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you who maintain that your own desire is to purge the Church from all unscriptural doctrine-you refuse to permit an appeal to that very Scripture; by your own showing, therefore, the Church, as you would limit it, cannot bear the scriptural test." Thus Archbishop Sumner, by this clever manœuvre, is made to appear as the impugner of Scripture and the opponent of the sixth article, while Archdeacon Denison stands forth as the supporter of the one and the defender of the other.

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We must, however, clear away a little of this mist. The question in dispute is not whether the Denison doctrine is conformable to Scripture or not, but whether it be conformable to the Articles of the Church. The Archdeacon has sworn to receive those Articles as conveying and interpreting the sense of Scripture; by that oath he is qualified to retain his present preferments. If he now be proved to have violated his ordination engagements, and to teach doctrines contrary to those Articles, then, be he right or be he wrong, he is no longer qualified to be a minister and dignitary of the Church. It is not the Church of England which is put upon her trial, as Mr. Denison would adroitly represent, but the Archdeacon of Taunton; and even if he could prove to the satisfaction of all sound thinkers, that every sermon of his was supported by most certain warrant of Holy Scripture,"-yet if, at the same time, the Rev. Joseph Ditcher would show that such sermons were opposed to the teaching of the Articles-then the Archdeacon's deprivation would follow as a perfectly legitimate consequence, even though its results proved the necessity of a new Reformation. We must not by these remarks be understood as expressing any objection, in the abstract, to testing a doctrine by Scripture, still less of agreeing to the scripturality of the doctrines in question; but simply of pointing out what the real question at issue is, and preventing a very skilful stratagem from substituting for it another and a widely different one. Nobody knows better than the Archdeacon that the test to which he wishes to refer the disputed point is, the Bible as interpreted by himself in lieu of the Bible as interpreted by the Articles. No one knows better than he does that there never was yet a doctrine proposed for acceptance among professing Christians so absurd, but that it was contended in its favour that it might be proved from Scripture; and hence arises the necessity that an organised and visible church should have some standard of interpretation. These are propositions which Archdeacon Denison would be the

last man to deny, and they, if carried out to their legitimate consequences, entirely overthrow his appeal to Scripture.

There is another point to which it will be well that we should call attention," pendente lite." If the Archbishop's sentence should take effect, a large, a very large, number of clergymen, whose doctrines, as we candidly admit, we hold to be extremely erroneous, will either be ejected or will retire from the ministry of the Church. After making allowance for those who will take the vicar of Bray for their model, and recant openly or silently as the case may be, for those who will never be called in question at all, and for those who will, according to an early tradition of tractarian theology, hold the Articles, or indeed anything else in a non-natural sense after making large allowance for all these, there will remain some hundreds of zealous and upright men who will, in all probability, leave the ministry of the Church. Whispers of a "Free Church of England" are already vaguely circulating; and should such an idea take root and be carried into effect, the question would soon arise, would the "Free Church" be Catholic or Popish? Would it take in Maurice, Gorham, and Denison, Sir Culling Eardley and Baptist Noel? or would it take only that peculiar section to which the Archdeacon himself belongs? In the former case it might be the means of bringing about results of an encouraging character; in the latter case it would expire. We have thrown out these points for serious consideration, at what, we believe, may be a most momentous crisis in our Church's history. At the same time we are by no means satisfied that the sentence which must now be pronounced will stand. It will certainly be appealed against, and may not impossibly be reversed. In this case we shall have another series of evils. The authority of the Archbishop in the Church will become nil, and his personal influence be almost entirely destroyed. The Romanizing party will claim a great and signal victory, and a large defection will very likely take place from the evangelical ranks. The effects in this case would, perhaps, be worse than in the former. The Church would lose men in whom the laity have great confidence, and whom she could ill spare at the present juncture; Tractarianism would obtain a marked and, we may be sure, a well-improved advantage; and should a " Free Church" be established by evangelical seceders, we may be equally sure that it will be constructed on as narrow a basis as possible. Whatever turn events may take, our Church has reached a crisis in her history, and it is manifestly the duty of all who

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love her to take their places boldly, to speak out earnestly, and, above all, to pray that the great Head of the Church may guide her safely through the perils which environ her.

SALE OF POISONS.

MUCH has been recently written and said about the loose way in which poisonous drugs are permitted to be sold, and the carelessness of chemists and druggists as to the persons whom they allow to make up prescriptions. It is scarcely possible now to take up a paper without finding some new case of death through poison, either improperly sold, or else taken or administered by mistake. In consequence of these lamentable events some regulations have been made as to the sale of arsenic; and probably no druggist would venture to sell strychnine, or antimony, without knowing to whom, and for what purpose he was vending it. But when it is considered that there are hundreds of poisons-and, in fact, that all medicine is poison, it will become clear that no means short of shutting up every druggist's shop in the country would be sufficient to prevent all sale of poisons. All the mineral acids in small doses; all the vegetable acids in rather larger ones; all preparations of arsenic, antimony, copper, lead, and mercury, are capable of destroying life; and many of these, if not all, are in constant use in the arts and manufactures. Here occurs a real difficulty. The substances commonly used as poisons, may be permitted only to be sold under certain restrictions; and those who require them for legitimate purposes, will know how to obtain what they want. Some regulation may be made as to the persons deemed qualified to make up medicines, and thus many such errors as substituting "black drop" for "black draught," oxalic acid for Epsom salts, arsenic for mercury, may be prevented; still mistakes will sometimes occur, and no care can altogether prevent them. This is, however, no reason why every care should not be taken to make them as few and as unimportant as possible; and we would recommend that chemists should all undergo an examination, that they should be regularly licensed, and that no one without a license should be permitted to sell those articles, which, however necessary to art, science, and manufacture, may yet be employed to destroy life. Such a measure would operate beneficially in more ways than one: it would secure well-qualified persons as chemists, and thereby lessen the chances of mistakes, by the very fact that the individuals

in question were so qualified, and it would render them extremely careful, because in case of death happening, or any frightful accident occurring through their negligence, there would be but small probability of their license being renewed.

THE SOCIETY FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF VICE.

THIS Society, one whose usefulness none can dispute, has been recently involved in some difficulties. Its officers had made one of their periodical razzias into Holywell-street, and similar abodes of abomination, and had carried off a large quantity of the pernicious ware, which is the staple of that miserable locality. That many of those proceedings are illegal in themselves is clear; but the reply to this objection may possibly be, "game laws do not apply to vermin,” “if we see a viper we do not first ask the constable whether we may dispatch him :" and so, because the wretched pariahs who get a degraded living by a foul and demoralising traffic, are, in fact, morally speaking, vipers and vermin, it is forgotten that they are nevertheless British subjects, and that we are violating the principles of the British constitution. However, we pass over this question: they are not likely to find advocates, even if they be unconstitutionally treated. The Society made, in the person of one of its officers a great mistake: it took the law into its own hands, selected some persons to proceed against, and, with equal proofs of guilt against others, allowed them to continue unmolested. They must watch carefully over the proceedings of its officers, or the public will lose confidence in it; and we should, on many grounds, lament to see this.

THE EDUCATIONAL MOVEMENT.

THE late discussions on the retirement of the Bishops of London and Durham, have turned the attention of the public to the inconvenience arising to a diocese from the temporary suspension of episcopal functions. This is most surely felt by the promoters of parochial education, when under the personal superintendence and sanction of the diocesan. Wherever the promoters of the education of the poor in remote parishes have been ably supported by their metropolitan, they are doomed to regret the postponement of important measures when he is unable to animate them by his spirit, and to lead them by his example. Allusion was made by Lord Derby, in the course of debate, to the illness of the Diocesans of York and Norwich; but we are happy to

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report that his Grace the Archbishop of York is gradually recovering, and will, we trust, be speedily restored to his accustomed activity. Meanwhile, we have to lament the postponement of the EDUCATIONAL CONFERENCE, which it was intended to hold at York during last July, under his Grace's presidency. At all times such postponements are undesirable; but in the present instance they become very discouraging. For during the episcopate of the present metropolitan, the greatest activity in building schools, training teachers, and supplying church education, has prevailed throughout Yorkshire; the clergy, who have been appointed by the two diocesans of York and Ripon, have been remarkably zealous; and the landlords and influential laity have done much to further the educational efforts of these "Fathers in Christ." Individual agency had accomplished much, but the necessity for combined action became singularly apparent. Both landlords and clergy needed a centre of union, so that deficiencies of schools, in number and character, might be pointed out, and funds raised for the improvement and extension of the Church's teaching in poor and neglected districts. It was hoped that the proposed public conference would have assembled the owners of property, and the earnest self-denying workers in the cause; and that when the facts were laid before them, including partial success, numerous requirements, and ascertained deficiencies, the churchmen of the county would display their Christian liberality by subscribing largely, and rejoicing the hearts of the distant working clergy, whose schools are languishing for want of funds. The permanent Board of Education has, however, procured returns of great value from each of the three archdeaconries; discussions of a very interesting character have arisen at preliminary meetings; and every preparation is made for "better times," which are ardently hoped for. The diocesan inspectors have been diligently occupied in preparing a catalogue of suitable books, maps, and apparatus, which they recommend for the use of scholars, pupil-teachers, masters and mistresses; so that the best appliances for mental, moral, and religious training may be placed within the reach of the school managers of the great county of York. The tabulated reports of schools inspected in Yorkshire by the Government inspectors have lately been circulated, and these bear witness to the indefatigable exertions of the clergy and other school managers, who have to contend against a variety of drawbacks almost beyond their control.