The Bishop of Winchester, to whom a protest was addressed
in relation to the appointment of Bishop Ryan to the Vicarage of St. Peter's, Bournemouth, replied in a letter since published in a Bournemouth paper, in which he states with perfect truth that he has no power of any kind to interfere in the matter. He expresses, however, a distinct personal opinion on the sub- ject, which, as coming from one of the most moderate and re- spected of the Bishops, ought to carry much weight :—" There is, no doubt," he says, "some anomaly in the present system of patronage, by virtue of which a country gentleman, or the trustees of a party society, or a clergyman who has purchased an advowson, may irresponsibly rule the teaching and Church ritual of a large parish, and in a single week overturn the practices and revolutionise the principles which may have pre- vailed for years. I have long felt that such changes, in whatever direction they may lead, should not be possible against the will of the parishioners, and without a power of appeal to the Bishop." He goes on to express the opinion that bad as the present help- lessness of parishioners to prevent such changes is, it is a still greater hardship where "the changes are made in some depend- ent church or chapel of ease, entirely raised and supported by those who worship in it." We should imagine that the Bishop, in writing this sentence, must have been thinking of the hard case of the congregation of St. Jude's, Englefield Green,—a district church, dependent on the parish of Egham, in his owh diocese,—where, as we have formerly explained, the present in- cumbent has cavalierly changed all the arrangements of a, church till then quite in harmony with the wishes of the wor- shippers, as well as far from extreme in any direction, and caused a secession which is doing the utmost mischief in the parish. If any recast of the present Government survives the next Reform Bill, we trust its first step will be to attempt some reform of the constitution of the English Church in a sense somewhat similar to that recently suggested by Mr. Childers, —to which we believe that many of the Bishops would be inclined to give their assent
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