Litchfield enquirer., 1877-08-02
WHOLE NO. 267O

lending clergymen, and after three years of contumacy, 6 vacation of his living. Reinstatement from suspension can on- ly be had upon the written promise ot the offender to obey the order of the court. An appeal from the decision of the judge can, however, bemade to the Privy Coun- Gil. The sensitive state of English opin- ion, is shown by the fact that appeal un- der the act has disturbed the whole na- tion. Rev. Charles Joseph Ridsdalc, in- cumbent of St. Peters Folkestone. was charged upon twelve distinct counts with illegal practices in the conduct of public worship. Eleven of these were decided by the lay judge Iord sPenzancel to Do proven. On four of them an appeal to the Privy Council was staken. These four the wearing of vestments, the use of wa fer bread at the communion table, the taking of the eastward position, and the setting up of lighted candles and Q oruci- Af. eQntain thA issues neideEed vital Dy the contending parties. The Privy council pronounced dll these pfactices to be illegal, save thpv taking of the eastward position, winch it helL to be allowable under certain conditions. The effect of the judgment was an instantane- ops uproar. The appellant, MT. Ridsdales gave notice that he would disregard it, though he intimates that he will obey his Bishop. Dr Pusey, the venerable TraCta- rian leader, whose counsels are always heard with respect by his party, has ad- vised ritulistic clergymen to change noth. ing. A petition to the archbishops and bishops, signed by numerous dignitarles, has beenss sscirculated, in which the privi. lege of self-government is asked for the Church. Asking for self government is but a polite method of asking diseatab- lishment. The Privv council is.threaten- ed in the plainest terms. Says the Church Times s'There is no likelihood henceforth of any confidence being placed in the inc tegrity of the Privy Council. for it has flung away its character with both hands, and Churchmen will never rest till it is destroyed as Q court of ecclesias- tical appeal" Says the Church ReVietO: ''We mean to defy the present legal sys- tenn, from Lord Penzance upward, and we mean to see who shall win.
 Three contingencies are now before the English people-either the government will recede or there will be al secession from the state Church, or there will be Q disestabishment. Of the first there is lit- tie probability. The new law was adopt ed by conservative Parliament; it is not measure forced through the two houses by the tactics of the Liberals. Secession will for the present be limited to indIvid- ual cases. The surrender of the emolu- ments of the state Church would be costly sacrifce:for the ritualists to make, and for that they are not, as party. pre- pared. Disestablishment of the Church with the reservation of it's endowments is more agreeable idea, and disestablish- ment is just now the cry. EcClesiastical as we'll as civil politics can make strange companionships. and extreme Churchmen and Dissenters now find themselves in accord.
 Dr. Arnold's plan of enlarging the com prehension of the Church of England. so that it shall take in the whole people, has not been adopted by any well-defned par ty. The vanishing of the state Church as dominant element of English life will Dc gain, and yet in many respects, great change for the English nation. It has had much to do with the formation of the national temper, and has imparted it's own sobriety and moderation to the people who have waited upon it's services. Ven. erable in the eyes of all Protestants, en- deared to some of them by thousand as- sociations which cluster about it at sweet. ly as the Ivy infolds many a one of it's an- cient edifices. it is to be hoped that, un- der the new conditions which it must ac- cept, it may endure for ages yet to come.
 GEO. R. CRooKs.