acts which are enumerated, utterly and directly contrary to the known laws and statutes and freedom of this realm, and to have abdicated the government, proceeds to enact as follows:

4.

1. That the pretended power of suspending of laws, or the execution of laws, by regal authority, without consent of parliament, is illegal. 2. That the pretended power of dispensing with laws, or the execution of laws, by regal authority, as it hath been assumed and exercised of late, is illegal. 3. That the commission for creating the late court of commissioners for ecclesiastical causes, and all other commissions and courts of the like nature, are illegal and pernicious. That levying of money for or to the use of the crown, by pretence of prerogative, without grant of parliament, for longer time, or in other manner, than the same is or shall be granted, is illegal. 5. That it is the right of the subjects to petition the king, and all commitments and prosecutions for such petitioning are illegal. 6. That the raising or keeping of a standing army within the kingdom in time of peace, unless it be with consent of parliament, is against law. 7. That the subjects which are Protestants may have arms for their defence, suitable to their condition, and as allowed by law. 8. That election of members of parliament ought to be free. 9. That the freedom of speech, and debates or proceedings in parliament, ought not to be impeached or questioned in any court or place out of parliament. 10. That excessive bail ought not to be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. 11. That jurors ought to be duly empannelled and returned, and jurors which pass upon men in trials for high treason ought to be freeholders. 12. That all grants and promises of fines and forfeitures of particular persons, before conviction, are illegal and void. 13. And that for redress of all grievances, and for the amending, strengthening, and preserving of the laws, parliaments ought to be held frequently."

It is added that the Lords and Commons" do claim, demand, and insist upon all and singular the premises as their undoubted rights and liberties; and that no

declarations, judgments, doings, or pr ceedings, to the prejudice of the peop any of the said premises, ought in a wise to be drawn hereafter into co quence or example."

The act also recognises their Majest William III. and Mary as King Queen of England, France, and Irela and the dominions thereunto belong and declares that the crown and y dignity of the said kingdoms and do nions shall be held by their said maje during their lives, and the life of the vivor of them; that the sole and full ercise of the regal power shall be only and executed by King William, in 2 names of himself and her majesty, darn. their joint lives; and that after the re cease the crown shall descend to the ter of the body of the queen, and, in del. of such issue, to the Princess ALL Denmark and the heirs of her body, failing her issue, to the heirs of the of the king.

The Declaration of Rights is undry stood to have been principally the ar position of Lord (then Mr.) Somers, w was a member of the first and chair of the second of two committees, # whose reports it was founded. The a ginal draft of the Bill of Rights. also the production of his pen. Is latter especially there is very appar a desire to preserve in the new arr ment as much as possible of the prize of the hereditary succession to the cr The legislature, for instance, in str terms expresses its thankfulness that had mercifully preserved King Wi and Queen Mary to reign over

66

upon the throne of their ancestors :". the new settlement is cautiously d~~ nated merely "a limitation of the cr Mr. Burke has, from these express contended (in his Reflections on 'Revolution in France') that the pot of the English people having at the e volution asserted a right to elect th= kings is altogether unfounded. “I nev desire," he adds, in repudiation of in opposite opinion, as held by one class persons professing Whig principles, be thought a better Whig thàn L Somers, or to understand the princ of the Revolution better than those by

whom it was brought about, or to read in the Declaration of Rights any mysteries unknown to those whose penetrating style has engraved in our ordinances and our hearts the words and spirit of that immortal law."

The Declaration and Bill of Rights may be compared with the Petition of Right which was presented by Parliament to Charles I. in 1628, and passed by him into a law. [PETITION OF RIGHT.]

BILL OF SALE, a deed or writing under seal, evidencing the sale of personal property. In general the transfer of possession is the best evidence of change of ownership, but cases frequently occur in which it is necessary or desirable that the change of property should be attested by a formal instrument of transfer; and in all cases in which it is not intended that the sale shall be followed by delivery, such a solemnity is essential to the legal efficacy of the agreement. The occasions to which these instruments are commonly made applicable are sales of fixtures and furniture in a house, of the stock of a shop, of the good-will of a business (which of course is intransferable by delivery), of an office, or the like. But their most important use is in the transfer of property in ships, which being held in shares, cannot, in general, be delivered over on each change of part ownership. It seems to have been from ancient times the practice, as well in this country as in other commercial states, to attest the sale | of ships by a written document; and at the present day a bill of sale is, by the registry acts, rendered necessary to the validity of all transfers of shares in Briish ships, whether by way of sale or of mortgage.

BILL OF SIGHT is an imperfect entry of goods at the custom-house when the importer is not precisely acquainted with their nature or quantity. A Bill of Sight must be replaced by a perfect entry within three days after the goods are anded. (3 & 4 Wm. IV., c. 52, § 24.) BILL OF STORE, a licence granted by the collectors and comptrollers of customs to ship stores and provisions free of duty for consumption and use during the voyage. (3 & 4 Vict. c. 52, § 33 and

34.)

BILLON, in coinage, is a composition of precious and base metal, consisting of gold or silver alloyed with copper, in the mixture of which the copper predominates. The word came to us from the French. Some have thought the Latin bulla was its origin, but others have deduced it from vilis. The Spaniards still call billon coin Moneda de Vellon.

re

BILLS OF MORTALITY are turns of the deaths which occur within a particular district, specifying the numbers that died of each different disease, and showing, in decennial or shorter periods, the ages at which death took place. The London Bills of Mortality were commenced in 1592, after a great plague. The weekly bills were begun in 1603, after another visitation of still greater severity. In London, a parish is said to be within the Bills of Mortality when the deaths occurring within it are supposed to be carried to account by the company of parish clerks. In 1605 the London Bills of Mortality comprised the ninety-seven parishes within the walls, sixteen parishes without the walls, and six contiguous out-parishes in Middlesex and Surrey. In 1626 Westminster was included; and in 1636 Islington, Lambeth, Stepney, Newington, and Rotherhithe. Other additions were made from time to time. The parishes of Marylebone, St. Pancras, Chelsea, and several others, which have become important parts of the metropolis within a recent period, were never included. At present the parishes supposed to be included in the Bills of Mortality comprise the City of London, the City and Liberties of Westminster, the Borough of Southwark, and thirty-four out-parishes in Middlesex and Surrey, the whole containing a population of about 1,350,000.

The manner of procuring returns of the number of deaths and causes of death, as described by Grant, in his ‘Observations on the Bills of Mortality, published in 1662, was as follows:-"When any one dies, then, either by tolling or ringing of a bell, or by bespeaking of a grave of the sexton, the same is known to the searchers corresponding with the said sexton. The searchers hereupon, who are ancient matrons sworn to their office, repair to the

to inter the body, and the minister officiating is liable to a penalty. The RegistrarGeneral's Bill is now the only true bill; and why the old one should still be published, is only to be accounted for on the supposition that it is obligatory on the parish clerks by the terms of their [REGISTRATION OF BIRTHS,

charter.

&c.]

BISHOP, the name of that superior order of pastors or ministers in the Christian Church who exercise superintendency over the ordinary pastors within a certain district, called their see or diocese, and to whom also belongs the performance of those higher duties of Christian pastors, ordination, consecration (or dedication to religious purposes) of persons or places, and finally excom

munication.

The word itself is corrupted Greek. EriokоTOS (episcopos) became episcopus when the Latins adopted it. They introduced it among the Saxons, with whom, by losing something both at the beginning and the end, it became piscop, or, as written in Anglo-Saxon characters, Birceop. This is the modern bishop, in which it is probable that the change in the orthography (though small) is greater than in the pronunciation. Other modern languages retain in like manner the Greek term slightly modified according to the peculiar genius of each, as the Italian, vescovo; Spanish, obispo; and French, évêque; as well as the German, bischof; Dutch, bisschop; and Swedish, biskop.

The word episcopus literally signifies "an inspector or superintendent," and the etymological sense expresses even now much of the actual sense of the word. The peculiar character of the bishop's office might be expressed in one word-superintendency. The bishop is the overseer, overlooker, superintendent in the Christian Church, and an exalted station is allotted to him corresponding to the important duties which belong to his office. It was not, however, a term which was invented purposely to describe the new officer which Christianity introduced into the social system. The term existed before, both among the Greeks and Latins, to designate certain civil of

It has long been a great question in the Christian Church what kind of superintendency it was that originally belonged to the bishop. This question, as to whether it was originally a superintendency of pastors or of people, may be briefly stated thus:-Those who maintain that it was a superintendency of pastors challenge for bishops that they are an order of ministers in the Christian Church distinct from the order of presbyters, and standing in the same high relation to them that the apostles did to the ordinary ministers in the church; that, in short, they are the successors and representatives of the apostles, and receive at their consecration certain spiritual graces by devolution and transmission from them, which belong not to the common presbyters. This is the view taken of the original institution and character of the bishop in the Roman Catholic Church, in the English Protestant Church, and, we believe, in all churches which are framed on an episcopal constitution. Episcopacy is thus regarded as of divine institution, inasmuch as it is the appointment of Jesus Christ and the apostles, acting in affairs of the church under a divine direction. There are, on the other hand, many persons who contend that the superintendency of the bishop was originally in no respect different from the superintendency exercised by presbyters as pastors of particular churches. They maintain that, if the question is referred to Scripture, we there find that bishop and presbyter are used indifferently to indicate the same persons or class of persons; and that there is no trace in the Scriptures of two distinct orders of pastors; and that if the reference is made to Christian antiquity, we find no trace of such a distinction till about two hundred years after the time of the apostles. The account which they give of the rise of the distinction which afterwards existed between bishops and mere presbyters is briefly this::

When in the ecclesiastical writers of the first three centuries we read of the

bishops, as of Antioch, Ephesus, Carthage, Rome, and the like, we are to understand the presbyters who were the pastors of the Christian churches in those cities. While the Christians were few in each city, one pastor would be sufficient to discharge every pastoral duty among them; but when the number increased, or when the pastor became enfeebled, assistance would be required by him, and thus other presbyters would be introduced into the city and church of the pastor, forming a kind of council around him. Again, to account for the origin of dioceses or rural districts which were under the superintendency of the pastors, it was argued that it was the cities which first received Christianity, and that the people in the country places remained for the most part heathens or pagans (so called from pagus, a country village) after the cities were Christianized; but that nevertheless efforts were constantly being made to introduce Christian truth into the villages around the chief cities, and that, whenever favourable opportunities were presented, the chief pastor of the city encouraged the erection of a church, and appointed some presbyter either to reside constantly in or near to it, or to visit it when his services were required, though still residing in the city, and there assisting the chief pastor in his ministrations. The extent of country which thus formed a diocese of the chief pastor would depend, it is supposed on the civil distributions of the period; that is, the dioceses of the bishops of Smyrna, or any other ancient city, would be the country of which the inhabitants were accustomed to look to the city for the administration of justice, or in general to regard it as the seat of that temporal authority to which they were immediately subject.

All this is represented as having gone on without any infringement on the rights of the chief pastor, of whoin there was a regular series. Lists of them are preserved in many of the more ancient churches, ascending, on what may be regarded sufficient historical testimony, and with few breaks in the continuity, ven into the second and first centuries.

shops are, however, found in churches

for which this high antiquity cannot be claimed. In these cases they are sup posed to be either in countries which did not fully receive Christianity in the very earliest times, or that the bishops or chief pastors delegated a portion of that saperior authority which they possessed over the other presbyters to the presbyter settled in one of the churches which was originally subordinate. This is supposed to have been the origin of the distinction among the chief pastors of bishops and archbishops, there being still a slight reservation of superintendency and arthority in the original over the new.z created chief pastors.

If this view of the origin of the episcopal character and office be correct, it wi. follow that originally there was no esser tial difference between the bishop an. the presbyter, and also that the cutes which belong to the pastor of a Christia congregation were performed by the bishop. But when the increase of the number of Christians rendered assistant necessary, and this became a permane: institution, then the chief pastor wOGLA divest himself of those simpler and easer duties, which occasioned nevertheless a great consumption of time, as a matter at once of choice and of necessity. Hitz to think and to consult for other cos gations beside that which was peen ar his own, and to attend generally i schemes for the protection or exte. of Christianity, he would have little remaining for catechizing, prea az baptizing, or other ordinary duties; zut especially when it was added that h· La to attend councils, and even was es to assist and advise the temporal gr ors in the civil and ordinary atas state. When Christianity, instea. being persecuted, was countenanced 24 encouraged by the temporal author.tm it was soon perceived that the bisad would be a very important auxiliary t the temporal authorities; while in ins when few besides ecclesiastical pers had any share of learning, or what we call mental cultivation, it is man that the high offices of state, for the p formance of the duties of which mes discernment and much information were required, must necessarily be filled by

A