19 OCTOBER 1872, Page 2

We did an unintentional injustice last week to the Bishop

of Peterborough, when we said, copying the report in the Times, that he had spoken of a Dissenting minister's wish to preach in his pulpit as "an insult to his understanding." What he did say was simply part of an argument against fancying that Dis- senters ought to be 'conciliated' by being occasionally admitted to perform funeral services in the graveyards, and to preach in the pulpits, of the Established Church :—" Now those whom we proposed to concihate held that our whole Estab- lishment was a wrong and an iniquity, and holding that most firmly—as they had a perfect right to do—what should he feel if he were in their place and a Churchman came to him and said, 'I cannot give up the Establishment ; I mean to fight to the death for it, but I mean to conciliate you, and I will allow you to come and read a burial-service in my graveyard and to preach in my pulpit.' He should say, You are offering a distinct insult to my understanding to suppose that I could give up my oonscientious objection to your Establishment for so small a bribe as permission to officiate in your pulpit or in your grave- yard. You have not taken the right measure of our convictions on the subject,"—all which is very good sense, though not much of an argument against the proposal to admit lay preachers into the pulpits of the Established Church. The Bishop says that it is laymen who oppose, and clergymen who, on the whole, advocate such a change. That is, we take it, because the laymen who are consulted are chiefly laymen "of importance" who have all the consideration of rich patrons of the Church, but who have few intellectual interests, and no wish to take a less prominent place. As far as we know, there is but one opinion among Church-goers of any intelligence,—namely,that in nine churches out of ten the sermon is at present naugbt, and mostly known to be naught by the excellent preachers.