external compulsion which has hitherto prevented her from augmenting the number of the highest order of her pastors, in proportion to the increased number of her clergy and people.
Another benefit, of a similar class, which the legislature might at once effect, is the abolition of peculiars. These anomalies are in truth remnants of Popery. Exemptions from episcopal jurisdiction were granted to different orders by the Popes, who thus obtained for themselves an independent empire in the heart of every Church. They are of course inconsistent with Church principles; especially when they assign to the accidental possessor of certain property some of the highest offices of ecclesiastical jurisdiction. They are mentioned here, however, because they are a very important violation of the parochial system[1].
But the case of our poor fellow-subjects requires from the legislature much more than this. The measures hitherto suggested amount but to the removal of certain civil obstacles which impede the exertions of the Church on their behalf. We demand the aid of the legislature; the active, powerful, zealous co-operation of the highest powers of our land. To this point we are in duty bound to address ourselves, and never to
- ↑ It would of course be easy to enumerate other legislative improvements, by which the Church might be benefited. Our attention, however, is confined to those regulations which are needful for the perfecting of our diocesan and parochial system.
