the Lords, but to prepare an address of its own; yet, when an address came down to them, the Lower House heartily joined in it, only proposing a slight alteration, which the Prelates approved. Ripples quickly rose on the surface of debate. According to Atterbury, upon the 8th of March, the Dean of Peterborough, Dr. Freeman, already mentioned, behaved amiss, and threw out words reflecting on the Prolocutor, for which a censure was demanded, and would have followed, had the offender not begged pardon. The confused statement made to this effect, indicates that some of the Clergy resisted the highflown policy of their brethren; two days afterwards, however, we find both Houses amicably taking a journey to the pleasant village of Kensington, where stood His Majesty's favourite palace. At half-past two on Monday afternoon, March the 10th, the Archbishop and Bishops, in their distinctive attire, and the Prolocutor in his cap and hood, and the rest of the Clergy following, took coach at the west end of the Abbey. They proceeded by Knightsbridge and the side of the Park-the trees beginning to bud with early spring, the people by the way watching the dignitaries as their faces peered through the windows of the lumbering vehicles—until, arriving at the Dutch-looking palace, with its prim gardens, the procession of the Clergy reached the Royal presence the Bishops going to the right hand of the throne, the Prolocutor and the rest to the left. A loyal address was presented, and a gracious reply returned.

The tug of war, of which there had been omens before that pleasant excursion, began in earnest soon afterwards.

The Lower House asserted its claim to independent action, to adjourn itself when and where it pleased, to

originate and transact any business whatsoever and howsoever it pleased; always, it should be distinctly stated, choosing its time of sitting according to the time fixed by his Grace of Canterbury's schedule. To accomplish what was designed, committees of the whole House were appointed, who claimed a right to sit, in this form at least, upon intermediate days, when many did so assemble under cover of a strict adherence to admitted rules; but others would not, counting it a breach of law in substance, if not in form. A matter of business, originating in the Lower House, without consultation with the Upper, and in known opposition to its wishes, was the examination of a certain heretical book-namely, Toland's Christianity not Mysterious-the object of which is explained on the title page, "A Treatise showing that there is nothing in the Gospel contrary to Reason, nor above it, and that no Christian Doctrine can be called a Mystery."

It should be stated, that at the same time another book, entitled, Essays on the Balance of Power, in which the author asserted, that men had been promoted in the Church who were remarkable for nothing but their disbelief in the Divinity of Christ-a statement intended to bring certain Bishops into disrepute-attracted the attention of the Upper House; upon which their Lordships caused to be affixed to the Abbey doors a paper calling upon the author, whoever he might be, to make good his assertions or to submit to punishment for so base and public a scandal. This was an extraordinary plan, reminding one-chiefly, however, by contrast as to importance— of Luther's doctrinal theses affixed to the church gates at Wittenberg; and also recalling-more in the way of resemblance-how Archbishop Arundel's citation of Lord Cobham was stuck on the entrance to Rochester Cathedral, to be defied by him to whom it was addressed.

When Toland's book was sent up from the Lower House to the Bishops for judgment, they felt that it was a serious matter to enter upon the business, as by condemning certain published opinions, and approving others, they might be altering the recognized doctrines of the Church. Legal objections had on a similar occasion been alleged against such proceedings, because of the consequences they might involve; now they were urged afresh. The Bishops, therefore, came to the conclusion, in accordance with the advice of eminent lawyers, that they could not censure the books without license from the King, lest they should incur certain penalties.

Upon the eve of a prorogation for Easter, after the dispute about the rights of sitting and adjournment had been carried on with an obstinacy which it would be tiresome to describe, the Archbishop delivered to the members of Convocation a speech, in which he alluded to the existing dispute: "We have many enemies, and they wait for nothing more than to see the union and order of this Church, which is both its beauty and its strength, broken by those who ought to preserve it." "For the maintaining the episcopal authority is so necessary to the preservation of the Church, that the rest of the Clergy are no less concerned in it than the Bishops themselves." "I have thought fit, with the rest of my brethren, to prorogue the Convocation for some time. It is a season of devotion, and I pray God it may have a good effect on all our minds." "We, on our part, are willing to forget all that is past, and to go on with you at our next meeting, as well as at all times, with all tenderness and parental affection, in all such things as shall conduce to the good of this Church."1

'These extracts are given in Lathbury's History of Convocation, 351.

In spite of the prorogation until the 8th of May, the Prolocutor and some of the Clergy persevered in their assertion of independence, and sat for some hours the same day on which his Grace prorogued both Houses; then they adjourned to meet the next day. But this policy, being esteemed by some High Churchmen as a stretch of power quite unconstitutional, led to a secession, which considerably weakened the influence of the party.

When all had come back from celebrating the Easter festival, and the Prolocutor appeared before the Upper House with a paper in his hand, the Primate returned to the old charge of irregularity, and told him he could not recognize any of the proceedings carried on since his adjournment. The Prolocutor replied, that he had been commanded by the Lower House to bring up the paper, and did therefore present it, as an Act of the House. After being laid upon their Lordships' table, the paper was found to contain arguments against the course pursued by them in reference to Toland's work. The Bishops now proposed that committees from the two Houses should meet, with a view to an amicable arrangement, but the majority of the Lower House refused to nominate any committee for the purpose; a refusal which exceedingly annoyed several members. The majority determined to ride the high horse, and to dig the spur into its flanks; so when the schedule of adjournment next time came down, the Prolocutor refused to notice it at all, and adjourned on his own authority; an act against which Beveridge, Sherlock, and others protested, in a paper which they signed and presented to the Archbishop. What still more annoyed the Upper House, was that the Clergy, under the Prolocutor's presidency, agreed upon a censure of a book by one of the Prelates. This was The Exposition of the XXXIX Articles, by Bishop Burnet,

in which, with learning, moderation, and good temper, he expounded the doctrines of the Church of England according to his idea, treating the Articles as terms of peace and union, intended to receive a considerable latitude of interpretation. Anything but unanimity and decorum of behaviour marked the proceedings of the Lower Assembly at this moment; and a report went abroad that one of the members, in consequence of a speech he delivered, ran the risk of having his gown torn off his back. The report is an exaggeration; it arose out of the conduct of some one who, by rudely twitching the dress of a speaker, put an end to his unpleasant oration. Words uttered within the Abbey walls were reported outside in garbled forms, which led to explanations and counter-explanations, to assertions and denials, which provoked fresh controversy, and it became a difficult thing to determine what exactly the two parties. up in arms did and said. Enough, however, was manifest to prove, that many of the ministers of religion, assembled to promote the prosperity of Christ's Church, were sadly forgetful of the simplest lessons of the Gospel.

Connected with the presentation of the censure upon Burnet's book to the Upper House, there occurred two or three curious episodes. Adjoining Adjoining the Jerusalem Chamber is a small apartment called the Organ Chamber; and there, a month before, on the 5th of April, had happened an incident which ruffled the feelings of the very reverend Prolocutor, and the clergymen who accompanied him. They were kept waiting at their Lordships' door, as they said, an hour and a half, as their opponents said, only so long as was needful to read their paper and debate upon it; the circumstance being attributed by some to the insolence of the Prelates, by others, to a