r-general's report on the number of marriages
celebrated in the places of worship of the various denominations; for
among those who are practically attached to no religious body, and even
some Nonconformists, a prejudice survives in favour of having their
marriages celebrated and their funerals conducted by the clergy of the
Established Church. Nor is the test of "sittings" provided by the
various denominations, nor even the number of their communicants, a
trustworthy test of the relative number of their adherents. In Wales,
for instance, the rivalry of the sects has multiplied chapel
accommodation out of all proportion to the population; while everywhere
it happens that churches, at one time crowded every Sunday, have been
emptied by the shifting of population or other causes. As for the test
of communicancy, it is untrustworthy because the insistence on communion
as the pledge of membership varies with the different denominations and
even with different sections of opinion within those denominations. Any
statistics of this nature, then, however useful they may be as a general
indication, must not be treated as conclusive.

The Church of England.

Whatever disputes there may be as to the relative strength of the
various churches and sects, there can be no questioning the fact that
the dominant religion in England is Protestant Christianity.
Protestantism, indeed, since the Act of Settlement in 1689, has been of
the essence of the Constitution, the sovereign forfeiting his or her
crown _ipso facto_ by acknowledging the authority of the pope, by
accepting "the Romish religion," or by marrying a Roman Catholic; and
though of late years efforts have been made to modify or to abrogate
this provision, the fact that such efforts have met with widespread
opposition shows that it still represents the general attitude of the
British nation. Protestantism, however, is a generic term which in
England covers a great variety of opinions, and a large number of rival
religious organizations. The state church, the Church of England as by
law established, represents the tradition of a time when church and
state were regarded as two aspects of one divinely ordered organism. In
law every subject of the state is also a member of the Established
Church, and can lay claim to its ministrations so long as he or she
obeys the ecclesiastical law, which is also the law of the state. No
Englishman, whatever his opinions, can be excommunicated