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persons so assessed shall refuse to pay their share of the rate, it shall be lawful for the Bishop to debar them from the ordinances and offices of the Church until they have severally paid the amount of rate due from them.
If, on the other hand, the Archdeacon considers that the parishioners are unable, either wholly or in part, to defray the expense of the necessary repairs, he shall apply to the Bishop for a contribution from the Church Fund above described, to supply whatever deficiencies there may be.
By such a machinery as I have described Dissenters would be liberated from a state of things incompatible with that equality of religious denominations which is the only theory consistent with the polity of the age, while the Church would be guarded from the dangers anticipated from the voluntary system. And, be it remarked, that this system of ecclesiastical jurisdiction which I propose, runs in a direction entirely parallel to the spiritual jurisdiction of the Church, since it lodges the power of exclusion from Church communion with the Bishop, who already possesses it canonically; whereas Dr. Phillimore's Bill renders the parish priest legally exempt from that episcopal authority to which he is canonically subject, and, therefore, adopts a line which is not strictly parallel to the spiritual functions of the Church and is, so far, a breach of the compact between the State and the Church.
