Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/30

 22] ENGLISH HISTOEY. [peb.

extent by the Act of Uniformity. There might be things in that act with which they did not agree ; still it was the charter under which the Church held her position, not as a spiritual Church, but as a Church established by law and enjoying certain emolu- ments. Subject to that principle he agreed that the Church should be comprehensive. The Archbishop of Canterbury (Dr. Temple) claimed that there had been no remissness on the part of any bishop in insisting that the true doctrines of the Church of England should be observed. He shared with a great many other people the belief that the fewer prosecutions they had the better, and his conviction was that the amount of anything like Komanism in the Church was exceedingly small. "I do not say," he continued, "that there are not men who have really gone beyond the limits of the doctrine which the Church of England prescribes. I do not mean that there are not some here and there, but I am sure they are very few, and I am quite certain in the vast majority of the cases in which the ritual has been complained of the clergy who are indulging in these ritual irregularities have no desire whatever to join the Church of Rome themselves, or to get others to join that Church. . . . When you find that a man who is, perhaps, very foolishly going into all sorts of ritual excesses is at the same time devoted to the work which is assigned him to do, you cannot help feeling that you must exercise great delicacy and care before you inter- fere with such work as his." The Prayer-book distinctly puts it on the bishops and archbishops to settle such matters as were now in controversy if they could, and they aimed at willing obedience. "If, after all, we succeed in bringing about the obedience of the clergy generally, but there are still a few who stand out and refuse altogether to obey, we must consider care- fully what step is next to be taken. I have never said, and I certainly do not mean to say, that we shall not have recourse to the courts of law ; but we really ought, for the sake of the Church, for the sake of the work the Church is doing, to try every means before we take those harsh means with which the law courts supply us. I appeal to the great body of the laity of this country to support the bishops in quietly endeavouring to set these matters right, as I assure you we really mean to do." After the archbishop had spoken, the subject was allowed to drop.

In the House of Commons the subject was treated in a more militant tone, and Mr. Samuel Smith (Flintshire), as champion of the Evangelical party, moved a direct resolution to the effect that " having regard to the lawlessness prevailing in the Church of England, some legislative steps should be taken to secure obedience to the law." He believed that no change worth speaking about had been made in the practices of the clergy as the result of the charges which the bishops had been delivering during the past twelve months. Besides, the lawlessness was not confined to the clergy ; the bishops, who were largely