with a lay delegation from each parish; and new dioceses cannot be formed, nor old ones changed, without the consent of the general convention.

Every convention has a standing committee, to act, under due instructions in behalf of the convention, in the intervals between its meetings. These committees meet on their adjournment, and at the call of their moderator. When there is a bishop, this committee constitutes his advisory council, and attends him at his call. When there is no bishop, the standing committee has a general supervision of the diocese.

Besides the annual meetings of the diocesan conventions, special conventions may be called by the bishop at his discretion, or, when applied to for that purpose, by the standing committee; or, in case of the vacancy of the Episcopal chair, by the standing committee.

In the diocesan conventions, the clergy and laity deliberate in one body, and form a single house. The laity vote by congregations, each parish having a single vote, except when there is a plurality of congregations in the same parish, in which case a vote is allowed for each congregation.

The diocesan conventions hear reports from the bishops on the following subjects:

1, Visitation of churches; 2, Confirmations; 3, Admission to holy orders, institution of rectors, &c.; 4, Consecration of churches; 5, Reception of candidates for holy orders; 6, Dismission and reception of clergy; 7, Recommendations, suggestions, and admonitions.

They hear reports from the standing committee, of all their doings, and from the parishes, stating the number of families, baptisms, confirmations, communicants, Sunday-school scholars. missionary and charitable contributions, marriages and burials; and reports from missionaries.

The diocesan conventions make and amend their own constitutions and canons for the government of their clergy and laity, in conformity with the constitution and canons of the general

convention. They also appoint clerical and lay deputies to that body.

The General Conventions.

The general convention consists of all the bishops, together with one or more clerical and lay delegates from each diocesan convention. It has two houses, like the British parliament and the American congress.

The bishops constitute the higher house; the clerical and lay delegates, the lower. The senior bishop is moderator of the house of bishops, under the title of presiding bishop; and is a virtual archbishop, and head of the entire church.

1. He usually consecrates bishops. 2. He receives the testimonials of a bishop elect, in the intervals between the general conventions, and sends them to the other bishops, for their approval or disapproval. 3. He calls special conventions at the request of a majority of the bishops.

The seniority of the bishops is determined not by their relative ages, but by the times of their consecration.

The house of bishops is organized by appointing a secretary,` and the house of delegates by appointing a president and secretary. The house of bishops has the exclusive right to propose acts for the concurrence of the other house; and, when any act has passed that house, it is transmitted to the bishops, to be affirmed or negatived by them.

The general convention is the supreme legislature of the church. It enacts canons, determining the different orders of the ministry, and the modes of electing and ordaining them, and adopts articles of faith and rules of order for the whole church. It is also the supreme court of appeal. Bishops may be tried by a court of bishops instituted for the purpose, but they have an appeal to the house of bishops.

The general convention appoints the board of missions triennially, and hears reports from them. Its constitution was adopted in 1789, and consists of nine articles. It is unalterable

unless after the alterations have been proposed to the dioceses, and in a general convention in which a majority of the dioceses are represented. The general convention determines the character of the church, and gives supreme direction to all its affairs.

CHAPTER IV.'

CHARACTER OF AMERICAN EPISCOPACY.

THE Episcopal church in the United States has imitated the church of England in adopting a liturgy and a clerical habit, and observing a number of annual church festivals and fasts. Its liturgy is contained in the Book of Common Prayer, and is copied, with little alteration, from the liturgy of the church of England, as that is from the liturgy of the Roman church. The clergyman reads prayers in a white muslin surplice, and pronounces his sermon in a black robe; the white surplice signifying his office as a priest, to make intercession for the people, and the black robe his office as a prophet and teacher of divine truth. The Episcopal church admits wide diversities of faith, both in respect to doctrines and policy, but it is generally well united by the harmony and power of the bishops. Dissenters from prevailing views are perfectly powerless and harmless.

The Episcopal church imitates the exclusiveness of the church of England in claiming to be the church, and denouncing all other denominations as corrupt and schismatical.

It is a great improvement, however, on its English model, by incorporating into its constitution a republican element. The bishops and inferior clergy are not the sole absolute rulers of the church, as in English episcopacy. The parishes appoint church-wardens to compose, with the minister for its moderator, the vestry. The vestry appoints delegates to the diocesan con

vention, and the diocesan convention appoints an equal clerical and lay delegation to the general convention.

This is a great concession to the laity; but it is not enough. If the laity have any rights at all in the matter, they have much greater rights than are conceded by this system.

The house of bishops might be abolished, and come into the house of clerical and lay delegates, making the general convention to consist of a single house; and still the clergy would have more than their just share of influence in the legislation and courts of the church.

ent.

But, as it is, everything is in their hands, and at their disposal; and not only so, everything is in the hands of the bishops, who are farthest removed from the laity, and have least sympathy with them. The bishops are absolute masters of the church. If they held their appointment from the laity, and represented their opinions and feelings, and if they held their appointment only for a term of years, the case would be differBut the bishops are not in theory or in fact the representatives of the laity, but their spiritual lords and masters. The laity concur in their appointment, in the diocesan conventions; but the conventions cannot give their election effect, without the concurrence of the bishops. When elected to the episcopal office, the bishop is accountable to his fellow-bishops, and not at all to the laity; so that the laity, as such, have no control over him whatever. He is placed not only above them, but beyond their reach, except through a court of bishops, or the whole house of bishops as a supreme court of jurisdiction.

What is the necessity of thus restricting the power of the laity, and, while pretending to give them a part in the govern ment of the church, giving them only a shadow of power? What is the necessity of putting the church under a despotism of bishops? Are the laity less to be trusted, in the management of their affairs as a church of Christ, than the clergy? Are the lower clergy less to be trusted than the higher clergy? I think not. The Episcopal church is excessively conservative. This

arises from the supremacy of the bishops, who are far removed from the laity; from the ascendency of the clergy in the diocesan conventions, and their dependence on the bishops; and from the almost entire exclusion of the laity from the exercise of any controlling influence in directing and controlling the affairs of the church.

Lay deputies may seem to have influence as long as they propose things agreeable to the bishops and clerical delegates. But, in opposition to them, they can do nothing; not the least.

The sympathies of this church are greatest with the church of England, and considerable with the Roman Catholics, with whose system they have important elements in common. Erratic minds, that go from other Protestant orders to the Papacy, generally enter it through Episcopalianism, which they find a convenient half-way house, where to stop for a night and provide themselves for the rest of their journey.

CHAPTER V.

EPISCOPALIAN CONSERVATISM AND EXCLUSIVENESS.

THE general policy of the Episcopal church is highly conservative. Its ministers are men of refinement, and its bishops are among the most aristocratic orders in the land. Its dignified and imposing service operates favorably and powerfully on its religious assemblies, in promoting dignity and propriety of deportment. Extempore services seldom equal the liturgical ones in dignity and propriety; but they have other advantages, which are, on the whole, greater, in their better adaptation to the ever-varying events of the times, and in their greater variety. Besides, they are conformable to apostolic practice, while liturgies are one of the labor-saving inventions of later times. It is