the cope, the chasuble, the dalmatic, the tunicle, &c., the other does not. By far the most important variations from the ordinary style of churches of our Communion consist in the following particulars :

1. They have a daily celebration.

2. They have three celebrations on Sunday.

3. There is a presence of non-communicants, and that encouraged by the clergy at the time of celebration.

In addition to these particulars, we may add that, as distinguished from churches of the Islington type, they have daily. services morning and evening, and on Sundays a choral service (the choir consisting of boys and men wholly volunteers from the middle and lower classes of society); that the rubrics, as far as they go, are generally obeyed where such obedience would not cause great inconvenience or confusion; that the number of their communicants is out of all proportion greater, and that the offertories at the respective churches stand in even more marked contrast to each other, and that auricular confession is a very common practice in these congregations.

To this we must add, that both these witnesses avow the principle which we have already quoted from the Bishop of Exeter, and imply, indeed, that this is the whole ground upon which they go; that when anything is doubtful the practice of the Church of England should be regulated by that which has existed before the so-called Reformation, when it cannot be shown that such custom has been forbidden by any law of the Church now in force. They would ground, the one of them his use of the vestments, the other his right to use them, on this principle, and both admit that they may possibly be in any given case mistaken in their interpretation of a law or a rubric or an ancient practice. It is plain from what both these witnesses allege that the introduction of the vestments, about which the question turns, is regarded as a subordinate matter of expediency. Both have been requested to wear them. One only has had a set of vestments presented to him which he actually wears. Neither of them has met with any complaint or resistance. Both have been urged by their parishioners in the direction of Ritual, and have used their own discretion as to how far they should concede to popular opinion. And here let us observe, that the convulsion of the Church about the surplice question mainly arose out of the people's disliking the disuse of the accustomed black gown, which black gown is now almost exploded by popular opinion, and that the same popular opinion is in certain districts very unmistakeably bent upon having its own way in favour of Eucharistic vestments.

Amongst these certain districts' we think no one will dispute

our position, when we say that the evidence clearly shows Stoke Newington and S. Barnabas, Pimlico, to be included. And here, in concluding our notice of the evidence of these two witnesses, we must be allowed to express our opinion once for all, that the paucity of numbers of witnesses examined precludes us from forming any estimate as to the effect of these elaborate services on people in general throughout the country. Not only are there many more equally important churches of this kind, and at least equally influential clergymen concerned in this matter, but we miss the important evidence which might have been gathered from the opinions of laymen, churchwardens, and others, residing in such districts, but what is of much more importance, with reference to these two districts, we have no attempt at counter-statements. We have no evidence of laymen either favourable or unfavourable to the practices in question. In particular it would have been of the highest interest and advantage to be in possession of the views of parishioners of all ranks, especially of those who set themselves against these socalled Ritual observances. We must, therefore, ask our readers to make all the deductions that they possibly can from the statements of Mr. Le Geyt and Mr. White; and bearing in mind that these are both gentlemen of unimpeachable character, who would not wilfully misrepresent a single item of fact, they must yet remember that it is impossible but that witnesses must put their own colour upon facts, and that where there is a strong interest there is likely to be some amount of misrepresentation, however unintentional. We ask for the evidence to be estimated at its lowest possible figure. And we claim of our readers, then, that they will admit that whatever 'grave offence to many may have been given in S. Barnabas and Stoke Newington, we do not find it in the evidence, and we do not see anything, so far, that justifies the opinion that it is expedient to restrain variations of vesture in the public services of the United Church of England ' and Ireland.'

We come next in order to the evidence given by Mr. Nugee, the vicar of Wymering, and with it we may properly class that of Mr. Wagner, the incumbent of S. Paul's, Brighton, not because the testimony of these two witnesses holds together better than it agrees with either of the two preceding deponents, but because we have in both these cases a considerable amount of counter-testimony, both as to the facts, and, what is more to the point, as to the impressions made upon the minds of other people by those facts. Now, in briefly summing up what Mr. Nugee and Mr. Wagner state for themselves, we have to observe, that very nearly the same story is told as that to which we have just been alluding, in the cases of S. Barnabas and Stoke

Newington. It is remarkable that in this couplet, too, we have a distinction as regards the use of the chasuble. The one uses it, the other does not; but making allowance for a little difference as regards the use of incense, and the adoption of processions, the practices are substantially the same. These parishes are also distinguished as being respectively a town and a country parish. Yet here is the same practice of daily communions, and three celebrations on Sunday, with accessories that it is not worth our while to stop to distinguish from the previous evidence. They present the same indications of hard work, in the way of supporting and managing schools, sisterhoods, and orphanages. The principal addition to our general knowledge on the subject is that at Wymering the dissenting chapel has been shut up, and the dissenting minister is a member of the choir. Mr. Nugee also adds his strong conviction that his style of conducting the services has kept people away from the Church of Rome, and notices that Roman Catholics have specially been forbidden to attend his services since he adopted the use of Eucharistic vestments. We detect in this witness a singular leaning towards the Eastern as distinguished from the Western Church. He appears to think that this kind of ceremonial has a tendency to promote unity, and perhaps thinks that such unity if brought about at all is to be effected first through a junction with the Greek Church. Perhaps we may add that the alleged love of Ritual which characterises the poorer classes is more prominent here than it was in the previous evidence ; and we had almost forgotten to notice that Mr. Wagner's voluntary choir consists of tradesmen's assistants, drapers' assistants, and young men of that kind, one being in a grocer's shop.' It is a little beside our point, but we may notice how skilfully, in his examination of Mr. Nugee, Mr. Beresford-Hope drew out the real state of the case, and repaired the blunders that had been made by some previous questioners. Upon the whole, and pending the observations we have yet to make on the opposition statements to these two cases, we may notice that the most striking feature in them, as well as in the two preceding cases, is the amount of work done, the definiteness of the tone of doctrine, the exact uniformity of principle they exhibit, and, we may add, the small amount of real knowledge of Ritualism, properly so called.

6

We come next to the counter-evidence, which it is necessary to investigate before we proceed to an estimate of this part of the case.

The evidence against Mr. Wagner all comes from the Rev. Edmund Clay, the minister of a private proprietary chapel at Brighton, which he takes at a rental of about £600 a year,

including incidental expenses, and makes what he can out of 'offerings in boxes and by pew-rents.' We need not say, therefore, that he is of the Evangelical school, though, perhaps, some of his brethren would scarcely approve of being placed in the same category with him. Here we have a repetition of precisely the same form of thing as the other members of this schoo furnish, with the addition of a few more violations of rubric, and evening communions; there being one on Good Friday especially, to which Dissenters are particularly invited, under the designation of 'non-conforming members of the National Church' -a practice which is enforced by the very apposite text, 'Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.' This gentleman, in answer to a question put to him by the Archbishop of Canterbury: Of your own experience can you 'give any facts connected with the influence which a higher 'Ritualistic service has produced?' replies to the following effect: -A young lady of eighteen, after confessing at S. Paul's, Brighton (a church where the vestments are not used), became distressed, and thought that she would either go over to Rome, or give up religion altogether. Upon which, the clergyman referred her to some Roman Catholic priest in London! Upon being pressed to submit to Rome, she hesitated, because, being under age, she was not to communicate the fact to her parents. Mr. Clay was referred to by herself, and afterwards by her parents; but Mr. Clay declines to say what the result was.

This witness adds that another London clergyman had imposed upon a delicate young lady, who had confessed some sins of temper, a penance of kneeling with bare knees upon a marble slab for four hours, repeating psalms and prayers. Our readers will easily believe that this is second-hand information. This second story was brought out by the Rev. H. Venn, in answer to his question, whether Ritualistic practices were distasteful to a very considerable body of Church people.

It was Dr. Twiss who skilfully elicited from Mr. Clay the fact that the young lady herself declined to see him. Mr. Clay also tells us that he had within seven years received about thirty converts from Popery, and thinks he made a note that 'eleven had toppled over through extreme Ritualistic services,'—an expression which in this witness's mouth seems to mean the practice of confession. As regards actual fact, he had received. one convert from Rome a year ago, a lady who some years before had seceded, and told him that she had become a Romanist in consequence of her mind having been upset by 'the Ritualistic services and the teaching that she had received.' We have no more to say of Mr. Clay, except that, in common with the rest of his Evangelical brethren, his answers exhibit

some good specimens of the fallacy called by logicians Ignoratio Elenchi. One may suffice

Mr. BERESFORD-HOPE-A lady rapidly impressionable?
Mr. CLAY-Her son was eighteen years of age.

We may sum up the evidence of Mr. Wagner and his brother clergyman with the observations: that the incumbent of the proprietary chapel does not himself like ritual or confession; that he has given two stories the absurdity of which is most transparent, one which, if true, would prove that a young lady who had confessed at S. Paul's, Brighton, was afterwards in a state of uncertainty as to whether she should give up religion altogether or go to Rome, and whose present position is wrapped in a mystery he refuses to solve; and that another lady, who had gone to Rome, and come back, had attributed her secession partly to Ritualistic services, partly to certain doctrinal teaching; and that about ten others, during the last few years, of whom no particulars are given, are in the same predicament.

We therefore fall back on Mr. Wagner's own evidence, and there we find that his impression is that there is much less prejudice amongst the Brighton tradesmen than there formerly was against the services of S. Paul's, and that his voluntary choir consists entirely of this class. We think we may say that the evidence fails to establish that Mr. Wagner has given grave offence to many, or that there appears on the face of this pitched battle, as we may call it, any warrant for the opinion that it is 'expedient to restrain variations in respect of vestures in the 'public services of the United Church of England and Ireland.'

We come next to the evidence against Mr. Nugee. This evidence also comes from a single witness, and is somewhat lengthy. No doubt it is entirely beside the point, but then it is of the greatest importance in illustrating the conclusion at which it will have been seen we are gradually arriving by an induction of particulars.

Mr. Deverell is a retired solicitor, who has bought property which lies in the parishes of Farlington, Wymering, and Widley; and in regard of this property he pays tithes respectively to Mr. Richards, of Farlington, Mr. Nugce and Mr. Poole, of Purbrook. It is not alleged that Mr. Richards is a Ritualist. It appears that from the year 1844 to 1858 he was in a perpetual quarrel with Mr. Richards about a district church, the erection of which was contemplated in Purbrook, an outlying hamlet of Farlington parish, Mr. Deverell wishing to appoint to it a Mr. Bagley, whom he describes as a thorough Christian '-a style of character that does not appear to have been altogether to Mr. Richards' satisfaction. Another gentleman was nominated, and Mr. Deverell,