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THE DERBY MEMORIAL.-CHURCH REFORM.

(From the Cambridge Chronicle, June 2.)

To the Editor of the Cambridge Chronicle.

SIR,-A memorial has been presented to the archbishop of Canterbury, signed, as it appears, by about twelve rectors and vicars, and nearly fifty ministers of district churches, curates, lecturers, and unattached clerks, in the county of Derby. The large proportion of subalterns, and small number of officers on the majority, must strike every reader of this memorial. It does not appear that this address was passed at any archdeacon's meeting, or under any of the regulations usual in procuring the assent of the clergy of any particular district to a declaration on matters concerning the interests of the church. It is therefore only fair to suppose that it is the act of a minority in the district from which it emanates, and that good and sufficient reasons have prevented its adoption by the majority of the clergy, and those holding the most important stations in that district. As the memorial, however, has been widely circulated, and copies have been sent to all members of parliament by the parties who are answerable for it, I beg to offer you a few remarks on the document itself.

No friend to the church will question the desirableness of improving small livings and abolishing pluralities; but I differ entirely from the memorialists as to the means by which they are willing to have it done. It is evident to me that these gentlemen, in their zeal to abate a particular grievance, have totally overlooked the far greater grievances which the contemplated measures are bringing on the church. The government and property of the church is about to be consigned to a new power, and on terms not only subversive of the end for which some of her most important endowments were given, but totally at variance with the freedom of the church, as guaranteed by Magna Charta, confirmed by the bill of rights, and sworn to in the Sovereign's coronation oath. Not to dwell upon doubtful forebodings, however, I propose to the consideration of the Derby clergy, and of churchmen in general, the following questions; and if any of them, after consulting Hooker, Lord Bacon, and Blackstone, will send me a satisfactory answer to them, I am ready to sign the Derby, or any similar document :

I. As to the destruction of deans and chapters:

1. Whether the end aimed at, in all well-governed communities, be to consign all power to one member, or that each member, according to his station and abilities, should have a portion of power?

2. Whether the system of the church of Christ, in its most apostolical and purest form, does not provide for this sound principle ?

3. Whether the bishops, from the earliest times, had not a college of presbyters or priests, to assist them in their counsels and government?

4. Whether there is not at present, in our church, a virtual council or consistory to assist the bishop, and whether, foreseeing all consequences, we should consent to its abolition?

5. Whether a bishop acting without his presbytery, is not, in the phrase of a good old father of the church, like a harp without its strings?

6. Whether the decay of discipline, and the difficulties with which it is entangled at common law, have not in great part arisen from a jealousy entertained of the power of bishops acting without their diocesan council?

7. Whether the pope himself has not a college of cardinals to assist his counsels ?

8. Whether the church does not stand in need of suffragan bishops, as much or more than of additional curates; and how are they to be provided for when the offices of dignity and honour, and prizes of piety and learning, are abolished?

9. When the dean and canons in each diocese are turned into a precentor and vicars choral, who are to elect the bishop? And whether a bishop, introduced into a diocese without a congé d'élire, can claim canonical obedience from the clergy?

10. Whether our deans and canons have been guilty of any misdemeanors justly subjecting them to the same measure as was dealt to the Jesuit colleges in Spain in the enlightened reign of Charles III.?

Note. See a "Colleccion General, &c., a Collection of the Provisions taken by the Government for the alienation and occupation of the Temporalities of the Company."-Madrid, 1767; and Lord Holland's Appendix to Doblado's Letters. Charles III. appointed a Government Commission to pay off the regulars, allotting them a fixed annual stipend; and the surplus, "besides other objects which his Majesty reserves in his royal mind," was to be applied to building "Foundling Hospitals, Union Poor Houses (Hospicios), and LASTLY, the fit maintenance of poor parish priests. The present condition of the bastardy laws, no doubt, will soon suggest the completion of the parallel. The vergers, singing-men, and choristers, were to be paid off," as superfluous," in a way that Lord Henley would have approved, "that they might find some other employment more useful to the public." Lord Holland calls these state papers, "a monument of Spanish diligence, sagacity, and vigour ;" and no doubt the hint has not been lost on Lord Holland's colleagues.

II. As to the creation of a government fund out of the church's estates, for the benefit of the church.

1. Whether, by the constitution of England, the church is a free community, or a collection of offices at the disposal of the state?

2. Whether the property of the church be not freehold, and it be not essential to all free tenures that the possessor should have the full control of it, subject to the law of the land?

3. Whether any pensioner of state holds his office as a freehold ; and by what right will bishops, when made pensioners of state, hold their seats in the House of Lords?

4. Whether for these and other reasons, the tenure of fee-simple be not better than simple fee; and whether the purse of a government paymaster be a good and safe substitute for the church's patrimony?

5. Whether there be great encouragement to entrust such a fund to a government commission, seeing what a similar commission is doing for Ireland, and when the government has withdrawn the grants from the colonial clergy, and talks of selling the church lands?

6. What became of the grant in Sir Robert Walpole's time, committed to the care of government, after being voted for the better supply of churches in the plantations?

7. How many of the present committee on church leases are pledged to apply the surplus as a substitute for church-rates?

8. Whether the sum of 200,000l., judging from these precedents and appearances, is likely to find its way into the pockets of poor curates and threadbare clerks?

9. What number of agents and receivers will be necessary to manage the receipts and payments of this 200,000l., to be collected from and disbursed in all quarters and corners of the realm? And lastly,

10. Whether the officials of this holy office are likely to be allowed a salary from the public purse; or whether it be not an established principle that inquisitors are to be paid by confiscations? I am, Sir, yours respectfully,

EDWARD CHURTON,

Rector of Crayke, county of Durham.

PLURALITIES - DURHAM PETITION.

TO THE HONOURABLE THE COMMONS' HOUSE OF PARLIAMENT.

The humble Petition of the Archdeacon and Clergy of the Archdeaconry of Durham, and of the officialty of the Dean and Chapter of Durham, and others residing within the limits of the same, whose names are underwritten,

SHEWETH, That your petitioners are informed that a bill is now under the consideration of your honourable house, entitled a bill to abridge the holding of benefices in plurality, and to make better provision for the residence of the clergy.

That your petitioners are well content to acquiesce in the diminution of pluralities, and in all necessary provisions for securing, under reasonable exceptions, the residence of the clergy upon their cures.

But your petitioners have grave objections to the extension of the powers of the ecclesiastical commissioners, a body unknown to the constitution of the church, whereby they are enabled to change the bounds and limits of parishes, and to exercise functions which might be properly and conveniently committed to the respective chapters and synods, under the control and sanction of the

crown.

And your petitioners further object to the new authority given to the bishops over resident incumbents, regularly performing their duties, with respect to the nomination of curates and the services of their church; as well as to the intervention of a commission of clergymen in suspected cases of neglect, to the prejudice of the ordinary powers of visitation and reproof which appertain to the episcopal office.

Your petitioners therefore pray your honourable house that the bill, in the present state, may not pass into a law.

And your petitioners will ever pray, &c.

CATHEDRALS-DURHAM PETITION.

TO THE HONOURABLE THE COMMONS' HOUSE OF PARLIAMENT. The humble Petition of the Archdeacon and Clergy of the Archdeaconry of Durham, and of the officialty of the Dean and Chapter of Durham, and others residing within the limits of the same, whose names are underwritten,

SHEWETH, That you petitioners are informed that a bill has been brought into your honourable house, to carry into effect, with certain modifications, the fourth report of the commissioners of ecclesiastical duties and revenues.

That your petitioners are not averse to such necessary arrangements as may be conducive, under altered circumstances, to the efficiency of the church, or may be recommended by lawful ecclesiastical authority to the consideration of parliament.

But your petitioners cannot contemplate without uneasiness the present measure, seeing that, in the judgment of your petitioners, it threatens to uproot the cathedral system, and to destroy, without a proved necessity, the ancient polity of the church.

Your petitioners observe, that whilst a bare provision is left for the performance of the services and the maintenance of the fabrics of the cathedral, the great purposes of those venerable and important establishments are altogether overlooked.

Your petitioners are opposed, upon considerations both of principle and expediency, to the suppression of cathedral dignities; and they deprecate the formation of a common estate, in the hands and disposal of a perpetual com

mission, a body unknown to the constitution of the church, out of the property of the chapters.

Your petitioners believe that such an estate, inadequate at the best for the purposes of augmentation, would be wasted and destroyed by the cost and difficulties of its management; and that the annexation of cathedral dignities to important cures, combined with a well-drawn scheme of augmentation, under the direction of the bishops and their respective chapters, would be more effectual for the supply of our parochial wants.

Your petitioners have grave objections to any extension of the powers of the ecclesiastical commissioners, a body whose perpetuity they view with the greatest jealousy and apprehension.

Your petitioners, therefore, desire to express their earnest wish that the bill may not pass into a law, and that the reports of the ecclesiastical commissioners may be referred to some competent church authority, to be considered with a view to the preservation of chapters in their numbers and efficiency, to the annexation of parochial cures to a portion of the cathedral dignities, and to such a provision for the augmentation of livings as shall leave the fabric of the establishment entire.

And your petitioners will ever pray, &c.

CHURCH LEASES-DURHAM PETITION.

TO THE HONOURABLE THE COMMONS' HOUSE OF PARLIAMENT. The humble Petition of the Archdeacon of Durham, and the Clergy of the Archdeaconry of Durham, and of the Officialty of the Dean and Chapter of Durham, and others residing within the limits of the same, whose names are underwritten,

SHEWETH,-That your petitioners are informed that a select committee has been appointed by your honourable house to inquire into the mode of granting and renewing church leases, and into the probable amount of any increased value which may be obtained by an improved management of the same. That while your petitioners abstain from any comment on the necessity or propriety of such an investigation, they most respectfully assert their solemn belief that the possessions of the church are legitimately applicable to church purposes alone; and that if the legislature, by the interposition of its enactments, derive from those estates any increased revenue, such increased revenue must rightfully belong to that body which holds the property from which it has been derived.

Your petitioners, therefore, humbly pray that all increase of revenue that may arise from ecclesiastical property, may be left at the disposal of the church, to be applied to church purposes alone.

And your petitioners will ever pray, &c.

PATRONAGE OF ST. PAUL'S.

TO THE HONOURABLE THE COMMONS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, IN PARLIAMENT ASSEMBLED,

The humble Petition of Samuel Birch, Clerk, Doctor in Divinity, SHEWETH, That your petitioner, in the year 1819, was inducted into the prebend of Twyford, in St. Paul's cathedral, and was induced to act as a deputy to the dean and residentiaries, discharging their duties in their absence, conjointly with another prebendary, the Rev. Robert Watts, upon the understanding that he should succeed to the divinity lectureship of the said cathedral (held by Mr. Watts) when it should become vacant. VOL. XIV.-July, 1838.

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That in consequence of such vacancy not having occurred, and of the parliamentary enactments tending to restrict pluralities, your petitioner's prospect of realizing the expectancy, for which he had laboured eighteen years in the cathedral, was cut off.

That your petitioner therefore, last year, applied to the dean and chapter for a benefice of moderate value in their patronage, as some compensation, but without success; one of the residentiaries, the Rev. Mr. Tate, with an income of 2,2621. from the cathedral, to which he had been attached but four years, having claimed it to himself, notwithstanding all remonstrance, and having already bestowed two pieces of cathedral preferment upon persons totally unconnected with St. Paul's, and unentitled therefore to any of its patronage.

That your petitioner views it as a peculiar hardship that the dean and residentiaries, with large incomes, and duties in great measure performed by deputies, should not only thus be suffered to appropriate to themselves what they please of their church patronage, but also to bestow valuable preferment on persons who have in no way served the cathedral, while he is left to console himself with a prebend under 37. a year, as the only independent emolument from the cathedral for the devotion of the best years of his life, and the sacrifice of much personal convenience to attend their duties, after having in turn served them all for upwards of eighteen years, being poorly paid for his services, on account of his expectancy, out of their aggregate incomes, amounting to 12,000l., the first half of the time 3s. 6d. for each attendance, and the other half 58.

That during the seven years ending with 1836, your petitioner attended upon an average, for the dean and residentiaries, 248 times in each year, Mr. Watts supplying the other absences, and the cathedral being closed for weeks together, and that, of a patronage amounting to 16,455l., the following disposition exists:

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Bestowed on strangers who never served the cathedral
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Bestowed on members who have assiduously served for years
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The amount of the highest living given to a member
The amount of the highest living held by a stranger
Left in the hands of strangers, who now enjoy it, by a late resi-
dentiary alone, no less of this patronage than

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That the mode adopted by the dean and chapter in disposing of preferment, by a rotation of personal and friendly options, is calculated, in the opinion of your petitioner, to preclude all hope of reward for services, is alike unjust and injurious to the best interests of the cathedral, as well as contrary to the usage of almost all other cathedral bodies and all collegiate establishments, who bestow their patronage, in the first instance, upon their own unprovided membersa personal option being what they allot to themselves, and a friendly option being what they convey out of the cathedral to their friends.

That, under the present dean and chapter, this system has been carried to an unexampled pitch, the doctrine being carefully broached that the patronage is not for the benefit of the members of the cathedral, but belongs exclusively to themselves, free and unfettered, the pious intentions of the founders signifying nothing, and that whatever and wherever they bestow any is mere matter of grace and favour. Your petitioner cannot indeed deny that they have admitted his case to be a very hard one, and, at the very moment of refusing his claim, professed their sympathy with him, but at the same time has reason to believe that they build their justification of their neglect of him on the want of a formal document or written agreement binding them to reward him. Your petitioner feels confident that your honourable house will not concur in

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