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a worthy part, and our musical services have attained a high standard of excellence, but at the present time the amount available, either for the payment of the organist or for the upkeep of the choir, is not really sufficient.

Thirdly, our cathedrals have for many years past been associated with the life of the county and of the diocese by being made the seat from time to time of services and ceremonies of a wide national and religious import. Again, I notice that in some cases the holding of such services has been rendered difficult by the cost of carrying them out. Quite rightly, in the present state of the cathedral finances, it is laid down that any expenses of special services are defrayed by the body applying for the service according to a fixed scale of fees; although this does not apply to purely diocesan services and a few special cases. In the present state of the finances of the cathedral this is inevitable, but I cannot but note that from the other side it has been represented to me that various bodies have been precluded from holding their services in the cathedral by the large amount that they would have to pay in fees. I think in some cases, at any rate, this has been a misfortune, and I should hope that in the future the cathedral might be made more useful on wider lines.

These represent what the cathedrals have meant until recently, but I notice that in this, as in other directions, there is a considerable change coming over the country. There is a far wider circle of religious people interested in the cathedral and the cathedral services. It is perhaps characteristic of the age, partly wholesome, partly unwholesome, that whereas regular attendance at church, certainly the old-fashioned attendance at church, is dying out, anything that arouses special interest in connection with religion exercises a wider appeal. The greater facilities for moving about in the country have produced this, and I often notice when I hold a special service in any place the number of motors and often motor charabancs which have been used to bring people from neighbouring villages. Then, again, a wider body of persons

are anxious to associate the cathedral more directly and definitely with the religious life of the people. They wish our cathedrals not to be merely a place of occasional services and of antiquarian interest, but a place constantly associated with religious life. It is reasons like these which led to a recent vote in the Diocesan Conference suggesting to the Dean and Chapter the desirability of throwing open the whole body of the cathedral, not only to visitors, but also for private prayer, and it has also created the desire that all the chapels in the cathedral should be fitted up and used for public worship. I remember that when I had a parish in Hertfordshire I caused some astonishment by writing to the Rector of St. Albans, who was then in charge of St. Albans Abbey, asking that when I took one of my Communicant Guilds to visit the Abbey we might have the use of a chapel to say our office. This unusual request was granted. I do not know that it has yet become a precedent, but I am sure that it would be a very great gain if, when bodies of persons of different parishes come to Gloucester to visit the cathedral, leave was given to them to have their own service in some chapel; and I am sure that the proposal that the different chapels of the cathedral should be associated closely with the religious and secular life of the diocese would have a wide appeal at the present time.

Of course all this demands more money. I would venture to suggest that in this connection there should be some association started of friends of the cathedral, or something of that sort, a body of persons who would be prepared to give some subscription annually to keep up the cathedral services and for the preservation of the fabric, in addition to the larger sums which will, I hope, be received from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners.

I have in my mind, then, in the suggestions that I am going to put before you the development of the cathedral in many directions as the centre of the religious life of the diocese. In this connection I would particularly refer you to the able paper by the late Dr. Rashdall, Dean of Carlisle, in which he discussed the utility of Deans and

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Chapters and made suggestions for reform. It is published on page 240 in the appendix to the Report of the Commission on Property and Finance.

In making new statutes, the first point would be the relation of the Dean and Chapter to the Bishop, and I would refer you to the suggestions of Dr. Rashdall:

"The Bishop should certainly be given the right to officiate and to preach at all times, with reasonable notice; and it might perhaps be provided that he should have the power of using the cathedral at any time he pleases for any extraordinary service in which he personally takes part. This, of course, would not carry with it the right to require the attendance of the choir at unusual times without the consent of the Dean or of the Dean and Chapter, or to impose any expense upon the Cathedral body."

Similarly in the memorandum of the Deans of Wells, of Lichfield, and of Salisbury, it is suggested:

Although we have no experience of any friction in such matters, we desire to express our view that the Bishop of the diocese should have the right of preaching, ordaining or confirming in his cathedral church whenever he may desire to do so, provided that he gives due notice of his intention."

We now come to the question of the relations of the Dean and Chapter and the difficult question of the government of cathedrals. I should like to begin by saying that I should not endorse the proposals which have been made for the abolition of Deans or for the abolition or the serious reduction in number of Canons. On both these points I would refer you to Dr. Rashdall's paper. I may say that in the early meetings of our Commission on Property and Finance, the question of reduction in number of Canons was brought forward several times, but I notice that it has gradually dropped out and that no mention was made of it at the end. We had quite sufficient evidence, particularly from those dioceses in which there is no proper Dean and Chapter, of the need of diocesan clergy and of the gap which is felt in dioceses

which are without them. At Wakefield, for example, great efforts have been made to build up a Cathedral body.

A more difficult question arises on the government of the cathedral. It has been pointed out that Deans and Chapters are a heterogeneous collection of persons, often without much unity of purpose and aim, and it is said that they are hardly the right body to organize the services of a great church; that what is required is single action and control. So at Wakefield the newly appointed Canons are to be connected particularly with diocesan work, while the whole control of the cathedral services is to be left in the hands of one man, who is, I think, designated as the Warden. I am not certain that I agree with this proposal, and I am a little inclined to adhere to the traditional government by Deans and Chapters. I should not allow the Dean to be an autocrat, but I should certainly suggest that he should have a considerable amount of personal control. May I again quote Dr. Rashdall:

"Differences of opinion will naturally arise as to how much power should be entrusted to the Dean. I should myself have no wish to make him an autocrat; but I should plead that it would be desirable that he should have complete power over the arrangement of services, as he has now under the statutes of some cathedrals. The arrangement of the services-especially of extraordinary services-involves a large number of small points on which a rapid decision is required. . . . In all cases, of course, the power of the Dean will be limited by the necessity of going to the Chapter for any expenditure of money, or any interference with the fabric or ornaments of the church such as would require a faculty in the case of a parish church."

It has often been proposed, as, for example, by Archbishop Benson in his book on the cathedral, that the Canons of the cathedral should be officially associated with different forms of diocesan work. I very much doubt whether this is desirable, except as regards the Archdeacons. It seems to me that it is far better that the Canons should be left free to develop their own work

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231 on their own lines. In some cases they would give up their time to study, in others to preaching-possibly of a mission character-in others a natural bent would lead them to take part in diocesan business work. It would make the appointments very difficult if, in the case of the appointment of each Canon, he had to be selected for some particular work. In our cathedral private beneficence has associated the Canon Missioner with the work of the cathedral. I must own that I am not yet convinced that that is the wisest arrangement, and I feel that the whole organization of mission work in relation to a diocese requires more thought than I have yet been able to give it.

To come now specially to the case of Gloucester, there is one reform which is recommended by the Commission, and which it ought to be our aim to see carried out. It is recognized, I think, now that the association of a canonry with a mastership of an Oxford College is, under present circumstances, a mistake. It may have been quite a useful arrangement in the past, but at the present time public opinion demands that the office of master of a college should be a full-time appointment, and that the office of a Canon should be a full-time appointment. I hope that in the course of time it may be found possible to separate the two offices.

There is another point to which I must draw attention. It was on several occasions represented to us how inconvenient it was that while in some cathedrals all the Canonries were in the gift of the Bishop, in other cathedrals none were so, and it has been suggested that there should be some exchange arranged with the Crown and the Lord Chancellor in this connection.

I would venture to suggest as regards Gloucester that what we should look forward to in the future is that there should be six Canons; three of them, as at present, should be in the appointment of the Lord Chancellor, but the other three, consisting of the two Archdeacons and Canon Missioner (if he remains a member of the Chapter) should be in the gift of the Bishop of the diocese.