Excerpt from Considerations on the Ecclesiastical Courts and Clergy DisciplineThe Church of England stands, in respect of its discipline, in a position exciting a very justifiable wonder. It is subject to the rule of no less than three different systems. There is the ancient Consistory Court, there is the jurisdiction created by the Discipline Act of 1840, and there is the Act of the last Session Of Parliament, called The Public Wor ship Regulation Act. We are, indeed, promised the intro duction of a measure for the remedying of the defects and mistakes of the Act of 1840, but not the slightest hint has been given of the character of it, all we are permitted to suggest to ourselves is, that the Parliament of 1875 will be called on to condemn the proceeding of the Parliament of 1840, that is, as is usual in ecclesiastical legislation, those who are the most deeply interested are not to be informed until it shall be too late to remonstrate with effect. Attempts at hasty legislation are always unsatisfactory, and often mischievous. Let us take for example the Act of the last Session, to which I have referred. The debates on the subject amongst the Bishops began, as we have good reason to be lieve, in the month of January, but the measure itself, on which they then determined, was unknown until presented to the House of Lords towards the end of April: the con sequence was its rejection, with the instant and ill-considered substitution of another, which, in its turn, yielded to another, and which, with considerable and so material alterations as to have an absolute appearance of beginning de 710210, was sent to the Commons: there again changes upon changes.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.