After this formal confirmation of the bishop s election has taken place, the archbishop, with the assistance of at least two bishops, proceeds to consecrate the bishop-elect. The most important part of the religious ceremony on this occasion consists in the imposition of hands, in other words, in the archbishop and the bishops placing their hands simultaneously upon the head of the bishop-elect kneeling before them, and in the name of the Holy Trinity com mitting to him his office of bishop ; after which the arch bishop delivers to him the Holy Bible and addresses to him a short admonition to preach faithfully the Word of God. The bishop is required afterwards, by statute, to do homage to the Crown, upon which he is put into possession of the temporalities of his see. In the case of the avoidance of the archbishopric of either province, the Crown sends a mandate to the archbishop of the other province to confirm and consecrate the archbishop-elect, and the practice is, for the most part, for the archbishop of the other province to send a commission to four or more bishops of the province of the archbishop-elect to confirm his election and to invest
and consecrate him.Doubts having been raised whether a bishop of the Church of England, being a lord of parliament, could resign his seat in the Upper House of parliament, although several precedents to that effect are on record, a statute of the realm (19 and 20 Viet. c. 115), which is confined to the case of the bishops of London and Durham, was passed in 1856, declaring that on the resignation of their sees being accepted by their respective metropolitans, those bishops should cease to sit as lords of parliament, and their sees should be filled up in the manner provided by law in the case of the avoidance of a bishopric. By a subsequent statute (32 and 33 Yict. c. Ill), provision has been made for the case of an archbishop or bishop being permanently incapacitated by age or mental infirmity. If the archbishop or bishop is capable of executing an act of resignation, a representation may be made to the Crown, which is im- powered to declare the see to be vacant, but if the arch bishop or bishop should be incapacitated from intimating his desire to resign his bishopric, the Crown may grant a licence to the dean and chapter of the cathedral church of the diocese to appoint a bishop-coadjutor. This Act was to be in force for two years ; it has been continued for three years more by 35 and 36 Yict. c. 40.
A peculiar institution of the Church of England, established by 26 Henry Till. c. 14, having been long allowed to remain dormant, has been recently revived, under which every archbishop and bishop, being disposed to have a suffragan to assist him, may name two honest and discreet spiritual persons for the Crown to give to one of them the title, name, style, and dignity of a bishop of any one of twenty-six sees enumerated in the statute, as the Crov/n may think convenient. The Crown, having made choice of one of such persons, is irnpowered to present him by letters patent under the great seal to the metropolitan, requiring him to consecrate him to the same name, title, style, and dignity of a bishop ; and the person so conse crated is thereupon entitled to exercise, under a commission from the bishop who has nominated him, such authority and jurisdiction, within the diocese of such bishop, as shall be given to him by the commission, and no other.
The first colonial bishopric of the Church of England was that of Nova Scotia, founded in 1787, since which time various colonial bishoprics have been established, some of which were constituted by letters patent of the Crown only, whilst others have been confirmed by acts of the imperial or colonial legislatures. With regard to those bishoprics which have been constituted by letters patent of the Crown only, where the bishopric has been established in a Crown colony, the bishop is legally entitled to exercise the jurisdiction conferred upon him by the letters patent ; but where the bishopric has been established in a colony possessing at the time an indepen dent legislature, the bishop is not entitled to exercise such jurisdic tion unless it has been coiifirmed to him by an imperial or colonial statute. The report of the judicial committee of the Privy Council in the case of the bishop of Natal (Moore s Privy Council Ec- ports, N.S., iii. p. 1]5) is an exposition of the law on this subject On the other hand, where bishoprics have been constituted by letters patent of the Crown, in pursuance of imperial statutes, as was the case of the East Indian bishoprics, or where bishoprics consti tuted by letters patent have subsequently been confirmed or recog nized by colonial statutes, the bishop s jurisdiction is complete; otherwise his authority is only pastoral or spiritual. The practice adopted by the Crown, since the decision of the judicial committee in the case of the bishop of Natal has revealed the invalidity of the letters patent granted to many colonial bishops, has been to grant licences to the archbishop of Canterbury to consecrate bishops for the colonies without any definite diocese, and without any authority to exercise coercive jurisdiction. The Crown has also revoked the letters patent erecting Gibraltar into a bishop s see, and the last appointed bishop has been consecrated under a licence frcru the Crown, and is a titular bishop, having only consensual authority in that colony.
born in London on the 1 8th November 1786. He received his artistic training fromFranciscoBianchi,atwhoseinstance, probably, he was employed to write his first work, the ballet of TamerlanetBajazet, produced at Covent Garden in 1806. This proved successful, and was followed within two years by several others, of which Caractacus, a pantomimic ballet, written for Drury Lane, may be named. In 1809 his first opera, The Circassian s Bride, was pro duced at Drury Lane ; but by a singular misfortune the theatre was burned down after one performance, and the score of the work perished in the flames. His next work of importance, the opera of The Maniac, written for the Lyceum in 1810, established his reputation, and probably secured for him the appointment of composer for Covent Garden theatre. The numerous works operas, burlettas, cantatas, incidental music to Shakespeare s plays, <tc. which he composed while in this position, are now in great part forgotten. The most successful were The Virgin of the Sun (1812), The Miller and his Men (1813), Guy Man- nering and The Slave (1816), Maid Marian and Clari, introducing the air of "Home, Sweet Home" (1822). His- English adaptations, or rather mangled versions, of Mozart s Den Giovanni and Figaro, and Rossini s // Barbiere and Guillaume Tell, were certainly no true service to art. It seems almost incredible that a man of Bishop s undoubted genius should have been so misguided as to suppress the incomparable Figaro overture of Mozart in favour of one of his own. In 1824 Bishop was induced by Elliston to transfer his services from Covent Garden to the rival house in Drury Lane, for which he wrote with unusual care the opera of Aladdin, intended to compete with Weber s Oleron, commissioned by the other house. As was to be expected the result was a failure, and with Aladdin Bishop s career as an operatic composer may be said to close. On the formation of the Philharmonic Society (1813) Bishop was appointed one of the directors,, and he took his turn as conductor of its concerts during the period when that office was held by different musicians in rotation. In 1841 he was appointed to the "Reid" chair of music in the University of Edinburgh, but he resigned the office in 1843. He was knighted by the queen in 1842, being the first musician who ever received that honour. In 1848 he succeeded Dr Crotch in the chair of music at Oxford. The music for the ode on the occasion of the installation of Lord Derby as chancellor of the university (1853) proved to be his last work. He died on the 30th April 1855 in impoverished cir cumstances, though few composers ever made more by their labours. Bishop s name will live in connection with his numerous glees, songs, and smaller composi tions, rather than with his larger works, which are now
seldom or never performed in their entirety. His Shake-