^

^ /^

V

N

/

p ■•^iir:_^/.

j^j- vj^.'i'';.

*4 Wct/c tC fee Jl/^-.^' (S-vtn^ (nj i^ Stt^. ^.

"V Cnh^wI^ KJl>m.^wv^ JL^^c^k *l%.r L^-.^f

ID-

f

ON A PROPOSED

SUBDIVISION OF DIOCESES

A LETTER TO

VISCOUNT DUNGANNON;

CHR. WORDSWORTH, D.D.,

FoRMEI.Y VICAR OF STANFORD IN THE VALE, NOW BISHOP OF LINCOLN.

REPRINTED BV REQUEST.

PUBLISHED AT THE OFFICE

OF THE

^tJtiitiaual l^ome BfeJjopricis (Putiokimcnt funtr,

7, Whitehall, London, S.W,

1877.

LONDON :

IIARLES CULL AND SON, PRlNTEJiS,

HOUGHTON ST., STRAND, W.C.

PREFACE.

The Committee of the "Additional Home Bishoprics' Endowment Fund" having intimated to the writer of this Letter a wish to reprint it, he has had great pleasure in complying with their request for its re-publication.

In so doing he feels it a duty to declare that the opinions expressed in it by him sixteen years ago as a Parish Priest have been confirmed by the experience he has had for eight years as a Bishop.

He is very thankful to have been permitted to live to see the creation of two new Sees in England— Truro and St. Alban's— with a prospect of a further increase in the Episcopate; and it is his earnest prayer to be permitted to take piirt in the Subdivision of the Diocese of Lincoln — the largest in territorial area among the Dioceses of England and Wales.

• Some remarks on this subject may be seen in the Appendix to this Letter; and also some important and valuable statements by the Com- mittee of the " Additional Home Bishoprics Endow- ment Fund."

RisEHOLME, Lincoln.

S. Matthias' TJaij, 1877.

A

LET i KR,

d^c.

Vicarage, Stanford in the Vale,

Faringdon, Bet-ks, Nov., 1860.

My dear Lord,

A conversation with your Lordship this autumn encouraged me to request permission to address you ; and I asked for leave to do so by means of the press, because the subject to which I would now invite your attention is one of general importance, and is likely to engage the consideration of the Legislature and the Public, in consequence of an announcement latelv made in the House of Peers, and of a Bill which has been laid upon the table of that House^

My thankfulness to your Lordship for your com- pliance with that request is enhanced by the reflection that it affords an opportunity of expressing publicly the sentiments of respect and gratitude, which, in

1 By Lord Lyttelton, July 16, 1860. The Bill is entitled, "An Act for enabling Her Majesty, and Her Majesty's suc- cessors, to subdivide Dioceses, and to erect additional Sees in England and Wales."

6 ON A PROPOSED

common with many others, I entertain for the zeal and courage displayed by your Lordship in your place in Parliament, on several recent occasions, in the maintenance of the sacred cause of true religion and virtue.

The question now proposed for consideration is, — Whether any subdivision of Dioceses in England and Wales is expedient and requisite at this time ?

This is a subject of considerable difficulty and delicacy. It is also one of great moment, and deserves to be carefully examined by those who wish well to their country ; and in discussing it, it will be my earnest endeavour, to treat it with a just apprecia- tion of its solemn importance, and of the sacred character and dignity of those, whose persons and office ought ever to be objects of dutiful affection to members and ministers of the Church ; and to whom as spiritual Fathers we owe more than filial reverence.

1, In order to ascertain whether any subdivision of Dioceses is necessary, we must inquire into the nature of the Episcopal Office, and into the means which are now available for the adequate performance of its duties.

The Bishops of the Christian Church are suc- cessors of the Apostles in their ordinary spiritual functions. In Scripture, the Holy Spirit assigns the first place among Apostolic duties to attendance upon prayer and preaching the Word^ .

The Order of Deacons was instituted for the purpose

^ Acts vi, 4.

SUBDIVISION OF DIOCESES. 7

of relieving the Apostles from the charge of secular functions, and of enabling them to devote themselves to their spiritual duties ^ St. Paul, writing to the first Bishop of Ephesus, Timothy, says, " Give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine ; meditate on these things ; give thyself wholly to them ^"

Accordingly we find, that in the first and best ages of the Church, the persons most eminent for sacred learning, and of most authority in guiding others, were Bishops. I need hardly mention the names of St Cyril of Jerusalem, and St. Cyril of Alexandria, of St. Gregory of Nazianzus, and St. Gregory of Nyssa, of St. Basil, St. Athanasius, St Chrysostom, St. Hilary, and St. Augustine. All these were Bishops.

It cannot be alleged, that England has now little need of an Episcopate able to devote time and atten- tion to matters of sacred learning. If the salt should lose its savour, wherewith shall it be seasoned^? If there should be failures there, where the world looks for guidance, they would bring more damage with them than the faults of common men. " We find, " says a wise man^, ^' by experience of all ages in the Church of God, that the Teacher's error is the People's trial ; harder and heavier so much to bear, as he is in worth and regard greater that mispersuadeth them. "

Your Lordship has seen important questions of Theology discussed in Parliament ; you have heard religious topics debated in it, affecting the dearest interests of our common country, and of every house- hold. Such questions as these have arisen, are now arising, and may continue to arise among us ; and for safe guidance in such matters, the English Nation

=* Acts vi, 3 — 5. ■* 1 Tim. iv, 13, lo.

•^ Luke xiv, 34. "^ Hooker, V. Ixii. 'J.

ON A PROPOSED

ought to be able to look to her Spiritualty. She ought to be allowed to see those momentous questions deliberately considered and wisely determined by her spiritual rulers, speaking in clear language, and, if possible, with one voice.

It is no disparagement to our Chief Pastors to make an honest avowal, that this is not the case. It would be surprising, if it were : many of the Bishops of England, with their numerous other occupations, con- sequent on the size and population of their Dioceses, do not enjoy the means and opportunities of doing that which the Apostles regarded as their prime duty ; they have not the power, however earnest their desire, of complying with that injunction which was given to the Bishop of Ephesus by the Apostle St. Paul.

The evils arising from these causes are not limited to discussions of grave parliamentary questions, but extend themselves to other matters of not less vital importance.

Your Lordship well knows the dangers which now threaten the foundations of Christianity among us ; and which, if not seasonably arrested, will shake the fabric of our religious and civil Institutions. In England, — especially in one of our Universities, — we have struggled through the storm and conflict of a violent and bitter controversy. Some good has arisen from it. Many, who might otherwise have passed their lives in a torpid and lethargic apathy, have been stimulated and aroused thereby to examine the foundations of the Faith, as taught in the Church of England ; and are now able to render a good reason of the hope that is in them. But others have been carried away by the stream of false doctrine ;

SUBDIVISION OF DIOCESES. 9

others, exhausted by the battle, or irritated and exasperated by the vehemence of the combatants, have been driven back with a sharp recoil and sadden reaction, and have sunk into religious in- difference. The polemical paroxysm has been suc- ceeded by passive prostration ; the fever has subsided and collapsed into an ague. Others have passed into the region of scepticism, and are now roaming in an unquiet and restless spirit of doubt and uncertainty, and are endeavouring to seduce the young and unwary to quit the City of God, and to go forth and wander with them in a dreary wilderness of unbelief.

The consequences, public and private, of such disastrous influences as these may well excite alarm. The rising generation, especially in the middle and upper classes of society, has a severe ordeal before it ; and unless it can look for more guidance and support than it has now, many, it is to be feared, will be unable to endure the trial, and will fall away from the faith

We have great reason to be thankful for the piety, devotion, and, zeal which characterize the English Episcopate. But the circumstances of our age and country require a personal application to individuals, of those spiritual gifts, by which our Chief Pastors are distinguished.

It is essential to the public weal that they to whom others look for guidance, should have leisure to master the theological questions which are now rife among us, and which affect our vital interests, social and spiritual ; and to impart fatherly counsel to others, especially to the younger Clergy, and to direct them in their doubts, and to extricate them

10 ON A PROPOSED

from their difficulties. Such was the intention of Christ Himself, when He appointed Chief Pastors in His Church, and entrusted His flock to their care.

But, my Lord, such personal intercourse and cTuidance as this can hardly be expected from those who have the Episcopal care of Dioceses, such as some in England and Wales, which contain a million, or even two millions of souls.

2. Contrast our condition in this respect with the pattern of Diocesan Episcopacy presented to us in Holy Scripture. The Miracle of the Feeding of the Five Thousand by Christ^, multiplying the loaves, and distributing them by the hands of the Apostles to the multitude, has ever been regarded by the best Expositors of Holy Scripture as a Divine representa- tion of the method and plan^ which Almighty God, Who is a God of order ^, approves and prescribes to be adopted by the Christian Church, for the feeding of His people with the Bread of Life, ministered to them in the Word and Sacraments, so that every soul may be refreshed thereby. Christ commanded His Apostles to make the men sit down in ranks and companies by fifties, and to feed them with the provision which He in His Divine power supplied to them.

In like manner He commands the successors of the Apostles to feed His people, arranged in dio- ceses and parishes of such reasonable size and population, that none may be stinted of spiritual food.

' Matt. xiv. 16—24. Mark vi. 39—43. Luke ix. 11—17. John vi. 10 — 13. ^ See 1 Cor. xiv. 33,

SUBDIVISION OF DIOCESES. 11

The Churches of the first Century illustrated and exemplified these principles. Those Churches were planted by the Apostles, who had Christ's presence with them^, and to whom He promised the Holy Ghost to "teach them all things, and to guide them into all truth ^^." Therefore we may be sure, that the primitive form of Church- Government, esta- blished by the Apostles, was according to the mind of Christ, and conformable to the will of the Holy Ghost. We find, that when our Blessed Lord, reigning in heaven, revealed Himself to St. John in Patmos, and spoke by his means to the Seven Churches in Asia\ He addressed Himself to the Angels of those Churches^. He recognised the several Angels as the Chief Pastors and Repre- sentatives of their respective Churches. One of those Churches was Ephesus. That Church, we know, had many Presbyters in it^; but our Lord speaks to its Angel as having principal rule over them^ That Church may be regarded as a specimen of the rest. The Angels of the Churches,— as ancient authors testify,— were the Bishops of those Churches.

Here then, in these Asiatic Churches, is a pattern of Diocesan Church Government, established by the Apostles who were inspired by the Holy Ghost, and who had Christ present with them ; a pattern authorized by Christ Himself, and presented for our instruction and imitation in Holy Writ.

If we examine the size and population of those primitive Dioceses of Asia, and compare them with our

» Matt, xxviii, 20. '° John xiv, 26; xvi, 13.

' Rev. i, 11. ' Rev. ii, 1, 8, 12. Szq.

3 Acts XX. 17. ' Kev. ii, 1 — 7.

12 ON A PROPOSED

own, we find that the seven Dioceses of Asia collectively, to which St. John wrote, were not greater in size and population than some one or two of our English Dioceses.

The mind of Christ in this matter is revealed to us in Holy Scripture; and if we desire to receive the spiritual blessings which He designs to convey to us by means of an Apostolic Ministry, it cannot surely be a matter of indifference, whether we endeavour to conform ourselves to that plan of Church-regimen which He has displayed to our view.

We deplore the ungodliness and demoralization which prevail in our large Towns, and we sometimes feel tempted to despair of their spiritual restoration.

But it may be remembered, that the Apostles had greater difficulties to encounter than those which beset us. And they have taught us by their own practice and example, the true method of Christianizing great Cities. They planted Bishops in them. This was the Apostolic mode of evangelising the world. And the Apostles were inspired by the Holy Ghost. If Ave do not conform to that Divine plan, we have no reason to wonder, that we have not the Divine blessing on our work. And without it, all human labour is vain.

3. Let us consider this subject in reference to the administration of a special function of the Episcopal Office, — Confirmati07i,

The Church of England prescribes — in her office for the Public Baptism of Infants — that all her children should be trained by her Parochial Clergy, and be prepared by them for Confiirmation ; and that, after such preparatory training, they should be confirmed by her Bishops. The Church of Christ was not instituted

SUBDIVISION OF DIOCESES. 13

for the sake of her Ministers ; but her Ministers exist for the sake of the Church. Her children have a claim on their respective Pastors for such preparation ; and they have a right to expect, that their Bishops, as Chief Rulers in the Church, should take care that such preparation is afforded to them ; and, after such preparation, they have also a claim on their Bishops for Confirmation at their hands. It is part of their spiritual heritage.

There is something remarkable in the law of our Church, derived from Holy Scripture and primitive practice, that Confirmation should be administered by Bishops and by Bishops only. It seems to have been dictated with a wise and providential purpose, for the adequate extension of the Episcopate accord- ing to the needs of the population. It seems to have been ordered with a judicious and charit- able intention, that Bishops should not remain stationary in any one place, but should visit the several Parishes of their Dioceses, and examine per- sonally their spiritual condition, and should dispense the spiritual graces which the Great Head of the Church vouchsafes to bestow by their ministry.

Such a work as this requires much personal labour on their part. And whenever a Bishop finds himself unable to perform it, and whenever he feels himself un- willing to require his Clergy to do their duty in pre- paring the youngpersons of their Parishes, and in bring- ing them to him for Confirmation, and whenever he finds himself unable to visit and inspect those Parishes, and to administer Confirmation to all who ought, by the directions of the Church, to be brought to him, then, my Lord, the Church of England, or rather

14 ON A PROPOSED

Christ Himself, plainly speaks, by these facts, in clear and solemn language, and declares His Divine Will that the lambs of His flock are not to suffer loss by their Bishop's incapacity ; but that he ought to be provided with help, and that the Diocese ought to be divided, or that some other means should be supplied for the due execution of the Episcopal office.

The character in which I now venture to speak is that of a Parochial Minister. It is sometimes alleged, that we, who have the pastoral care of Parishes, espe- cially in country places, are prone to settle down into a state of languid quiescence. Doubtless we need to be stirred by stimulants from without ; and of all the excitements to pastoral watchfulness and dili- gence, and to ministerial faithfulness and zeal, none is so healthful and effective as the frequent and regular administration of the Apostolic Rite of Confirmation. The spiritual pools of our parochial Bethesdas need often to be stirred by the descent of an Angel .to trouble the stagnant waters, and awaken their healing virtue^. Such an effect is produced by the visit of a Bishop coming among us to hold a Confirmation. It is like that of the Angel troubling the pool. The waters feel the movement of his wings, even before he comes down ; and a ripple is seen on their surface. Even the expectation of a visit from the Bishop to confirm the young people of our Parishes, exercises a salutary influence upon us for several weeks before his arrival.

The notice which we receive from the Bishop of his intention to visit our Parishes, and to hold a Con- firmation there, sets us immediately to work ; it sends

^ John V. 4.

SUBDIVISION OF DIOCESES. 15

US forth on our pastoral rounds from house to house, and makes us inquire who is of a fit age to receive in- struction for Confirmation, and, after due training, to be confirmed. It makes us open our Night Schools, and gather our peasant lads into our Parsonages ; it employs us in the work of Catechizing, one of the most important, if not the most important, of our pastoral duties. For it is vain for us to preach, unless we first catechize. We might as well sow our fields without ploughing them.

Thus Confirmations bring us into close spiritual relations with our people at that critical time when they are about to enter into active life ; when their wills most need to be regulated, and their passions to be disciplined, and their reason to be informed, and their conscience to be enlightened, by God's holy Word ; and when they require to be equipped and armed against the temptations of tjie world, and to be prepared to fight a good fight, as valiant soldiers of Christ, by regular training in the articles of the Christian Faith, and in the duties of the Christian Life ; and to receive supplies of grace in Confirmation itself, and, — after Confirmation, — in the regular re- ception of the Holy Communion, in order to qualify them to do their duty in that state of life to which it may please God to call them, and to attain a blessed immortality.

My Lord, it may be confidently affirmed, thai nothing in the whole sphere of ministerial labour represents so much real work,— and work of the best kind, — done by the Parochial Clergy, as a Confirmation, The Confirmation itself may be administered by the Bishop in a couple of hours ; but it gathers up the previous pastoral labour of many days and weeks ;

16 ON A PROPOSED

it is the harvest of a long spiritual seed-time ; the fruit of much spiritual tillage ; the crowning work of our spiritual husbandry.

Nor is this all. A Confirmation is also a pledge and earnest of future spiritual blessings. Confirma- tion is the door to the Holy Communion. A Confir- mation, therefore, not only represents what is already do7ie, but it reveals to the eye of Faith and Hope the cheering prospect of msmy future gatherings of Christ's children,— long after we are in our graves,— kneeling at His altar, after self-examination, and confession to God, and receiving in the Holy Communion the pledges of pardon and peace, and the continual refreshment of spiritual grace, exciting and enabling them to do their duty to God and man, and preparing them for the joys of heaven. When, my Lord, we consider these things, we need not hesitate to say, that the regular and adequate administration of Confirma- tion in the Cities, Towns, and Villages of England, would, by its effects, both retrospective and prospec- tive, produce greater moral, social, and religious improvement in the condition of this whole Nation, than all the other agencies which the mind of man can devise.

4. But what is our present condition in this most important respect?

It has been my happiness to spend a portion of every year, during the last ten years, in a country Parish in the County of Berks, in the Diocese of Oxford. And in mentioning that Diocese I. speak of one which possesses great spiritual advantages. It is not one of the more populous Dioceses ; it stands only the fifteenth in order of population among the Dioceses

SUBDIVISION OF DIOCESES. 17

of England and Wales. And for the last fifteen years it has enjoyed the unspeakable benefit of the Episcopal superintendence of a Chief Pastor, whose genius and eloquence, brilliant as they are, are not more tran- scendent than the zeal, devotion, and energy, with which his Apostolic functions are discharged, espe- cially in the ministry of Confirmation.

But what, my Lord, is the condition even of this favoured Diocese in this important respect ?

At the last Census in 1861, — ten years ago, — the population of this Diocese was a little more than half a million of souls'^, and at the present time it probably falls little short of 600,000. And what is the number of those who are annually confirmed in it ? About six thousand three hundred souls '. That is to say, a little more than one per cent, per annuvi of the population.

Instead of this result, the number annually confirmed ought to be about twenty-five thousand. Confirma- tions are usually held once in three years for our rural Parishes. In this Parish, by the kindness of the Bishop complying with our request that he would visit it more frequently, three per cent, of the population have been confirmed annually. But at least Jive per cent, ought to have been confirmed here. And this may be accepted as a fair average for the rural Parishes of the Diocese. It ought to be higher in the towns, on account of their past arrears. In other words, the number which ought to be confirmed in this Diocese, would only

« 503,042.

'■ In the three years ending Nov. 1857, the number annually confirmed was 4686. In the three years ending Nov. 1860, the number was 6249 ; a large increase, and the more gratifying on account of the admirable manner in which Confirmation is admi- nistered in that Diocese.

18 ON A PROPOSED

then be confirmed, if the Diocesan were engaged in Confirmations every day in the year, and if he were to confirm about seventy persons daily. Indeed, if he had no other employment than to administer Con- firmation, that work alone might suffice to occupy his time, and require all his strength.

This statement may serve to refute the allegation, that if the Parochial Clergy did their duty in bring- ing their people to their Bishops to be confirmed, the proper number of persons would be confirmed. Doubt- less we may be in fault here. A Confirmation causes us a great deal of trouble. And in pleading for the adequate administration of Confirmation, we are pleading for what would greatly increase our own work. And therefore there may be perhaps a disposition in the Clergy to be content with things as they are. They may fairly say, that it is not for them to stir up those whose duty it is to stir up them. They may charitably think, that it is not for the Clergy to overburden their Bishops, who are already taxed beyond their power.

But this Diocese, as I have already observed, pre- sents a very favourable case, as compared with others.

Let me pass to another Diocese with which I have also been connected for many years, — the Diocese of London. In 1851 it contained more than two millions of souls. The number of persons confirmed by the Bishop of that Diocese yearly is about twelve thousand ; a very large number, and one of the many signal proofs, which that Diocese displays, of the noble resolution, with which its indefatigable Chief Pastor is animated, to spend and to be spent in his heavenly Master's service.

But here is another evidence of the total inade-

SUJ3DI VISION OF DIOCESES. 19

quacy of the English Episcopate, as now constituted, to execute the work which is required by God an;! the People at their hands. The number that ought to be confirmed annually in the Diocese of London is about seven per cent, of the population, in order to provide for the present demand, and to make up in some degree for past arrears. A number not less than one hundred and forty thousand annually ought to have the means offered them of being confirmed in that Diocese. In other words, about a hundred and twenty-eight thousand who might receive Confirmation are left unconfirmed every year. And they who are left unconfirmed, are left also without that to which Confirmation leads ; they are left without the Holt/ Communion,

It would be presumptuous to advert here to the manner in which Confirmations are often administered in our populous cities, if such a reference were not needed. The Church of England prescribes, that, in administering Confirmation, the Bishop shall 'Uay his hand upon the head of every one severally ^ " whom he confirms, while he utters the prayer, " Defend, O Lord, this Thy child ; " and the reason of this injunction is obvious.

It conduces much to the solemnity of the effect of that holy ordinance on the minds of the young, which are most susceptible of religious impressions. It also involves and declares an important Christian doctritie, —the doctrine that every baptized person is a child of God, and that He is willing to give the Holy Spirit to every one who comes to Him with faith. It is a practical protest against sectarian notions, and is a visible profession of faith in the article of Universal

Redemption.

8 Eubric in the Office of Confirmation.

20 ON A PROPOSED

But, unhappily, from the necessities of the case this rule of the Church is very often not complied with, and the Prayer of Confirmation is uttered for a large number of persons at once. The religious uses of that holy rite are thus greatly impaired, and its doctrinal teaching is obscured ; and this deviation from the order of the Church may be pleaded as a pre- cedent, to justify other infractions of her laws.

But it has its moral. It proclaims an important truth. It shows the insufficiency of the present number of Bishops to execute the sacred work which they are commissioned to j)erform.

Again ; the Church prescribes, that Confirmations should take place in the presence of the godparents of those who are confirmed. And the benefits of a Confirmation are greatly enhanced by its ministration in the Parish to which the Candidates belong. It exercises a salutary influence not only on the Candi- dates, but on their parents, relatives, and friends.

But, in consequence of the size and population of our Dioceses, it often happens, that young persons are taken away from their own homes to some distant Parish, perhaps to a county Town, in order to be confirmed there. An unhappy necessity. For thus the day of Confirmation, which ought to be a day of seriousness, becomes a day of distraction, perhaps a day of dissipation. The very act of renewing their vow to renounce the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil, is encompassed with those temptations ; and the candidates, their friends, and their Parishes are deprived of those sanctifying, solemnizing, and spiritualizing influences, which the Church designed for them, and which they would derive from the reverent administration of Confirma-

SUBDIVISION OP DIOCESES. 21

tion in the peaceful sanctuary of their own Parish Church, which would thus be more endeared to them by the holiest associations ; and from the fatherly admonitions of their Bishop speaking to his young spiritual children in the presence of their parents and friends, offering up in tlieir behalf the prayers of lovino^ hearts to the common Father of all.

Such Confirmations, administered quietly and so- lemnly, greatly increase the people's veneration and affection for the Episcopal Office, and make them feel in truth, that they have a Father in God.

It is superfluous, however, to say, that, under present circumstances, the people of England in many Dioceses are deprived of these benefits.

The Rite of Confirmation bestows a spiritual gift upon those who are duly prepared for it; and it gives them access to the Holy Communion, and to the spiritual benefits of pardon and grace, and hopes of a blessed resurrection and a glorious immortality, which are promised to the penitent and faithful receiver of that Sacrament ; and it presupposes an important work of preparation and training pre- viously performed by the spiritual Pastors of those who come to Confirmation.

If this work is left undone,— if they who ought to be confirmed are not confirmed,— then, my Lord, the truth must be spoken, the youthful children of Christ, for whom He shed His precious blood, have been robbed of their spiritual birthright, they are spoiled of their Christian privileges. A retribution follows. The consequences are inevitable. They who have been left to grow up to man's estate without spiritual nurture and discipline, and without ad- mission to those means of grace, will turn round in

22 ON A PROPOSED

bitter enmity against their Rulers, Spiritual and Temporal ; they will lead reckless and godless lives, or they will fall into schism, perhaps into scepticism and unbelief, with all their unhappy consequences of de- moralization, disaffection, disloyalty, and anarchy.

Your Lordship has taken a leading part in Par- liament, in remonstrating against the unhappy con- fusion of sacred and secular things in the combination of the solemn truths of religion with the motley associations of the stage. You have given us a sea- sonable warning, that when Theatres are turned into Churches, Churches will soon be turned into Theatres. You have also courageously contended for the main- tenance of that ancient law and usage, by which provision was made by our forefathers for the susten- tation of Churches for the Poor.

But, under existing circumstances, when, from the fewness of Bishops, so many hundreds of thousands are deprived of religious training for Confirmation, and from access to it, and to the Holy Communion, are we to be surprised, that many should resort to questionable expedients for preaching to the semi- pagan masses of the people ? Are we to be asto- nished, that many who have been suffered to grow up without access to the means of grace, should rise up in opposition to a tax, from which the vast multi- tudes in our cities derive little benefit ?

The preaching in Theatres, the resistance to Church liates, the riots at St. George's in the East, these are some of the symptoms of the dangerous spiri- tual disease, under which we now" labour ; but they are not the root of the disease. That lies far deeper. Let us not merely deplore the symptoms ; but let us go to the root. It lies in our own neglect of the commands of

SUBDIVISION OF DIOCESES. 23

Christ, setting before us certain rules for the spiritual training of His people. It lies in our disobedience to His precept, '* Do this in remembrance of me ; Drink ye all of this.'' For how can we be said to obey this command, if we do not provide that others, com- mitted to our care, should be able to obey it? It lies in inattention to the solemn charge which the Church, of which we are members, utters by the mouth of her ministers at every Baptism, " Ye are to take care that this child be brought to the Bishop to he confirmed by him'^ For, how can sponsors be expected to take care that godchildren are brought to the Bishop to be confirmed by him, if the requisite means are not afforded to those children, of receiving Confirmation from their Bishop ?

In the name of Christ's little ones,— in the name of their Heavenly Father, Whose will it is that not one of those little ones should perish ^, — in the name of their Parents,— in the name of the People of England,— I appeal to your Lordship, and to other Legislators, Spiritual and Temporal, and in the name of Christ I earnestly implore you to provide for the eternal welfare of His children, and to afford them free and ready access to those spiritual rights and privileges, which He designed for them, and bought for them with His own blood, and from which they are now shut out. This, my Lord, is not only an Ecclesiastical question. It affects also our civil relations. It is not a question merely for Bishops and Clergy. It concerns the Lnity ; it concerns all. And in the name of all, I would re- spectfully and solemnly entreat your Lordship to vindicate and recover the rights, which are the " Matt, xviii. 1 k

24 ON A PROPOSED

common heritage of all. Here, my Lord, is a noble enterprise ; here may be a glorious exercise of piety, patriotism, and zeal. And when this work is accom- plished, when, by the wise and paternal care of the English Legislature, all the People of England have gained admission to spiritual privileges ; when our Dioceses are so subdivided, and our Episcopate so in- creased, that all may be duly instructed by their Pas- tors, and may feel that Episcopacy is indeed a living and energizing principle, that it is — what Christ and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Apostles, act- ing by their commission and inspiration, intended and prescribed it to be, — a mainspring of parochial action, and a channel of spiritual grace, — then, my Lord, there would be no more demand for Preaching in Theatres, then w^e should see no more of opposition to Church Rates, or of riots in Churches ; the People of England would rejoice to sustain their Churches, and would dwell together in unity.

5. Another point which deserves to be considered in reference to this question, is that of Episcopal Visitations,

Episcopal Visitations usually take place once in three years. The Clergy, and the Laity — represented by the Churchwardens of the Diocese— are summoned to attend them. The Churchwardens take their oaths of office, and they and the Clergy pay certain customary fees. Many of them come from a distance for this purpose. Many of them join in prayer together, and in receiving the Holy Communion, and in hearing the Charge of the Bishop. These are the uses,— and they are important,— which our triennial E^piscopal Visitations now serve. But it w^ould be a

SUBDIVISION OF DIOCESES. 25

delusion to say, that these results correspond to the amount of effort which they involve ; or are pro- portionate to the benefits which might accrue from periodica] meetings of the Clergy and Laity of a Diocese at Visitations held by the Bishop.

Episcopal Visitations are Church Synods. The very terms Synodals, and Sidesmen, or Synodsmen, which still survive in connexion with them, remind us of their origin. They were instituted for the purpose of affording to the Clergy and Laity oppor- tunities of personal conference with one another, and of taking counsel with their Bishop, and of supplying him with the means of ascertaining their feelings and opinions concerning matters which affect the welfare of the Diocese and the Church.

In our own age and country such opportunities of personal intercourse and conference of Clergy and Laity with their Bishop are urgently needed ; and a strong desire for Lay Co-operation has been recently manifested in every part of the kingdom.

Episcopal Visitations supply the safest, because the most ancient and orderly, means, for the accomplish- ment of this desire. But it cannot be attained in our present circumstances, on account of the extent and population of our Dioceses. They contain on an average about seven hundred Clergy, and about four- teen hundred Churchwardens. These form too nume- rous a body for consultation, and the Bishop has not the necessary leisure to engage in conferences, which, in order to be productive of benefit, require much thought and time.

The consequence is, that our Visitations have dwindled down into a state of ineflaciency, and are mere shadows of the past. But, if Dioceses were

26 ON A PROPOSED

subdivided, Visitations would afford the best ma- terial for such a Diocesan organization of Clergy and Laity as would encourage the harmonious action of both, and would tend to heal differences, and promote the cause of peace and truth, and would be fraught wdth the happiest consequences, spiritual and tem- poral, to the people.

6. Let us now proceed to consider objections, that are sometimes made to these statements.

In contravention of them it has been alleged, that some of the Bishops of the Church feel a strong repugnance to any subdivision of Dioceses. They do not feel, it is said, that they have too much work to do. They affirm, we are told, that recent improvements in postage and locomotion have so altered affairs in England, that Bishops are now able to communicate readily and sufficiently with all their Clergy and People.

It is with great reluctance, my Lord, that I notice this allegation.

It cannot indeed be denied, that recent facilities of communication have done much for our great centres of population; but they have also isolated many of our rural Parishes ; and in many cases have rendered it more difficult for a Clergyman to gain access to his Bishop, than it was fifty years ago.

But surely, my Lord, this great and sacred question is not to be argued by reference to the arrangements of the Post Office, or to the Time-tables of a Railway.

The office of a Bishop cannot adequately be per- formed by writing letters, and by rapid journeys from place to place. It consists in giving attendance

SUBDIVISION OF DIOCESES. 27

to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine \ in guiding the Church of God, in speaking the things which become sound doctrine^, in showing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, sound speech which cannot be condemned "\ in administering counsel and reproof, where it is needed^ ; in private and public conference with Clergy and Laity; and in diffusing, as from a living centre, to every Parish and household in the Diocese, those spiritual gifts and graces which the great Head of the Church bestows by means of the Episcopate.

It is of comparatively little moment, whether any Chief Pastors of a Church may suppose themselves able to do these things or no. The best among the successors of the Apostles will be the first to adopt the Apostolic language, " Who is sufficient for these things ^ ? " And they will be the most forward in their endeavours to provide, that the sheep of Christ's flock may be duly nourished with spiritual food.

The main question is, whether evidence enough cannot be adduced, and has not been already adduced, to convince an impartial observer, that under the present Diocesan arrangements of England, sufficient provision is not made for the spiritual welfare of the People, by the diffusion of those blessings which Christ Himself designed that thev should receive through the instrumentality of the Episcoj)al Office, for their growth in grace here, and for their attainment of glory hereafter ?

This, my Lord, is the question ; and, Heaven be thanked, many Bishops there have been and are in

1 1 Tim. iv. 13. =' Titus ii.

3 Titus ii. 8. -^ Titus i. 9.13.

^ 2 Cor. ii. 16.

28 ON A PKOrOSED

Christ's Church, who, with a reverent regard for the commandments of Christ, and the laws of the Church, and with a tender concern for the People's needs, and with a just estimate of their own powers, and with the genuine greatness of noble minds sacrificing self for God's glory, have been the first to ask for a subdivision of their own Dioceses. Like Moses in the wilderness, they have listened gladly to the voice of a Jethro^ and of their own hearts counselling them to share their labours with others. St. Augustine, feeling himself unable to discharge his Episcopal duties at a place forty miles from his own See, had a Bishop consecrated for it '. St. Gregory Nazianzen, himself a Bishop, commended the piety of St. Basil in increasing the number of Bishoprics in his pro- vince ^ The sixty Bishops assembled in the second Council of Carthage, expressed the mind of the ancient Church in a decree, that " wherever the Christian population increases, and the people signify their desire to have a Bishop, they ought to be provided with one ^" Three centuries ago in our

^ Exod. xviii. 24

'' St. Augustine, Epist. 261 (al 209) ad Cselestinum.

^ Greg. Kazianz. Orat. xx. de Laudibus Basilii, "whence," says the learned Bmgham (Eccl. Antiq. book ii. chap. xii. sect. 2), " we may collect, that in Nazianzen's opinion it is an advantage to the Church to be well stocked with Bishops, and that it is no dishonour to her to have Bishops in small towns."

^ Concil. Carthag. ii. Can. 5, " Si accedente tempore, crescente fide, Dei populus multiplicatus desideraverit proprium habere rectorem, ejus videlicet voluntate in cujus postestate est Dioecesis constituta habeat eqiscopum." A.D. 428: see Bruns, Concil. p. 119, and p. 131. The Canon Law says, ''where the Christian population has increased, there additional Bishops are to be conse- crated." " Ubi multitudo fidelium excrevit, ibi episcopi sunt ordi- nandi." Decret. 2 pars, can. 16, qu. i. 53.

SUBDIVISION OF DIOCESES. 29

own land those holy men, who gave their bodies to be burned in defence of the pure Gospel of Christ, laboured in this cause. Archbishop Cranmer and his Episcopal brethren endeared themselves to posterity by a subdivision of Dioceses in this country. They accomplished much in this respect, and they expressed a desire, and undertook measures, for fur- ther subdivision \ We profess veneration for the English Reformers, and zeal for the English Ee- formation; let us then follow the example of the Reformers, and promote the principles of the Re- formation.

If the Reformers affirmed, as they did, that a further subdivision of Dioceses was needed in their own age, niore than three centuries ago, what would they say now, when the population of this land has been so greatly increased in the course of three hundred years, and only one additional Episcopal See has been founded in that time ^ ?

What would they say, if they were now to revive, and to see the Church of England left to strain her- self in a painful struggle to do her work in the

^ According to the 31 Henry VIII. c. 9, and Henry the Eighth's scheme of Bishoprics, is was proposed to erect about twenty addi- tional Sees at that time ; of which number six were erected.

Besides this, by the Act of Henry VIII. (26 Henry VIII. cap. 14.) tiventy-six'^\2(.Q.Q^ were named as Sees for Suffragans, so that according to the design of the Reformers, there might have been upon the whole about seventy Bishops in England and Wales at that time. See pp. xxxvi— xlv. of the First Report of Cathedral Commissioners Lond. 1854. and the Third Report, p. XXV and p. xli, which contains valuable information and sugges- tions.

^ New Sees have been erected at Ripon and Manchester ; but Biistol hR^ IxM'n merged in Gloucester and Bristol.

30 ON A PROPOSED

nineteenth century with machinery which they deemed inadequate for the sixteenth ?

From the age of the Reformation to the present day Bishops have borne testimony to the needs of the Church in this respect.

To speak only of our own times ; the late Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol declared in his Charge to his Clergy in 1838 his own judgment on that matter ^

The Bishop of Lincoln said, in 1854, that, if a Bishop of Lincoln " should wish to preach in every church of his Diocese, and to devote one Sunday to each Parish, it would require more than fifteen years to make the circuit^.'' The Bishop of Exeter has expressed a desire for the subdivision of his own Diocese \ and promised a contribution to the income of the new Bishop.

Among the Cathedral Commissioners appointed in 1851 were the present Archbishop of Canterbury, the late Archbishop of York, the late Bishop of London,

3 " My own opinion was, and still is, that the simplest remedy for the acknowledged evil was likewise the most desirable ; I mean a division of each of the large Dioceses of York, London, Lincoln, Chester, Exeter, and Lichfield, and the erection of the requisite number of additional Bishoprics." Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol's (Dr. Monk's) Charge, 1838, p. 9.

^ See the First Report of the Cathedral Commission, p. xvi. See also the Letter of the Bishop of Llandaff, July 4, 1853, ibid, p. 588. " No doubt there are Dioceses in which additional Episcopal superintendence is necessary. I am inclined to think that a division of such Dioceses, with additional number of Bishops equal in power, would be more desirable than the res- toration of suffragans."

^ April 1855. See Appendix to Third Report, p. 20, and see the important " Statement of facts concerning a Cornish Bishopric, " by the Rev. Arthur Tatham, Bodmin, 1859, p, 9.

SUBDIVISION OF DIOCESES. 31

the present Bishops of Durham and Oxford ; and they recommended in their third and final Report to the Crown, *' that a permissive Bill should be framed and introduced into Parliament (similar to the Act 31 Hen. YIII. cap. 9), empowering her Majesty, and her Majesty's successors, to divide any Diocese under certain conditions of territory and population; and with the consent of the Bishop, where it is proposed to effect the division before the avoidance of the See." In addition to this general recommendation, the Cathedral Commissioners specified certain Dioceses, which ought, in their judgment, to be subdivided ^.

Besides this, my Lord, almost every address to the Crown, for the last twelve years, from the Bishops and Clergy of the Province of Canterbury in Convo- cation, has contained a petition that measures may be adopted for the increase of the Episcopate.

After such declarations as these, it may seem almost superfluous to cite other opinions of individuals.

But I cannot forbear one or two notices of this kind. The wise and pious Hooker reminds us that in ancient times " there was great care had to pro- vide for every Christian City a Bishop as near as might be ".'' What would he have said, w^hat would the ancient Christian Fathers have said, to our Liverpools and Birminghams, to our Leeds, Notting- ham, Sheffield, Derby, Newcastle, Plymouth, left without Bishops ? What would they have said to our Coventry, which was a separate Episcopal See for many hundred years, and has now been despoiled even of its share in the later Episcopal title, " Lich-

® See Third and final Report of the Cathedral Commissioners, p. XXV, A. P. ISoTi.

'' Hooker's Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, VII. viii. 1.

32 ON A PROPOSED

field and Coventry;" and to our Bristol deprived of its ancient prerogatives, and of the personal residence of a Bishop, which it possessed for some centuries ? AVould they not have said, that we have ahandoned in these respects the very first principles of missionary labour, of pastoral superintendence, and of Church- reofimen ? Would thev not have warned us that we could not expect to see the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit, and the consequent " fruit of the Spirit, in love, joy, peace, long-sufiering, gentleness, good- ness, faith, meekness, temperance ^'' in our great Cities, when we did not use the divinely appointed means for obtaining these gifts and graces, and for producing that fruit ?

The most learned English writer on the ancient laws and usages of the Church, — Joseph Bingham, — has left a remarkable testimony on this matter.

*' Every City or place of civil jurisdiction should be the seat of an ecclesiastical magistracy, viz. a Bishop with his presbytery. That this was the general rule ob- served in the primitive Church, I think I have made it appear beyond all dispute. . . If the Church of England should think fit to add forty or a hundred more Bishops to her present number, she would not be without precedent in the practice of the primitive Church. Archbishop Cranmer," he adds, " was very well apprised of this, and therefore he advised King Henry YHL to erect several new Bishoprics as a great means, among other things, for reforming the Church. In pursuance of which advice the King himself drew up a list of near twenty new Bishoprics

' Gal. V. 22.

SUBDIVISION OF DIOCESES. 33

which he intended to make, and a Bill was passed in Parliament anno 1529 to empower the King to do this by his letters patent. The whole transaction and the names of the intended Sees may be found at large in Bishop Burnet's History of the Beformation, vol. i. p. 262. . . It shows us the sense of the leading men in the Reformation ^"

These words were written by Bingham at the be- ginning of the eighteenth century, when the popula- tion was only about a fourth of what it is now.

It would be endless to quote the opinions of more recent writers on this subject. One may suffice — that of the late Dr. Arnold. " In order to any effi- cient and comprehensive Church system," he says, " the first thing necessary is to di\dde the actual Dioceses. . . .Every large Town should necessarily be the seat of a Bishop ; the addition of such an element into the society of a commercial or manufacturing place would be itself a great advantage \"

A Declaration has recently been put forth, signed by six thousand Clergymen, expressing their desire for a subdivision of Dioceses.

7. An objection sometimes urged against any in- crease of the English Episcopate is, — that it would have the effect of lowering the secular dignity and social rank of our present Bishops ; and that, if addi- tional Sees were formed, without any parliamentary peerage annexed to them, such a measure may have the effect of strengthening the hands of those who

" Bingham's Ecclesiastical Antiquities, Book ix. chap, viii.at end. 1 Principles of Church Reform, by the Eev. Thomas Arnold, D.D. Lond. 1833, p. 48.

34 ON A PROPOSED

desire to remove the Bishops from their ancient places in the House of Peers.

Such a result, my Lord, is indeed very greatly to be deprecated. But it is not probable that any such consequence would ensue from subdivision of Dio- ceses. The position of the English Bishops in Parlia- ment has not been weakened by the erection of an additional See without any baronial rank ^

Indeed, one of the strongest arguments at present against the Peerage of English Bishops is, that with their vast and populous Dioceses, they cannot properly discharge their spiritual duties, and that therefore for their own sake, and for the sake of their Dioceses and of the Public, they ought to be ''relieved'' (such is the usual phrase) from the ''burden''' of parlia- mentary attendance and legislative functions. But if Dioceses were subdivided, that argument would have far less weight.

Of this also we may be sure, the time cannot be far distant, when the Dioceses of England will be sub- divided. New Bishoprics have been erected in our Colonies. Those Dioceses themselves have been sub- divided. Colonial Bishops have pleaded for their subdivision. The Bishops of Sydney, Newcastle, New Zealand, and Cape Town have done this ; and the work of subdivision is yearly going on. The Clergy and Laity at home will not be long debarred from that liberty which is already conceded to the Colonies The Colonial Episcopate of Great Britain has been

^ By the Act of Parliament which established the Bishopric of Manchester in 1847 ; the 10th and 11th Vict. cap. 108, sect. 2, " Number of Lords Spiritual not to be increased."

SUBDIVISION OF DIOCESES. 25

increased from five Bishops to thirty-nine in thirty years ; and why should the Episcopate of England remain almost stationary for three centuries ?

A great work of subdivision of Parishes is already proceeding in England. It seems a necessary conse- quence, that it will be followed before long by a corre- sponding subdivision of Dioceses. A Memorial has been signed by a Noble Duke *, who with exemplary zeal and energy has taken the most active part in framinD^ a Wislative measure for the subdivision of Parishes, and by some of the most distinguished lay- men of this land, pleading for a subdivision of Dio- ceses ; and it is a pledge that such a result is not far distant. They who discern the signs of the times will foresee and provide for it. The wise course will be to r emulate what is inevitable. If this work of subdivision had taken place twenty-five years ago, ample funds would then have been forthcoming for the creation of new Sees. Some of the vast sums, of the Church's inheritance, spent in buying parks and palaces, might then have endowed Bishoprics. That opportunity is gone. Five years ago funds were offered^ for the endowment of a See in Cornwall. That has been lost also. It may be true, probably it is, that England will now be content with Bishoprics less amply furnished with worldly goods, than was formerly the case. But, if the Clergy and Laity of England were constrained to say, whether they would prefer the present insufficient Episcopate with its social rank and secular dignity, but with a people in spiritual poverty^

* His Grace the Duke of Marlborough,

^ By the Rev. Dr. Walker ; see the Second Report of the Cathedral Commission to the Crown, March, 1855,

3G ON A PROPOSED

or to see a poor Episcopate with a people enriched in spiritual wealth, there are few who would hesitate which alternative to choose. We are not yet driven to this dilemma ; but it is not far off. It has already come in the Colonies. And let those therefore who wisely desire to maintain the just claims of the Episcopate to social consideration and secular posi- tion, with a view to spiritual influence, be respectfully entreated to avail themselves of the present oppor- tunity, before it is lost for ever.

8. An objection sometimes urged against the sub- division of Dioceses, and against the erection of addi- tional Sees, is, that all our existing resources are needed for the endowment of additional Clergy^ and for the increase of the incomes of some of the Clergy who are in straitened circumstances ; and that many addi- tional Clergy might be provided, and the incomes of many might be augmented, with the same sum which would be required for the endowment of one Bishopric ; and that therefore w^e ought to begin with providing for more Clergy^ and for those who already exist ; and that, if we have any surplus remaining, after this work is done, then— but not till then— it would be time to found new Episcopal Sees.

To this allegation it may be replied, that the Bill now in Parliament does not propose to force Epis- copacy upon any one. It provides only, that if the inhabitants of a populous town, or of a large extent of territory, are desirous to enjoy the benefits of Episcopacy, their desires are entitled to be con- sidered, and, if reasonable, may be complied with. The present Bill follows the advice of His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the late Archbishop

SUBDIVISION OF DIOCESES.

37

of York, and the late Bishop of London, and present Bishops of Durham and Oxford, and the other Cathe- dral Commissioners *. It is only a permissive Bill. It only seeks to remove an impediment, and to take off a disability and penalty under which Englishmen now labour. It would rescue them from the indignity of having funds offered them for a Bishopric— as was lately the case with the people of Cornwall— and not being able to accept them ! It would merely concede to the English Church a liberty which is possessed by every other religious body in Christendom ; that of increasing the number of its Chief Pastors, ac- cording to the needs of its people. The Bill would emancipate the Episcopate of England from that restraint by which it is now hampered ; it would take it out of that rigid cast-iron framework, in which it is now cri imped and stereotyped ; and would give it that freedom, elasticity, and power of expansion, w^hich is necessary for its healthful action, and for the exercise of its spiritual functions, and for the spiritual good of the Nation.

^ See above, p. 27. It may here be mentioned that the Cathe- dral Commissioners had before them the question whether it would be expedient to recommend that the Act of Henry VIII., (26 Henry VIII. c. 14,) which gave to a Bishop the power to nominate a Suffragan, should be put in force ; and were of opinion that such a mode of providing for an increase of the Episcopate was not so expedient, as that which they recommended, namely, a Subdi- vision of Dioceses, the late Bishop Kaye said in 1838 (Letter on Eccl. Com., p. 17) that he " had conversed with several of his brethren on the revival of Suffragan Bishops, and had not met with one who did not strongly deprecate the measure." The Cathedral Commissioners did however recommend, that a Bishop in case of infirmity, should be allowed to have a Coadjutor cum jure successionis ; and this recommendation would he ap[)lica]>lc to an increased Episcopate.

38 ON A PROPOSED

People are allowed and encouraged to give money for the increase of Schools, Churches, and Clergy, they are permitted to form societies for the employ- ment and endowment of Catechists, Scripture readers; and Bible-women ; and why should they not be allowed to subscribe their money for the increase of Bishops ?

The people of America have seen their Episcopate increased from one Bishop to thirty-two in less than eighty years ; but the people of England have had no augmentation of their Episcopate, except by the addition of a single Bishop, for the last three centuries. Why should England be precluded from that benefit which America so freely enjoys ?

It is universally allowed, that a large increase of Clergy is needed ; and in order to ensure an increase of Clergy, the most efficient mode is to augment the number of Bishops. This has been proved in a striking manner in our Colonies. Wherever a Bishopric has been founded, the number of the Clergy has almost always been rapidly augmented ^.

Nor is this all : not only is the number of the Clergy greatly multiplied by the foundation of a Bishopric, but the efficiency of the Clergy already existing is greatly augmented also. Their energy and activity are stimulated by the presence and minis- trations of a Bishop. There are about 17,000 Clergy in England and Wales ; and if the number of the Bishops were increased, and if the performance of Episcopal functions were thus greatly facilitated ; if the admi- nistration of Confirmations in the various parts of the land were doubled ; if Ordinations were held in the

' The Eev. W. T. Bullock, Assistant Secretary (now Chief Sec- retary, 1877) of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, has favoured me with the following evidence of that fact ; [Table

SUBDIVISION OF DIOCESES.

39

principal Towns ; and if Episcopal Visitations were animated with new life and vigour, — if the Episcopal office were brought to the homes and hearts of the people, in all its holy, hallowing, and endearing in- fluences of fatherly authority and love, then the Clergy would be inspired with new zeal, and the fruits of their ministry would be greatly increased, in the everlasting salvation of souls.

One of the things which most hinders and mars the usefulness of the Church, and brings scandal on religion, is this, that the Clergy in our large Towns have no centre of unity. They are left to work in a disjointed manner. Each parochial district becomes like a petty principality, in which the Incumbent rules in his own way. Hence jealousies, suspicions, and estrangements prevail. The Clergy do not form one

Table	of Increase of Clergy in Eighteen New Dioceses',
		Number of Clergy. j
Foundation of See.	See.	Before Founda-	In January
	tion of See.	1860.
1841	New Zealand	12	54
1842	Antigua	25	30
1842	Guiana	23	31
1842	Tasmania	19	57
1842	Gibraltar	30	39
1845	Colombo	22	42
1845	Fredericton	30	53
1847	Cape Town "J		43
1859	St. Helena f	14	6
1853	Grahamstown (		38
1853	Natal }		13
1847	Newcastle	17	35
1847	Melbourne	3	67
1847	Adelaide	4	30
1849	Rupert's Land	5	19
1849	Victoria	10	16
1850	Montreal	45	62
1852	Sierra Leone	15=274	38=673

40 ON A PROPOSED

compact body, but are split up into independent, per- haps antagonistic, parties. I^'ow, it is vain to expect that a person of their own rank and order can combine together those discordant elements. No ; that happy and holy work of concentration can only be effected by one who has authority to bring them together. It can only be done by a common superior — a Bishop. As long as the Clergy of our Towns are without this harmonizing element, they will be like loose strings of an instrument often jarring in unseemly discord ; but let them have a Bishop, and then — to use the expres- sive language of an ancient Father,^ a scholar of St. John, — they would become like well-strung chords of a lyre, and make sweet music to God*

The temporal condition of the poorer Clergy would thus be improved also.

One of the greatest difficulties of the Parochial Clergy is, to obtain funds for the support of their schools, their churches and chapels. The burden of providing for the spiritual wants of the parochial household often falls mainly upon them.

But give them a Bishop — a man of piety, learning, and zeal,— who can plead their cause with the voice of authority, in Christ's name, and without any sus- picion of being swayed by motives of personal interest, and can engage the sympathies of the Laity in their behalf, then their temporal condition would be greatly improved. It has been found by experience, that wherever a new Episcopal See has been founded, pious and charitable Institutions have been greatly

^St. Ignatius ad Ephes. c. 4, where he speaks of ^' the Freshytery of a city as strung together by its Episcopate, as the strings of a harp."

SUBDIVISION OF DIOCESES. 41

augmented ^ Upwards of half a million sterling has been raised by voluntary efforts in the Diocese of Kipon, and expended there in the erection and endow- ment of churches, parsonages, and schools, within sixteen years from the foundation of that See. The creation of the See of Manchester has led to similar results. There was much wisdom in the primitive rule, that the alms of the faithful should be laid at the Apostles' feet \

This may be accej)ted as an axiom of Ecclesiastical Economics : in order to increase the number and efficiency of the Parochial Clergy, and to relieve their temporal distress, the wisest plan is to provide an adequate number of Bishops.

9. One more objection to an increase of the Epis- copate demands consideration.

The appointment to Episcopal Sees is in the Crown ; and the disposal of Episcopal Preferments is usually in the hands of the first Minister of the day. And, it has been said by some, that when the maintenance of power by the Minister depends on Parliamentary majorities, the distribution of Eccle- siastical Patronage may be influenced by political considerations ; and that consequently the increase of Episcopal Sees might endanger the spiritual character of the Church, and render her liable to be made an instrument of secular ambition and party politics. An addition to the number of Episcopal Sees might, it is said, increase the risk of bad ecclesiastical

^ As has been clearly slio"\vn in a letter to the Earl of St. Germans by the Eev. Reginald Hobhouse on the Cornish Bishopric ; Bodmin, 1860, pp. 11, and 16 — 18. ^ Act* iv. 34, 35, 37.

42 ON A PROPOSED

appointments, and thus inflict an injury on Religion and the Church.

Such an objection as this seems to proceed on suppositions which ought not to be lightly made. It assumes that Rulers will forget, Whose ministers they ai-e, and to Whom they must give an account ; and Who will award them a just requital according to their treatment of His Church. It arises from want of faith. It presumes, that there is little efficacy in the prayers of her people, that the Church of Christ may be preserved by Almighty God " from false Apostles, and be ordered and guided by faithful and true Pastors." It does not take into account that it is an essential attribute of God to overrule evil by good, and to elicit the greatest good even from the worst evil, especially in the affairs of His Church ; and that He never fails to do so, when men do their duty, and trust in Him, and use the means which He has appointed for the government and guidance of His Church, and commit her cause, with prayer, to His Almighty protection.

But suppose that bad Episcopal appointments were made, yet the evil of such appointments might be neutralized, but the benefits of Episcopacy are per- manent. Bad men are often bettered by office. The habit of performing Episcopal functions, such as the ministry of Confirmations and Ordinations, cannot fail to have a beneficial spiritual effect upon those who perform them. And even if this were not the case, yet the acts themselves are the means of im- parting great good to others. Consider, for example, the benefits conferred by Confirmation. What a salutary influence it exercises on the Clergy, in lead- ing them to inspect their flocks, and to prepare their young people for Confirmation and first Communion ;

SUBDIVISION OF DIOCESES. 43

and what inestimable benefits thence accrue to the people themselves ! These benefits, my Lord, are sure and enduring ; and even if the Diocesan were no better than a Judas, these benefits would flow from God's goodness working through and by the Episcopal Office ; and the sacred character of that office would be displayed in its true and essential virtue and efficacy, even because it would be contrasted with the human infirmities of him who bears it.

Besides, it is probable that these dangers, which some apprehend from an increase of the Episcopate, would not be augmented, but would, on the contrary, be much lessened by such an increase of Bishoprics.

If Dioceses were subdivided, as may now be expected, the Church would probably be prepared to see poorer Bishoprics. And the new Bishops would not have seats in the House of Peers, — at least for some time. The wealth of Prelates, and their presence in Parlia- ment, have been productive of much good. But they are not essential to Episcopacy. Great gratitude is due to our civil Rulers, acting in concert with the English Episcopate, for the Episcopal appointments in our Colonial Churches, which are adorned by Chief Pastors deserving to be named with some of the holiest Bishops of primitive Christendom. The ap- pointments to those Sees are not swaj^ed by poli- tical influences. Those Bishoprics are not objects of worldly ambition, and present great opportunities of spiritual usefulness. If the Episcopal Sees in England and Wales were multiplied according to the needs of the population, we might expect to see the same beneficial results at home, which we rejoice to recognize in the Colonial Dependencies of the British Crown.

44 ON A PROPOSED

Jf Episcopacy is, as we believe it to be, a divinely instituted form of Church Government, if Episcopacy is, as Scripture and primitive Antiquity testify, a di\inely appointed channel for the conveyance of manifold spiritual gifts and graces to the whole body of Christ's Church, let us have faith in Him Who ordained it for that purpose, and let us earnestly pray, and humbly hope, that, if we do our part in providing the means. He will not fail to bestow the blessings which He has promised to those who endeavour to promote His glory by obedience to His will.

10. One word more: England, above every country in the world, possesses great facilities for the erection of new Sees. She has resources of wealth which mio^ht be elicited in such a holy cause. The same pious muni- ficence which has endowed new Sees in her Colonies would not be wanting in a similar effort at home. She has still Ecclesiastical Dignities,— such as the Deaneries of some of her Cathedrals,— which might be available, under proper restrictions, for that pur- pose. And there is scarcely any large District, or any populous Town in England, which does not pos- sess some noble ancient Church, distinguished by architectural beauty, which might soon become a Cathedral ^ If the inhabitants of a District or a ToAvn are desirous of such a result, — and if the desire is right, — let them be enabled to attain it. It would infuse new life into ancient municipalities ; it would impart new dignity to the country ; and give fresh vigour to those sacred and generous principles and

' The evidence of this may be seen in Mr. G. Gilbert Scott's (now Sir Gilbert Scott's) Letter on "Additional Cathedrals." J. H. and J. Parker.

SUBDIVISION OF DIOCESES, 45

feelings, which unite Christians and Englishmen, in the spiritual and social bonds of piety, loyalty, and peace.

I have the honour to be,

My dear Lord,

With much respect,

Your Lordship's obedient faithful servant,

Chr. Wordsworth.

APPENDIX.

ON THE DIVISION OF THE DIOCESE OF LINCOLN.

From the Bishop of Lincoln s Charge, 1873, jp. 56.

The mention of Confirmation leads me to express my dutiful and loyal gratitude to Her Majesty the Queen, for graciously assenting to the petition presented by me to the Crown, and commended by the authority of its constitutional advisers, that the Bishop of this great Diocese, containing about a thousand Clergy, and extending over more than two millions and a quar- ter of acres, might have the assistance of a Bishop Suffragan, according to the ancient use of this Realm, before and after the Reformation ; and let me also express my thankfulness to the good Providence of God for associating with me in that sacred office my dear brother in Christ, Henry Mackenzie, Bishop Suff- ragan of Nottingham.

In making this acknowledgment publicly, I cannot disguise from you my deliberate opinion that the Diocese of Lincoln ought to be divided. The county of Lincoln, the second in size among the counties of England and Wales, and larger in extent than any one of twenty dioceses, and numbering nearly 600 parishes, many of which are difficult of access, is more than enough in itself to engage, if not to exhaust, all the powers of a Bishop, even in the prime of life ; and the populous county of Nottingham — one of the foremost in England for intelligence, enterprise, and opulence — ought to have a Bishop of its own. The appointment of a Bishop Suffragan, with a title derived from it, may be expected to lead to that result.

In expressing such sentiments as these, I am only following the example of the holiest Bishops in past ages of the Church. St. Augustine, not being able to discharge his Episcopal duties at a place forty miles from his own See, had a Bishop consecrated for it. St. Gregory Nazianzen commended the piety of St. Basil in increasing the number of Bishoprics in his province. The sixty Bishops assembled in the second Council of Carthage expressed the mind of the ancient Church in . a decree, that " wherever the Christian population increases, and the people signify their de- sire to have a Bishop, they ought to be provided with one. Three centuries ago in our own land those holy men who gave their

APPENDIX. 47

bodies to be burned in defence of the pure Gospel of Christ laboured in this cause. Archbishop Cranmer and his Epis- copal brethren endeared themselves to posterity by a sub- division of Dioceses in this country. They accomplished much in this respect, and they expressed a desire, and undertook measures, for further subdivison. We profess veneration for the English Reformers, and zeal for the English Reformation ; let us then follow the example of the Reformers, and promote the principles of the Reformation.

In the mean time, the benefits accruing from the revival of the ancient office of Suffragan are sufficiently evident from the single fact that already in the present year 1709 persons have been confirmed by the Bishop Suffragan, holding confirmations in twenty-six different places in Nottinghamshire. Only a small portion of these could have been confirmed without his help.

Surely, therefore, •brethren, since by these means many hun- dreds of immortal souls, in a few months of a single year, have now, we humbly trust, been brought nearer to God in prepara- tion, and in Confirmation itself, and Holy Communion, we can- not doubt that the restoration of the office of Suffragan is one of the best of all re\dvals, and one most pleasing to Him ; and the more general the restoration is, the wider will be the diffusion of spiritual blessings among us.

Let me add that, by means of the appointment of a Suffragan in this Diocese, Confirmations ^vill henceforth, I hope, be held biennially or even annually in many places where hitherto, from lack of such help, they could only be administered once in three years.

The appointment of a Suffragan Bishop for this Diocese was due in no slight degree to your valuable assistance, my brethren of the Laity, and to the expression of your opinion in its favour. On Thursday July 29th, in last year, a Lay Con- ference was held at Lincoln, which was attended by the Lord Lieutenant Earl Brownlow, and by many of the principal Lay- men of the county. One of the resolutions then unanimously adopted was that the Diocese ought to he divided, and that in default of ^uch subdivision this Conference expresses an earnest hope that the appUcation made by the present Bishop for the aid of a Suffragan may be successful." This resolution was forwarded to the head of Her Majesty's Goverament, and exercised, I have reason to believe, no inconsiderable influence in bringing about the desired result.

4,8 APPENDIX.

The Bishop of Lincoln on the Increase of the Episcopate, and the Division of the Diocese of Lincoln.

Lincoln Diocesan Conference, Friday, October 13, 1876.

Gentlemen, — You will expect that I should say something on this subject ; and I will now speak upon it without reserve. In doinf^ so I siiall be obliged to refer to some matters personal to myself ; which, under the circumstances, you will, I am sure, forgive. For many years I have desired to see an increase of the English Episcopate, and have endeavoured to promote it by writing, speaking, and acting, especially as a Member of the Cathedral Commission, in which twenty-four years ago I served with Archbishops Sumner and Musgrave, Bishop Blomfield, Bishop Wilberforce, Sir John Patteson, Dean Hook, Canon Sel- wyn and others, who are now gone to their rest. That Com- mission, after careful consideration, framed and recommended a scheme for the division of Dioceses, and the erection of new Sees. In its Third Report it advised that the Diocese of Lincoln should be divided, and that each of its tivo counties, Lincolnshire and Not- tinghamshire, should form a separate Diocese.

In the year 1870 I was enabled, with your help, and mth that of Her Majesty's Government at that time, especially of Mr. Glad- stone, to obtain the assistance of a Bishop Suffragan, the first who had been appointed in England for more than two hundred years.

Much has been done since the reports of the Cathedral Com- mission, to advance this work of increasing the Episcopate ; especially by the late Lord Lyttelton, and by a gentleman who had hoped to be among us to-day, Mr. Beresford Hope.

The Church is also deeply indebted to the present energetic Home Secretary, Mr. Cross, for the recent Act which has created two new Episcopal Sees ; that of St. Albans and of Truro.

Now that the Diocese of Exeter is to be divided by the erection of Truro into a Bishoprick, the Diocese of Lincoln will be the largest in territorial area among all the Dioceses of England and Wales ; and it contains more clergy than the Diocese of Exeter did before its division. It ought, therefore, to be divided. And if the Diocese of Lincoln were to be reduced to Lincolnshire alone — mthout Nottinghamshire — it would still continue to be one of the largest of English Dioceses, and would contain many more Clergy than most of them do. Lincolnshire is the second county in England for size. It contains more than a million and three-fourths of a million of acres. This is, I think, a greater area, than that of any existing Diocese execept four. Also the County of Lincoln contains about 720 Clergy. This is a larger number of Clergy than in most of the present English Dioceses.

APPENDIX. 49

This, therefore, seems to be evident, that Lincohishire ought to become a distinct Diocese.

The Cathedral Commissioners of 1852 recommended that the County of Nottingham should form a separate Diocese. My predecessor in the See of Lincoln concurred in that opinion. Its area is more than half a million of acres ; it has 275 Parishes ; and its population is increasing. It has risen from 140,000 in 1801 to about 820,000 souls in 1871.

This being premised, next comes the question of patronage and endowment for the new See in the County of Notts. On this point you will look for some announcement from me.

If the division should take place during my Episcopate, I should be ready to surrender all the patronage that the Bishop of Lincoln has in tlie County of Nottingham i.e, (the patronage of twenty benefices) to a Bishop for that County.

With regard to the endowment of the new See for that County ; if adequate funds were not forthcoming from other sources (which is greatly to be preferred) I should not be unwilling to surrender the patronage of the Subdeanery of Lincoln, towards the main- tenance of the Bishop of Nottinghamshire. This would be about a thousand a year and a house. The canonry held by the Sub- dean of Lincoln is the only available one in that Cathedral for the purpose ; special duties being annexed to the other three stalls — that of the Precentor, Chancellor, and Archdeacon— Avhich would render it impossible to connect them with the Episcopal office.

It would be my desire to submit the question of the portion of endowment which might be taken from the See of Lincoln for the benefit of the bishoprick of Nottinghamshire to the judgment of others. When a Bishop is entering his 70th year (as I am), and is looking forward to be relieved ere long from the weight of the physical and menal labours to be borne hj the Bishop of such a Diocese as this, if he makes an offer like that which has been so generously made by the Bishop of a Southern Diocese, who is happily in the prime of life, he would, in fact, be surrendering what belongs to his successors rather than to himself ; and it must not be forgotten that, if he is constrained by age and infirmity to retire from this office, his immediate successor Avould be taxed with the burden of paying him a jDension from a diminished income.

Let me also be allowed to say from personal experience, that the adequate discharge of the duty of contributing to the numer- ous good works, such as Church building and Church restorat on, and the other many pious and charital)le designs, which we rejoice to know abound among us, and the heavy expenditure entailed upon the Episcopal office in various other ways (especially in this Diocese, which I purposely refrain from specifying), would reduce the Bishop of Lincoln, with his present Episcopal income

50 APPENDIX.

to financial difficulties, if he had not some private resources to fall back upon.

But I will not dwell on this topic. I cannot however forbear saying that it would be with feelings of much sorrow that I should find myself separated from any portion of this Diocese, in every part of which I have received many acts of kindness from those Avhom it is my privilege to call my friends and brethren in Christ. But private feelings must give way to public duties, especially of a spiritual kind.

Let me now conclude with a practical suggestion. Happily we have at present a Government which is prepared to bring in a larger legislative measure for the increase of the Episcopate. Let us be ready with a scheme to be embodied in such a Bill. It may be that Parliament will not at once divide the Diocese of Lincoln, and found a new Episcopal See for County of Notting- ham. But we may confidently anticipate that it will be disposed to do for us what it has already done for the Dioceses of Winches- ter, Rochester, and Exeter. It will be willing to pass an enabl- ing Act containing provisions for the eventual founding of such a See, on our comjolying ivith certain conditions, as to extent of area, patron- age, and endoivment. Let us he agreed as to these conditions ; let us present them to the Home Secretary ; let us ask him that they may be embodied in his Bill, and in due time, when these conditions have been complied icith by us, the Diocese of Lincoln will be divided, and an Episcopal See will be erected for the County of Nottingham and may the blessing of the Gh^eat Head of the Church rest upon the work.

A Prayer for the Increase of the Episcopate.

0 Lord Jesu Christ, the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls, AVho didst continue all night in prayer, and then didst choose Thine Apostles, and hast bidden us pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth labourers into His harvest to gather fruit to life eternal, and hast promised to be with Thine Apostles alway even unto the end of the world ; we beseech Thee to quicken and bless the endeavours and off'erings of Thy people for an increase of Bishops in Thy Church, and to raise up faithful men for the work of the Apostleship, in spreading forth Thy Gospel, in dis- pensing Thy Word and Sacraments, in laying on of hands in Confirmation, in ordering of Priests and Deacons, in ministering sound doctrine and godly discipline by driving away error and by defence of Thy truth, and in watchful oversight, wise and loving guidance, and good government of Thy Church ; and to all who are called to that holy office give Thy grace and heavenly benediction, that they may faithfully serve before Thee to Thy honour and glory, Who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, One God, blessed for ever. Amen.

APPENDIX.

51

Additional Home Bishopries Endowment Fund,

Office-?, WHITEHALL, LONDON, S.W.

Chairman.

THE EARL OF DEVON.

Committee

The Earl of DQVon{Ghairman <£• Treas. ).

The Earl Nelson.

The Earl of Wharncliffe.

Lord Clinton.

The Hon. Charles L. Wood.

The Right Hon. J. G. Hubbard, M.P.

Tlie Hon. Wilbraham Egerton, M.P.

Sir William Heathcote, Bart.

Sir John H. Kennaway, Bart, M.P.

{Trcas.) Sir G. Gilbert Scott. General Sir Richard Wilbraham, K.C.B. T. C. Baring, Esq., M.P. Hugh Birley, Esq., M.P. Thomas Brassey, Esq., M.P. W. H. Gladstone, Esq., M.P. A. W. HaU, Esq., M.P. W. U. Heygate, Esq., M.P. A. J. Beresford-Hope, Esq., M.P.

{Trcas.). Lewis A. Majendie, Esq. Arthur Mills, Esq., M.P. S. G. S. Sackville, Esq., W. T. Spencer Stanhope, J. G. Talbot, Esq., M.P. J. Torr, Esq., M.P. E. B. W. Balme, Esq. John Borough, Egq. Philip Cazenove. Esq.(T?'easi*rcr).

E. Carlyon, Esq.

F. H. Dickinson, Esq. Robert Few, Esq. Richard Foster, Esq. J. S. Gilliat, Esq. J. W. Hawkins, Esq. W. G. Kemp, Esq. F. S. Powell, Esq. W. H. Rawson, Esq. Thomas Turner, Esq.

, M.P.

M.P. Esq.,M.

The Ven. Archdeacon Hessey, D. C. L.

The Ven. Archdeacon Mild way.

The Ven. Archdeacon Grant, D.C.L.

The Ven. Archdeacon Earle.

The Ven. Archdeacon Emery.

The Ven. Archdeacon Hans Hamilton.

The Ven. Archdeacon Balston.

The Rev. Canon Gregory.

The Rev. Canon MiUer, D.D.

The Rev. the Warden of Keble College,

Oxford. The Rev. Walter G. Abbott. The Rev. H. R. Bailey. The Rev. Brymer Belcher {Hon. Sec.) The Rev. R. M. Blakiston, Sec.LC.B.S. The Rev. A. Blomfield. The Rev. J. Ingham Brooke. The Rev. W. T. Bullock, &c. S.P.G. The Rev. Arthur Cazenove. The Rev. AV. R. Churton. The Rev. J. Erskine Clarke, The Rev. Dr. Currey. The Rev. E. L. Cutts. The Rev. C. B. Dalton. The Rev. J. Duncan, Sec. Nat. Society. The Rev. Arthur J. Ingram {Hon. Sec),

Sec. A.C.S. The Rev. H. M. Ingram. The Rev. Alfred Jones {Hon. Sec). The Rev. Harry Jones. The Rev. J. E. Kempe. The Rev. Dr. Gott. The Rev. Dr. Alfred T. Lee

{Ho^i. Sec), Sec C.D.I. The Rev. W. D. Maclagan. The Rev. Dr. Maclear. The Rev. John Oakley. The Rev. F. Pigou. The Rev. J. G. Pilkington. The Rev. J. C. Ryle. The Rev. L. E. Shelford. The Rev. H. Swabey. (Sec.SP.C.K.)

The Rev. G. H. Wilkinson.

The Very Rev. the Dean of Lichfield

{Prolocutor of Canterbury). The Hon. and Very Rev. the Dean of York (^Prolocutor of York).

Treasurers. The Earl of Devon. I Sir John H. Kennaway, Ikit, M.P.

A. J. B. Beresford-Hope^Esq., M.P. | Philip Cazenove, Esq.

Bankers. The London and W^estminster Bank, 1, St. James's Square, London, W. Hon. Secretariats.

The Rev. Alfred Jones. The Rev. Dr. Alfred T. Lee.

The Rev. Brymer Belcher. The Rev. Arthur J. Ingram (Finance Sec).

Organising Secretary. The Rev. B. Mercdyth Kitson, 7, Whitehall, London, S.W

52 APPENDIX.

At a large and influential Conference of Clergy and Laity in- terested in the general question of the Increase of the Home Episcoj^ate, which was held in London on the 10th of February, 1876, under the Presidency of the Earl of Devon, the Archbishop of Canterbury spoke as follows : —

"/ therefore do hope, that the first result of this Meeting will he actual foil ntling of the Sees of S. Albans and Cornwall, and that there will he other districts readij to follow the example. And if, in the course of the next year, we have three or four new Sees, we should realize that which was promised by Lord Russell's Government a long time ago, and we should show practically that we are in earnest in the matter ^

The following Resolutions were then carried unanimously, and embodied in a memorial to the Prime Minister : —

I. '' That the spiritual necessities of England require a well organised scheme for the Increase of the Home Episcopate." IT. '' That with a view to immediate Parliamentary action for the extension of the Home Episcopate, and the re- distribution and division of Dioceses, a memorial be addressed to Her Majesty's Government soliciting their support for any well-considered measure that may be introduced with this object."

A Committee out of those present, with power to add to their number, was also appointed, to carry out the object proposed.

In the debate on the 16th February on the second reading of the " Increase of the Home Episcopate Bill," the Home Secretary, Mr. Cross, made an important statement on behalf of Her Majesty's Government, from which the following extracts are taken : —

" Looking at the way in which populations had grown up witliin the past few years, especially in the manufacturing dis- tricts, no one, he thought, could avoid coming to the conclusion that the bishops, in order to do their work fairly, must have assistance. * * * It was evident that from time to time some revision of the number of bishops was necessary, in order that the w^ork devolving upon them should be properly performed. * * * The introduction of the S. Alban's Bill last year was a proof that the Government were alive to the requirements of the case. * * * He would proceed briefly to state what the Govern- ment were prepared to do in reference to the Episcopate. The Diocese of Exeter undoubtedly called for some action being taken. Well, a proposition was made to him some months ago to place at his disposal a sum of £1,200 a year for the formation of a new Diocese in Cornwall. That generous offer was made on condition that the Bishopric should be founded in the lifetime of

APPENDIX. 53

the donor ; and the Bishop of the Diocese proposed also, in t he most generous spirit, to give up £800 of his own income towards founding the new Bishopric. As soon as sufficient additional Funds were provided to "furnish a proper income for the new Bishop, a scheme for the establishment of a Bishopric of Corn- wall would, no doubt, be prepared : and in that case he would strongly recommend the adoption of a measure for effecting the object in view. It ivoidd not be verij wise, however-, to have separate Bills for each Diocese, and therefore he ivas not at all prepared to say, 011 the part of the Government, that he icoitld not consider some tvell-devised scheme for a limited number of neiv Dioceses. * * * Instead nf dealing with cases individually, he should prefer to lay on the table of the House a scheme for a limited number of Bishopric^, so that the ivork of the Bishops might be properly divided at all events, until changes in the population of the country rendered some readjustment necessary.''

It has therefore now become the urgent duty of all who desire to see the organization of the Church extended, and the number of Sees increased somewhat in proportion to the growth of the population, both to stir up Churchmen in these Dioceses in which the difficulty is most severely felt, and also to invite liberal Offer- ings from the Church at large.

It can scarcely be doubted that the progress of the Church is hindered in many of the larger Dioceses by the want of adequate Episcopal supervision, Avhich is so necessary for the quickening of Her life, and for the systematic development of all religious agencies. It must be remembered, that after all changes, the present number of bishops in England and Wales is the same as it was at the death of Henry VIII., when the population was about one-sixth of its present number.

Without attempting to state how many new Bishoprics are required, it should be borne in mind that Parliament has sanc- tioned the creation of a new See of S. Alban's ; that the Home Secretary has undertaken, so soon as the necessary funds are raised, to bring in a Bill for erecting a Diocese of Cornwall ; and that a large sum of money has also been conditionally promised towards the division of the Diocese of Ripon. Further ; — the Bishops of Lichfield, Lincoln, and Norwich have urged the necessity of their being relieved from a portion of their over- whelming duties; whilst the people of Li^^erpool are putting forward the claims of their important town to be made the seat of a Bishop.

Our immediate duty, therefore, is to secure such an addition to the Episcopate as may be now within reach— (1) by hastening the completion of the Endowinent of the See of S. Alban's ; by (2) supplementing throughout the country the efforts that are being made in the Diocese of Exeter for Endowing a new See for

54} APPENDIX.

Cornwall ; and by (3) furthering any similar local efforts which may be made elsewhere, and which indeed are encouraged by the prospect of the Bill conditionally promised by Her Majesty's Government.

The Committee therefore earnestly appeal for Funds. Contri- butions may either be appropriated to any particular Diocese ; or will, in the absence of any such appropriation, be applied by the Committee as they may think desirable in furtherance of the general objects of the Fund.

Lists of Contributions will from time to time be published.

(Signed)

DEVON, Chairman.

DEVON,

JOHN H. KENNAWAY, . r

A. J. B. BERESFORD-HOPE, > treasurers.

PHILIP CAZENOVE,

N.B. — Contributions may be paid to the account of the " Additional Home Bishoprics Endowment Fund," at the London and Westminster Bank, No. 1, St. James's Square, London, W., or to any of its Branches.

Or to the Eev. Arthur J. Ingram, Hon. Finance Secretary, 7, Whitehall, London, S.W.

>i

APPENDIX. 55

Additional Home Bishopries Endowment Fund.

7, WHITEHALL, LONDOX, S.W.

REPORT UPON INCREASE OF EPISCOPATE.

The Committee of the Additional Home Bishoprics EndoMTnent Fmid having considered the question of the increase of Sees — re- gard being had to the size and population of the existing Dioceses of England and Wales, and the suitableness of new See towns — report as follows: —

In approaching the subject submitted to them, your Committee had first to consider whether they ought to face an increase of an extensive character involving a notable alteration in the existing and long recognised status of the Enghsh Episcopate, or only a moderate addition of Bishops in parts of the country where the Sees were, by reason of area or of the gro^^-th of population, mani- festly too few for the actual condition of the Church, — the new Bishops being, as far as possible, to be placed on the same footing as the existing Bishops. The Committee unanimously resolved to approach the question from the latter point of view. They also decided that in every recommendation which they might make, it was expedient, as far as possible, to have regard to the boundaries of counties.

There will be in England and Wales, when the Sees of St. Albans and Truro are constituted, twenty-nine Dioceses, the area of the country being 37,545,817 acres, and the population (by the census of 1871) 22,857,183. The great differences in size and popula- tion of the present Dioceses need not here be specifically set out.

The Committee are no advocates for pedantic and absolute equality, but they desire as far as possible to redress inequality, so that greater justice may be done to all parts of the country.

No better proof is needed of the variety of considerations which must be borne in mind than the fact that the Diocese which stands lowest in acreage, also stands highest in population.

On the whole your Committee ad\ise the addition of six new Sees to the twenty-nine which will soon exist. Of these, three would belong to the Pro^^nce of York, and three to that of Can- terbury. They also recommend, as will be shown, certain alter- ations in the boundaries of the actual Dioceses.

I. The present Diocese of Durham in the main is composed of the county of Durham, with an area of 647,592 acres, and a popu- lation of 685,089, and of that of Northumberland, with an area of 1,290,312 acres and a population of 386,646. A See for Northum berland is recommended which should include the detached portion of the County of Durham lying in Northumberland. The Cathe-

66 APPENDIX.

dral Commission in its report of 1855 recommended the grand old minster of Hexham to be constituted the Cathedral. Considering however the comparative insignificance of the town of Hexham, the Committee have no hesitation in recommending that the large, growing, and very important county town of Newcastle should be the See town, and its noble Church of St. Nicholas the Cathedral.

II. Yorkshire is at present divided between the See of York — comprising the whole of the East, the North and an important por- tion of the West Eiding, — with an area of 2,261,493 acres, and a population of 1,060,878; and that of Eipon, formed out of the West and a small portion of the North Kiding, with an area of 1,567,793 acres, and a population of 1,357,053. These Sees also extend in a slight degree into neighbouring Counties.

It is recommended to form a new diocese in theWest Riding for the benefit of the wide and populous series of towns and closely inhabited villages engaged in the important trades of that district, the See town to be chosen with reference to local circumstances.

III. Lancashire with 1,207,926 acres, and 2,819,495 inhabitants are (with the exception of a district in the extreme north of Lanca- shire, attached to Carlisle,) mainly divided between the Sees of Man- chester and Chester; the south-western corner of Lancashire which includes Liverpool, as well as all Cheshire, belonging to the latter.

It is proposed to relieve the See of Chester by detaching the Lancashire portion of Chester and constituting a See of Liver- pool. The See and the county of Chester would then be conter- minous. The See of Liverpool might be augmented by a portion of the Diocese of Manchester, including Preston. A further portion of Lancashire might also be added to Carlisle.

This disposes of the Province of York.

IV. The first Diocese calling for consideration in the Province of Canterbury is Lincoln, which is composed of the county of Lincoln with 1,767,962 acres, (being the second in size of the English Counties), and of 436,599 inhabitants, and of that of Nottingham with 526,176 acres, and 319,758 inhabitants;

There can be no doubt as to the necessity of a See of Notting- ham with its See town at Nottingham or Southwell. The former is much the larger place, and has a w^ell-built and handsome Church. Southwell enjoys the ancient prestige of what has been a collegiate church since Saxon days and can point to the exist- ence there of an Episcopal Palace and of buildings suitable for a Chapter. On the whole the Committee recommend that Not- tingham should be made the See town.

The large and populous diocese of Lichfield is next to be con- sidered. It contains 1,740,607 acres, and 1,356,869 inhabitants, and extends over Staffordshire, with 732,434 acres, and 858,326 inhabitants, Derbyshire with 656,243 acres, and 379,394 inhabit- ants, and part of Slu'opshire. The rest of Shropshire and all Herefordshire compose the See of Hereford, with 986,244 acres,

APPENDIX. 57

but only 237,138 inhabitants. Stafifordshire is a county with two groups of large manufacturing towns : the " Potteries " in the North and the " Black Country" in the South. There seems to be little doubt that all Shropshire ought to belong to Hereford. If the population of Nottinghamshire should be considered insufficient, the Parliamentary Division of East Derbyshire might be added to the See of Nottingham. The Diocese of Lich- field would be relieved in Staffordshire by joining a portion of the Black Country (not including Wolverhampton) to Worcester, if, as further on recommended, Warwickshire should be consti- tuted a separate See.

V. The Diocese of Worcester comprises, speaking generally, the counties of Worcester w^th 472,453 acres, and 338,837 in- habitants, and of Warwickshire with 566,458 acres, and 634,189 inhabitants. Accordingly,

A new See for Warwickshire is needed. The choice of See town would lie between Birmingham and Coventry. The former is far the larger place, but it is inconveniently placed on the border of the county, while Coventry (itself a considerable place), besides being more central, has the distinction of being still a " city," of having been for many centuries, and until modern changes, the joint See town with Lichfield of Bishops who were, till the Restoration, Bishops of Coventry and Lichfield, and of still possessing two noble churches, each adequate to become a Cathedral, now that the ancient Cathedral has been destroyed. Coventry is accordingly recommended as the seat of this Bishopric.

Vast as the population of London is, and overwhelming as are its needs, your Committee are at present unable to make any other suggestion except that of confining it to the county of Mid- dlesex, with a view to possible sub-division at some future period.

VI. Provision has been made by a recent Act of Parliament for the Metropolitan Counties, other than Middlesex, by the creation of the See of St. Alban's, and the attribution to Roch- ester 0^ a large portion of Surrey, taken from Winchester and London.

The Committee highly approve of the erection of the See of St. Alban's, for the counties of Hertford and Essex.

As, however, the scheme, of which this is a part, is not yet in operation, it is recommended, in regard to the pressing wants of that important District that the County of Surrey, containing more than a million of inhabitants, should form a See of South- wark, in which case those portions of the Parliamentary division of West Kent, which do not already belong to Rochester, would be attached to that See.

July, 1876.

i7u)^/^/C>76/r^^>r/^ v/^^/c^

. CHURCH

OCIETY

"r THE

THE PRINCIPLES OF CHURCH

H

► N OCTOBER 31, 1876

HUBBARD, M.P.

LONDON ritige

RMINGHAM

■•

1577

»'

Utcraft, afid other tales /

Lucraft, and other tales /

L