been established.  The sister Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts attested the rise of missionary activity.  Societies for the suppression of vice, and for the reformation of public manners, sprang up in most of the large towns, and displayed a great, some thought an excessive, zeal in bringing to the bar of justice offenders against morality.  Numerous associations were formed—­on much the same model as that adopted in later years by the founders of the Methodist movement—­of men who banded to further their mutual edification, and a more devotional life, through a constant religious observance of the ordinances and services of the Church.  In many cases they made arrangements to provide public daily prayers where before there had been none, or to keep them up when otherwise they would have fallen through.  Parochial libraries were organised in many parts of the kingdom, sometimes to provide religious and sound moral literature for general public use, more often to give the poorer clergy increased facilities for theological study.  A most beneficent work was set on foot in the foundation of Charity Schools.  During the five years which elapsed between the forming of the Christian Knowledge Society in 1699, and the first assemblage of the Metropolitan Charity School children in 1704, fifty-four schools had started in and about London alone; and their good work went on increasing.  The new Churches—­fifty in intention, twelve in fact—­built in London and Westminster by public grant were another proof of the desire to administer to spiritual needs.  Nor should mention be omitted of the provision made by Queen Anne’s Bounty for the augmentation of poor livings, many of which had become miserably depauperised.  By this liberal act the Queen gave up to Church uses the first fruits and tenths, which before the Reformation had been levied on the English clergy by the Pope, but from Henry VIII.’s time had swelled the income of the Crown.

The Sacheverell ‘phrensy,’ and the circumstances which led to the prorogation of Convocation, are less satisfactory incidents in the Church history of Queen Anne’s reign.  In either case we find ourselves in the very midst of that semi-ecclesiastical, semi-political strife, which is so especially jarring upon the mind, when brought into connection with the true interests of religion.  In either case there is an uncomfortable feeling of being in a mob.  There is little greater edification in the crowd of excited clergymen who collected in the Jerusalem Chamber, than in the medley throng which huzzaed round Westminster Hall and behind the wheels of Sacheverell’s chariot.  The Lower House of Convocation evidently contained a great many men who had been returned as proctors for the clergy, not so much for the higher qualifications of learning, piety, and prudence, as for the active part they took in Church politics.  There were some excellent men in it, and plenty of a kind of zeal; but the general