favour. The House divided on the second reading, which was carried by 198 to 140, but for the reasons already assigned it could not be carried farther.

In the House of Lords an attempt was made by the Earl of Shaftesbury to restrain by legislation those excesses in Ritual observance which a section of the High Church party had lately introduced, and which occasioned much disquiet and contention within the bosom of the Church of England. His lordship, however, in introducing the measure, stated that it was not his intention to carry it beyond the second reading should the House agree to that stage, his object being to have the Bill printed and circulated, with a view to re-introducing it next year. The principal objects aimed at were the prohibition of lights and incense, and of the use of peculiar vestments, mainly in accordance with the report lately made by the Royal Commission on Ritual observances.

The Archbishop of Canterbury said he could not feel justified in supporting the Bill; the Lord Chancellor also objected to it as precipitate and inexpedient. He did not at all object to the course which Lord Shaftesbury had taken, though he thought he had failed to apprehend the spirit of the recommendations made by the Royal Commissioners on Ritualism. He believed better results would follow from postponing legislation on the subject till next year. He deplored the practices to which Lord Shaftesbury had referred, but thought their Lordships ought to be particularly cautious and forbearing in restrictive legislation with regard to them.

The Marquis of Salisbury, in a short but earnest speech, condemned the notion of hasty legislation on this subject. It only required that Parliament should interfere and strike to the ground one of the combatants in the great contest which had existed in the Church for the last 200 years, to add to that side all who sympathized with those against whom Parliament legislated, all those who favoured the weaker side, and all those who hated the particular school from which the legislation emanated. He opposed the second reading of the Bill.

The Bishop of Carlisle as strongly supported it, and declared that there was an honourable obligation on the Government to do the same. After a few words from Lord Stanhope, stating that he should vote against the second reading, in which he was followed by Lord Russell on the ground that the time was inexpedient, Lord Derby rose and moved the "previous question," in order to avoid the inconvenience of a division on a subject which was not ripe for legislation at that period of the Session, nor, at any rate, until after further reports of the Royal Commission had been received.

The "previous question" was accordingly put, and having passed in the negative, the Bill was not further proceeded with.

A measure affecting the Established Church in the West Indies was this year brought in by the Government, which, though of secondary interest in itself, acquired some importance at a time

when the question of discarding a religious establishment was exciting paramount interest in reference to the Protestant Church of Ireland. The object of the Bill was to relieve the Consolidated Fund from the payment of 20,000l. a year which had for some time been charged upon it as an endowment of the West Indian Church. The Earl of Carnarvon, in the course of the debate upon the Irish Church, made an effective use of this circumstance, observing that the abolition of the Established Church in Ireland was justified by the arguments upon which the withdrawal of the grant to the Church in the West Indies rested. In short, the circumstances of the Church in the West Indies and in Ireland were parallel, and if any party were chargeable with inconsistency it was her Majesty's Ministers, who, whilst disendowing the Church in the West Indies, resisted its disestablishment in Ireland.

The Lord Chancellor endeavoured to distinguish the two cases, arguing that the grant to the West Indies had been made on account of the distressed state of those settlements, as a temporary succour, and not as a permanent provision.

Lord Carnarvon, however, insisted on the accuracy of his own. statement, and repeated, with much particularity, the grounds on which he had described the provision made for the West Indies as a religious endowment. The West Indian bishoprics, he said, had no existence before the year 1824. In that year the Crown, by letters patent, created these bishoprics. In the very next Session Parliament passed the Act about to be repealed, and that Act recited that the Crown had by letters patent constituted these three bishoprics; that the right of appointment was in the Crown; and it then proceeded to assign for the support and sustentation of these bishoprics the sum of 20,0007. from the Consolidated Fund; providing, lastly, that if the 4 per cent. duties in the colony should reach a certain point, that sum of 20,0007. should be transferred from the Consolidated Fund to the 4 per cents. In the following year there was another Act, an amending Act, which simply apportioned part of this 20,000l. among some of the minor clergy. From 1826 to 1842 there was no trace of any legislative action on the subject, but in 1842 another Act was passed, enabling the Crown to subdivide these dioceses, and diminish the stipends assigned to the clergy and bishops without any increase of the gross sum of 20,0007. Their lordships would see, therefore, that no bishoprics were in existence prior to 1824, that then they were created by patent; that an endowment was made for them; that that endowment remained untouched up to 1842, though power had been given and had been used of redistributing the grant within the sphere and limits of the West India Church, just in the same way as the Lord Chancellor had argued that the funds of the Irish Church ought to be redistributed for the benefit of the Irish Church itself. Therefore, so far as Acts of Parliament were concerned, if this was not the case of an endowment, Lord Carnarvon said he was at a loss to understand what an endowment was.

Earl Granville expressed his opinion that Lord Carnarvon had clearly and fully substantiated his statement. The Marquis of Salisbury admitted that the case of the present Bill would be exactly parallel to the withdrawal of the Maynooth Grant and the Regium Donum, but not to the proposed disendowment of the Irish Church, which claimed to hold its property by a title much more solid and independent than was created by a charge on the Consolidated Fund.

The Duke of Buckingham stated that the communications which he had had with those who held the most important sees in the West Indian colonies led him to believe that there would not be any difficulty on the part of the colonists in providing out of their own resources for episcopal supervision on the scale which was usual in our colonial dioceses. It was true that that was not such a provision as was contemplated years ago, when the grant was established, but still it had been found sufficient throughout our colonial possessions. With regard to the houses, lands, and certain allowances appertaining to the bishops, and which had been granted in the colonies, they would, of course, stand just as they did before.

The Bill was passed.

There remains little more to be recorded of the legislative operations of this Session. Several measures were brought in but were either defeated or withdrawn on account of the political circumstances which brought the sittings of Parliament to an early termination. Among the abortive Bills may be noticed that of Mr. J. A. Smith, which had been unsuccessfully proposed in the previous year, for restricting the sale of spirituous liquors on Sundays. This Bill met with a vigorous opposition in the House of Commons, and was referred to a Select Committee, but was not further proceeded with. A measure for that much-desired but long-deferred object, the reform of the law of Bankruptcy was brought in by the Government early in the Session, but did not get beyond its first stage, being abandoned at the end of the Session under pressure of business. A Bill for establishing a Metropolitan Foreign Cattle Market, also proposed by the Ministers, was more vigorously pressed, but encountered an equally vigorous resistance, in which Mr. Milner Gibson and Mr. Ayrton took a leading part, Mr. Gladstone also giving his countenance to the opposition. The result was that the dissentients, having time on their side, prevailed, and the Ministers were compelled, almost on the eve of the prorogation, to drop the Bill, after a good deal of valuable time in the last days of the Session had been expended in discussing it.

Some other measures of public utility, not already noticed, which the Government succeeded in carrying through, may be briefly referred to.

A Bill for the better regulation of the affairs of railway companies, containing some useful provisions for the protection of

shareholders and the advantage of the public. A Bill for carrying to a further extent the excellent policy of several recent statutes for the abrogation of unnecessary oaths. The present measure dealt specially with promissory oaths, and mainly with the oath of allegiance, the terms of which were now reduced to the simplest and most unambiguous form of words. It also substituted declarations in numerous cases for official oaths, and by these alterations mitigated to a great extent what had long been a scandal to our law, the profanation of a sacred ceremony on frequent and frivolous occasions. A Bill for carrying into effect the recommendations of the Public Schools Commissioners, and empowering the alteration of ancient statutary restrictions which interfered with the wellbeing of these institutions, was, after having undergone much postponement, at length passed into a law before the close of this Session.

Lastly, a measure of no inconsiderable importance was brought in by the Chancellor of the Exchequer for transferring all the electric telegraphs in the kingdom to the State. The nature of this project was explained by the right honourable gentleman in moving the second reading of the Bill. He stated that it authorized the Government to treat with the telegraph companies for the purchase of their undertakings, and further empowered the PostmasterGeneral to work the lines so purchased. The public had shown considerable interest in the measure, and seventy-seven petitions had been already presented in its favour from chambers of commerce, public bodies, and traders in various portions of the empire. A great number of petitions had also been presented from newspaper proprietors. On the other hand, but ten adverse petitions had been presented by telegraph and railway companies, although a number of individual shareholders in those undertakings had petitioned against it. The Government had endeavoured to meet the telegraph companies in a spirit of fairness. Those companies had proposed to sell their interest at twenty-five years' purchase, with an understanding that compensation should be given to their officers. The Government had not assented to that offer, but they proposed that the basis of the purchase should be the highest price realized on the Stock Exchange prior to the 25th of May; that compensation should be given to such of the officers as were not provided for in the Post Office, provided such officers had received a yearly salary and had served not less than five years. The companies had not agreed to this. The opposition of the railway companies arose from an impression that they would not obtain the same facilities from Government which they now received from private companies, but that assumption was ill founded. He proposed to introduce a money Bill by which to raise the necessary funds, and he estimated a surplus revenue of 210,000l. a year from the working of the system. This would pay off the capital in twenty-nine years at three and a half per cent. The capital to be raised would be

between three and four millions, and Government would avail themselves as far as possible of the savings-banks' funds.

Considerable opposition to this project was manifested at the outset, and several members, particularly among those connected with the management of railways, resisted the proposition. Mr. Leeman moved that the Bill be referred to a Select Committee. Mr. Gladstone, though he avowed his prepossession to be in favour of the scheme, thought that further information was necessary before the House of Commons could legislate upon it, and supported the motion for inquiry, which was ultimately agreed to. The Bill consequently underwent a searching investigation in Committee, the result of which was afterwards stated by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. He said there had been antagonism with the telegraph companies, and also with the railway companies, but an agreement was come to with the telegraph companies that they were to get twenty years' purchase of their net profits. As to the railways, the Scotch companies were the first to accept the terms of Government, which were in principle similar to those offered to the telegraph companies, it being provided that there should be a severance of the wires, so that the companies should have the free use of their own wires to regulate their own traffic. As to the financial question, Mr. Scudamore's estimate was that four millions would cover the whole. But as the negotiation proceeded Reuter's system had been included, and other valuable properties had been acquired, which would raise the estimate to six millions as an outside figure. But even at this large sum the Government believed they had made a good bargain, as the estimated revenue would be sufficient to pay 3 per cent. upon a sum of eight millions, whereas six millions only could possibly be required. On the whole, looking to the nature of the property to be acquired, to the circumstance that the earnings of the companies to be absorbed were increasing at the rate of 10 per cent. per annum, and to the enormous development of the system which might be anticipated from low rates, uniformity of management, and extension of facilities, the Government were of opinion that they had concluded a safe and profitable transaction.

The terms proposed to be paid to the companies for compensation were considered by several members, among others by Mr. Goschen (who had served on the Select Committee) and by Mr. Gladstone to be unfavourable to the public, but the Bill was passed. The power of giving effect to the financial part of the scheme, by sanctioning the requisite appropriation of public money, was however reserved to the next Parliament.

At length, on the 31st of July, all the business which was absolutely required to be despatched before the impending dissolution was brought to a close, and the last day of the active existence of the House of Commons arrived. The Royal Assent was given by Commission to a long list of Bills, and in the