between England and Scotland, by which it was enacted that whenever an Union should take place between Great Britain and Ireland, that Article should be inserted in it. The Act of Union merely relates to the statute law, viz. the Acts of Uniformity and any old common law then in force, the common law being the same in both countries. The words are, That the Churches of England and Ireland, as now by law established, be united,' &c. This shows, that so far as the Act goes it contemplates them as being the same; and that the doctrine, discipline, and government of the said United Church shall be, and remain in full force for ever, as the same are now by law established in England, (these are the words of the Act of Union between England and Scotland) - as now by law established in England. The statute law does not acknowledge the Canons as law, and, therefore, the above words, 'by law,' do not refer to the Canons in either country. They stand in each precisely on the same foundation they did before, viz., the Convocation and the Royal Assent.

"The royal declaration prefixed to the Articles is not law, in either country, and never was even issued in this country, as I proved to my friend, Archbishop Magee, to his very unwilling conviction. I doubted with regard to admitting it into the last two editions, but was guided by superior authority, which I consulted.

"I had, however, no objection at all to its contents. It was not printed with our Articles in our Prayer Book, until within the last 50, or 60 years. The Articles made no part of our Prayer Book as passed by Convocation. They are, however, adopted by our first Canon, and in

some respects, by our Act of Uniformity, 17 & 18 Charles II. Our rules here for assent to the Articles differ very much from those in force in England. The difference is correctly explained by my Archdeacon in a paper in the Irish Ecclesiastical Journal in one of the latter months.

"Yours very sincerely,

"EDWARD MEATH."

"My dear Sir,

"The MS. copy of the Book of Common Prayer, preserved in the Rolls Office of Ireland, and which is the only copy of the Book of Common Prayer now extant, is a folio volume containing 566 pages, and bound in rough calf. The MS. appears to have been written by several persons; a change in the Office for Ordering of Deacons. The writing is very legible, but coarsely and carelessly executed. The spelling is not uniform, but in general more antiquated than that of the Prayer Book printed in London, in 1662. The irregu

writing appears first in the

larities in spelling are such as can only be accounted for by supposing that the MS. was written from dictation, and that the scribe was wavering between his old habits and the orthography then lately introduced. The spelling has been corrected, and, it would seem, at two different periods. The first correction, if we may judge from the colour of the ink, was made immediately after the MS. was written. All the corrections are made in the most clumsy manner:

thus when, according to the old fashion, the letter 't' was doubled at the end of such words as att, butt, &c., the corrector, instead of erasing the last letter, blotted out both, and then endeavoured to write a 't' in the blotted space if he did not succeed in the attempt, he interlined the letter.

Attempts must have been made at much later periods, to correct the punctuation, as the ink is in some places very fresh. It is very difficult to ascertain what was the original punctuation, often impossible: one thing, however, is certain, that stops were sparingly used, and it would seem more judiciously than by the corrector, if we except the musical pauses in the middle of the verses of the Psalms.

"The Services in the MS. are arranged to the end of the Commination Service in the same order, that they now appear in the common editions of the Prayer Book; but then follows the Form and Manner of Making, Ordaining and Consecrating of Bishops, Priests and Deacons : then the Forms of Prayer to be used at Sea, and lastly the Psalter or Psalms of David. The Occasional Services are wanting. The MS. is not, however, complete at the commencement : it wants the title-page, the Preface, and the explanation of Ceremonies. The first page is blank, and on the obverse the MS. commences with The Order how the Psalter is to

"It is to be regretted that Archbishop Magee has written some remarks in the MS. which now actually form part of the record. He also has written at length the numbers of the pages, but has commenced with the first written page, instead of with the first page which has been left blank, so that the real numbering of the pages is

be read, and proceeds regularly to the end of the Table of the Vigils, after which there are two blank pages before the Morning Prayer commences. That the MS. is incomplete appears evidently from the page on which is the Table of Vigils, for at the bottom is the catchword 'Days,' so that there must have been an intention of giving 'Days of Fasting or Abstinence', which immediately follow in the English Prayer Book. The Table of the Moveable Feasts, the Table to find Easter for ever, and the Rubrics determining the place for Divine Service, and the ornaments to be in use, do not appear.

"As this MS. is now a separate volume, not attached to the Irish Act of Uniformity, the authority which it possesses has been questioned. There cannot, however, be any reasonable doubt that it is the identical MS. which was attached, not to the Irish Act of Uniformity, where it never could have been, but to the Transmiss of the Act of Uniformity. It appears from the account of the proceedings of the Upper House of the Irish Convocation, in 1662, a copy of which (formerly belonging to Archbishop King) is deposited now in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin, that both Houses of Convocation took into consideration the Book of Common Prayer, then lately published in London, and gave their approbation of the changes made in it: and on the 11th November, 1662, the proceedings of the Upper House are thus recorded: 'Dicti Reverendissimi et Reverendi Patres non solum fidelem hujus Ecclesiæ populum ipsis commissum fidei et mutuæ charitatis nexu cum Ecclesia Anglicana in unitate Spiritus constructum, sed etiam in Divinis celebrandis ac exterioribus ritibus et cere

moniis quantum in ipsis est, conformem reddere et in perpetuum continere desiderantes perlegi et recitari fecerunt Liturgiam Anglicanam nuper juris robore ibi firmatam et Londini editam, qua perlecta et multo desuper habito inter se colloquio nonnullæ in eadem commutationes, additiones. aliusmodique varietates repertæ sunt, quas tanquam summa prudentia et pietate mediantibus introductas et factas indicarunt dicti Revsimi et Revdi Patres (sicuti prius sese ita existimasse ipsis significarunt Prolocutor cæteraque inferioris domus convocationis membra) ac propterea eandem in totius Ecclesiæ Hibernicæ usum in Divinorum celebratione admittendam, legitima stabilitate firmandam ac huic Ecclesiæ juris auctoritate suffragante injungendam: in quem finem ev unanimi dictorum Patrum consensu, et ad petitionem inferioris domus convocationis, decretum est humiliter rogandum fere Reverendissimum in Christo patrem Johannem Archiepiscopum Armachanum, totius Hiberniæ Primatem et Metropolitanum hujusce Synodi præsidem, ut idageret (quomodo summa prudentia sua sibi suggesserit) cum Illustrissimo Domino Domino Jacobo Duce Ormondiæ hujus regni domino locumtenente Generali, qui semper vitali hilaritatis oleo hanc alit Ecclesiam eique semper porrigit utrasque manus suas adjutrices, cæterisque regiis consiliariis, ut transmittatur ad Regiam Majestatem exemplar Actus Parliamenti ea exparte, eique interseratur officium novum pro festo vicesimi tertii diei Octobris anniversaria solemnitate celebrando, necnon formula precandi pro Generale Gubernatore vel Gubernatoribus hujus regni pro tempore existentibus, vel extituris per dictum Reverendissimum Præsidem