The Work of the Church in London. (John Murray.) — Last year
five lectures on the subject indicated in the title of this book were given in the Church of St. James, Piccadilly. The present Archbishop of Canterbury gave a sketch of the whole subject in his introductory lecture, and he was followed by the Bishop of St. Albans, treating of "London over the Border," and by the suffragan Bishops of Southwark, Marlborough, and Stepney, who had for their subjects, " South London," " West London," and " East London," respectively. All had something of the same story to tell : an increasing population, continually outstripping the efforts that are made to overtake it. Here are some signifi- cant figures given by the Bishop of St. Albans. In 1837 Barking Deanery, with its ten parishes, had a population of 40,824, with sixteen churches and chapels of ease, and twenty-two clergy in 1896 the churches and chapels had been increased to fifty-three, and the clergy to one hundred and thirty-one. But then the population had grown to 516,000. The number of the clergy is more significant than that of the buildings, and it ie no small matter that this had been multiplied by six. On the other hand, the population had been multiplied by nearly thirteen, with the result that each man had nearly four thousand to deal with, as against less than two thousand sixty years before. It is difficult to make any selection from the facts where all are so significant. The Bishop of Southwark has much to say about the condition of South London that is distressing, but then there is a bright side in the College and School Missions. It is almost startling to find that the language used about West London is, to say the least, not less alarming than that about the East and South. But we cannot pretend to give any idea of the book. Our readers should study it.
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