The rite is to be the invariable sequence of the sacrament; and this order is always to be observed, because the "laying on of hands" is the complement of "baptism;" is its completion, is its finish, is its perfection.

By these means, we discover from the New Testament itself, something which we had not previously discerned respecting the nature of Confirmation, that it is in its very nature and ordained effect, BAPTISM COMPLETED.

OUR LEFT-HAND DRAWER.

WE are in the receipt of various letters, some urging that in the CHURCH MONTHLY the literary element should be kept down, others that the theological element is quite too prominent. This is nothing more than was expected. It is not easy to strike a medium that shall be entirely satisfactory to all our readers. We are and shall be glad to hear their wishes and opinions in the matter, and will make the best use we can of any advices they may give us; for we desire to be useful in our work, and we do not mean to let that purpose be defeated by any hobby-riding. If left entirely to our own preference, we should certainly endeavour, as far as may be, to make our periodical a literary organ of the Church, leaving the theological element rather in the back-ground. At the same time, we would have the life and spirit of the Church pervading all our literary matter, but without being directly apparent; a silent power, moulding and toning the whole, yet standing itself out of sight. For the most operative forces are often those that work more or less remotely and stealthily, conveying themselves through forms that do not openly announce them. And we cannot shake off the conviction, that what the Church most needs in this country is a more liberal flowerage of the mind. Nay, if she were herself somewhat hidden beneath her own variety and richness of intellectual growth, we hold that she might both reach more minds, and reach them to better effect.

However, we are not going to argue the subject here. Our readers, generally, are people of intelligence and judgment. As such, they of course will not expect to be equally pleased with all parts of our work. And each of them, we doubt not, will have the fairness to consider that his own pleasure must sometimes be crossed for the purpose of pleasing others. We have a large number of able and excellent contributors engaged, though not many of them have as yet got their hand into the actual work. Doubtless their labours will be forthcoming in due time; and when they come, will enable us to serve up a wider variety of matter and style than we have yet been able to realize. Among other things, we have made and are making arrangements for a fair proportion of rather light and pleasant reading; as we have no notion of having all our pages occupied in teaching our subscribers.

THERE have been, of late, some signs of a disposition to make a set-to against the system of common schools, on the ground that it does not have the

effect of diminishing the amount of vice and crime. It is indeed certain that the common-school system does not do all that needs to be done. Perhaps, owing to the multitude of religious bodies, each more or less jealous of the others, it cannot, for a long while to come, be rendered very efficient in that highest part of education which pertains specially to the Church. It may have certain imperfections that are yet to be remedied; it may be chargeable with some defects, that are to be supplied by other agencies. But the system is bound to go as for going to war with it, you might just as well go to war with the sea they who set themselves against it will be overthrown, and ought to be overthrown. It is enough that what it does is necessary, and it cannot be outfaced by arguments from what it leaves undone. We believe that the more it works, the more work it will create for the Church; and we only infer from this the stronger reason why the Church should work with it, instead of undertaking to work against it. We hope, therefore, that all our brethren will be wise in regard to the system of common-schools. Supersede it they cannot, arrest it they cannot; and we, for one, are glad that such is the case.

READERS' EXCHANGE.

We have determined on opening, under this heading, a sort of notes-andqueries department, through which our readers, as many of them as are so minded, may hold some talk together, for the purpose of seeking and imparting curious and useful information. The thing has been suggested to us from high sources, as one that may be made very interesting and profitable. Besides the manifest advantages derivable from some such arrangement, we have further reason for it in that the general plan of our periodical precludes correspondence and communication in the more ordinary form. It is continually happening among scholars, clergymen, and men of other professions, that one is in pressing want of what another is able and willing to supply; only there needs some channel whereby demand and supply may come to a mutual understanding. To meet such need, in some tolerable measure, is the purpose of this department. It is designed for the interchange of question and answer in sundry articles of mental commerce, so that what one has and another wants may find its proper place of availibility, and the private wealth of each become the possession of all; for in all the goods of the mind Shelley's rule will hold :

If you divide pleasure and love and thought,

Each part exceeds the whole; and we know not
How much, while any yet remains unshared,
Of pleasure may be gained, of sorrow spared.

Our readers, therefore, are invited to the appropriate intercourses and reciprocities of this their Exchange. Odd, quaint, curious, out-of-the-way, useful, and entertaining bits of information and suggestion, historical, ecclesi

astical, literary, and antiquarian, old coins of thought, choice relics of memory, and divers rarities of mental delectation and festivity, may here be gathered into a sort of joint-stock refreshment and service.

Apropos to this department, a correspondent sends us the following query: I have often been told that in Bishop Griswold's day, whenever he visited the parish at Newburyport, Mass., to administer confirmation, the wardens met him at the church-door, staff in hand; and that the Bishop moved up the aisle, with one warden on each side, having their staves crossed over his head; and so proceeded to the chancel.

Was this a local usage, or did it exist elsewhere, and how generally? Was it derived from England?

P.

THE CHURCH AT HOME.

The Rev. E. M. Pecke furnishes through the Church Journal some interesting statistics of the Church, as prepared for the Church Almanac of 1857. Of course the account refers only to the past year :

On page 44 there is a General Statistical Summary, from which it appears that there are 32 Dioceses, and 1,875 clergy. Of these, as far as I have ascertained in my labours, 39 are Bishops, 1,726 are Priests, and 110 are Deacons. There have been 5 clergymen deposed; 19 have deceased; 28 have been added to the list, and 417 have changed their parochial charge. Óf the clergy remaining upon the list, 95 make teaching their principal occupation, 25 are chaplains in the Army or Navy, and 263 have no parochial charge or ostensible occupation. Deducting these from the list, there remain 1,449, among which the clerical changes have occurred, shewing that more than one-fourth, in fact, nearly onethird of the clergy have been compelled, for one cause or another, to sever old, and form new, parochial relations. From 337 Parishes (more than one-sixth of the whole number) there is no Parochial Report.

THE Catalogue of the General Theological Seminary for 1856-57 gives a Senior Class of sixteen, a Middle Class of fourteen, and a Junior Class of nine; in all thirty-nine. Of these, nineteen are from New York, four from Pennsylvania, three from Maine, two from Connecticut, two from New Jersey, and two from Western New York. Seven other dioceses, among which are Frederickton and Nova Scotia, have each one.

KEMP Hall, of St James' College, Maryland, was burned down on the morning of January 20th. Bishop Whittingham gives in the Monitor a very stirring and graphie account of the conflagration, and at the same time appeals, with all the earnestness of his noble and enthusiastic nature, to the public to make good the loss, or rather to make it the occasion of something still better. May his eloquent words meet with a fitting response! A correspondent of the Church Journal writes as follows:

The amount of property lost was very large-probably $30,000, of which about half belonged to the College; but it is fully covered by insurance. The remainder, belonging to the students and the two Professors, proved a total loss. Upon these gentlemen it fell very heavily, since they lost valuable libraries and all their furniture.

KENYON College is experiencing a piece of good fortune. The three parishes of St. Mark's, New York, and of St. Anne's and Christ church, Brooklyn, have agreed to contribute, unitedly, $15,000, for the endowment of a Professorship in the theological department. And the Episcopal Recorder is stirring up its friends to raise funds in Philadelphia for the endowment of a "Bedell" professorship there, to match the Milnor" professorship endowed by New York. Success to them!

THE Diocese of Iowa now has 20 clergymen and 26 parishes. Two years ago it had scarcely the canonical number of six clergy and nine parishes, to entitle it to the election of a Bishop. Well done, Bishop Lee!

CONSECRATIONS. December 31st, St. James' church, Woonsocket, Rhode Island.-January 22d, Zion church, Pontiac, Michigan.

ORDINATIONS.-January 18th,'in St. Peter's church, Baltimore, Mr. E. H. C. Goodwin to the Deaconate.-February 12th, in St. Paul's church, Woodbury, Connecticut, Mr. George R. Davis and Mr. T. Carver to the Deaconate, and the Rev. Curtiss T. Woodruff to the Priesthood.

THE CHURCH ABROAD.

DR. Bickersteth, the new Bishop of Ripon, was consecrated by the Archbishop of York, in the parish church of Bishopsthorpe, on Sunday, January 18th. His late parishioners at St. Giles have honoured him with a superb present, costing £130.

THE Ven. William Fitzgerald, Archdeacon of Kildare, has been appointed Bishop of Cork. He is said to be a man of high abilities, and it is thought he will make a good Bishop. He is not a party man.

THE Ecclesiastical Commissioners are now ready to begin the work of gradually augmenting the income of the poorer livings; their plan being, to add so much capital, on condition that an equal sum be raised by the parish itself.

Ar a late monthly meeting of the Christian Knowledge Society, the following resolution was passed by a vote of 20 to 17:

That the standing committee be requested to take into their consideration the expediency of publishing, under the sanction of competent ecclesiastical authority, an edition of the authorized version of the Holy Scriptures, with such additions to the marginal readings as may have been supplied by collation of manuscripts, or by the Biblical researches of scholars since the publication of that version.

SIR John Dodson, Dean of Arches, has received a mandamus from the Court of Queen's Bench, requiring him to hear the appeal from the Archbishop's decision at Bath. It is decided that the Primate was then sitting only in a Diocesan court, in the place of the Diocesan Bishop; and an appeal therefore lies from himself in that capacity, to himself in his Archiepiscopal capacity proper. Whether any reversal of decision will take place on the merits, however, remains to be seen.

THE REV. W. J. E. Bennett, of Frome, has published a letter to his Bishop, declaring his agreement in doctrine with Archdeacon Denison, and courting inquiry.

THE Convocation of Canterbury was to meet for business on the 4th of February.

THE Archbishop of York is obstinate iu refusing to allow of any meeting whatever of the Convocation of York, unless he shall first receive the Queen's command to proceed to business. Even the Morning Post, Lord Palmerston's organ, thinks such conduct a shame.

DR. Pusey is getting out a work on the Real Presence in answer to Mr. Goode.

DR. Medhurst, for some forty years a Missionary in China, connected with the London Missionary Society (Dissenting), lately died in London, three days after his arrival from China. He has long been distinguished for his high standing as a Chinese scholar and translator.

TRINITY CHURCH, NEW YORK.

We are in the midst of another ill-starred strife respecting the ancient and venerable corporation of Trinity Church, New York. A good deal of bitterness and asperity has been shown on both sides. Divers pamphlets arguing the matter pro and con have made their appearance; some of which, as usually happens in such cases, are weak in spots, and strong in spots, only both their weakness and their strength are where they ought not to be; the weakness is in the argument, the strength in something else. All this is greatly to be deplored, deplored, as tainting the honour of our common Christianity, and as inconsistent with the peace and good-will of brethren in the same household of faith. From these remarks we ought specially to except the Communication of the Hon. John A. Dix, which, to the best of our judgment, is marked by the candid and conciliatory style of a Christian gentleman.

Into this strife we really have not the heart to enter. Moreover, by the plan of our periodical, we must have little to do with controversy of any sort; with local controversy, nothing. But the subject involves some points of history and legislation, that cannot but be highly interesting to Churchmen throughout the State, and more or less so to Churchmen throughout the country. It also involves certain questions of