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of the Synod. Mr. Rorison's Appeal, having been first lodged, was first taken up. Mr. Rorison was beginning to speak on the subject, when he was stopped by the Primus, who said, there was a previous question, as to whether the Synod could entertain an appeal at this stage. The public was hereupon excluded, and on their re-admission, the following was read as the deliverance on this matter:- -'The court having taken up and considered the competency of an appeal taken by the Rev. Gilbert Rorison and others, against a Deliverance in the cause brought at their instance against the Rev. Patrick Cheyne, are of opinion that the said appeal, as being presented during the dependence of the said cause, and before sentence given, is incompetent, under the Canons, and therefore dismiss the same, reserving to the Appellants the right to appeal after sentence has been pronounced.'

"But, then, why call a special Synod at all? The accused did not wish for it; and certainly there seems no reason why the accusers should have been in so great a hurry. . . . . . The reason for calling this Synod must then remain a mystery; but assuredly it argues but a slight estimate of the dignity of its own proceedings on the part of the court, to cite men to appear on a given day, from a distant part of the country, only to inform them that it cannot take up the case, for the express purpose of considering which it had convened of its own mere motion." -Recent Episcopal Decisions, p. 36.

It would take up too much of our space to point out more of these extraordinary irregularities: for further information we must refer our readers to the very able pamphlet which we have just quoted: we have shown quite sufficient to justify us in saying that the time has come when some alteration must be made in the Canon Law of the Scottish Church. That Church is now freed from legal disabilities as regards its own internal government; but it needs laws for the regulation of its proceedings; a new Code of Canons. Some of the Bishops have lately appointed Chancellors, a most valuable and important office; but these Chancellors are not recognized by the Canons; and, as we have seen in the case of the Aberdeen Synod, are mere ciphers, of no use at all when they differ from the Bishops. Let there, then, be proper Ecclesiastical Law Courts established in every diocese, with a central one at Edinburgh, to which appeals from the diocesan courts can be made : let Bishops and Presbyters be allowed to plead by counsel, with all the forms of law, neither Chancellor nor lawyer usurping the place of the Bishop, each having their own proper function. A dignity and importance would accrue to the Church by these measures; and, what is of far more consequence, protection of individual presbyters, as well as sacred doctrine, insured.

In conclusion, we have only to say, that the whole Church, not of Scotland only, but of England, America, and the Colonies, is indebted to Mr. Cheyne for his able defence of the Catholic Faith on the subject of the Holy Eucharist. He has been at considerable expense in defending himself, it would only be a fitting testimony from those who hold and value the Faith to help him in bearing the cost.

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PARISH FESTIVALS.

Is there any reader of the Ecclesiastic who does not know what a "tea-fight" is? We think there hardly can be; but in case any lamp-dried theologian or out-of-the-world hermit should be in such a state of benighted ignorance, we will endeavour to enlighten him on the subject. Some will, perhaps, be a little alarmed by the name, and answer at once that anything bellicose is not in their way, and that as men who love peace and quietness they would rather remain in ignorance than otherwise; but we beg to assure them that warlike as the name may be, the thing denominated by it is as peaceful and harmonious as they can wish, and that the contest is of such a nature as even they may take part in without any danger of losing their character as peaceable men. They must imagine themselves present then in a large room-the schoolroom or the largest apartment in the parsonage if a barn cannot conveniently be borrowed-around the walls of which are garlands of evergreens and flowers, with here and there attempts at decorative art of a more educated ingenuity in the shape of mottoes and ornaments contrived of such humble materials as coloured paper and calico, but adding much to the life and tastefulness of the whole. In two or three long rows,―much as we were accustomed to see in the hall every evening when Alma Mater still overshadowed us,—are all the tables that can be borrowed of friends or neighbours; or what is still better, a set of tables on tressels made for such purposes, and brought out from their hiding-place only on occasions of the kind we are speaking of. Imagine these tables neatly covered with their snowy cloths, and as many cups and saucers scattered up and down their sides as there will be thirsty mouths to use them. To every dozen cups there is a teapot, sugarbasin, and milk-jug: to every teapot, &c., there is a lady friend of the feast-purveyor, or else a Sunday School teacher or a comfortable young matron whose husband is taking care of the baby at home that she may come out for an evening of real pleasure. Behind every cup is seated a happy individual, boy, girl, man or woman, who has been (such is our experience) saving up an appetite all through the day that they may do full justice to the hospitality extended to them. Up and down the middle of the tables are mighty piles of plum-cake, bread and butter, (tough cakes and clouted cream if you are in Devonshire) with here and there such unusual delicacies as basins of preserves, honey, and marmalade, rare to the palates of the poor as pine-apples to those of the rich. Care has been taken that there shall be abundance without extravagance, and that there shall be an air of refinement thrown over all which shall raise the affair a little above the ordinary experiences of those who are en

joying the feast. It is a rule that no one is to be obliged to rise from their seat during the feast, and that all kettle-carrying or other 'waiting' shall be done by the parson and his chosen allies. Any talking short of boisterousness is allowed, and indeed even the latter need hardly be forbidden, for if the refinement spoken of is carried out it will never be attempted: and within an hour or so after tea all are to go into the Church for Evensong, to return to the tearoom perhaps for some innocent amusements in which the children are the principal actors, and the elders are made happy by being lookers-on.

Such entertainments as that we have been speaking of may seem at first sight to be beneath the notice of those who have to do with the care of men's souls and not with providing pleasures for their bodies. They were first introduced on a large scale by the Dissenters, and afterwards became much developed in the hands of the Temperance Societies. Indeed we know several of our elder orthodox friends among the clergy who have not even yet forgotten their birth and parentage, and who are still under the belief that an aroma of schism mingles with that of the fragrant herb on such occasions. Among the younger clergy however, and especially in the country, there are strong advocates of "tea-fights ;" and doubtless they are in a great degree right in thinking they are a necessity thrown upon them in such confined society as villages offer, to outrival the attractions of the Dissenter's feasts; as well as that the unfavourable nature of their origin may be fully counteracted by a judicious use, and by making them in subtle and not too definite ways, handmaids of the Church in managing the parish and the school.

We have made these allusions to what may seem a trifling subject, because an opinion is gaining ground among the clergy that parish festivities of one kind or another will soon become an important item among the many subordinate means by which they attempt to raise the standard of village life, and consequently the now well established "tea-fight" which we have just been describing is fast developing into a much more organized and general entertainment, or series of entertainments, which many are beginning to look upon almost as if they were an essential element of the parochial system. Within the past few weeks our Church newspapers have reported an unprecedented number of such festivities, often celebrating the completion of the harvest, and therefore combined with a service of thanksgiving in the morning or evening, or both, as the case may be, but not unfrequently originating rather in an old village "institution" than in the modern idea of a religious harvest home. It appears to us to be very desirable that the clergy should consider well what it is that they are originating or encouraging in this matter of village festivals. We do not say outright that such general and systematic feastings are unadvisable, but we do think that a sudden and rather hasty step has been taken in

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many parishes with respect to them; that it is often easier to make such a step than to recall it; and that there is a capacity for evil in any large gathering of this character which may develope itself before we are aware, and with such power that we may be altogether unable to keep it in control. Experiments of this nature ought therefore, we apprehend, to be carried on with great wariness and caution; with a full consciousness of what it is that we are endeavouring to do, and how far the attainment of our object may be attended by inconveniences and dangers calculated to over-balance the good that we had in view.

Various reasons, no doubt, have induced the clergy to encourage these festivals. There is a general wish amongst all to draw on the labouring classes, whether in towns or villages, to a more rational and elevating kind of recreation than that in which they are accustomed, if left to themselves, to engage. Almost the only amusement which the agricultural labourer enjoys,—and it is of him we are now speaking,—is such amusement as is to be found in the public-house. This is not altogether a matter for wonderment. Just as association is the chief inducement which impels men of the higher ranks to frequent the clubs of the West End, so it takes the ploughman or the carter, after his day's work is over, to that place of public resort, where he knows that he shall meet his own kind, and (for there is something even in that) be able to sit at ease amongst a number of his fellows. This is an innate principle of Englishmen, whatever their rank or station; and although much may be said on the side of evenings at home for the labourer, we are not sure whether he is not very much in the way at home for a portion at least of the evening, and whether it is not better that he should be outside his cottage than in while his mother, wife, or sister is preparing the most cherished meal of the day, or putting the noisy children to bed. Nor do we see that it is impossible to provide some means by which this universal wish for society may be gratified in a reasonable manner, and the labouring man's temper preserved by an hour or two's absence from home during the necessary evening work of his female relatives. Dealing with facts however, as they are, it must be confessed that the evenings of the labourer at present are associated with much abominable evil, and that the desire to wean them from such habits as they now adopt is both reasonable and good, and that if the novelties of which we are speaking do, in any degree answer this purpose, their influence is, so far, exercised in a right direction.

Others, however, have had a more special object in view in endeavouring to introduce such festivals into their parishes. There is in nearly every country parish one week in the year which has been set apart time immemorial as a week of village excitement and feasting. "Feast-week" is looked forward to for many days

beforehand as the great holiday of the whole year and that it has long held a place of considerable importance in the village calendar is witnessed by the fact that an obscure dedication of a church has been made certain by means of dates 'before' and 'after' 'feastday' in a parish register of the seventeenth century. When the feast-week arrives, or the several days of it which are observed, there is almost an entire cessation of labour throughout the parish. The farmers are willing to be comparatively idle, and entertain parties of friends from a distance. The labouring men and boys spend their mornings in lounging about the village in their Sunday clothes, looking extremely as if they were puzzling themselves as to what they should do with their hands if once they took them out of their pockets. The children haunt stalls and tents where bad gingerbread and worse sweetmeats are vended by half-gipsy men and women; or with the doubtful air of cautious purchasers consider on which one of the multitudinous flimsy toys offered to their admiring gaze they shall expend their lucky pennies, saved up till now for the purpose. The wives and daughters are busy all the morning, making ready some extra delicacies for the mid-day meal, and preparing for the 'tea' at which friends or neighbours are to be welcomed. All this is harmless enough; but when the evening draws on things assume a very different aspect to the eye of the clergyman, or of any other acute observer. The elder ploughmen and carters early in the afternoon grow tired of keeping their hands in their pockets, and stroll down to the public-house; while the younger men begin to haunt the dancing-booth or booths-for there are often several-and it is not long before they are joined by partners of the other sex, a certain proportion of the latter being invariably avowed harlots from the neighbouring towns or larger villages. These dancing-booths are generally set up in the backyard of a public-house or beer-shop, the owner of the latter paying the former not unfrequently for the use of his booth, and making his profit out of the liquor consumed by the dancers. The owner of the booth itself, together with his staff of musicians, takes rank amongst the lowest scum of those who live by itinerant pursuits, and the more profligacy arising from his trade the better is he satisfied, as his own profit will be larger. No young women can enter these dancing-booths at the village-feast without permanent damage to their morals ensuing; and few leave them without that damage having proceeded so far as to lead to immediate or very early seduction. They are always a cause of deep anxiety to the clergyman of the parish, for the temptation is great to young people ever ready for a dance, and the danger not so obvious to them as to those who look on the scene without feeling any of its attractions. Meanwhile, the ordinary round of a beer-shop evening. is being reproduced for the thousandth time in each labourer's experience, with a threefold exaggeration of its ordinary stupidity

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