and to assume that of plaintiff-under a tribunal of lay judges, before an unworthy minister can be removed or even suspended from his office?

I think then that the provision made for a private hearing before the Bishop with power of suspending the accused party from spiritual functions, if the interests of the Church should seem to him to require it, was a considerable improvement in the composition of this Bill. It was conceded after much anxious solicitation, and it certainly tended to procure my own acquiescence in the measure. But in the postponement of that measure I rejoice, because I hope, seeing how great a change has already taken place in the opinions of moderate men, how much their minds have been opened to the true character of the Church of Christ, after the timely check which was given by the prompt and able interference of one member of the Episcopal bench-because I say I entertain good hope that the improvement will be progressive—and in particular, that this private tribunal will be authorized to act, without requiring the consent of the accused person as a previous condition'.

1

The following clauses of the Bill contain the amendments to which I allude:

"VII. And be it enacted, That before any Bishop or other Person shall institute any such Suit, such Bishop or other Person shall leave or cause to be left in the Registry of the Bishop of the Diocese within which the Spiritual Person intended to be proceeded against shall hold Preferment, or in case such Spiritual

B

Besides the obvious propriety of investing the Governor of a Diocese with some legal authority

Person shall hold Preferment within more than One Diocese, then of the Archbishop of the Province, or in case such Spiritual Person shall hold Preferment in both Provinces then of the Archbishop of Canterbury, or in case such Spiritual Person shall not hold any Preferment then of the Bishop of the Diocese within which he shall be inhabiting, a Statement in Writing, subscribed by such Bishop or other Person, of the Nature and Particulars of each and every Offence imputed to such Spiritual Person for which it is intended to institute such Suit, and of the Time and Place at which each and every such Offence or Offences is or are alleged to have been committed; aud the Registrar of such Bishop or Archbishop shall and he is hereby required forthwith to deliver or cause to be delivered a Copy of such Statement to such Spiritual Person, or shall leave or cause the same to be left at the usual Residence of such Spiritual Person."

"VIII. And be it enacted, That if any such Spiritual Person shall, within Fourteen Days from the Delivery to him of any such Statement as aforesaid, freely and voluntarily, by Writing under his Hand, undertake to abide by such sentence as the said Bishop or Archbishop may give, it shall be lawful for the said Bishop or Archbishop, if he shall think fit, without public Proceedings, by a Sentence under his Hand and Seal, to prohibit such Spiritual Person from residing on or officiating within any Preferment which he may hold within the Diocese, or Province or Provinces, as the Case may be; and all such Sentences shall be good and effectual in Law as if pronounced by the Judge of the Court of Arches or by the Judge of the Chancery Court of York after a Hearing according to the Provisions of this Act, and may be enforced by the like Means, and shall be final and conclusive, and there shall be no Appeal therefrom: Provided always, that in all Cases in which such Spiritual Person shall have given such Undertaking as aforesaid the Registrar of such Bishop or

over his Clergy, there is, I must be permitted to say, something incongruous and offensive to one's feelings

Archbishop shall, within Ten Days after the giving of such Undertaking, deliver or cause to be delivered a Notice in Writing in the Form or to the Effect in the Schedule to this Act in that Behalf contained, to the Person desirous of instituting such Suit, and also a like Notice to each and every Bishop within whose Diocese the said Spiritual Person may hold Preferment, and also a like Notice to the Churchwardens of each and every Parish in which such Spiritual Person may hold Preferment; and the Bishop or Archbishop shall not in any such Case proceed to give Sentence until after the expiration of one Calendar Month from the Time of sending such last-mentioned Notices, nor in case the Parties or any of them to whom such Notice shall have been sent shall within the said Month enter into sufficient Security to the Satisfaction of the Bishop to institute and prosecute, and shall accordingly within One Calendar Month thereafter institute and in due Course of Law prosecute, a Suit against the said Spiritual Person for the said Offence or Offences in the Court of Arches or in the Chancery Court of York, as the Case may be ; in which Suit, and at any Stage thereof, it shall be lawful for the said Bishop to intervene, if he shall think fit Provided also, that after a Sentence so given it shall not be competent to any Person to bring any Suit under this Act against such Spiritual Person on account of the Offence or Offences for which the said Sentence purports to have been given; and such Offence or Offences, and the Undertaking aforesaid, shall be stated in the said Sentence, which shall be entered and remain on record in the Registry of the said Bishop or Archbishop.

IX. And be it enacted, That when any such Sentence of Prohibition shall have been given, the Bishop or Bishops shall sequester any such Preferment in the same Manner and for the same Purposes as are herein-after mentioned in Cases of Suspension by any Definitive Sentence or Decree of the Judge of the

in the employment of professional advocates upon occasions of this nature. According to the received opinion and general practice of this country (more, I believe, than of any other civilized country in the world) it is the duty of an advocate to aim at the success of his client, by all the means and all the arts which ingenuity and sophistry can devise-that he is to identify himself with his client, adopt all his feelings and wishes, extenuate what cannot be disproved, discredit the adverse testimony, take advantage of every technical flaw, and every slip, and every informality which the carelessness of the opponent may have committed, and protract the suit as far as the practice of the Court will permit, if the interests (and sometimes if the private wishes and desires) of

Court of Arches or of the Judge of the Chancery Court of York: Provided always, that the said Bishop may, if he shall see fit, in and by such Sentence assign to such Spiritual Person out of the Profits of such Preferment any annual Sum not exceeding One Half of the net annual Value of such Preferment.

X. Provided always, and be it enacted, That at any Time after the Expiration of Fourteen Days from the Delivery of such Statement aforesaid to such Spiritual Person, the Bishop or Archbishop by whose Registrar such Statement shall have been delivered or caused to have been delivered to such Spiritual Person may, if he shall think fit, at the Prayer of any Person desiring to institute a Suit against such Spiritual Person, or of his own mere Motion, make Request to the Judge of the said Court of Arches or the Judge of the Chancery Court of York, as the Case may be, and that thereupon the said Judge shall accordingly proceed to take, treat, examine, and determine the Matter before himself or his Substitutes.

his client can be in the slightest degree promoted by it, or the issue of the cause be thus rendered at all more favourable to him.

Now however expedient it may be for the general purposes of justice, and the impartial administration of the laws, (for into that inquiry I do not now enter) that such should be the line of conduct pursued by an advocate, yet when the object of the proceeding is not to be "a divider between man and man," but to advance the cause of Christ's religion, I cannot conceive any process less in unison with the character of the proposed end, or less likely to promote true piety and the edification of the Church than this. No man I believe would wish the faults and irregularities of his own family to be so corrected; but would prefer the exercise of paternal authority, dispassionately yet firmly applied, both to the discovery of truth, and to the punishment of offences. How much the success of a cause depends upon the advocate, and how little upon the discretion of the Judge, is the universal remark of all attentive observers of our Courts of Justice. It may be requisite for the maintenance of civil liberty that this should be so : but it continually demands of us a sacrifice of our best feelings, and of our natural love of justice, to this supposed political good. And as the end of Christianity is to make men virtuous, and holy, and charitable, and peaceable, rather than bold, and cunning, and independent, I cannot but deprecate any