23 FEBRUARY 1895, Page 2

We perceive with pleasure that the long frost which has

been experienced by the Broad Church clergy, shows signs of breaking up. Mr. Llewellyn Davies, it is true, is still left in his country rectory, but Mr. W. Page Roberts, of St. Peter's, Vere Street, has been appointed to a canonry in Canterbury. It is not a very valuable piece of preferment—only 2500 a year—for the Canterbury Chapter were short-sighted enough to stick to their estates, and do not receive 50 per cent, of their nominal income ; but that is of minor importance. It

suffices that the Broad Church is no longer boycotted. Mr. Page Roberts, of whose sermons we have so often expressed our opinion—his merit is condensed but persuasive thought, his demerit too little appreciation of authority as a ground for belief—will not, we are happy to believe, entirely quit "Pere Street, where he has collected a most unusual congrega- tion, most of them men belonging to the highest educated class, whose attention Mr. Roberts enchains without any -tricks of oratory by the charm of strong reasoning and -the most obvious sincerity of belief. Canterbury has gained a preacher, but it is in London, or, curiously enough, in a oongregation strictly of villager?, that Mr. Page Roberts will always be most thoroughly appreciated.