CEREMONY OF ORDINATION.

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An incumbent differs from a curate in being free from the liability to summary dismissal mentioned just now, as his ordinary title of perpetual curate shows; but he has no independent rule, and is in the eye of the law (notwithstanding his having sole authority in his own church), only an assistant to the rector or vicar of the parish in which it is situated.

It only remains for me now to tell you how a person is made a clergyman. It is the peculiar prerogative of the bishop alone to confer holy orders, which in our church are of three kinds—those, namely, of bishop, priest, and deacon. When a layman is made a deacon he must be at least twenty-three years old, and (if not possessed of a university degree), a "literate person”—that is, one of competent learning and good education. The ceremony of making deacons is called ordination. After twelve months the deacon may be ordained a priest. A bishop must be a priest of at least thirty years of age, and is set apart for his office by three other bishops. This is called his consecration. The archdeacons (who are priests appointed to that office by the bishop) assist the bishop in ordinations. He has also his examining chaplains to aid him in testing the abilities of the candidates, who must each have a title for orders—that is, a sphere of labour under some clergyman, with a proper stipend for his support, before he can be ordained.

There are many matters which it is difficult to avoid touching upon in connexion with the subject of this letter, but which, if fully entered into, would swell it into the bulk of an entire volume. I will, in conclusion, refer to one which (especially in late times) has attained a degree of prominence that may have an important bearing upon the constitution—I mean the ecclesiastical parliament, called Convocation. This is an assembly of the spiritual estates of the realm in both provinces. In each it consists of an Upper and Lower House. In the former sit the bishops, presided over by the Archbishop as Primate and Metropolitan. The latter is composed of Proctors or delegates chosen by the chapters of cathedrals and beneficed clergy. The members elect their own Prolocutor or Speaker. Formerly Convocation granted to the Crown the right to tax the clergy. That usage has now ceased, and with it the State necessity for convoking the assembly yearly. Recently, however, ecclesiastical and spiritual necessities have caused its sittings to be in some degree available in a practical

sense.

I shall conclude by giving you a table of the church accom

modation provided by several of the religious denominations in England, published in the year 1855.

Although the information contained in this table is now ten years old, it is the latest we possess in reference to the numbers of the different denominations; for in consequence of the opposition of the Dissenters the Government were compelled to abandon their intention of including in the census of 1861 returns relating to the religion of the people.

LETTER XI.

THE ARMY.

Origin and History of Standing Armies-The Feudal System-Mercenary Soldiers-Ancient Warfare-The Mutiny Act-The Secretary for War-The Staff-Cavalry-Infantry-Quartering of TroopsCamps-Purchase System-Price of Commissions-Pay of OfficersBrevet Rank-Recruiting-Pay of Privates-Dragoon RegimentsNames of Regiments-The Royal Artillery-The Royal EngineersPrecedence of Corps-Local Regiments-Courts Martial-Order of the Bath-Victoria Cross-Decorations-Pensions and RewardsThe Militia-The Yeomanry.

THE force maintained for the defence of this kingdom and its numerous dependencies against foreign attack, for the support of order at home, and for the security of our vast commerce, spreading over the entire surface of the globe, consists principally of THE ARMY and THE NAVY.

In treating of the first of these, I propose to commence by telling you something about the origin of a standing army in this country, and then to explain its composition and manage

ment.

I have already described how the military service of our ancestors was constituted under the feudal system. In the rude ages in which it existed, the force it provided was sufficient in every respect to protect our shores. All persons holding knights' fees (of which there were more than 60,000 in England alone), were bound to be in readiness to attend their sovereign for forty days' service every year. Those who were unable or unwilling to take up arms were obliged to provide efficient substitutes, so that when a rebellion broke out, or an invasion was threatened, an army of 60,000 men could be brought into the field with very little delay, and no expense to the Crown. There were few fortified places in those days, and campaigns were not planned upon scientific principles. The contending forces usually attacked each other without delay, and the cause

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for which they fought was generally won and lost within the forty days. If the war was of longer duration, the feudal militia were entitled to return to their homes, or, continuing to serve, to be paid by the sovereign.

When our kings of the house of Plantagenet began their foreign wars, and encountered the partially trained soldiers of France, they found that they required more continuous and experienced services from their subjects than the Feudal system could provide. They therefore began to commute the military services of their tenants in capite for a money payment, or scutage, as it was termed, charged upon every knight's fee. Thus, when Henry II. was about to engage in hostilities against the Count of Toulouse, in 1159, instead of requiring all his vassals to accompany him, he imposed upon them a scutage, which produced a sum equal to 2,700,000l. of the money of the present day, with which he provided himself with an army accustomed to the march, and to be relied upon on the battle-field, and thus gained much popularity from those of his subjects who preferred remaining at home, in the pursuit of more peaceful avocations. At last money payments were entirely substituted for feudal services, which were finally abolished by the statute 12 Charles II. c. 24.

Philip Augustus of France was the first king who established an army of paid troops, in no way connected with the feudal militia, to protect his throne and humbler subjects from the lawlessness and tyranny of his great vassals. From the fact of their receiving money, they were called Soldati (whence our word "soldier,") derived from soldo, the Italian for pay. Several of our English sovereigns also maintained similar bodies of mercenaries, and paid them out of the revenues of the vast estates belonging to the Crown. Regular garrisons were kept in the Tower of London, the Castle of Dover, and in the Marches along the Scottish border,-posts of great military importance, where the presence of trained soldiers was always required; but with these exceptions the troops I have mentioned were only raised for some special purpose, and were disbanded as soon as the occasion for which they were embodied had passed.

Until the reign of Charles VII. of France, what we now designate a standing army-that is, a body of soldiers trained and paid by government, and kept under arms during peace for the defence of the State-was unknown. By this time the invention of gunpowder had entirely swept away the ancient

plan of making war. As long as personal courage, strength, and daring decided the fate of a battle, war had great charms for noble knights who fought each one at his own expense, on horseback, cased in armour, and were always the principal combatants. Intellectual employment was almost unknown in those days, war and the chase being considered the only pursuits worthy the attention of a gentleman. But the introduction of firearms, especially artillery, deprived brute force and valour of their exclusive importance. It was one thing, encased in proof mail, to ride amongst an undisciplined and almost unarmed herd of leather-clad countrymen, and to mow them down with two-handed swords; but to charge a line of sturdy pikemen, supported by a rear rank of musketeers, whose bullets sent horse and rider rolling in the dust before the latter had the opportunity of striking a blow, was a very different state of affairs. Generals began to see the necessity for regular tactics under these new conditions. A crowd of armed men, each one fighting for himself, was no longer of any use in settling the disputes of nations. A military machine that could be directed with exact and steady action by the mastermind of the commander, was required. To produce this, practice, training, and strict and unquestioning obedience were demanded, and the presence of a lower order of men was required in the ranks. The great importance of regular infantry became every day more and more apparent; war was reduced to a science, and standing armies were established throughout the continent of Europe.

men.

The origin of our own present standing army dates as far back as 1660, when Charles II. formed two regiments of guards, one of horse and one of foot, and with those (and some other troops brought over from abroad) he organized a force of 5000 This number was increased during the reign of James II. to 30,000 soldiers. The embodiment of this army was, however, never sanctioned by Parliament; the king raised it by his own authority, and paid it out of the civil list by wrongfully appropriating money granted for other purposes. With this force he hoped to awe his subjects into submitting to the unconstitutional encroachments which had sent his father to the block. The hope, however, was a delusive one. So treacherous and fickle was his conduct, that civilians and the military made common cause against him, and no sooner had the Prince of Orange landed, than, as you know, the army joined his standard almost to a man.