cision "

view I beg your indulgence of one or two remarks upon Mr. Austen's letter of Feb. 8th. To remove the weight of my argument against his position, the rev. gentleman gives a new version of two of the cases, and denies the support of some of the authorities I had quoted. That Mr. Austen designated the Jodrell decision an "entirely new thing," and challenged the production of a case decided on similar principles, cannot be denied. Not one only, but several such were produced, and left by Mr. A. undisputed. Surely then, after my friendly challenge at the close of my first letter, I had a right to assume that he was convinced of his error in supposing the Judrell dea new thing." Mr. Austen now, however, connects the "new thing" with personal ability, and says, "This rating in respect of personal ability, Mr. Metcalf requires me to confess that I had very ignorantly considered to be a "new thing." In proof of my ignorance he has referred, first, to Nolan; second, to various decisions; and third, to sundry persons who have written on the subject. The decision was, allowance is not to be made for interest of capital. Nolan says the contrary (225). The passage quoted by Mr. A. is in p. 226, but if he had looked into page 222, he would have found Nolan laying down, when interest is, and when it is not, to be allowed:"A trader may subtract the interest of borrowed capital-Yet he cannot allow interest for his own." In his remark on Rex Brown, Mr. Austen is most unfortunate. He says, "The dairymen were thus declared rateable only in respect of the cows, and not in respect of their profits or personal ability." Now the case, as reported, states that the dairymen were not rated at all, because the profits on the cows had been rated in the hands of the farmer. And Lord Ellenborough said, "The principle is, that what has once paid, shall not be made to pay again."

The only other case commented upon by Mr. A. is " Rex v. Oxford Canal Company." He says, "In this case, Chief Justice Abbott said, This canal is rateable on the principle of being so much land covered with water. Thus the principle of rating the company in respect of the profits of their business, or their personal ability, was altogether rejected." Very true. But why were the profits of the company not allowed to remain in the rate? The Chief Justice himself assigned the reason; because, " IN THIS PARISH, land is rated according to the rent" only, and not upon the full profits of the farms. Whether Mr. Austen has used fairly my references to Lord Hale, Mr. Cary, and Sir F. Eden, I leave to others. They were adduced to support the justice of rating personal property, and not to expose the ignorance of the rev. gentleman, as he is pleased to assume.

Mr. Austen says, "It was not the equity but the practice that I denied." And, "In regard to Mr. Lefevre's proposed bill, I never commended that." Upon these two assertions I shall offer no comment, but refer your readers to the following passages in Mr. A.'s first letter upon the subject, in your September number:-" It appears to me that the tithe owners (the clergy, I might say) are rather hasty and unguarded in complaining of Mr. Shaw Lefevre's bill."..." I think it a very important consideration for the clergy, whether or not their com

plaints and demands are just and reasonable." "The bill was doubtless introduced to set aside the decision of the King's Bench, in the case of Rex v. Jodrell, and it would have been more honest if that purpose had been openly avowed; but of the bill itself, as affecting the rating of tithes, the clergy have no cause to complain." I have now only to close the correspondence by offering you my warmest thanks for your indulgence, and remain, dear Sir, yours very faithfully, WM. METCALF.

Rectory House, Foulmire.

PASTORAL AID SOCIETY.

MY DEAR SIR,-I have read the letters in the last Number of the "British Magazine" on the subject of "Church Societies" with a mind predisposed to rejoice in any observations calculated to enforce the Christian duties of unity and order and obedience.

The letter signed "W." enters the most fully, and to my mind very satisfactorily, into the question-"What constitutes a Church Society?" but proves the writer of it to be wholly unacquainted with the pretensions, objects, and constitution of the Church Pastoral Aid Society; his misrepresentation of which is the cause of my now addressing you.

I entirely concur in what your correspondent says on the main subject of his letter, and earnestly hope that what he has written may do much good; and admit that the instance cited of the formation of a regular Church Society by the Scottish Episcopal Church is an instance of holy, admirable, and beautiful order. I agree likewise with him, that none perhaps of the great Religious Societies now existing in England, and am rejoiced that he should say so, can be denominated church societies, in the sense in which that society to which he refers, as established at Edinburgh, must be; because they were not instituted in that formal and solemn manner, under a general synod of the church, nor authoritatively declared to be annexed to it; and because some of the largest of them have not been regulated, and cannot be regulated, as that society, in consequence of its superior organization, is likely to be. In the fullest manner do these observations apply to the Venerable Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, which was first instituted by the voluntary association of individuals, and certainly could not at its commencement have been constituted a church society, by the mere fact that the persons who formed it conceived that it would forward the designs of the church; neither was there any particular time afterwards in the history of this great society in which any act was done that changed the character of it; for though as a voluntary society it has done much good, and has been dignified by the presence and support of the hierarchy, none can say that it has been, or now is, governed and directed by those to whom it belongs to govern and direct all church affairs.

I agree, likewise, that if the venerable society in question is hence

forth to be constituted a church society in the fullest sense, those who have the chief authority and power of control in the church must have the like in it, its present organization must needs be changed, and a new committee under the bishops be formed, that order and submission may be maintained, and that neither the inferior clergy nor laymen should any longer be upon an equality in it with the highest ecclesiastical authority.

Agreeing then that none of the great societies, however useful, can properly be called church societies, for the reasons given by your correspondent, I can have no difficulty in acceding to what he would affirm, namely, that the Church Pastoral Aid Society cannot properly be so called. But this is no reason why he should misrepresent it; and my object in writing to you at present is to say that he does so; and I rely the more confidently on your kindness for the insertion of my letter in your next Number, from my conviction that misrepresentation is a fault of all others against which you most object. The chief notice which your correspondent takes of the Church Pastoral Aid Society is, by comparing it to a Naval Aid Society, which he constitutes in a most ridiculous form, with a view to expose to derision a society of whose constitution, object, and spirit, he shews himself to be entirely ignorant.

To use, however, his own similitude, let us suppose this country to be in the extremest danger from its most malignant and powerful foe, and that when its fleets were being sent to sea, the admirals, and captains, and crews, though valiant and ready to fight for their country to the last gasp, were altogether defective as to their complement of men, from want of money to pay their wages, and unsupplied with provisions and ammunition, and in many respects in a state of lamentable destitution, having nothing but their ships perfect, so that there could be no hope whatever of their accomplishing the service to which they were assigned. Suppose the government, somehow or other, were unable to supply the ships, or very many of them, with what was essential to their action, and that a body of men, awakened by the urgency of their danger, and with a love of their country and of their brave defenders in their hearts, gathered themselves into a fellowship together, and were determined not "to fit out a company of coal-brigs to accompany the fleets," but to send to the Queen's own ships just what the commanders of those ships applied for and said they wanted. If this body of men, contributing of their own substance, were to appeal to their countrymen, and gather ammunition for these ships, and wages for their men, and were to send them to the commanders at their own cost, to serve them and their country; and if they were to say, "Take our gifts, and take our blessing, and this is all we ask; we have no 'rules nor regulations' to give you as to your use of the food we send, or of the men we pay; we should be ashamed of all interference of that sort. Your own country's rules are the only rules to you; use our ready gifts according to the laws of your own service and the commands of your rulers. We have nothing to say but that we love our country and its brave defenders, and that we desire to supply your necessities,

and herewith we do supply them with thankfulness to the Giver of all good who enables us so to do;" who would not say that a voluntary society, honestly acting in such a way, deserved its country's praise, and the love of all true patriots? I am sure it would receive both, from all who could estimate a sincere and welldirected zeal, and would be censured only by persons who, like your correspondent, misunderstand what they condemn, or by those who, because they could hardly conceive of disinterested efforts, would suspect mischief in all who stirred themselves with activity. If the Church Pastoral Aid Society, instead of sending help to the clergy, were to set up little separate chapels in every district where the ordained ministers could not do their work, (and I maintain your correspondent intimates that they do this, which they do not,) they would then be like a "Naval Aid Society," that should send out its coalbrigs to sail with the Queen's fleet. But if they do no such thing-if they have no rules nor regulations at all to send with their supplies— if they only give to an exhausted incumbent what he wants to do his work, not theirs, and tell him that they only wish him freely to accept the aid for which he has applied, and use it according to his own rules and obligations, and his own principles as a churchman, I must say that they deserve the support of the wealthy, which they increasingly receive, and the praise of the good, and of all those who are lovers of order and of the church, as the church of Jesus Christ, which he has established for the salvation of mankind, and the glory of his own great name therein.

The Church Pastoral Aid Society consists of persons who love the church for His sake who died for it, and who long for the salvation and edification of all men through the church's ministration; and they have given grants to ministers freely, and are pledged now to the payment of £14,000 a year, in aid of 165 incumbents, whereby their strength for ministering to more than 1,200,000 persons has been nearly doubled. They have saved clergymen from the pain of relinquishing their cures altogether, under inability to proceed with them. any longer. They have been the means of leading persons to build churches, under the promise of support for the ministers of them. They have, likewise, led to the formation of the Additional Curates Society, and circulated information concerning the spiritual destitution. of the country which has helped to awaken the zeal of very many; and under these circumstances, as a person who took a very leading part in the formation of the Church Pastoral Aid Society, I feel myself injured by such a misrepresentation of its spirit and its constitution as that which is given by your correspondent.

The Church Pastoral Aid Society has done, I am sure, great service to the church, in the information that it has spread abroad, in the example that it has set, in the aid that it has administered, and in the spirit in which it has been conducted. It does not call itself a church society in any other sense than in that of its being an association of individuals sincerely endeavouring to advance the best interests of the church, by aiding it to carry out its own system. And if such endeavours are not received with affection and respect by all, they

who use them will confer substantial benefits on many, even whilst they endure the common lot of those who have endeavoured to serve God in every age, namely, that of being despised by many, and greatly beloved by some, and made of God to prosper. I wish your correspondent and others of the same mind would deeply reflect upon the text of Dr. Hook, in his late Visitation Sermon-"Sirs, ye are brethren; why do ye wrong one to another?" and I would gladly extract the last page of that Sermon, as an appeal for union, which is adapted to address itself to the hearts of all churchmen, and certainly reaches mine, were it not that I should fear lest the length of my letter should then, if already it may not have incurred that sentence, render it inadmissible. I remain, my dear Sir, with great respect, your very faithful servant, T. S.

London, March 14th, 1839.

ON THE MARRIAGE LAWS.

DEAR SIR,-Too wide publicity cannot perhaps be given to the following particulars respecting the Marriage Laws, which do not seem to be generally known, or at all events to be uniformly acted upon.

By the seventh clause of 4 Geo. IV. c. 76, we read, "It is provided and hereby enacted, that no parson, vicar, minister, or curate shall be obliged to publish the banns of matrimony between any persons whatsoever, unless the persons to be married shall seven days at the least before the time required for the first publication of such banns respectively deliver, or cause to be delivered, to such parson, vicar, minister, or curate, a notice in writing, dated on the day on which the same shall be so delivered, of their true Christian names and surnames, and of the house or houses of their respective abodes within such parish or chapelry as aforesaid, and of the time they have dwelt or lodged in such house or houses respectively."

It surely must be that this enactment (still in force) is unknown, that the residence of the parties in any parish previous to the publication of their banns should ever be, as it often is, dispensed with, to the great discredit of those who do so, whether carelessness to inquire into the matter, or contempt for the law is the cause.

The 6th and 7th Gulielmi IV., c. 85, (clause 4.) even requires a similar qualification of seven days' residence before the entry of any couple proposing to be married can be made in the registrar's notice book. Seven days' residence is there stated to be the "least" the law allows. And as a proof of the importance of this regulation, it is further required, that if either party shall have dwelt in the place stated in the notice book during more than one calendar month, it may be scandal therein that he or she hath dwelt one month and upwards.

Surely, then, it is to be considered most reprehensible to publish the banns of any couple, one or both of whom are declared at the time too in the church to be resident in some part of the parish, when neither perhaps have been ascertained to belong to it at all, much less for the time specified by the law, "a full week."