RELIGION 29 the Queen's letter naming the person to be elected ; and afterwards the royal assent and confirmation of the appointment is signified under the Great Seal. But this form applies only to the sees of old foundation ; the bishoprics of Manchester, St. Albans, Liverpool, Truro, Newcastle, and Southwell are conferred direct by letters patent from the Crown. The Queen, and the First Lord of the Treasury in her name, also appoints to such deaneries, prebendaries, and canonries as are in the gift of the Crown. There are 2 archbishops and 33 bishops in England and Wales. The former are the chiefs of the clergy in their provinces, and have also each his own particular diocese, wherein they exercise episcopal, as in their provinces they exercise archiepiscopal, juris- diction. Under the bishops are 29 deans, 90 archdeacons, and 810 rural deans. For the management of ecclesiastical affairs, the provinces have each a council, or Convocation, consisting of the bishops, archdeacons, and deans, in person, and of a certain luimber of proctors, as the representatives of the inferior clergy. These councils are summoned by the respective archbishops, in pursuance of the Queen's mandate. When assembled, they must also have the Queen's licence before they can deliberate ; as well as the sanction of the Crown to their resolutions, before they are binding on the clergy ; so that their real power is extremely limited. The number of civil parishes (districts for which a separate poor rate is or can be made) at the census of 1891 was 14,684. These, however, in most cases, do not coincide with ecclesiastical parishes, which, during the present century, have lost their old importance, the ancient parishes having been cut up in many cases into districts, each of which is virtually an independent parish ecclesiastically. Of such parishes there were (1891) 13,780, exclusive of those of the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. According to a return of 1882 the Church of England possessed 14,573 registered churches and chapels, in which marriages could be solemnised. Since 1818 the Church Building and the Ecclesi- astical Commissioners have formed upwards of 3,000 new ecclesi- astical districts. Each parish has its church, presided over by an incumbent or minister, who must be in priest's orders, and who is known as rector, vicar, or perpetual curate, according to his relation to the temporalities of his parish. Private persons possess the right of presentation to about 8,500 benefices ; the patronage of the others belongs mainly to the Queen, the bishops and cathedrals, the Lord Chancellor, and the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. The total number of Church of England clergymen on the active list in 1897 was put at 28,117. Uf these, 290 wen^ bii>bops, deans, and other cathedral officers ;
