On Saturday, July 11th, the Archbishops received in the Library
of Lambeth Palace a deputation representing the signatories to the recent clerical "Declaration on Ritual." The Archbishop of Canterbury in a wise and statesmanlike speech acknowledged that the great body of High Churchmen are "absolutely loyal to our Church's system and authority and rule." He went on to point out that in 1865 there was added to Canon XXXVI. the words "except so far as shall be ordered by lawful authority." He welcomed those words because they indicated "that some living authority should be able to sanction the necessary elasticity required for minor matters in our Church's order and system, that living authority being the Bishop of each diocese." With respect to the inter- pretation of the Ornaments Rubric, he pleaded that the opinions of great legal thinkers like Lord Selborne, Lord Hatherley, and Lord Cairns must carry very great weight. The fact that they spoke in the Privy Council could not affect their unrivalled power of interpretation, and the case could only be reopened on the basis of "additional knowledge" unknown to those lawyers,—a basis that could probably be established. The Archbishop then paid a tribute to the present Bench of Bishops. His insistence on their capacity, watchfulness, and loyalty was the keynote of this politic, speech. The greatest tribute to the Bishops is, however, the fact of the "Declaration."
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