The still continued spread of the agitation in the Church,
of which the Gorham dispute is the proximate cause, is attended by an enlargement also of the spirit which animates the several parties. The movement is far from being confined to support of the Bishop of Exeter, or his unwelcome presentee, or the Judicial Committee; though our news columns will shew that addresses still come in on all sides : but men of active and far-sighted mind have become en- upon the broad question of the future relations between en- gaged and State. An able writer in the Christian .Remembraneer undertakes to show that the relation of the State to the Church is personal through the Sovereign ; that the power of the State is visitatorial, to see that the laws of the Church be fulfilled, by aid of the temporal power athatnistered through a lay son of the Church ; and that since the admission of all sects into Par- liament, the relation between the Legislature and the Church has been materially altered, inaoranch that a, corresponding and recognized change of method is demanded. At a rural- meeting of clergy, the Reverend Charles Miller supports views of simi- lar tendency; so does Archdeacon Manning at Chichesttlr. These are among the many signs, that a revision of the manner in which the Church is connected with the State cannot be much longer deferred, without serious detriment to their future co- operation. The glaring obstacle to any initiation of such revi- sion is the existence of a Government incapable to undertake any "comprehensive measure," or any measure that demands decision and vigour, and therefore anxious to hush up everything, and to prevent questions from rising at all to test its feeble incompetency.
