Bishop James, who succeeded Dr. Middleton in the see of Calcutta, was, by his practised habits of business and entire devotion to the great duties which devolved upon him, well qualified to promote the primary object of this society, the diffusing the knowledge of the Gospel among the heathen nations of Hindostan. Several important missions were established in the southern part of the peninsula ; and by the judicious manner in which their operations were conducted by the bishop, a powerful impulse was given to the cause of Christianity. The Society's labours have since been greatly extended, and it now has a very large number of missionaries, who are indefatigable in instructing the native youth of India, and in disseminating among them European knowledge and manners, as a means of adapting them to estimate the great importance of the truths of our religion. In the prosecution of these labours they owe much of their success to the direction and control of episcopal authority. They are united by it in principles and practice; they refer on all occasions to the councils and decisions and look to the support of a central and vigorous administration: they preach the same doctrines, and endeavour to establish a uniformity of rites and religious worship, and to connect the congregations which they shall form with the parent churches by the bands of discipline and good government. We cannot reasonably look forward to the successful propagation and lasting establishment of Christianity in these regions, without having a uniformity of design and a consistency of execution. The idolators will respect a church well disciplined, and well compacted-at unity with itself, upholding its own dignity, and maintaining harmony and good order amongst its members and ministers. It is this introduction of an ecclesiastical establish ment into India, which has given to our pure religion her

integrity of form and legitimate honours, and promoted the salutary influence of her ordinances. Formerly the Hindoo, not accustomed to look beyond the external ceremonies which his religion prescribed to him, saw nothing in the new religion to recompense him for abandoning the faith of his ancestors. But now the missionary adds weight to his exhortations, by pointing to a visible church, which holds out its arms to receive the new convert, and to shelter him from the taunts and injuries of the professors of his ancient faith; and which by supplying a system of external worship, satisfies his grosser perceptions of religious duty. Previous to the formation of the ecclesiastical establishment in India, the native, when he embraced the Gospel, appeared to tear himself from the world-to snap the bands by which he was united to his fellow men-to become a destitute and solitary being now he seems only to pass from one society to another, to substitute new relations, new ties, new duties, in the place of those he has voluntarily abandoned. Well may we be proud of our venerable church, which has sent forth her influence to lead the unhappy of a foreign land into the comforts of life, and the consolations of religion; which has demonstrated that the christians' neighbourhood has no other boundary than the confines of the earth, and that wherever men stand in need of help, and of the necessary instruction for salvation, she will continue to send her ministers to teach the pure doctrines of the Gospel.

We shall conclude this chapter with an extract from a sermon preached before this society by the Bishop of Bath and Wells. "Now, among the various institutions for the promotion of this design (the propagation of the Gospel in foreign parts,) none are planned with greater wisdom, none may be made productive of better effects, than this

incorporated society, the interests of which we are now met to recommend and to advance. For more than a century it has been labouring to diffuse the light of Christianity over the territories and dependencies of the British empire; and great, through its instrumentality, has been the number of them who have believed-believed, we hope, to the saving of their souls. But, we are far from having reached the termination. How large a portion of the habitable globe lies yet immersed in pagan darkness! How many myriads of intellectual beings are still uncheered, even with the single ray of divine truth-unblessed with the knowledge and hope of an hereafter! And shall we any longer continue wanting to this the first duty of a Christian nation? Shall our ships extend our commerce, and pour forth the manufactures of this land over the four quarters of the earth, without a wish, and an endeavour to communicate, at the same time, and by the same means, the glad tidings of the Gospel? When we review the wide limits of this powerful empire, its magnificent establishments, its wealth, its charities; when also we reflect on the peculiar and nearly exclusive advantages which, as a nation, we have enjoyed, we are almost led to observe, that the Society for Propagating the Gospel, is not upholden in a manner commensurate with its great designs. We deceive ourselves, if we fancy that we have made all the returns which the divine bounty and goodness demand; our gratitude to the Supreme Giver should be evinced in the manner which he himself has pointed out."

CHAPTER V.

EPISCOPACY IN ENGLAND,

WITH A LIST OF THE ARCHBISHOPS AND BISHOPS SINCE THE REFORMATION.

THE BISHOPS OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND-THEIR RANK, PRIVILEGES, POWER, AND MANNER OF ELECTION.-THE BISHOPS SINCE THE REFORMATION WHO HAVE FILLED THE SEES OF CANTERBURY-YORK-LONDON-DURHAM-WINCHESTER

LINCOLN-WORCESTER-HEREFORD-LICHFIELD-NORWICH-BATH AND WELLS-EXETER-SALISBURY-ROCHESTER-ELY-CARLISLE CHICHESTER-CHESTER

ST. DAVID'S-ST.

ASAPH-LLANDAFF-BANGOR-OXFORD-GLOUCESTER-BRIS

TOL AND PETERBOROUGH.

THE number of bishops in England, including the two archbishops, is twenty-seven, inclusive of the Bishop of Sodor and Man, who has no seat in the House of Lords. The province of Canterbury includes twenty-one dioceses; viz. of ancient foundation Rochester, London, Winchester, Norwich, Lincoln, Ely, Chichester, Salisbury, Exeter, Bath and Wells, Worcester, Coventry and Lichfield, Hereford, Llandaff, St. David's, Bangor and St. Asaph; and of new foundation, that is of those erected by Henry VIII., out of the ruins of dissolved monasteries, Gloucester and Bristol, Peterborough and Oxford. The province of York includes five; viz. York, Durham, Ripon, Chester, Carlisle, and Sodor and Man. They are all, except the last, peers of the realm, and as such sit and vote in the House of Lords, forming one of the three estates of parliament under the

to

name of the Lords Spiritual. They are barons in a threefold manner: feudal, in regard to the temporalities annexed their bishoprics by William the Conqueror, who changed the spiritual tenure of frank almoin, or free alms, under which the bishops held their lands during the Saxon government into the feudal or Norman tenure by barony, which subjected their estates to all civil charges and assessment, from which they were before exempt; secondly, by writ, as being summoned by writ to parliament; and lastly, by patent and creation. They have accordingly the precedence of other barons, and take rank next to viscounts. They vote as barons and bishops, and claim all the privileges enjoyed by temporal lords, except that they cannot be tried by their peers upon indictment for treason, or felony, or misprision of either; or, as it is said, sit in the court of the lord high steward, on the ground of their not being noble in blood. According to 31 Henry VIII. c. 10, the order of their sitting in parliament is thus laid down:-"The bishops shall sit in parliament, on the right side of the parliament chamber, in this order: First, the Archbishop of Canterbury; next to him, on the same form, the Archbishop of York; then the Bishop of London; then the Bishop of Durham; then the Bishop of Winchester; then all the other bishops after their order of creation." If any of them, however, be a privy councillor, it is enacted, that he shall take place after the Bishop of Durham.

The Archbishop of Canterbury is the first peer of the realm, and takes precedence immediately after the royal dukes. He is styled primate and metropolitan of England; "partly-according to Burn-because when the popes had taken into their own hands, in a great measure, the archiepiscopal authority, they invested the archbishops of Canterbury with a legantine authority over both the provinces; and