services of a clergyman. It provides for the appointment and support of missionaries within the diocese. It takes measures for the promotion of Sunday-schools and of theological education. It elects trustees of any institution under its control. It chooses delegates to the General Convention; and, finally, it appoints a standing Committee.

Lastly the general convention, the supreme ecclesiastical court, is constituted thus. The upper house consists of all the bishops, of whom the eldest in date of consecration is the president. The lower house is composed of the clerical and lay delegates from each diocese; these are not to exceed four of each order. In certain cases, a majority, not only of suffrages but of dioceses represented, and the concurrence of both orders voting apart in that majority, is necessary in the lower house. The general convention assembles once in three years, in one of the churches of the great towns. The presiding bishop may, at any time, call it together, at the request of a majority of his episcopal brethren. It is almost unnecessary to say that it is totally unconnected with the civil government. Its powers relate entirely to the control of the church it represents, and it exacts nothing beyond the voluntary submission of its own subjects. But it possesses all those powers which cannot be exercised conveniently in the several dioceses. Thus it enacts canons, provides for uniformity through the different dioceses, publishes authorized editions of the Bible and Prayer-book, making alterations in the latter when deemed necessary; and allowing each bishop to compose forms of prayer for his diocese on extraordinary occasions. It defines the duties both of the bishops and the clergy, the offences for which they may be tried, and the nature and extent of the penalty. It lays down the method of proceeding against the laity, and the grounds on which they may be excluded from the holy communion. In short, everything that concerns the wellbeing of the church at home, may be ultimately brought beneath its cognizance and decided by its vote. It regulates the intercourse of the clergy with other churches when abroad, and lastly, it directs the operations of the church in regard to heathen lands. It appoints missionary bishops for the states at home not yet organized, and sends them forth to heathen countries. At its triennial meeting it appoints a board of missions consisting of thirty members, together with the bishops, under whose control

all foreign missionaries are placed, and who occupy the place of our own missionary societies at home and fulfil similar duties.

Such is the constitution of the American Episcopal Church. In doctrine it professes an exact agreement with the Church of England. The thirty-nine articles, with a few verbal alterations required by political circumstances, and in the eighth article by the exclusion of the Athanasian Creed, are adopted as the standards of faith. Various alterations have been made from time to time in the book of common prayer, but in the preface we have the following declaration :-" This church is far from intending to depart from the Church of England in any essential point of doctrine, discipline or worship, or further than local circumstances require." The most important changes and additions are these: a selection of upwards of two hundred hymns is added to the metrical psalms; the commination service is omitted, and of course the forms of prayer for the fifth of November, and other English political festivals and fasts. The Gloria Patri is nct. repeated after each psalm. The minister is allowed sometimes to select appropriate psalms and lessons, and the lessons themselves are sometimes altered and re-arranged. Our religious fastdays are retained, and the first Thursday in November is set apart, with an appropriate service, as a day of thanksgiving for the harvest. In the Apostles' Creed, upon the descent into hell are added these explanatory words, "or he went into the place of departed spirits." These are the most important changes: there are many others which are chiefly verbal. We must not forget to state that the prayer to be used in times of war and tumult, omits the questionable expressions, "abate their pride, assuage their malice, and confound their devices." In the communion service, the prayer of consecration is taken from the first English book of Common Prayer put forth in the reign of Edward VI. (see CHURCH OF ENGLAND), and the eucharist is made an oblation to God: "We now offer unto thee the memorial thy Son hath commanded us to make." In the occasional offices some important changes are introduced. In that for the visitation of the sick the absolution is omitted. In that for baptism, the sign of the cross may be omitted, when parents or sponsors (parents are allowed to stand for sponsors) request it. In the burial service, the expression which affirms that the dead is interred, "in sure and certain hope," is altered

into, "looking for the general resurrection at the last day, and the life of the world to come." And so in the collect of thanksgiving, "we give thee hearty thanks for the good example of all those thy servants who having finished their course in faith do now rest from their labours," instead of our own words, "for that it hath pleased thee to deliver this our brother out of the miseries of this sinful world."

The American Episcopal Church is, like our own, divided into the two parties of high and low church. Sometimes these parties are styled in America evangelical and non-evangelical, but not with accuracy, for not a few of the high churchmen are entirely evangelical in their doctrine and preaching. The extreme Puseyite, or Tractarian, doctrines also find their advocates both among the bishops and the clergy, and are said at this time to be making considerable progress, though rather amongst the ministers of religion than the laity.

The condition of the Episcopal Church in America is certainly at this time full of hope and promise. At the beginning of the present century, the number of her ministers did not exceed two hundred, and she had scarcely begun to recover from her ancient apathy, nor from the shock of the war of independence. It was probably at the lowest point of depression thirty years afterwards. According to the journal of the General Convention, held in New York in October 1832, the clergy numbered five hundred and eighty-three, and the bishops had increased to fifteen. Twelve years later, in 1844, there were twelve hundred and twenty-two clergymen, and two and twenty bishops; the communicants were more than a hundred thousand, and it was calculated, as the nearest approximation, that about one million and a half of the people of the United States belonged to this communion. Between 1817 and 1838, says bishop Wilberforce of Oxford, in his history of the American Church, while the population of the Union little more than doubled, it quadrupled itself. Should its increase continue at this rate, it would in fifty years outnumber the mother-church, and, before the end of a century, would embrace a majority of all the people of the West. She sees among her clergy, not a few men of high distinction for talents, learning, and eloquence; for piety and zeal. She has founded colleges and theological institutions. The episcopal college of New York is well endowed, and generally contains from seventy to eighty students in divinity.

Through the zeal of bishop Chase, Kenyon College was founded, about twenty years since, in the diocese of Ohio. There is a theological school at Alexandria, with which an episcopal education society is connected, which professes to assist young men of parts and piety in preparing for the ministry. A large proportion of the clergy have been assisted by its funds. Still it is somewhat remarkable, that the episcopal clergy of America have made few contributions of importance to theological, or even general literature; occupied in extending its own boundaries, and fulfilling its missionary character, rather than in the labours of patient research and deep reflection, it is content to receive its literature from Europe. At Philadelphia and elsewhere, religious newspapers, written with considerable spirit, have been set on foot. The "Christian Observer" and other English periodicals are reprinted at New York, and much read by the clergy. But except the sermons of bishop Mahon, which were republished in this country, and much admired, rather however for the grace and force of the style than for deep thought, we do not recollect anything that claims the rank of authorship. By an Act passed in 1842 the American clergy may now officiate, for a period not exceeding two Sundays in succession; in our English churches. We have thus obtained the opportunity of listening to some of their ablest preachers, of whom it must certainly be said, that they will bear comparison with the most eloquent and gifted of our own clergy. Their style is different; more elaborate and rhetorical, and wanting in those home thrusts, and strong touches of nature in which our greatest preachers have always delighted, and which so enliven their discourses whether read or heard.

Amidst so much that is cheering, Bishop Wilberforce notes two dark spots which cloud the horizon, and threaten to blight the glowing prospects of the Episcopal Church in America. The first is, that few of the poor belong to it: it is the religion of the affluent and respectable. The churches are remarkable for the comfort of their cushioned pews and carpeted floors; they rather resemble splendid drawing rooms than houses of prayer. In these the poor man could hardly find himself at home. Free churches have been built in New York for the express and exclusive accommodation of the poor; but these have entirely failed, as, indeed, they have generally done at home; and, in the great towns at least, the Episcopal Church belongs exclu

sively to the higher classes. Again, the Episcopalians have, to a great extent, though not without many exceptions, espoused the cause of the white man against the negro. No canon explains it to be contrary to the discipline of their Church to hold property in man, and treat him as a chattel. The coloured race must worship apart they must not enter the white man's church; or, if they do, they must be fenced off into a separate corner. In some cases their dust may not moulder in the same cemetery. The Theological Seminary of New York, though "especially designed to secure a general training for all presbyters," has decided, in opposition to the single protest of bishop Doane, to exclude young men of colour. The clergy of the few black congregations are excluded from the Convention; and a special canon of the diocese of Pennsylvania forbids the representation of the African Church at Philadelphia, and excludes the rector from a seat.

From the seventh census of the United States we learn that, in the year 1850, the total number of Episcopalian Churches in America was 1,420; the aggregate accommodation, 625,000; and the total value of church property 11,261,970 dollars.

ANGLO-CATHOLICS.-No theological controversy of modern

times will bear comparison, for the learning and ability of the disputants engaged, the importance of the issues, the extent to which the conflict spreads, or the deep anxiety it has created in all observers, with that which has been carried on during the last twenty years within the Church of England. We propose to lay before the reader an impartial account, I. Of the origin; II. Of the subject matter; and, III. Of the history, of this great

movement.

I. In the year 1833 the Church of England was supposed by many to be in a state of peril. Ten bishoprics were suppressed in the Irish Church with the consent of both Houses of Parliament. In England the introduction of the great measure for the reform of the House of Commons was attended by a disturbed state of public feeling, which was sometimes directed in open insults against the bishops and the clergy. Dissenters combined, with a heartiness hitherto unknown, to resist the payment of church rates, with the avowed intention, in many places, of