THE RESUSCITATION OF CONVOCATION. [From the Times, November 15.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IX, Issue 802, 9 April 1853, Page 3

THE RESUSCITATION OF CONVOCATION. [From the Times, November 15.]

In spue of the formal and reiterated contradiction which was given in the name of the Government to the report that Convocation would be allowed to meet for the despatch of business, we have now the strongest possible argument in favour of our statement that this report was not unfounded. Convocation has met ; it has proceeded to consider several important questions, some of which have been referred to a standing Committee of the Lower House ; it has received petitions in large numbers ; debates of some hours duration have taken place : and an amendment has been moved to the address to the Crown, which is still under discussion, and seems likely to give rise to more serious and protracted proceedings. In short, whether these I remarkable occurrences have taken place with or without the privity an 1 ! design of Her Majesty* Government, it is undeniable that Convocation has recovered a greater degree of activity than it had enjoyed (or nearly a century aud a half ; and that for good or for evil this Assembly of the Church of England asserts claims to constitutional powers and rights of great antiquity, which it may be equally dangerous to admit or deny. AlreaJy, in the proceedings that have actually taken place within the last few days in the Deanery of Westminster and the Jerusalem Chamber, although they have been conducted with a studied air of moderation, we discover abundant trace of those identical conflicts which have on all former occasions rendered the sittings of these assemblies so turbulent and unprofitable. But from the course which these proceedings have already taken it is improbable that they can be abruptly terminated. If they are so terminated on this occasioa, they will be revived at every new session of Parliament, and the country must be prepared to deal with the questions tbns imprudently raised by a party of Churchmen, as a subject of great constitutionnl interest, nearly affecting the government of the Church, and more especially the link which unites the spiritual to the civil power. Under these circumstances wo hope at least that the Upper House of Convocation will adopt the resolution adopted by the Lower House in favour of the publicity of their discussions, and that the business they claim to transact may be made known to the pnblic by competent reporters on behalf of the press, and not by such one-sided statements as we have seen published, on we know not on what high authority, by a contemporary journal. The proceedings of Convocation have for many years past begun and ended with the formality of an Address to the Crown, proposed by the Archbishop, and agreed to by bis suffragans and by the clergy. This address has been used on tbe present occasion as the means or the pretext fot opening a debate, which now stands adjourned till to-morrow, and which may be indefinitely extended to a great variety of subjects and a considerable period of time. The Bishop of Oxford, in a speech of an hour* length, intimated his intention of moving an amendment, which will have the effect of raising the question of the expediency of reviving the active powers of Convocation, and consequently of the nature of those powers ; and should ibis amendment bo

carried by tbe prelates, it will necessarily be sent down to tbe Lower House, where it cannot fail to be discussed with the utmost animation. The Archbishop appears tohave thought it invidious to oppose the proceedings at this stage, and we fe«r it will turn out that he has shown symptoms of hesitation, of which use will be made in the very first instance against his own metropolitan prerogatives and pouter*. For, among the propositions contended for by the Bishop of Oxford, the contumacious doctrine of the Lower House of Convocation in 1701 is revived in the Upper House in 1852, to the effect that the Archbishop has not the right to prorogue Convocation by his own mere will and pleasure, but only "de con- ■ sensu fratrum — with ihe assent of the suffragan bishops; and to the astonishment of those who have examined these questions this assertion was found to be fortified by no less an opinion than that of Sir F. Thesiger, Her Majesty's At-torney-General. It was further contended, and by the same authority, that although Convocation is debarred, by the Act of Submission of tbe reign of Henry VIII., from doing all the things therein set forth, without the Royal license, snch as framing canons, &c, yet that for all purposes not included in that act its powers of discussion are unimpaired. > If these two propositions could be established, it is clear that the powf rs of Convocation would instantly assume a very important character, for the prorogation of its proceedings would no longer depend on the will of the metropolitan, and the range of subjects open to it 3 debates would be sufficiently wide to admit all the most exciting topics of ecclesiastical controversy. We have a sample of what these topics may be in the gravamina and reformanda of the Lower House ; and if the power of the Archbishop to prorogue be disputed or given up, there ate no means of stopping tbe full tide of these debates but by the writ of prorogation addressed to tbe Archbishop by the Queen. Hitherto tbe practice has been only to send down tfais writ when Parliament itself was prorogued, and in the interval the Archbishop prorogues the Convocation by his own authority ; for Convocation has no lawful powers of adjournment, and must be prorogued and continued from one sitting to another by the Head of the Province. The argument of tbe Bishop of Oxford, as we understand it, strikes, therefore, at tbe very means by which the active powers of Convocation have been snspended, impugns tbe authority of the Archbishop, and claims a co-ordinate authority for the Upper House itself. Our limits forbid us to enter into tbe details of this legal argument ; but, although great stress bas been laid on the " consent of the Prelates" as necessary to the act, that expression does not, we believe, occur in tbe schedule of prorogation ; and where it does occur, it may imply no more than tbe consent of the House to the time and pi act fixed for meeting again, At any rate, the exercise of bis power by tbe Archbishop is absolutely essential to what has been understood for two centuries to be the constitution of tbe Church of England. In the present temper of the High Church party, it is not improbable that they intend to resist as well a/s to oppose it, precisely as similar orders of prorogation were resisted by tho Lower House, in 1701 ; but however painful it may be to a man of mild and temperate character to deal with these extreme cases, it is most earnestly to be desired, for the tranquillity of the Church, that the archbishop should exercise, without hesitation or delay, the powers of prorogation which he derives from bis predecessors in tbe Primacy. The concessions he has already made for the presentation of petitions, and in this matter of the address, have only brought things to a point at which bis authority is disputed, and if he fail to exerci»e it, it will be lost. At present, without the countenance and direction of the Archbishop, Convocation is powerless ; for it is in fact the High Court of his province : but if an attempt be made to shake off his ancient and legal control, these States-General of tbe Church would become its Constituent Assembly; and, if left to itself, we might witness the phenomenon of an ecclesiastical revolution. Happily, long before this point can be reached, tbe civil power will have taken tbe alarm, and the civil authority will doubtless interpose the necessary precautions ; but it is certainly a surprising, and perhaps a significant fact, that Lord Derby's Attorney-General should be quoted at the counsel by whose opinion these proceedings are supported, and that the pretensions of the High Church party are so far countenanced by the law officer who expressly represents the prerogatives of the Cro^n. But, with Parliament sitting, no ambiguity will much longer be allowed to prevail on this subject ; and, indeed, the proceedings of Convocation itself will remove it. Tbe House of Commons will learn with astonishment the resuscitation (if such it can be called) of a body claiming to exercise in the Church powers so nearly approaching to those of supreme legislative authority ; and if this conflicting course of action were pursued by the Church to the extreme point at which some of its hot-headed leaders are driving, we should probably witness either a strong interposition of civil and Parliamentary authority in Church affairs, or a disruption of the tie which unites the Church to the State. These evils may be, however, and probably will be, averted by the moderation of tbe great balk of tbe clergy and laity of the realm, who are no parties to theae proceedings, though they yield to none in attachment to the Protestant Church of their forefathers. Great artifice iv discernible in the mode in which these mea- i »ore» have been prepared and conducted. As yet w# bardJy know whether the Government conr>j»e» at them or views them with apprthemion and dUpieasure. But, at any rate, the time is come when the matter rarest be thoroughly exarnm«d, and the legal, a« well as the political efhcti of th«»e transactions carefully ascertained ; for, if tbi« stale of affairs in tbe Church is to be allwd to corrtinoe and to increne, we may live to ffitmeM results inch as ftw of the well-wishers of tbe Chord) anticipate and none deiire.