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Church Polilics and Church Prospects.

phases of the same problem, the introduction of more corporate action, more systematically combined into one Church system than at present exists—the great question, in short, of order as against independency. In its own special line the multiplication of bishops received a more emphatic approval than, as far as we have means of concluding, it ever before met with, except perhaps at the Oxford Congress. The principal paper on the subject was that of Canon Kennaway, who advocated the makeshift of episcopal curates, or otherwise, of 'suffragans.' We do not believe that in the long run this expedient would satisfy any one. Still, merely as an expedient, it is better than that untold troops of children, ay, and of adults, in village after village, and town after town in every county, should go on lacking the grace of confirmation. After all—even with a bishop per county all round—that bishop would be none the worse for having his curate, on the same grounds of common sense as any vicar within his diocese would be better off with similar help. In favour of doubling the episcopate—that is, of assigning a bishop generally speaking for every county, instead of the present average of one for two—the emphatic and unexpected testimony of Lord Harrowby may now be quoted. When a Churchman of his school—an Ecclesiastical Commissioner, moreover—stood up so manfully to communicate his personal desire for so wide a reform, to many hundred, auditors and the representatives of the London press, it was clear that the subject had reached no early stage of ripeness. The Court of Appeal, remanded to a section, evoked a debate in which Dr. Pusey's and Mr. Keble's now unwonted appearances in congregated throngs elicited long and fervid applause. Church architecture and decoration were in their turn downrightly handled as matters which deserved to be treated on their own merits, as topics of solid importance in a Church gathering, not by way of disparaging comparison, never brought in with some shambling excuse about externals, non-essentials, and such other stuff that no man thinks of, and no man vents when planning or extolling his own house. The debate on the Irish Church, which elicited a really eloquent and logical oration from the Dean of Cork, stood in favourable contrast to the parallel discussion at Manchester. The education of the Clergy was a novel, but every day increasingly important, topic for public discussion. The subject which was most feebly handled, was the cardinal one of foreign missions. One speech there delivered—that of Canon McNeill—has been characterised, by a calm and moderate critic, in terms of reprobation which we will not repeat. But apart from this unfortunate ebullition, the whole of that evening's debate was of very inferior quality. There were ad