leaven his philosophy with lessons more important, and to bring in the teachings of a greater than Aristotle, taking the Bible which he loved, and which, it is said, he had learned by heart, more and more for his text-book; and launching forth into a wider sea of remark and discussion as day followed day, and his mind expanded and his system grew.

We are not told whether Pico, when his beloved friar came back, made Fra Girolamo's teaching fashionable in Florence; but no doubt he had his share in indicating to the curious the new genius which had risen up in their midst. And as the Frate lectured to the boy Dominicans, discoursing of everything in heaven and earth with full heart and inspired countenance, there grew gradually about him. a larger audience, gathering behind the young heads of that handful of convent lads, an ever-widening circle of weightier listeners-men of Florence, one bringing another to hear a man who spoke with authority, and had, if not pretty periods to please their ears, something to tell them-greatest of all attractions to the ever-curious soul of

man.

It was summer, and. Fra Girolamo sat in the cloister, in the open square which was the monks' garden, under a rose tree. "Sotto un rosajo di rose damaschine "-a rose-tree of damask

roses! Never was there a more touching, tender incongruity than that perfumed canopy of bloom over the dark head covered with its cowl. Beneath the blue sky that hung over Florence, within the white square of the cloister with all its arching pillars, with Angelico's Dominic close by kneeling at the crossfoot, and listening too, this crowd of Florentines gathered in the grassy inclosure incircling the scholars and their master. A painter could not desire a more striking sceno. The roses waving softly in the summer air above, and the lads in their white convent gowns with earnest faces lifted to the speaker--what a tender central light do they give, soft heart of flowers and youth to the grave scene! For grave as life and death were the speaker and the men that stood around and pressed him on every side. Before long he had to consent, which he did with reluctance, to leave his quiet cloister and return to the pulpit where once his Lombard accent had brought him nothing but contempt and failure. Thus the first chapter of Fra Girolamo's history ends, under the damask rosetree in the warm July weather, within those white cloisters of San Marco. In the full eye of day, in the pulpit and the public places of Florence, as prophet, spiritual ruler, apostle among men, was the next period of his life to be passed. Here his probation ends.

morality, without restraint or interference. The natural result follows. The laity lose their interest in the practical work of the Church, and can be stimulated only by the zest of that extreme sectarian partizanship which is more and more supplanting the old rational Church of England feeling. And the clergy fail, exactly as men must fail, who are at once responsible for the performance of duties, but not responsible to any authority, or even to public opinion, for the way in which they are done. The characters of men are, in great measure, moulded and formed by that pressure from which the clergy are far too much emancipated; hence the best of the clergy test their work by a conscience, which, though often mistaken, is most strong, and even exacting, while the worst of them take things as easily as human nature when left to itself is wont to do. Lay influence ceases to operate exactly where it would be most beneficial, namely in the case of well-intentioned, but weakminded clergymen, who do not feel themselves either encouraged or restrained by any responsibility which their people can make them feel. They get their money, and exercise their rights, whether the work is performed to the satisfaction of the people or not. Surely there is no parallel to this in any other sphere of English public life. It accounts for whatever there is of alienation, indifference, impatience, and lack of united vigorous effort. It stamps the English Church as un-English in an important, nay, a vital point. A very cursory survey would convince us that things are so bad as to suggest the alternative-either reform or destruction. The cry of the best of the clergy for lay co-operation, the unsatisfactory, hesitating way in which the relations of clergy and laity are handled, the undecided attitude of the latter as to what they want or complain of, are very serious symptoms. Church reform must therefore take in hand this matter, and must set itself to solve the problem, namely, how shall we strengthen the other two elements in the constitution of

the Church, the Laity and Episcopacy, so as to obtain by a balance of powers a freedom of corporate action analogous to what we call in individuals the freedom of the will?

In dealing with local self-government in Church affairs two questions at once present themselves. First, who shall be the electors; second, what shall be the power of the representatives whom they elect. Now, it is not to be denied that the first question is a really difficult one. We are throughout these suggestions treating the Established Church as an institution national in name and in idea, but requiring to be thoroughly reformed in order that it may become national in fact and in extent. meanwhile, until this object is attained, we have to deal with a state of things that makes legislation difficult, not so much from any practical obstacles as from certain objections which have a plausible and reasonable show, and which reflect but too faithfully the prejudices and the fears of Church people. No statesman who has ever realised the meaning of an Established Church, can hesitate for a moment as to the com.

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position of the future constituency. The same Vestry that elects church wardens now must elect them for ever, so long as the Church remains national; or if the constituency is altered, it must be only in the direction of widening and strengthening it by the admission of Church people who are not ratepayers. No doubt, this would include a large number of people who are conscientiously opposed to the existence of the Establishment, but that opposition does not in the least disentitle them from their share in the administration of public property. Nor would they be able, even if as a rule they were willing (I entirely deny that they would be willing) to inflict any harm upon the Church. When, I should like to be told, have Dissenters sought to assail the Church by controlling the election of Churchwardens now? fact is, that the grievance on the part of Churchmen is purely a sentimental, and not a practical one; no doubt a fertile imagination could picture a

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thousand injuries and difficulties to which the only answer is that practically they never come to pass. One precaution, and only one, might indeed be suggested, but I do not attach much importance to it. Before a ratepayer was admitted as a voting member of the Church Vestry, he might be required to sign some such declaration as this:"I., A. B., do hereby declare that I claim to vote in the Vestry of the Church of so and so." If this were signed, say three months before admission, it would prevent a rush of hostile electors suddenly brought in at some emergency, and would go some way to show that the voter was really interested in Church affairs. Whether Dissenters would sign in practice this declaration would rest with themselves-I am sure I wish that they would-but, anyhow, all attempts. to narrow the limits of a national Church by artificial or enforced qualifications are useless, and in the long run suicidal.

It is necessary to meet here. another plausible and reasonable objection. In large towns parochial limits are for religious purposes non-existent; people attach themselves to the church they like best, and it would be folly to insist upon their being members of the Vestry of a church they never entered and felt no interest in. To this the answer. is that persons living in. a given area, say a town, or a large old parish, should have the right of joining the Vestry of any church in it. Thus anyone living in the parish of St. Pancras, or the city of York, might belong to any one of the numerous churches in the parish or city respectively, and thus, what is so very desirable, congregational variety would be preserved.

The constituency being thus settled, there is no need to make much alteration in the existing mode of election. Most emphatically I do not propose that the Vestry should be called upon from time to time to decide Church matters at large and excited public meetings; anything which tended to restrain this practice might surely be accepted by the clergy as sufficient compensation for the curtailment of their present nearly

absolute power. The vestry would have as much to do with the actual government of the parish as the constituencies have to do with Parliamentary legislation-that and no more. Once a year, at Easter, the Vestry would elect not two, but a Board of Church wardens, whom I shall call hereafter the Select, or Church Vestry. The vicar would still be ex-officio chairman of the Board, and would, as now, appoint one member; it would be very desirable that the Bishop should appoint another, the remainder, varying in number according to the size of the parish, being of course chosen by the. Vestry. Board would succeed to all the rights and duties of the present churchwardens, but then, unhappily, to say this is not saying much, but is only raising another delicate and embarrassing question. For the legal relations between the clergy and the churchwardens are in the most unsatisfactory state, as is sure to be the case in communities that, whether from chance or compulsion, live under obsolete and undefined laws. Nor

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would the most elaborate regulations as to the respective rights and duties of the clergyman and Select Vestry be of the slightest avail. These would very soon shape themselves, when once the preliminary question, "In whose hands shall power be placed?" is settled. To this, then, we address ourselves.

Now, every one knows, that the test of the possession of power is the control of the purse-strings. All public bodies,. from the House of Commons downwards, are in possession of real power just so far as they have the control of the money wherewith to carry on the business intrusted to them. But in the Church the clergyman is, as we are often rather disagreeably reminded, a freeholder for life: alone of public servants he draws his pay irrespective of popular consent and public usefulness. While Premiers and Judges are paid quarterly, Bishops are lords of manors and owners of estates.1 While

1 To make this assertion good, it may be well to state a fact with which few people are, I fancy, acquainted. In accordance with this

civil servants find nothing degrading in salaries, the clergy rejoice in glebe and tithes. Hence we discern the cause of the failure of voluntary Church Councils. Wherever they have been tried, they have been found to work with just that amount of flickering and transient success that goes to show that a germ of something real and efficient lies at the bottom of the idea. But Englishmen are far too busy and practical to waste their time and energies by taking part in shams; where the money is, there the power is, and at present the money is, for all practical purposes, entirely at the disposal of the clergyman. Hence the plain self-evident result is that any clergyman can defy with impunity the judgment of the Bishop, the wishes of his people, and practically the power of the law.

Again,

Such, then, is the state of things for which a remedy is to be found. We do not wish to make the clergy dependent upon the people for their incomes-that is virtually disestablishment. we do not wish to retain the present system by which they are life owners, instead of trustees of national property, holding it for the public good. We must, therefore, devise a compromise, and I beg the serious consideration of all who wish to nationalize and vivify the. English Church to the suggestion I am about to make. It is this: I would vest the whole property and income of the parish from every source (fees excepted) in the Select Vestry constituted as above described.

What, we at once ask, would be the

Act, the Ecclesiastical Commissioners are now engaged in re-settling estates and manors upon the Bishops, so that in due time land to the value of about £150,000 per annum will be in their possession as freeholders for life. Whether any, and if so, what, precautions are taken against the revival of ancient abuses, I do not know; but that some abuses will certainly revive is abundantly clear. I heard of this first from a farmer, who was complaining strongly of the change of landlords. "But after all," he said, "how can you expect a Bishop to put me up a new gate, when he has got to provide for his children out of a few years' occupation of the estate?" Is this a desirable feeling to encourage?

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mutual relations of clergymen and people in respect of money? tically they would be very little altered. The Board of Churchwardens (or Select Vestry) would be under agreement to pay the incumbent the whole of the proceeds of the living, or such a sum as might be arranged between themselves and the patron (the Bishop consenting). at each vacancy. They would manage the estate together with the voluntary offerings that might now be expected to flow in, and one collateral advantage would be a rise in the value of Church property, due to the power of granting fixed leases, better management and ability to make improvements. The clergyman-except as chairman of the Select Vestry-would be exempt from the too often disagreeable position of collector of rents and lessor of lands. imagine that a considerable quantity of evidence could be collected to show that the management of Church property under locally-elected trustees works well. One instance-that of the fabric fund of Holy Trinity, Coventry-is known to the writer of this paper.

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Now let us observe the effect of this change. We can readily understand how lively an interest would be created in the welfare of the Church how much good might be effected by consultation, the expression of wishes, the desire for harmony, and the interchange of opinion. If anything is ever likely to draw back Dissenters to the Church this is it: it would satisfy the reasonable desire of taking a part in Church management and contributing to its religious efficiency. And under any circumstances no one who knows anything of the ordinary English churchwarden can doubt that the effect of this local government would be to exercise an influence in the direction of mutual good-will and toleration. But the real advantage would be in the relations of the clergyman to the people, though even here the actual change would be small in comparison with the moral alteration in their feelings towards each other. The clergyman's legal right to his income would remain exactly as it was before, for the Vestry