2. On the following Sunday there shall be in every such church or chapel a Solemn Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, at which shall be sung the Te Deum, with the usual versicles and prayers, with the prayer also Fidelium Deus Pastor et Rector, for the Pope.

3. The Collect Pro Gratiarum Actione, or Thanksgiving, and that for the Pope, shall be recited in the Mass of that day, and for two days following.

4. Where Benediction is never given, the Te Deum, with its prayers, shall be recited or sung after Mass, and the Collects above named shall be added as enjoined.

And at the same time earnestly entreating for ourselves, also, a place in your fervent prayers, We lovingly implore for you and bestow on you the blessing of Almighty God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.

Given out of the Flaminian Gate of Rome, this seventh day of October, in the year of our Lord MDCCCL.

LORD JOHN RUSSELL'S LETTER TO THE RIGHT REV. THE BISHOP OF DURHAM.

"the late

as " insolent

MY DEAR LORD,-I agree with you in considering aggression of the Pope upon our Protestantism and insidious," and I therefore feel as indignant as you can do upon the subject.

I not only promoted to the utmost of my power the claims of the Roman Catholics to all civil rights, but I thought it right, and even desirable, that the ecclesiastical system of the Roman Catholics should be the means of giving instruction to the numerous Irish immigrants in London and elsewhere, who, without such help, would have been left in heathen ignorance.

This might have been done, however, without any such innovation as that which we have now seen.

It is impossible to confound the recent measures of the Pope with the division of Scotland into dioceses by the Episcopal Church, or the arrangement of districts in England by the Wesleyan Conference.

There is an assumption of power in all the documents which have come from Rome-a pretension to supremacy over the realm of England, and a claim to sole and undivided sway, which is inconsistent with the Queen's supremacy, with the rights of our bishops and clergy, and with the spiritual independence of the nation, as asserted even in Roman Catholic times.

I confess, however, that my alarm is not equal to my indignation.

Even if it shall appear that the ministers and servants of the Pope in this country have not transgressed the law, I feel persuaded that we are strong enough to repel any outward attacks. The liberty of Protestantism has been enjoyed too long in England to allow of any successful attempt to impose a foreign yoke upon our minds and consciences. No foreign prince or potentate will be permitted to fasten his fetters upon a nation which has so long and so nobly vindicated its right to freedom of opinion, civil, political, and religious.

Upon this subject, then, I will only say that the present state of the law shall be carefully examined, and the propriety of adopting any proceedings with reference to the recent assumptions of power deliberately considered.

There is a danger, however, which alarms me much more than any aggression of a foreign Sovereign.

Clergymen of our own Church, who have subscribed the Thirty-nine Articles, and acknowledge in explicit terms the Queen's supremacy, have been the most forward in leading their

flocks, "step by step, to the very verge of the precipice." The honour paid to saints, the claim of infallibility for the Church, the superstitious use of the sign of the cross, the muttering of the Liturgy so as to disguise the language in which it is written, the recommendation of auricular confession, and the administration of penance and absolution,—all these things are pointed out by clergymen of the Church of England as worthy of adoption, and are now openly reprehended by the Bishop of London in his Charge to the clergy of his diocese.

What, then, is the danger to be apprehended from a foreign Prince, of no great power, compared to the danger within the gates from the unworthy sons of the Church of England herself?

I have little hope that the propounders and framers of these innovations will desist from their insidious course. But I rely with confidence on the people of England, and I will not bate a jot of heart or hope so long as the glorious principles and the immortal martyrs of the Reformation shall be held in reverence by the great mass of a nation which looks with contempt on the mummeries of superstition, and with scorn at the laborious endeavours which are now making to confine the intellect and enslave the soul.

I remain, with great respect, &c.,

Downing-street, Nov. 4.

J. RUSSELL.

APPENDIX (D.)

THE ADDRESS OF THE WESTMINSTER CLERGY* TO THE BISHOP OF LONDON.

THE following Address was presented on Friday, October 25, at London House, to the Lord Bishop of London, who expressed

* See reply, post, p. 137.

his entire concurrence in the sentiments and language of the Memorial :

"TO THE RIGHT REV, FATHER IN GOD, CHARLES JAMES, LORD BISHOP OF LONDON.

"We, the undersigned, clergy of the city and liberties of Westminster, approach your Lordship with deep feelings of affectionate veneration for your Lordship's person and office.

"We feel ourselves constrained to resort to your Lordship for counsel, under circumstances of an unprecedented character. "For the first time since the Reformation a Romish ecclesiastic, nominated by the Bishop of Rome, has assumed the title of Archbishop of an English City; and the English city whose name he has usurped is that in which the sovereigns of England are crowned, the Parliaments of England sit, and the laws of England are administered-the city of Westminster.

"We have reason to believe that this step is only a preliminary one, and that, unless it be now checked, it will soon be followed by others of the same tendency; that names of other English cities or towns will be assumed as titles of Episcopal Sees by other Romish ecclesiastics; and that a general effort will be made by the Papacy to give a complete provincial and diocesan organization to its own hierarchy in England and Wales.

"Being persuaded that, according to the fundamental principles of the universal Church, there can be but one metropolitan in a province, and one bishop in a diocese, in a country like England, where one language is spoken, we deeply deplore and solemnly protest against this unwarrantable act of religious division, by which the Church of Rome has now given fresh evidence to the world that, instead of being, as she professes to be, a centre of spiritual unity, she is the main cause of the unhappy schism that rends Christendom asunder.

"We lament also the fact, that, among British subjects, and especially among Christian ecclesiastics, any should be found to assume a title taken from a metropolitan city in the realm of England, and thus be guilty of invading Her Majesty's constitutional prerogative, which is to be the sole fountain of

honour and dispenser of titles in that realm, and so be justly chargeable with an outrage against the British Constitution, and with indignity to the British Crown.

"We, therefore, the undersigned, having been duly called according to the laws of this Church and realm, to discharge spiritual functions in that city in which the Bishop of Rome now assumes to himself pre-eminence, and over which he has set up a claim to exercise authority by nominating an Archbishop thereof; and being bound by our ordination vows to maintain peace and quietness in Church and State, and to 'banish and drive away all erroneous and strange doctrines contrary to God's Word;' and having solemnly declared our assent to the principle embodied in the Ordinal, Articles, and Canons of our Church, that 'the Queen's Majesty under God is the only supreme governor of this realm, as well in all spiritual or ecclesiastical causes as in temporal,' and that ‘no foreign prince or prelate hath, or ought to have, here any power, superiority, pre-eminence, or authority, ecclesiastical or spiritual,' and that'the Bishop of Rome hath no jurisdiction in this realm of England,' feel it our bounden duty in the present emergency to crave directions from your Lordship's wisdom and authority how we may best vindicate the rights of our Church and country, which are now assailed, and may, with the Divine blessing, avert the dangers with which we are menaced, and maintain the peace of society and the cause of unity and truth.

"That Almighty God may long vouchsafe to continue the blessing of your Lordship's life and health, to the benefit of this diocese and of the Church and country at large, is, and will be, our most hearty prayer at the throne of grace.”—From the Record, Oct. 28, 1850.

APPENDIX (E.)

REPLY OF THE BISHOP OF LONDON TO THE MEMORIAL FROM THE WESTMINSTER CLERGY.

YESTERDAY, the Bishop of London sent the following Reply to the Memorial signed by the Canons of Westminster, and a large