more. The clergyman of that parish read the article, and at once said, 'Oh, he must mean A and B and C.' His Scripture-reader read the article, and he said at once likewise, 'He must mean A and B and C.' They each were abie at once to identify the people alluded to. And if that special correspondent had applied to them he would have learnt: first, that the three families were Irish Roman Catholics; secondly, that the cause of the present distress in two out of the three cases was drunkenness; thirdly, that, though Roman Catholics, they had been regularly visited; and, fourthly, that substantial relief had been given to them. Yet the outside public probably assumed that these people of whom they read were utterly uncared for. Let us see what sort of work the Church is carrying on in East-End parishes. We will take as an instance one of the parishes selected by the London Congregational Union for their operations: namely Ratcliff, the population of which is between seven and eight thousand, of which about half are Roman Catholics. The vicar shall speak for himself:

'I have been vicar of this parish for more than three years; there is not a court or an alley into which I have not been myself personally; there are few houses into which one or other of my workers has not entered, and I should say there is not a house into which, if required, I should hesitate to go alone at any time of the day or night. The people are very poor, and there are many cases which need help; these are carefully investigated, and such help given as is required. I have as my fellow-workers, a curate, a lay assistant, a lady worker, a mission woman, and a sick nurse, besides several voluntary helpers, so that few, if any, cases of distress or sickness are unknown to us; and relief is given without regard to sect or nationality. Besides the services in church we have a service in our missionroom, a Sunday school with over 200 children, and a class for ragged children. In connexion with Temperance work there are two large Bands of Hope and two Temperance Societies, which are adding each week to their numbers. There is a Working Men's Club, and a Working Lads' Institute for older boys, and a Working Girls' Institute for older girls, and in connexion with this latter a Home, where several ladies reside, and devote their time to work among girls and women working in the factories.'

We spoke above of Spitalfields. Let us just glance at some of the many agencies for good carried on in this parish.

1. The clergy are well known in the common lodginghouses; they frequently hold services there, and sometimes spend the whole night engaged in rescue work. Many lads are brought out of these lodging-houses, and are lodged either in one of the two

2. Homes for Working Boys, situate in the parish, or drafted off to other Homes outside. The Homes in the parish at present contain 80 lads; the boys stay there between the ages of 14 and 18 years, paying five shillings and sixpence a week, which includes lodging, food, washing, and medical attendance. The clergy make themselves the friends of these boys. In one Home one of the clergy attends every night to conduct prayers. The boys, as a rule, turn out well.

3. During these night excursions many girls are also rescued and drafted off to Homes. More than 100 girls are thus rescued each year, not to speak of many influenced.

4. As an evidence that the clergy are reaching the right sort of people it may be mentioned that there is a Temperance Society, numbering about 300 men, about half of whom have been at some time or other 'in trouble,' and that amongst the communicants are some who, having lived godly lives for years, formerly were criminals.

This slight glimpse at the work of these two parishes will give some idea of what is going in nearly every parish both East and South.

The Bishop of Rochester's Diocesan Fund is rapidly strengthening the parochial machinery in South London. Five thousand a year is being spent on 'living agents,' amongst whom are 19 mission clergy, 24 Scripture-readers, and 46 mission women.

The Bishop of Bedford's East London Church Fund is doing the same work for East London. At an annual cost of 9,000l. it supplies 129 living agents, mission clergy, curates, deaconesses, lay helpers, mission women, and parochial nurses. In the 72 parishes aided by the fund there are at work 163 clergy, 63 lay helpers, and 101 mission women. In these parishes there are 248 services held each Sunday, at which there are between forty and fifty thousand attendances. From all this it will be perceived that, whatever may have been the shortcomings of the Church in the past, she is not chargeable with apathy now.

Let us hope that the present excitement will not end in talk, but that everyone whose heart has been stirred by the Bitter Cry will feel it a duty to investigate first the condition of his poorer brethren, and then the work that the Church is doing in their midst, and next to ask himself in what way he best can help in the great task that lies before us. If only well-to-do parishes in town and country are led extensively to follow the noble example set by so many public schools and

colleges by affiliating to themselves poor parishes and taking a personal interest in them, no one can say what a change may not be effected. It cannot be expected, however, as we have endeavoured to show, that any exertions will immediately alter the condition of the London poor. Let politicians and social reformers by all means do their best; they can do much to make straight the way'; but, after all, it is to the Church, with her Divine commission, her life-giving means of grace, her great organization, that we must look if any real good is to be effected. She will do more than any other agency to bring rich and poor together; she will do more than any other organization to create amongst the abject poor a want of better things; she, as the Church of the nation, will be able most effectively to minister to the temporal wants of the sick and suffering.

ART. IX. THE REPORT OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL COURTS' COMMISSION.

Report of the Commissioners appointed to Inquire into the Constitution and Working of the Ecclesiastical Courts. Vol. I. The Commission; the Report; Minutes of Proceedings; Historical Appendices. Vol. II. Minutes of Evidence, with Abstract and Analytical Subject Index; Replies from Anglican and other Churches as to Ecclesiastical Procedure therein, with Abstracts; Patents of Provincial and Diocesan Officials Principal; Returns as to Rule of Procedure in Diocesan Courts. Presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of her Majesty.

THE bare recitation given above will suffice to convey to those who have not already seen the Report-for it is even now difficult to obtain, though reprinted-what a bulk and complexity of matter is contained in these two large volumes. But these materials, though thus multifarious and exuberant, have been rendered singularly available by the very great pains and skill laid out upon their editing and redaction. About the Recommendations at which the Royal Commissions have arrived as the result of their long labours there will, of course, be difference of opinion and much warm discussion. About the merits of the Report as a piece of literary

work, as a conveniently arranged and complete magazine of information on its subject, there is entire unanimity. The Secretary and his colleagues, and the various committees of the Commissioners-for much of the constructive work was done by them through committees-deserve and will receive the hearty thanks of all whom duty or interest may incite to grapple with the huge subject here laid out for inspection in these Blue-books.

The Report was only given to the public when August was reaching its close. We offered in October, which was all that could be done after such cursory perusal as time permitted, a summary view-a general outline-of the Recommendations, with a few remarks on various aspects presented at first sight by the scheme here and there. But certainly our readers have a right to expect some more thorough examination of what is proposed, and some more systematic attempt to estimate its bearings and influence.

As might have been expected, attention has been turned from the first to the Final Court of Appeal. At Reading the very large and unusually influential assembly, which the summons of the Church Congress Committee convoked this year, devoted two sessions to a consideration of this important Report. But there was very little said about any portion of it except that which concerned the Final Court. Dr. Hayman fastened, with characteristic tenacity, upon this part of the Commissioners' suggestions, and gave the cue in so doing to the long succession of readers and speakers that followed. It was, however, apparent that the whole discussion, though quite inevitable, was notwithstanding somewhat premature. People had not read the Report, or, at any rate, had not had time to digest its contents, by the first week of October. Then later in the month the Diocesan Conferences came on, and nearly all of them, as was again inevitable, took this tempting subject up. It cannot be said, indeed, that the Final Court has in the dioceses swallowed up everything else, as it did at the general gathering at Reading; but certainly in them, too, the lion's share of attention has been bestowed on this one item.

The conferences which have discussed the Commission and its result have been, so far as we have observed, the following:- Bath and Wells, Carlisle, Chester, Chichester, Hereford, Lichfield, Lincoln, Liverpool, Manchester, and Truro. St. Albans was also to have applied itself to this knotty business, and to have had the valuable help of an introductory paper by Canon T. W. Perry, but this element of the agenda

was excluded by pressure of other matters. Lichfield has appointed a committee, which is carefully to sift and discuss the Blue-books and to present a Report for the consideration of the conference next year. At Liverpool a hostile motion was proposed, and received the warm support of the Orange party and the extreme Church Associationists, and they derived also some help from the Bishop's observations on the Report ; but they underwent, even in this corner of the Church where ultra-Low Church views have their stronghold, a decided defeat, the motion being rejected by 120 to 70. Lincoln and Bath and Wells have excepted from their general praise the proposals of the Commissioners which concern the Final Court. With these exceptions the conferences have everywhere expressed approval of the Report on the whole, though they have done so, as was fitting in an affair of such great compass, in guarded and qualified terms. The Report and its Recommendations have been launched before the Church with quite as much good-will and hopefulness on all sides as could have been expected; perhaps as much as could have been desired, for this subject is emphatically one about which nothing is more to be deprecated than perfunctory and hasty judgments.

The Commissioners introduce their Recommendations about the Final Court with a few general remarks, to which it is important that attention should be called. They declare that their

'scheme is framed on the assumption that every subject of the Crown who feels aggrieved by a decision of any such (ecclesiastical) Court has an indefeasible right to approach the Throne itself with a representation that justice has not been done him, and with a claim for the full investigation of his cause. No Ecclesiastical Court can so conclude his suit as to bar this right.'1

This might seem to some a self-evident proposition. But anyone who will read the almost numberless letters, articles, and speeches which have already clustered round the Report and its Recommendations, will see that, if not denied, the proposition is often practically forgotten. And yet it is very clearly recognized by the 4th of the Canons of 1604; and more recently has again been affirmed by the Lower House of Convocation of Canterbury. This House, on June 26 and 27, 1879, agreed to a series of important resolutions submitted on presentation of a Report prepared by a committee on 'Relations of Church and State.' This committee sat for

1 Report, vol. i. p. liii.