the most unreasonable that we can conceive. He suggests, in effect, that since popular opinion is now strongly set against capital punishment and the game laws, and yet many think that there is something to be said in their defence, a wise compromise may be effected in this manner; leave the game laws and capital punishment exactly as they exist at present, but pass an act forbidding under severe penalties any judge or jury to convict a murderer or a poacher, and to sentence him to capital punishment, or imprisonment. If we substitute the law of ritual, for the law of felony, the Bishop's suggestion is exactly to the same effect; leave, he says, the rubric in the Prayer Book exactly as it stands at present, but subject its observance to a legislative penalty. We never felt so completely the force of Archdeacon Denison's exclamation at Wolverhampton, when he thanked providence that he had gone to Oxford instead of Cambridge, as when we read this singularly illogical charge. Bishop Jackson's utterances are in many respects still more objectionable, but he qualifies them by the assertion that the Episcopate is non-essential, and we certainly never felt more strongly the possible truth of his assertion than when we read the remainder of his charge.

We have received three or four excellent manuals of devotion and instruction, which we will take in order. 1. Short Devotions, intended primarily for the Young; together with Forms for Self-Examination and Devotions on the Blessed Sacrament, &c. By a Priest of the English Church. (Hayes.) This, besides its Sacra Privata, which appear to be very complete and good, contains the Collects and the Psalter from the Prayer Book, for ready use in private devotion. 2. The Plain Guide: a Book for the People; Part I. (Masters ;) a two-penny

book in sheets, is a very useful compendium of the chief formularies of faith and devotion, and of instruction on Baptism and Confirmation. It would be especially useful for candidates preparing for Confirmation. 3. Another little manual, The Life of Faith, (Hayes,) as a third edition, and as bearing the imprimatur of "W. U. R." requires no recommendation on our part. It is a translation from the French, and consists of short meditations. 4. Repentance: A Manual of Prayer and Instruction, edited by the Rev. T. T. CARTER, M.A., (J. Parker and Co.,) is a work of wider range. For a similar reason, it needs no favourable notice here. It appears to us, in a cursory survey, to be very complete; and contains excellent examens of conscience, prayers, and hymns, besides direct instructions on the nature of sin, and on all practices connected with repentance and absolution. It would be most useful for Advent and Lenten reading.

We hope to notice more fully in our next issue Edgar Thorpe, or the Warfare of Life, a Poem, by W. WHITING, (Simpkin, Marshall, and Co., 1867,) and Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, by S. BARINGGOULD, M.A., Second Series, (Rivingtons, 1867,) and only mention them here with the recommendation that they would serve admirably for Christmas presents or reward books.

Equally so, on a small scale, for young school children, a capital series of penny stories called Children's Tales, (Mowbray ;) and a twopenny series called Stories on the Festivals, (Hodges, Frome Selwood,) either singly or in volume.

The latter publisher also continues the excellent series, Our Curate's Budget, of which The Miller of Basildon is the last number received by us.

Mr. Mowbray also sends us several Church Magazine Leaflets, useful for distribution; his amusing series of Deformation and Reformation; and a timely extract from Dr. PUSEY'S " Doctrine of the Real Presence from the Fathers," entitled, What Holy Scripture and the First Followers of the Apostles teach about the Presence of Christ in the Holy Communion.

We can record only our receipt of the current numbers of The Month, The Union Review, The Churchman's Companion, Church Work, The Penny Post, all fully as good as usual. The Churchman's Companion contains a summary of the Wolverhampton Congress.

Te Deum Laudamus set to Short Chants, by FREDErick Helmore, (Masters,) will be acceptable to those who favour more variety and melody in singing the Canticles than is allowed by the pure Gregorian and Ambrosian chants, and yet eschew the florid levity of Anglicans. We feel more strongly inclined than ever to protest against the latter, since a dead set seems being made in high quarters to reintroduce singing women into choirs for the sake of their soprano voices. Not only has one of our High Church Bishops given the practice the strongest possible encouragement, but we now hear that Dean Howson is actually organising a female choir for Chester Cathedral; and we

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regret to add that a leader in the “ John Bull" comes in aid of this most unscriptural and uncatholic innovation.

A good Hymn for Advent, reprinted from the Hymnal of S. Thomas the Martyr, Oxford, with accompanying music, is published by Mr. Mowbray. Twelve copies free by post for one shilling.

NOTICE TO CORRESPONDENTS.

THE offer of an article on the two Great Church Meetings in London, Nov. 19 and 20, was received too late for insertion of the paper in our present number. It will appear, however, in our next month's issue. With regard to the Resolution of the E. C. U., we regret that an amendment was not carried on the necessarily ill-considered parenthetical clause, which embodied, by a clever ruse, the pith of the three rejected resolutions of the printed draft, and was adopted and presented for the first time by the Council at the last moment. It is entirely out of harmony with the remainder of the Resolution, and so weakens its force, and is open to other very serious objections. 1. As has been so effectively argued in the Conscience Clause question, it is one thing to tacitly allow in practice, under special circumstances, another to avow a principle, as a principle, in the working of a system. No one, it may be presumed, denies the inexpedience of forcing ritual on an unprepared or unwilling congregation. But to assert the will of a majority as a necessary condition of ritual improvement, is the vicious principle of Congregationalism. 2. Surely, it is the proper province of the Union, to defend the attacked doctrine and discipline of the Church of England; not to go out of the way to lay down rules of conduct for individual parish priests. The clause in question so viewed appears to us merely a piece of gratuitous impertinence. 3. Lastly and chiefly, what we think escaped notice at the meeting, the immense encouragement thus given by the E. C. U. to perhaps the main obstructives of the Catholic revival, the body of timid and hesitating Bishops and Clergy, whose watchword has been laissez faire and quieta non movere, who are content to do nothing for the better for fear of causing a disturbance, and will now more than ever rest and be thankful in the status quo of eighteenth century ritual, under the apparent sanction of the Union. The Resolution in short, as it stands, encumbered with the parenthesis, must have pretty much the same bad moral and practical effect as the aggrieved parishioners' clause of the Ritual Commission. It can only suggest and strengthen undue congregational opposition, and undue clerical compliance.

JOSEPH MASTERS AND SON, PRINTERS, ALDERSGATE STREET, LONDON.