11 AUGUST 1888, Page 1

The Encyclical Letter which the Lambeth Conference has produced has

been highly praised, and we do not deny that it is conceived in a serious, earnest, and sober spirit; but we cannot say that it is to our liking. We do not know why it is that Bishops, when they compose epistles, manage to give them so artificial a tone,—as if they had aimed at imitating the Apostles, but without being able to dis- tinguish between apostolic unction and episcopal unctuous- ness. There is a special flatness in their style. The Bishops call upon Churchmen, for instance, "to rally round the standard of a high and pure morality." Could they have found no simpler: words than this hackneyed and worn- out metaphor to express what is obviously the strongest and most earnest of their thoughts P