Chapter when present, otherwise the Dean will take the chair. His duties will be those of general supervision, and they do not therefore call for particular enumeration. The Precentor will be responsible for the constant choral worship. In a properly-appointed Cathedral he would naturally be assisted by, and have the direction of, the Vicars Choral. I should, however, doubt whether these ought to be members of the Chapter; at least that position might be reserved for the Precentor and the Succentor, of whom the latter might be charged with the special supervision of the Lay Clerks, of whom more hereafter. The choir boys ought of course to be boarders at the Cathedral School, and what that ought to be will be at once understood if described as a good middle school. The other clerical masters in that school could hardly claim to a seat and voice in the Chapter, but they would be attached to the Cathedral by the assignment of stalls. The Treasurer would have modern duties in connection with the finances of Diocesan or Town Societies. Where a Diocesan Theological College existed, its head would be a Canon, and the other tutors also attached to the Cathedral. I now reach an institution, the organisation of which in our various Dioceses would be of great practical benefit, I mean the College of Mission Preachers, intended sometimes to fill the Cathedral pulpit; sometimes to go where they were sent through the Diocese-men who, in connection with their preaching, should be ready and able to discharge the delicate duties of the individual pastorate. This college would have its headquarters close to the Cathedral, which it would regard as its ordinary church for public worship; but it would require an internal organisation of its own, affiliated to the Chapter by its superior, and possibly also, the second in command, being ex-officio Canons. The religious inspector of the public elementary schools of the Diocese must be a Canon, possibly also the secretary of Diocesan Societies. In a large town where wide but often misdirected intellectual activity and much poverty necessarily exists, personal benevolence might well be hallowed and regulated by adding to the Chapter a promoter of workmen's clubs, popular lectures, and so on, as well as material Charities. The development of the corporate life of devotion and charity among women might lead to the creation of a sort of chaplain-general of sisterhoods, who would naturally be one of the Capitular body. There still would remain that class of Canons, to whom we have already referred, who without particular duties were selected honoris causâ, as distinguished representatives of the Diocesan clergy, alike from the towns and the rural districts. On these, as I have said, I should impose short and easy conditions of residence.

I have been, as will be seen, treating up till now of the clerical members of the Cathedral Body; but I attach equal importance to the lay organisations which must cluster round the Mother Church. Foremost among

these must come the College of Lay Clerks. It is, of course, impossible to carry on a Cathedral service without a back-bone of paid choir men, whose time belongs to their employers. But besides these, in the interests of general devotion, a Cathedral which shall really leave its mark on a town of the present age must be largely and cheerfully served by voluntary helpers; while these and the paid clerks must agree to work together as one institution under some reasonable code of statutes. I have suggested that the Succentor, who would in that case be a Canon, might be charged with the care of the Lay Clerks. The Choir School may be made

the pivot of much important work besides the provision of the necessary complement of boys' voices for the services, or of the good education, during their service, of those particular boys. St Paul's, London, has just shown what may be done with the Choir School. In a provincial town I believe that the school might often, and advantageously, take the shape of a middle school, at which all the pupils need not be choristers. If so, and if the place in choir were held up as an honour, and the choristers proper treated as a kind of foundation, a new element of popularity might be introduced into the relations of Church and town. I should also look forward to some provision for helping the most promising scholars on to the university. Some of its sons, of whom the church of England may be most proud, have come from Cathedral schools, and the race is one which may well be encouraged. There are many other lay societies which would naturally grow up under the fostering care of a working Chapter, but I have no time to expatiate upon them.

It will be seen that the ideal Chapter which I have proposed for your consideration in a large town is one which is, to a considerable extent, founded upon a variety of institutions, many of them clerical and possessing a sort of Capitular character of their own, all existing round the Cathedral, and each represented in the Chapter by its leading members. Each would thus retain its freedom of internal action, while all would be brought under the regulating influence of the great central corporation. Still, however many and serviceable these institutions may be, the Cathedral does not exist merely to be their rendezvous. It is the Church of the whole Diocese; and I claim that within its choir every priest of that Diocese may find, whether of right or of graceful concession, a stall ready for his occupation. On great days, of course, when the whole Diocese gathers, this may not be possible; but I am talking of the habitual incidents of ordinary worship. Such a custom as, for instance, that the Dean might invite any incumbent of the Diocese who presented himself before a service to read a lesson, might seem a trifle; but it would be something which would, in a practical and kindly way, show to the clergy at large that they and their Cathedral belonged to each other, of which fact at present the tangible evidence is incomplete. After all, sympathy and co-operation are at the bottom of the Capitular system, and they ought to thrill through it from the altar of the Cathedral to that of the homeliest parish church in the remotest angle of the Diocese.

Let me conclude with a supplementary suggestion. In any Diocese, old or new, where sizeable places exist, in addition to the See town, it would be well worth while to create, by conventional arrangement or otherwise, a Chapter or quasi-Chapter as near as possible upon the lines of that which exists at the Cathedral itself. It would also be very much to the advantage of the working of the Church in those places, if the Diocesan could so arrange his visits as to ensure his spending some continuous portion of time in each such town. Passing visits have their usefulness; but the Episcopate would become a reality as it has not hitherto been, if each considerable place could realise that it was, in fact, the Bishop's town for a given period, and that its principal church was from time to time used by him as his Cathedral.

ADDRESS.

The DEAN OF CHESTER.

A REGRET, which I fully share, has recently been expressed by high authority, that a more competent person than myself has not been selected to occupy this place in the present discussion. That authority was the Guardian newspaper. I find some comfort, however, in the fact that, three years ago, the same newspaper, in reference to the very subject under discussion, had expressed an approval of me so high as almost to amount to a panegyric. Hence, while recognising the justice of the latter criticism, I hope the audience will accept the earlier, and thus listen favourably to my remarks. Our subject is the Organisation of the Episcopate in reference to large towns and in connection with Capitular institutions. We live in an age of great cities. St Paul conducted his missionary work with special regard to great cities. If Christianity was a living and aggressive religion, it must, according to its genius, attack primarily the strong places of the earth. Each very large town ought to have its own Bishop. Each such town was conscious of its importance, and ought to be. It knew that its vigour and prosperity had made it a power in the country. It was just there that a Bishop ought to be placed. Such was the view of the late Dr Arnold. "Every large town," he said, "should necessarily be the seat of a Bishop. The addition of such an element in the society of a commercial or manufacturing place would of itself be a great advantage." Such an arrangement would do much in assuaging party spirit, and in eliciting the sympathies and ascertaining the wishes of the laity. There was another view, too, of the matter, and one closely affecting the interests of the clergy, which was often overlooked. Nothing did so much as efficient Episcopal superintendence for the augmentation of small benefices. It seems to me that the merging of the Episcopal Fund in the Common Fund has been a great mistake. This change has probably involved a loss instead of a gain to the parochial clergy. If funds available for the increase of the Episcopate were now in the hands of the Ecclesiastical Commission, some of our present difficulties might now, perhaps, be easily overcome. As to the practical connecting of a bishopric with each very large town, local considerations must, of course, be taken into account. A question might arise, for instance, in reference to Bradford and Leeds; but if the scheme for a bishopric at Halifax were realised (and I am enough of a Yorkshireman to believe it would be realised), the question would be solved; for both Ripon and Leeds were in the West Riding. So, again, in the South, both Exeter and Plymouth belong to the same county; and we must not suppose that no result will come from those old plans for Cornwall which have hitherto been disappointed. Two cases which seemed to me to admit of no doubt are those of Birmingham and Newcastle. To turn to the district with which I am best acquainted, a residence of sixteen years in Liverpool and eight years in Chester has led me to think most seriously of the necessity of ecclesiastical reorganisation in that part of the world. The county of Chester is more than enough for any one Bishop. No Bishop of Chester could do more than nibble at that mass of half a million of people on the other side of the Mersey, with its noble features of enterprise and generosity on the one hand, and its dark shadows of vice and degradation on the other. Liverpool, too, could never possibly be subordinated in any sense to any other place. I am old enough to remember the time when the Church of England was relatively strong in Liverpool and relatively weak in Manchester. Now the case was exactly reversed, and chiefly because Manchester has a Bishop of its own. I wish to add, that any attempt to settle the matter in such a case by the appointment of a suffragan or coadjutor Bishop is absolutely out of the question. Turning now to Capitular institutions, I find their great defect is, that they are outside, so to speak, of the active life of the dioceses in which they are contained. Nor is this the case in England only. In one of the latest publications of the Abbé

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Michaud, in the section where he pointed out how the power of the laity in France had been obliterated before that of the clergy, the power of the clergy before that of Bishops, and the power of the Bishops before that of the Pope, he remarked, that whereas formerly the Capitular bodies used to temper the episcopal authority, now they were altogether alien from and foreign to the diocesan government. Sometimes Bishops said they had done so and so, after "consulting their reverend brethren, the canons of the diocese;" but that was only a form. It seems to me that in case of the formation of a new diocese, as at St Alban's, a totally new kind of Chapter might be formed, consisting of parochial clergy specially appointed as members of a working diocesan council. I would say nothing about the Dean in such a case. The important thing was to get the Bishop. Nor would I say anything about the Cathedral. The man was more important than the building. All such thoughts I leave in the hands of the previous speaker. The Record had recently said that there was to be an encounter" between Mr Beresford Hope and myself to-day; and I fear there must be some disappointment because the " encounter" has been so friendly, as, indeed, was only likely, since they had been associated together in the same volume of Essays which dealt with Cathedrals in their various aspects. Still these Congresses would be very dull if they revealed no differences of opinion. People did not come to these Congresses in such crowds and from distances so great in order that they might gaze on an unruffled surface of universal agreement. They came to see the meeting of the waters; and if some of the streams there were turbid, and rushed violently down from hills covered with mist, all this supplied fuller opportunities for useful reflection. To sum up what I have to say on the subject before us, I desire to see every large town in England with its own Bishop, identified with its characteristic interests, and all the Capitular institutions of the country organically connected with the active life of the dioceses to which they severally belong.

DISCUSSION.

REV. CANON TRISTRAM.

MB BERESFORD HOPE has said nearly all I wished to say, in the few admirable words he uttered upon making use of cathedral establishments for mission purposes. One of the statutes of the cathedral with which I have the honour of being connected appears to have foreseen the necessity and provided for it, for the canons of Durham are directed at such time as they are not in residence to go about the diocese preaching in the various churches, and especially in those parishes where there is cathedral property. That shows the intentions of the founders of our modern cathedrals that the members of the Capitular bodies should take not only a sympathising but an active part in diocesan work. It has struck me that in such a case as Durham, where we have about £2200 a year devoted to the maintenance of the minor canons, the churches in the diocese would profit better if, whilst we had the precentor and sacristan always resident, part of our funds should be spent (if we had power so to spend them) in the employment of young, vigorous, promising mission preachers, who might be of use in the diocese, and who, so soon as they had proved themselves, could be very suitably placed and provided for in the diocese. Our bishops are in great difficulties owing to the present condition of our cathedrals. So many of our canonries are attached to professorships, so many to archdeaconries; and whatever archidiaconal functions may be, they give full and important employment to their holders; and the number of canons unattached to other duties is at present very small. The Bishop of Carlisle has attached a canonry to the Inspectorship of Diocesan Schools. However, these are really minor matters of detail. The great point is, that all Churchmen ought thoroughly to feel that Chapters are intended

to be part of the working machinery of the diocese; and I do believe that all of us do our best to work in harmony, and turn our hands to the work which the necessities of the times have provided for us, but as to which we are very much crippled by the action of the Ecclesiastical Commission, although we ought to be thankful to them for the immense work they have done in our dioceses. It is, I think, much to be regretted that the power of the Bishop over the Capitular body is not greater, in order to ensure harmonious working.

MR DICKINSON.

I THINK the fact that we are discussing this subject at a Church Congress is a very good augury for the future. There are two points which seem to me to have been in some degree omitted by the preceding speakers. No one, I think, has talked sufficiently of the action of the whole Chapter in the election of a Bishop. It may be perhaps impossible at present to bring the whole city under the government of the Bishop. It may be impossible to have the endowments requisite for the Chapter to do their duty properly; but it seems to me that if you have a Bishop to each large town, and if you have men to do the work of the diocese and of the town, all the necessary institutions will follow in their proper course. There will be a means of gathering the clergy of the town more into a community than they are at present. There will be the possibility of making the clergy of the cathedral useful for various purposes, as the clergy of a cathedral ought to be. All this must be accomplished by careful legislation. Endowments and benefactions are freely given wherever a necessity for them is shown; and I believe the time is not far distant when we shall have a large increase of the Episcopate, and the institutions connected with it. Mention has been made of the lesser and the greater Chapters, following the rules of the cathedrals of the old foundation. It seems to me that one can hardly hope that the members of the lesser Chapter, who will have the care of schools and the education of young men for the ministry, and also of persons who will become schoolmasters, can be kept to their work without something beside episcopal supervision. I look, therefore, to the Diocesan Conference, and the action of the greater Chapter, as a guide and help to them. If you have a person specially endowed to take care of the cathedral seminary for the instruction of young men for holy orders, how can you secure the due performance of his work? You can only do it by closely connecting his duties and emoluments, by arranging that he shall hold his, canonry so long as he does his work. Then, when he is stricken with paralysis, or otherwise incapacitated, he should be enabled to take the rest which is due to a man who has done his work well. By keeping a number of canonries free I believe the thing may be reasonably done, but I cannot see how you can secure that the retirement should take place at the proper time except there is a paramount diocesan authority working with the Bishop. With regard to the endowments, the funds in the hands of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners have been hitherto closely confined to parochial purposes. I agree with Canon Tristram that much good has been done by that Commission, but I think the time has come when those purposes which Mr Beresford Hope has called the "staff" purposes of the Church should be attended to-when what remains of those funds should be applied to the different useful purposes of the Chapter. I mentioned just now the election of the Bishop by the Chapter. Possibly it might be better that it should be done by the Diocesan Conference. I certainly should be sorry if the new Bishops to be appointed were put in by the royal fiat. The shadows and forms of free election which remain are very valuable. The Church continued free for 150 years after Magna Charta; and when new Chapters and Bishoprics are formed, I hope we shall have the restoration of that freedom, in the election of a Bishop by the diocese.