The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1871-03-04 00:00:00

ihe DECISION of the PRIVY COUNCIL

in Mr. PURCHAS'S CASE.
The Tunic, In a janitor, thus eoniments on the decliton
The Judgment of the Privy Council in the case of
Mr. Purcbas, deals the moat severe blow to the
Ritualists they have yet receirsid, and settles in a
sense which will besatisf actory tothe Lublin the most con.
trovsrted point in tie gust:owe they have raised. The
fatuous "Ornaments Eubzic," which has been the
&soak of Bishops and the rerplexity of Judgas, and
which the Ritual Commision, after many fruitless
discussions, was fain to leave untouched, has as length
received an authoritative explanation, and proves
to be in harmony with the plain Protestant spirit
which, until, recently, was always supposed to cha-
racterize the Church of England. The question,
as the Judicial Committee admit, is a knotty rice.
So long, in Iced, Os men wAte content to view
such subjects on grounds of broad common sense,
there neither was nor could be much doubt on the
matter. But, considering the number and minuteness
of the revision., ard she varying influences ueder
which the Rubrics and Formularies have passed, it is
no wonder they bad become somewhat entam,led, and
that a pertinacious and acme criticism succeeded in
raising questions which it taxed all the ingenuity of
lewv ere to solve. The dispute bas been so prolonged
as to tax severely the patience of the pn'lic, and to
allow tendencies to gather strength which might have
be, n easily checked at the outset. The delay, how.
ever, has had the counterbalancing advantage of in-
suring the most comp:ete investigation of tuts points at
isrue, and the Judgment now delivered will have
additional weight from the c•irtainty that it is a fully.
mettle, decision. The result, as is happily usual in
England, is that the final octateS of law and of goad
sinse coincide.

This Judgment opportunely viedicatee for the
Chordal an imp rpretation of its laws in harmony with
the undoubted spirit of the Erglish people from the
days of the Reformation. We earnestly trust, and we
fully believe, that the great mass of the High Church
party are still in harmony with that spirit, as they
have been in former days. But if this Judgment
teaches Ritualists and extreme partirans that, what-
ever may be said for their doctrines and practices, they
are utterly incompatible with the spirit of the Euglassi
Establishment, we shall regret their personal loss, but
we shall consider that ttey have only oper el their
eyes to facts which ought to have been apparent at the
oust. It is of to avail, in short, blinking the fact
that a spirit has of late been at work in the Cuurch
which is utterly alien from a Reformed, a -Protestant,
a reasonable, and an English religion ; and this Judg-
ment may possibly be the oceans of bringing the
antaeonism to a bra I. For our part, we welcome the
conclusion of a wearisome controversy. No man of
sense and sound piety will be aggrieved by bring for-
bidden to dreos himself up in obsolete garments, or to
resume mediaeval altitudes in the most solemn
Ordinance of Religion. Cooped with the recent
decision in the care of Mr. Voyre y, this Judgment
shows that the law of the Church is stall strong and
modersts enough to restrain extremes in both dime-
timer. From that point of vi-w it claims additional
respect from Churchmen, and it will add to the con-
fidence felt by the people in the character of their
National Church.