The Sun.
London, England, 1868-03-18 00:00:00

CONVOCATION RESUSCITATED.

We doubt whether the restoration of Con-
vocation to life is a gain or a loss to the Church
of England. Politically, no doubt, it is a great
triumph ; because only thirty years ago any
man who knew England would have pro-
nounced it as impossible as any one political
event that could have been named ; for, what-
ever John Bull could or could not put up with,
anything like independent action on the part
of the Established Church seemed what he
would least endure, and words are after all
action when they are publicly delivered and
reported. It then is a political triumph that
the Established. Church has recovered its voice,
but whether it is or is not a gain must depend
on the use it makes of it. This consideration
has been forced upon us in reading the terribly
long report in the late number of the Guardian.
There are some men and more women who
have every reason to wish that they could have
been as effectually silenced as the Established
Church under the Georges. The first occasion
on which Convocation spoke at all was when
Parliament met after the election which im-
mediately succeeded the judgment in the Gor-
ham case. Many worthy men had mentioned
that that judgment was merely the act of the
State, by which the Church of England was
in no degree committed. Some of them had
even declared that if Convocation had been
able to meet and had not protested, that would
in their opinion have involved the Church of
England. Unexpectedly it did obtain liberty
to speak, and what it said was, that •it felt
bound to refer especially to the most important
events which had happened since its last (for-
mal) meeting, and that that was the setting at ,
nought of the Queen's ecclesiastical supremacy
by the constitution of the Catholic hierarchy
in England. Convocation, therefore, took occa-
sion by that event to make a strong declaration
in favour of the Royal Supremacy. Now, it is
to be remembered that it was by virtue of the
Royal Supremacy that the Committee of Privy
Council had decided, since the last meeting of
Convocation, that the grace of baptism was an
open question. To take that opportunity,
therefore, to declare in favour of the Supre-
macy, without qualifying it by so much as an
expression of regret at the manner in which
it had been exerted, was to go as nearly as
possible to a formal declaration that Convo-
cation approved what had been done in the
Gorham judgment.
What makes this the stronger is, that the
declaration in question was not part of the
formal address to the Crown, which used to
be moved by the Archbishop, and adopted by
Convocation, at the opening of every new Par-
liament, even du"ing the period of its suspen-
sion. It was an amendment to that address,
moved by no less a person than the Bishop of
Oxford. No one could doubt that he person-
ally would have w ;shed to obtain a protest
against the Gorham judgment if he could. Ile
did not attempt it, only because he felt it would
be imprudent. This makes the silence of Con-
vocation still more expressive.
We have often felt that those members of the
Established Church who call themselves
" Catholics" must have bitterly regretted that
Convocation had not recovered its voice at
least a Parliament later, considering this was
the first use it made of it.
This circumstance has been recalled to our
mind, and we think to theirs also, by the re-
ports in the three last numbers of the Guar-
dian. The chief subjects discussed have been
ritualism and the Natal Bishopric, and the best
friends of the Established Church must greatly
have wished that nothing had been said about
them, so that they could only plead that the
silence was involuntary.--Westminster Gazette.

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