The Anglican Episcopate and the American Colonies. By Arthur Lyon
Crosse, Ph.D. (Longinans and Co. 10s. 6d.)--This is an elaborate discussion of a matter of some importance in political and ecclesiastical history. The Bishop of London exercised a control of a kind which varied much in different places and at different times. The distance, the extent of the jurisdiction, and the recalcitrancy of the colonists, combined to weaken it; but the effort, reasonable as it seemed, to establish a local episcopacy excited the fiercest hostility. This may raise our wonder; to us the Bishop is no longer a formidable person ; but our ancestors had other thoughts about him. The men who had fled into exile that they might escape "the prelate's rage" ' were not likely to welcome their traditional enemy. The Bishop, they thought, was bound to promote the political influence of the Mother-country. Dr. Crosse does not hold that the controversy contributed to separation ; there were causes enough at work without this. He has given us a very clearly reasoned and elaborate thesis on the subject. His work is another instance of the excellent results obtained by accepting a thesis as a qualification for a degree.
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