According to the present form of ordaining deacons, no deacon is authorised to preach, except he shall obtain the bishop's licence to do so. This provision might be enforced, and the licence to preach given only to such deacons as the Bishop should judge expedient, and might be granted only durante bene placito.

It is conceived that besides the great benefit of increasing the number of ministers of the Church, other advantages might be looked for from allowing deacons to follow secular callings. A link would be formed between the clergy and the laity by the existence of an order partaking of the character of both. The confusion of confining the term Church to the clergy would be greatly dispelled: inasmuch as there would be not only members but even ministers of the Church who did not belong to the clergy considered as a profession. And as the deacons of the Church would be expected to live in all things as became Christians, the same standard would be followed by them which general opinion requires the clergy to conform to, but which it does not always enforce in the laity; as for example in the case of duelling. The ministry of the Church would thus also be safely and most beneficially open to persons of inferior rank and fortune, who cannot afford the expense of an university education, and have no prospects of a maintenance by entering into the ministry as a profession, but who may have gifts which enable them to serve the Church effectually, and who may naturally and lawfully wish not to let these gifts lie idle. It does not seem improbable that many persons who now become preachers amongst the dissenters, without objecting to any of the doctrines of our Church, but simply because they have no means of following what they feel to be their calling in our communion, would gladly become deacons on the system suggested above, and would thus be useful to the Church instead of being in some sort opposed to it.

The subscriptions required by law to be made by all

persons ordained deacons would continue as at present: and the examination previous to ordination might be modified at the discretion of the bishops. With respect to the order of priests or presbyters, it would of course remain in all points as it is at present, and its strictly professional character would be wholly preserved.

Should the above suggestions be approved of by the members of the Church generally, and especially by the bishops, it might be expedient to prepare petitions in the several dioceses, to ask Parliament to carry them into effect.

May, 1841.

LETTERS

TO THE

HERTFORD REFORMER.

[The following Letters were addressed by Dr. Arnold to the "Hertford Reformer," now the "Hertford Mercury and Reformer." His first communications with the Editor, Mr. Austin, were commenced through Mr. Platt, after the discontinuance of his connection with the Sheffield Courant, and were continued, at various intervals, from 1837 to 1841, but chiefly in 1838, 1839, and 1840, when under the name of F. H (from his house in Westmoreland, Fox How,) he began a regular series of letters, partly on the social evils of the country, then betraying themselves in the disturbances of Chartism, partly on some questions connected with the relations of Church and State which had been treated in some letters in the same journal under the name of "Augur," by Sir Culling E. Smith. See Life and Correspondence, vol. ii. c. ix.]