Bailey, J., Ceylon.

Buckoll, J., Vicar of Great Limber. Dineley, G., B.D., Rector of Churchill, Worcestershire.

Garnett, W., of Barbadoes.

Kendall, J., Vicar of Budbrooke, Warwickshire, & Master of the Earl of Leicester's Hospital. Kendall, N., M.A, Vicar of Talland.

Leighton, Sir John H., Bart., of Trinity Coll., Cambridge.

Powell, J., Vicar of Bitteswell, Leicestershire.
Richardson, B., Incumbent of Glaisdale, Egton,
and Goathland, near Whitby, Yorkshire.
Slingsby, H. J., Rec. of Stour Provost, Dorset.
Still, P., Rector of Cattistock.

Syer, B., Rector of Kedington, Suffolk.
Vicars, G. C., late Curate of Barlaston.
Thomas, E., Rector of Mortil.
Turnour, E. J. M.A., at Cranley.
Whitty, W., Curate of Rathvilly.

REPORT read at the Annual General Court, May 21st, 1844, being the Sixteenth after its incorporation, and the Twenty-sixth from its formation. His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury in the chair:

In presenting to the General Meeting of the Society the Report for the past year, the Committee desire, in the first place, to mention, with deep regret, the severe sufferings, and fatal termination of them, by which the Society has been deprived of its late Secretary, the Rev. William Johnson Rodber. They cannot omit the opportunity of expressing to the members of the Society at large a feeling, in which they are convinced all will share, of grateful remembrance of the assiduity and single-heartedness with which he laboured in the service of the Society from its first establishment, for a period of nearly six-and-twenty years.

From paying this tribute, most justly due, to the faithful and devoted service of one who had deeply at heart the Society's interest, and gave his best exertions to its cause, the Committee will proceed to report the operations of the past year, and to state the present circumstances and prospects of the Society.

The number of applications received in the course of the year ending March 31, 1844, was 201, a number greater by 43 than the applications made in the preceding year; and greater also, with a single exception, than the number of cases brought before the Society in any one year since its institution; the number of applications in 1840 having alone exceeded those of the present year by 4.

The number of Grants made during the past year is 119, exceeding by 23 those of last year, which, however, from several causes, explained in the Report, were below the usual average. Of the Grants made during the past year, there have been for building additional Churches and Chapels, 49; for enlarging or otherwise increasing the accommodation in existing Churches and Chapels, 47; and for rebuilding, with enlargement, 23. The number of additional Churches towards the building of which Grants have been made during the past year exceeds by 6 those of the year preceding; which again exceeded those of any former year. And this is a circumstance to which the Committee cannot but call attention. During the first ten years of the Society's operations, the number of new Churches for which application was made never exceeded 2 in any year; in some years there was not one within the last seven years it has risen from 15 to 28, the number reported last year (27) equalling, as was observed in the Report, the total number during the first six years of the Society's existence. It must never be forgotten that, in the first institution of the Society, as indeed its very name bears witness, it was the " "enlargement" of existing Churches that was chiefly contemplated, and that the growing necessity, and the conviction of that necessity, which have led to the efforts to build new Churches in so many populous districts, while it is a most gratifying and encouraging fact to those who have at heart the interests of their country and of religion, entails at the same time heavier charges upon a Society like this,

and calls for a great increase in the means placed at its disposal.

The sum voted in Grants made during the past year, amounts to 22,020., being an increase of between 5,000/. and 6,000l. upon the expenditure of the year preceding. The additional accommodation is for 38,020 persons, of whom 32,896 will be provided with the means of attending public worship without expense. It will be observed how very large is the proportion of free sittings thus provided, being little less than 33,000 out of 38,000; a larger proportion than in any former year, though, indeed, it has been, throughout, the invariable rule of the Society that no aid should be granted where half the accommodation provided was not entirely free and unappropriated.

Beside these new cases, additional aid has also been granted, in some few instances, in which improvements had been suggested during the progress of the work, which were approved by the Committee, and by which a considerable increase was made in the accommodation provided.

Among the cases which have been brought before the Committee during the past year, and to which Grants have been made, may be mentioned, in the Diocese of London, one parish, with a population of 42,000, with church-accommodation only for 3,800, of which 850 only were free, where a new Church is to be built, capable of holding 600, 300 free; another parish, with a population of 8,000, and with church-room only for 750,-300 free; where, by the building of a new Church, the accommodation will be doubled, 750 being added, 450 free; another parish of 36,000, with church-room only for 2,200,-300 only free; where, by the building of a new Church, 1,000 will have church-room provided, all free in the Diocese of Chester, a parish of between 60,000 and 70,000, with church-room for less than 6,000, only 900 free; where, by a new Church, additional accommodation for 1,000 persons will be provided, 500 free; another parish in the same diocese of upwards of 46,000, with church accommodation only for 6,000,-2,000 free; where, by the enlargement of a Chapel, 330 additional sittings will be provided, all free: in the Diocese of Ripon, a parish of upwards of 29,000, with church-room for little more than 5,000,-1,500 free; where a Chapel is to be built, containing 500, 300 of them free: in the Diocese of St. David's, a parish of 3,000, with church

room only for 350, all free, to which, by the building of a new Chapel, 230 additional sittings will be provided, 200 of them free. Many more cases might be cited of the like spiritual destitution; but these few the Committee have thought it well to extract from the tables which will be appended to the Report, as showing what pressing claims are continually coming before them, in the appropriation of the funds, unhappily so limited, which are placed at their disposal. The cases just referred to, among others, have been most carefully considered by the Committee, and the utmost assistance afforded which the Society's means would allow.

The recent enactment of the Legislature, by which will be effected the division of large parishes with a view to more effectual pastoral care and superintendence, has already occasioned a considerable call upon the Society's resources. In the three months of January, February, and March, of the present year, the Committee have made Grants to the amount of upwards of £2,000 towards the building of nine new Churches or Chapels, to be in whole, or in part, endowed from the funds placed at the disposal of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. In these cases the population is often large; in many instances distant two or three miles from any place of worship belonging to the Established Church. In one instance, in the Diocese of Chester, there is a population of upwards of 400 at a distance of three miles from the nearest church; the moral tone of the population of the district is described as being "at the lowest scale;" and where, as the Committee are informed, "a liberal Grant will encourage the local Committee to make further exertions for building Schools and Parsonage-houses," the site being given, and the funds chiefly obtained from parties who will not be personally benefited by the Church. In another place, in the same diocese, there is a district containing 1,200 "principally small cottagers, and literally without the means of attending Divine worship;" the applicant, the Clergyman of the parish, contributing £1,000; £500 for the proposed Church, and £500 for a Parsonagehouse. In another case, in the Diocese of Lichfield, there is a township containing a population of 800, "distant two miles and a half from the nearest Church, the inhabitants poor and totally uneducated," where, in addition to £400 contributed towards the Church, a like sum of £400 has been raised towards building

And

a Parsonage-house and Schools. these cases, it is to be expected, will be daily multiplying. The Committee have received intimation that many other applications, arising out of the late measure, will shortly be brought before them; to meet which, their present means are wholly insufficient.

The Committee feel that the measures thus in progress for bringing these outcasts, for so indeed they may be termed, within the reach of the Church's ministrations and pastoral care, warrant, and make necessary, a strong appeal at the present time, for greatly increased support to this Society. If we believe that the first step in the work of evangelizing these neglected districts has been taken in the best way, when a Clergyman has been placed among them, without waiting for a Church to be built, it must be from the conviction that where the ministrations of the pastor are supplied, the foundations of a house of God will ere long be laid. It cannot be that Churchmen, with due feeling for the decencies of religious worship, and sensible of the powerful influence of those sacred associations and impressions, which, under such circumstances, are especially important, will be content, that a body of Clergy thus called into existence shall be left to perform the public offices of the Church in licensed school-rooms, or other places, unsuitable to the holy purposes to which they are thus, occasionally, from necessity, converted. A great demand must arise for assistance in Churchbuilding in such districts: and it will be recollected that until some provision be made from public sources, it is to this Society, with its Diocesan Associations, that the country must look for the supply of its necessities in this respect; the Parliamentary Grants placed at the disposal of her Majesty's Commissioners for Building New Churches in Populous Places being now nearly exhausted.

Another source from which must be anticipated a great increase of application to the Society, is in the effort now making, on so large a scale, by the National Society, with the aid of its Special Fund, towards establishing Schools in the Manufacturing and Mining Districts. As it is one consequence of the building of a new Church, that Schools speedily follow, so, on the other hand, the establishment of new Schools makes the want of Churches, in which the children of such Schools may attend divine worship, more strongly felt. And these wants, thus created, it may be observed, were fore

most in the view of those who first drew the attention of the Government, now nearly thirty years ago, to the want of Church-room for the population, and whose efforts led to the establishment of this Society. In a memorial addressed to Lord Liverpool, in 1815, reference was particularly made to the Schools which had been erected by means of the National Society, established a few years earlier; and it was urged, "that the benefit of these Schools must be in a great measure lost, and the object of them remain unobtained, if places for public worship were not provided for the children therein educated, both during the period of their instruction, and after they shall have quitted the schools." same argument applies now as powerfully as then; and it cannot be too strongly stated, that the great effort which the National Society is now making in the cause of the education of "the poor in the principles of the Established Church" will be but imperfect, or will be, partially at least, (it is to be feared,) turned to evil, unless it be followed up by a strong and united effort to provide the children thus placed under religious instruction with the means of attending the public services of the Church with full advantage.

The

The Committee must now advert to the state of the Society's finances. They have to report, in the first place, that the collections made under the authority of the Royal Letter, issued towards the close of the year 1842, have produced to the 31st of March last, from 8,840 returns, the sum of £30,818; and the Committee do not venture to hope that the sum above named will be materially increased; and the total sum to be expected will fall somewhat short of the average amount received from the same source in former years; that average being about £35,000.

The Committee have specially to acknowledge donations of £100 each from J. Brown, Esq.; from Chas. Hoare, Esq., the Society's late Treasurer, this being his eighth donation to the same amount; from the Rev. Dr. Spranger; and from the Hon. John Simpson; also the like sums from four anonymous donors; and one of £125 from another anonymous contributor. Legacies to the amount of £790 have been bequeathed to the Society by the Rev. D. M. Bourne, Miss Simcoe, H. Stocking, Esq., and William Vale, Esq. The Committee have also received remittances from the Diocesan and District Societies and Committees,

to the amount of £1,722. Though this sum falls somewhat short of the usual average, the Committee must again, in their present Report, call the attention of the Annual Court to the great assistance rendered to the Society by these Associations. It will be borne in mind that those of them which make remittances to this Society, remit but a certain portion of their funds, not more than one-fourth, commonly, of their annual subscriptions, and a still smaller proportion of their donations; the benefit conferred by them must not, therefore, be estimated simply by the amount of their contribution to the general treasury of this Society, though this is, indeed, most valuable, and calls for grateful acknowledgment.

It is with much satisfaction that the Committee observe some increase during the past and present years in the amount of Annual Subscriptions; and they cannot but hope that augmentation may be made, progressively, from this source to the funds of the Society, as well as by the donations, which, in the past and former years, contributed in so large and liberal measure from a limited number of individuals, have mainly enabled the Society to continue hitherto its labours in the work of Christian piety and charity committed to it.

The present amount of Grants up to the 31st of March, was £55,015. And the sum in the Society's hands, to meet this demand, was £62,931 11s. 3d., leaving a disposable balance of only 7,916 11s. 3d. Of this sum it must be added, though the present Report, strictly speaking, belongs only to the year ending with the 31st of March, £7,065 has been pledged in Grants voted at the two Committees of last month and the present, reducing the above balance to £851 11s. 3d.

The Committee feel it absolutely impossible, though their treasury is thus nearly exhausted, to withhold the aid so earnestly sought from every quarter. They feel convinced that, when the case is known, as they trust it may soon be, and felt in all its urgency and importance, the liberal contributions of a Christian people will not be wanting to enable the Society to go on in its "work of faith and labour of love." Especially would they make their appeal to those who are deriving large incomes from those densely populated manufacturing and mining districts, the spiritual necessities of which so painfully pressed upon the consideration of the Society, and its sadly limited

means.

As a specimen of these urgent cases, the Committee cannot refrain from adducing, before they close this Report, the instances of the two parishes of Manchester and Stockport, which have recently been brought before them. The parish of Manchester, containing a population of half a million souls, is stated to have within it seven entire townships without Churches, with an amount of population in each, varying from 1,200 to nearly 5,000, respectively, altogether upwards of 20,000, exclusively of the large town districts. In Stockport there are three townships, containing populations of 1,400, 3,300, and 5,300, respectively, in like manner destitute of Churches. And there are other similar cases. It must be acknowledged, with all thankfulness, that much indeed has been done, and this irrespectively of the mass of population in the great towns themselves. Upwards of 50 Churches have been built within the last ten years, only in the Diocese of Chester, providing for more than 220,000 souls, "all of whom were heretofore debarred the ordinances and ministrations of the Established Church." And in the ten years between 1831 and 1841, the provision of Church-room in Cheshire and Lancashire has "increased in greater proportion than the population, yet there is a fearful deficiency still. Taking one in three, or thirtythree per cent., as the best amount to be provided of Church-accommodation, there is reported in twenty principal towns and parishes of Lancashire and Cheshire only, a deficiency of Churchroom for an aggregate of upwards of 227,000. In a communication lately received from the Diocese of Chester, it is said, "We want immediately 25 new Churches in Cheshire, of which 13 are most urgent cases, averaging 4,000 souls to each. We require 132 for Lancashire, of which 120 are urgent. We calculate on about 50 of these coming under the Clergy Endowment Act; on 11 being built from local resources; perhaps 12 are hopeless."

In this condition of things, it must be the fervent hope and prayer of every one who has the welfare of his country at heart, that it may please Almighty God to move the hearts of his servants to a large measure of bountifulness, and that every member of our Church may be brought to feel the urgent obligation which lies upon him to lend his aid, according to the ability with which he is blessed, to this great and holy work.

HAS Dr. Hampden the right of stopping Divinity Degrees? That is to say, is the consent of the Regius Professor of Divinity necessary for obtaining a Divinity Degree?

This is a simple question of fact, and must be decided by an appeal to the Statutes. The Regius Professor is what the Statutes of the University make him, and nothing more. No vague undefinable powers belong to him simply from his title of Regius Professor. The title of itself confers nothing: whatever powers may accompany it must depend upon academical law for their existence.

Do the Statutes of the University then give the Regius Professor this power? They do not. Any one may satisfy himself on this head by merely looking over the Statutes relating to the subject. From the Exercises in the Schools, in the first instance, up to the granting of the grace in Congregation, to the Presentation, and the Degree, they do not once mention or imply such a right, as belonging to the Regius Professor.

1. The Statute which regulates the performance of the Exercises for Divinity Degrees is as follows:

Tit. VI. Sect. vi.

§ 2. Exercitia pro Gradu Baccalaurei in Theologia præstanda.

"Statutum est, quod is, qui ad Gradum Baccalaurei in S. Theologia promoveri cupit, priusquam Gratiam proponat, bis in disputationibus Theologicis pro Forma Opponentis principalis, (id est, primo vel secundo loco disputantis) munere perfunctus fuerit, et semel per duas horas in Schola Theologica pro Forma responderit.

"Quodque ante hujusmodi Disputationes, Quæstiones, una cum nominibus Opponentium et Respondentis, per septem dies integros significentur, programmate affixo valvis utriusque exterioris Portæ Scholarum, ac insuper muris Collegii Omnium Animarum, et Oriel, qua Australis et Occidentalis parietes Plateam versus in angulos coeunt."

This Statute, which was formally reenacted in 1833, is the one upon which the Exercises for Divinity Degrees now

rest.

And this Statute, so far as the letter is concerned at any rate, does not give the powers, now claimed, to the Regius Professor-for one plain reason

-that it does not once mention his name throughout. But let us allow it to be interpreted by an ancient one, (Tit. viii.) abrogated now, which speaks of the Regius Professor as 66 moderator," in the ordinary theological disputations, of which the disputationary exercises for Divinity Degrees are supposed by some to have been a branch. It then simply remains to see what the meaning of the word "moderator" is. Dr. Johnson, citing the old authorities, gives it,

"One who presides in a disputation to restrain the contending parties from indecency, and confine them to the question.

"How does he seasonably commit the opponent with the respondent, like a long-practised moderator.' More."

The part of" moderating" then only gives the Regius Professor certain regulating and managing functions with respect to the Disputations which are held for the Degree: it gives him no sort of power as to granting or withholding the Degree itself. The office of moderator in the Exercises is wholly distinct from that of Judge of the Degree, and therefore the Regius Professor has clearly no control over the Degree, so far as this stage of the proceedings is concerned.

2. After the performance of the Exercises comes the Supplication for the Grace in Congregation. And here, again, Congregation is the sole arbiter. The three parties which compose Congregation, viz. the Majority of Regents, the Vice-Chancellor, and the Proctors, grant the grace. And all that any other party, be he Regius Professor of Divinity, or any one else, can do, is to suspend the Degree three times; after which, he is obliged to give his reason for doing so, and the validity of this reason is decided on by Congregation.Corpus Statutorum, p. 83.

3. With respect to the Presentation of the Divinity Candidate, there is no ground whatever for making the Regius Professor of Divinity the necessary Presentor. His name is not mentioned in the Statute regulations on this point. The Professorships of the other departments, too, are not invested with any such privilege; and why should it attach to the Divinity Professorship more than to the others?-Corpus Stat. p. 94.

4. The form of conferring the Degree is performed by the Vice-Chancellor solely.