remonstrating against the illegality of the power which he assumed, to be sent to the Tower, on the plea of having published a seditious lible against the Sovereign and his government. The names of these venerable champions of our Faith were William Sancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury; William Loyd, Bishop of St. Asaph; Francis Turner, of Ely; John Lake, of Chichester; Thomas Ken, of Bath and Wells; Thomas White, of Peterborough; and Sir Jonathan Trelawney, of Bristol. Had they lifted up a finger, the people would have risen in a mass to their rescue, as it is proved from the old Cornish song made at the time, in which the writer asks

"And shall Trelawney die?

"There's twenty thousand Cornish men

will know the reason why."

But in all meekness and lowliness, without any attempt to excite the popular sympathy, nay with the strongest desire and effort to suppress it, they proceeded to the barges that were to convey them to the Tower. The populace expressed their feelings in tears and prayers. Thousands begged the blessing of the Bishops, even running into the water to implore it. Multitudes, kneeling and supplicating Heaven for their deliverence, lined the banks of the Thames as they passed. On landing at the Tower, several of the guards, and even some of the officers, knelt down to receive their blessing; and it was observed at the time, and deemed a mark of special Providential interposition, that on the evening of the Bishops' commitment, when they attended divine service in the Chapel of the Tower, the second lesson was the sixth chapter of the second Epistle to the Corinthians, wherein they were exhorted "to approve themselves ministers of GOD, with patience, in affliction, in imprisonment."-The same manifestation of popular feeling continued unabated throughout the following days. The nobility of both sexes hastened to proffer their solace and assistance to the venerable prisoners, and to beg their blessings; the soldiery on guard, notwithstanding the reprimand of their commanding officer, drank their healths; and dense masses of trueborn Englishmen thronged around the Tower, as if ready, should occasion arise, to do battle for the passive guardians of the common liberties. The portraits of the seven Bishops were afterwards published, engraved together on one sheet, under the title of "The Seven Golden Candlesticks," From " The Church;" a Church of England Newspaper printed at Coburg, Upper Canada.

SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL IN FOREIGN PARTS.-The Hon. and Rev. S. Best, who has kindly undertaken to advocate the Society's cause in the counties of Wilts and Dorset, says, in a letter," I have now attended several meetings, and have been much pleased with the zeal and ferventness in the cause that has been shewn. I have taken the opportunity of pressing on each meeting the importance of acting parochially, and have pointed out the facility and readiness with which this may be done. It gives me great pleasure to report that a strong feeling in favour of this system appears to be awakened, and all parties are beginning to apprehend the real strength of their position, and how important it is that the Church, which, in the establishment of this very Society, set the example of Missionary exertion, should take up and carry out its great principle." The receipts of this Society, for the first eight months of 1838, were 9,0071. and for the first eight months of 1839 they were 13,8017. shewing an increase during the first eight months of 1839, amounting to 4,7491.

THE HOUSE OF LORDS.—The whole, or nearly the whole, legislative power is transferred from the Lower to the Upper House. To the Lords' House it is, and not to their own, that the people turn their faces. On the proceedings in our chamber the eyes of the country are fixed; to the plain decisive judgments of our House, not to the vacillatings, uncertain, half-whispered, half-muttered sounds which escape the Commons, it is that the people give ear. In our House is carried on the business of the government of these realms, notwithstanding all the advantages which a representative capacity, a popular delegation, the power of the purse, the sole privilege of uttering the magical word "money," confer upon our sister assembly; and as the miserable impotency of legislation with which

she is stricken becomes daily more apparant, or at least the wretched condition of the few rickety productions which she from time to time contrives to bring forth, in the intervals of her constant abortions, is displayed to excite amazement, while they sue for piety, and are occasionally saved by us from perishing, the impression is now become universal, even in the Lower House itself, that the Lords, with all their faults, are an absolutely indispensable portion of the constitution, if, indeed they are not for the present the real lawgivers and rulers of the empire. You will naturally ask, why, in such circumstances, I should dwell upon a topic so self-evident as the impossibility of what is usually called "swamping" or "sluicing" the House of Peers? It is only because there are some who hold it possible to effect this purpose, not indeed by a sudden creation, but by gradually making a certain number of new creations, as six at the commencement, and six more at the close of each session. Admit this to be feasible, then ten years would be required to overcome the majority of 112 on one great question. But it is also clear (and this a decisive reason against all such operations), that many more must be created to counteract those whom this experiment would drive from the Ministerial benches. Observe how many we have made since the Whig reign began. UPWARDS OF FIFTY, AND YET are the MINISTERS STILL IN

A SMALL MINORITY, WITH ALL THE WEIGHT OF GOVERNMENT AT THEIR BACKS.

Lord Brougham's Letter to the Duke of Bedford.

PEWS IN PARISH CHURCHES. A question of considerable interest, and on which much ignorance prevails, came before the Chancellor of the diocese in the Consistory Court of Chester during the last month, in the shape of a suit brought by Mrs. Knubley against Mr. Norbury and others, churchwardens of the parish church at Flixton, Lancashire, for not having seated her and her family in the parish Church of Flixton, according to her situation and condition in life, she being a principal inhabitant and parishioner of that parish, and having duly applied to them to be so seated. The Chancellor, in delivering judgment, said, “I am not sorry that this suit has occurred, since it will enable the Court to promulgate its opinion on the general question, and give me an opportunity of correcting certain errors, which prevail more or less in most of our parish churches, and which operated most unhappily in contracting the accommodation that they offer. The Church at Flixton seems to include samples of most of these prevalent errors. We find pews claimed by an act of proscriptive right, which right has no existence. We find pews sold, when no legal sale can be effected. We find pews let, when the persons have no right to let them. Pews devised by will where the parties had no property in them. Pews claimed by non parishioners, who are precluded, as such from occupation. Pews considered as appurtenant to estates, when they can only be attached to tenements, and churchwardens allowing all these irregularities to take place under their eyes, without feeling that they are at liberty, or bound to correct them. If these irregularities were confined to one parish, it would matter less; but knowing as I do that they occur in almost all the Churches of our larger parishes, I am not sorry that an opportunity is offered of correcting a great and general evil, by applying a remedy to one particular case." Having mentioned the circumstances attending this particular case, his Honour said "The pews throughout Flixton Church, therefore, belong not to individuals, but to the parish, and it appertains to the parish officers to assign, as far as their power of assigning extends, such sittings to each family, as may seem due to their station in society and numbers. In such assignment it will be easily supposed that nothing is to be done hastily; the possessory right of a family is not to be disturbed except under peculiar circumstances; and I freely admit that the discretion vested in churchwardens, considering what their position is, and the various influences to which they are subject, is a delicate and difficult trust. But admitting this, and giving the churchwardens, in the present case, the fullest benefit of these considerations, it is necessary that they should be reminded, that a discretion thus entrusted to them must be exercised when due cause is shown, firmly and promptly; since it, and exercised manifestly an equal abuse of official power to do nothing as to do too much. I conceive then that they were bound to receive Mrs. Knubley's application, and to look round the Church for ihe means

of meeting it; but to say nothing of the manner in which they might have put their private application, the affidavits they gave in are unsatisfactory, and I must say evasive. They affirm that the plaintiff is already occupying four pews in the church, when they must have known that she did not occupy one as apurtenant to her mansion, but was a tenant-at-will, and paying rent for all she occupied; and they also say that there are no pews at their disposal, while they must have known that there were pews occupied by non-parishioners, and no pews over which they might not have exercised the right of enquiry and disposal. Mrs. Knubley's affidavit, in reply to this, specifies several pews in the Church which may be considered as disposable. Of some of these, no doubt can be entertained, as the plaintiff has been occupying them hitherto on payment of rent, and all possessory right is cancelled where an individual proves himself so indifferent to the purposes for which a pew is assigned, as to commute, for a trifling payment, the privilege of stated occupation. I would have churchwardens, therefore, consider all pews as ipso facto at their disposal, when the nominal possessor lets them out."

The judgment, in effect, directs that the churchwardens should appropriate a particular pew to the plaintiff and her family, and that the individual dispossessed by this arrangement should be accommodated elsewhere.

WHIG IMPARTIALITY TOWARDS THE CHURCH." In proof of the bitter enmity of the Whig ministers towards the Established Church, the following remarkable facts were stated by the Rev. S. Wilberforce, at a meeting of the Plymouth District Committee of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, held lately:"The rev. gentleman said that the Society had forty-two clergymen employed throughout the whole of the West India islands, and it was giving all its assistance in its power towards the erection of churches, chapels, and school-houses." He then continued, "In connection with this subject he felt it right to mention some facts, disclaiming, at the same time, most earnestly, anything like party feeling in alluding to them: but the truth must be told, and he should be ashamed of himself if he were ever backward in declaring it. He was bound, therefore, to say that one dark stain which was upon the conduct and policy of the Government of this country was its evident inclination to thwart the efforts of the Church, let it go where it would. In the case of the West Indies, a circumstance had occurred forcibly illustrating this, which he felt it to be his duty to state to them. When the Slave Emancipation Act was passed, it was deemed highly desirable to send out to those colonies more ample means for providing for the religious instruction of the negro population than were at that time available; and this Society was the first to step forward and make a proposition for this purpose. They went to the Government and said, 'We will undertake to raise the sum of £10,000, if the Government will meet it with a sum similar in amount.' At the same time a sectarian society came forward and made a similar offer to the Government. They said, We will raise £5,000 if you will meet it with £10,000, to be applied to this purpose.' And what was the conduct of the Government in relation to these two offers? Why, they accepted the offer of the Sectarian Society, and they rejected that of the Church. Now, setting aside the consideration of the claims which their own Society had upon the Government, as representing the Church, and assuming for a moment that the societies had been both sectarian, surely there could be no doubt that the most proper course for the Government to have pursued would have been to have accepted the largest offer, that which would have secured the appropriation of the greatest amount of money to the object sought to be obtained. This, however, was the offer which the Government had rejected, and that too, though it was backed by a most important consideration-namely, that it emanated in a society strictly in connexion with the Church recognised and established by law. Surely such conduct as this was too base and contemptable to merit further remark."-John Bull.

FALLING OF THE LEAF. The falling of the leaf is preceded by that beautiful, but somewhat sombre tint which has been appropriately denominated the Autumnal Tint which first makes its appearance in the topmost leaves of the

tree, proceeding gradually downward. There is something malancholy in this process, by which the trees are stripped of their beauty and left as monuments of decay and dissolution. In Scripture the Prophet tells us that "We do all fade as a leaf," meaning thereby, that human life in its changes, decay and final dissolution may fitly be compared to the "falling of the leaf;" whilst the Psalmist describes the righteous man to be like a tree planted by the waterside with ever blooming verdure, "whose leaf shall not wither." Homer has deduced, from the quick succession of the springing and the falling of the leaf, an apt comparison of the succession of the races of mankind:

"Like leaves on trees the race of man is found;
Now green in youth, now with'ring on the ground:
Another race the following spring supplies,
They fall successive, and successive rise,
So generations, in their course decay,

So flourish those, when these are pass'd away."

The autumnal tint occasioned by the loss of verdure, together with the shortened days, the diminishing warmth, and frequent rains, all proclaim the approach of winter. One of the first trees that becomes naked is the walnut; next follow the mulberry and the ash, if the latter should bear many keys; and next the horse-chesnut, All lopped trees, while their heads are young, carry their leaves a long time. Apple-trees and peaches remain green very late, often till the end of November. Young beeches never cast their leaves till spring, when the new leaves sprout and push the old ones off; in the Autumn the beechen leaves turn of a deep chesnut colour. Tall beeches cast their leaves about the end of October. The leaves of the ivy are renewed in the latter end of January. Great irregularity exists in the fall of the leaf in ash trees. Many trees will already have cast their foliage, while others in the same edge-row seem scarcely to have at all suffered from the chilling influence of Autumnal winds. This cannot be attributed to difference of exposure, for they have been observed almost alternately with each other in full leaf and denuded for miles along a road-side. Many ash trees bear loads of keys every year; others never seem to bear any. The prolific ones are naked of leaves and unsightly: those that are sterile abound in foliage, and carry their verdure a long time, and are pleasing objects.

THE CONSERVATIVES should make use of the recess to strengthen their positions in their several counties; above all-let them look well to the registration. Register! register! register!-there must be no apathy, no sluggishness, but activity and resolution, and above all, those Conservatives who are in Parliament should be constant and diligent in their attendance in the House; the advantages gained by the Whigs from their remissness is incalculable; we have made many appeals on this subject-let us hope this may be successful. The electors of Great Britain make great sscrifices to return them, they are in duty bound to labour in the cause; if they will not, they must be replaced by those who will. There are many of our Parliamentry friends who would do well to ponder on these things" England expects every Member to do his duty."John Bull.

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.

The Letter from "A Lay Member of the Chucrh of England" shall be inserted next month.

We feel

"A Churchman" will perceive that his poetical communication is inserted. much obliged to him for his offer of a prose communication on another subject; it is one which requires to be very carefully and cautiously treated, however, if he thinks it worth while to favour us with it, we shall have great pleasure in giving it a place in our pages, if in accordance with their spirit.

Owing to a press of matter, we are obliged to postpone, until next month, the notice of several works sent to us for review.

HISTORY OF THE CATHEDRAL OF WINCHESTER. THE first Cathedral erected at Venta, or Winchester, according to Rudborne, a monk of Winchester, who wrote a history of that church, was built by Lucius, a British king, who lived in the second century, and, according to the same authority, upon a very extensive scale. This edifice, however, was levelled with the ground during the persecution of the Christians by the Emperor Diocletian, in the end of the third century. The church, of Venta was rebuilt after the Christians were restored to their privileges and rights by Constantine the Great, in 312, on the same site, and, as it is said, in a similar form, but on a smaller scale. After the withdrawal of the Romans from Britain, Venta-Belgarum obtained the rank of a metropolis, and the British king Vortigern, and his successors, made it their principal residence, until the arrival of the Saxon chief, Cerdic, who founded the West Saxon kingdom. This chief besieged, and finally took possession of Venta, about the year 516, when the Cathedral was desecrated and converted into a heathen temple. The name of the city was also changed, and from Caer-Gwent, and Venta-Belgarum, the former names which it had received from the Britons and the Romans, it was called Winton-ceaster. The immediate successors of Cerdic continued to make Winchester their chief residence. In the year 635, the missionary Birinus arrived in Britain, and having obtained a favourable reception at the court of Kenegils, and his son Quilchelm, who at that time ruled over the kingdom of the West Saxons, he commenced his labours in the city of Winchester. Having converted Kenegils and many of his people, he removed to Dorchester, in Oxfordshire, where he established an

K K