they may be nominated to Bishoprics, and yet whose opinions are regarded by their own body with something more than jealousy. It is, then, at least supposable, that an Archbishop, or Dean and Chapter, imbued with the sentiments common among clergymen, should be called on to elect, or, what is still worse, to consecrate one of whom they cannot in their consciences approve; or, what is the same thing, that circumstances may arise under which the penalties incurred on a refusal to elect or consecrate, will interfere directly with the plain dictates of conscience. I ask then, are such penalties, be they what they may, consistent with the principles of modern legislation? Can they be consistently upheld by persons who have condemned the Test Act as unjust and oppressive? Is the case of dissenters so very unlike that of churchmen that it can be right to treat their conscientious scruples so differently? It must certainly be felt that, under such circumstances, to subject a set of clergymen to any penalties whatever, even to the most trifling civil disabilities, is to interfere, and very inconsistently, with freedom of conscience.

How great, then, is the amount of this inconsistency, when we take into account what these penalties are to which such clergymen subject themselves: i. e. those of the Statutes of Provision and Præmunire, made in the 25th of Edward III., and the 16th of Richard II. It is really to be hoped, for the credit of those who speak so often and so successfully on the subject of religious liberty, that

they are ignorant of the nature of these two atrocious statutes. They are as follows:

"A.D. 1350.

“The Statute of Provisors1 of Benefices, made in the 25th year of Edward III.

*

"And in case that the Presentees of the King, or the Presentees of other Patrons or Advowees, or they to whom the King, or such Patrons or Advowees aforesaid, have given Benefices pertaining to their Presentments or Collations, be disturbed by such Provisor, so that they may not have possession of such Benefices by virtue of the Presentments or Collations made to them, or that they which be in possession of such Benefices be impeached of the said possessions by such Provisors : then the said Provisors, their Procurators, Executors, and Notaries, shall be attached by their body and brought to answer: And if they be convicted, they shall abide in prison, without being let to mainprize, or bail, or otherwise delivered, till they have made fine and ransom to the King, at his will, and agree to the party that shall feel himself aggrieved.

"And nevertheless, before that they be delivered, they shall make full renunciation, and find sufficient surety that they shall not attempt such things in time to come."

1 Provisores dicuntur qui vel Episcopatum vel Ecclesiasticam aliam Dignitatem in Romanâ Curiâ ambiebant.-Spelman's Glossary.

"Whereupon our said Lord the King, by the assent aforesaid', and at the request of his said Commons, hath ordained and established, that if any purchase or pursue, or cause to be purchased or pursued, in the Court of Rome or elsewhere, by any such Translations, Processes, and Excommunications, Bulls, Instruments, or any other things whatsoever, which touch the King, against him, his crown, his royalty, or his realm, or them receive, or make thereof notification, or any other execution whatsoever, within this same realm or without, that they, their Notaries, Procurators, Maintainers, Abettors, Fautors, and Counsellors, shall be put out of the King's protection, and their lands and tenements, goods and chattels, forfeit to our Lord the King: and that they be attached by their bodies, if they may be found, and brought before the King and his Council, there to answer to the cases aforesaid: or that process be made against them by "Præmunire facias," in manner as is ordained in other Statutes of Provisors."

The penalties of these statutes are, as the law of England now stands, transferred from those against whom they were originally enacted, to any Archbishop or Dean and Chapter who dare act on the plain dictates of conscience in refusing to elect or

1 Of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal.

consecrate state favourites of whose principles they disapprove they, their notaries, procurators, maintainers, abettors, fautors, and ecansellors, are to be put out of the protection of the law: their lands and tenements, goods and chattels, all forfeited to the king; and themselves to abide in prison, without being let to mainprize or bail, or otherwise delivered, till they have made fine and ransom at the King's will, and have satisfied the parties that consider themselves aggrieved, and have made full renunciation, and found sufficient surety that they shall not attempt such things in time to come: i. e. till they have pledged themselves to violate the plain dictates of conscience.

Such is the law of England as it at present stands, a law which is allowed to exist in the nineteenth century, and by a nation second to none in its admiration of religious liberty.

But to place this whole subject in a clearer light, and to enable persons themselves unconcerned to enter into the feelings of electors when ordered, under circumstances at least supposable, to choose a Bishop of whom they cannot approve, it may be useful to exhibit, at one view, all the formal proceedings which take place at such elections. These documents will be found not unworthy of perusal as mere matters of curiosity; but as monuments of the spirit in which elections were once conducted, and ought to be conducted now, and as showing the incongruity of this spirit with that of the foregoing statutes, they are invaluable.

having, or pretending to have, any right or interest in the ensuing election, which runs as follows :—

Citatory Letter from the Dean and Chapter.

"A. B., Dean of the Cathedral Church of ——, in the Diocese of, and the Chapter of the said Church, send greeting to

"Whereas the episcopal see of

by the death late Bishop

of the Right Rev. Father in God, thereof, is vacant and destitute of a Pastor; and we, the said Dean and Chapter, have on this present with all due reverence received in our Chapter House from his most excellent Majesty William IV. Letters of Congè d'Elire under the Great Seal of Great Britain, for choosing another Bishop and Pastor of the said Cathedral Church, and also other Letters Recommendatory, under the Signet of his said Majesty, to us the Dean and Chapter directed; we, the said Dean and Chapter, according to the same respective Letters, have determined to proceed to the election of a future Bishop in our said Cathedral Church so as aforesaid vacant, and have appointed that you the aforesaid in particular, and the Canons of the said Church in general, and others having, or pretending to have, right or interest in the said election, be lawfully cited to

hours of ten and twelve in the forenoon of the same

day, to give your votes respectively.

"We do therefore, by virtue of these Citatory Letters, warn you, the said

that you do