The dispute in the Church about the induction of Mr.
Gorham threatens to occasion unpleasant if not serious consequences.
When it was alluded to in Parliament, this week, Lord John Russell said that the decision has caused " general satisfaction." Among a certain party, he should, have said—nicknamed "Low Church "; for those nicknamed " High Church " are in great dudgeon : and while a considerable number in other classes view the agitation with a boding indifference, a still larger is moved by a feeling no higher than curiosity if not amusement. This would be a more correct description of the public feeling than Lord John's. But it is doubtful whether the contest will stop where it does. The Bishop of Exeter positively refuses to induct Mr. Gorham ; and even if the Archbishop of Canterbury should perform that duty by proxy, Bishop Philpotts is not the man to be passive with an odious clerk in his diocese; nor, we suspect, is Mr. Gorham the clerk to lie in unobtrusive quietude. The Church Unions of the country are stirring themselves to seize the juncture for obtaining, either a legislative reversal of the late decision, or a restoration of legislative power to the Church in matters of doctrine and dis- cipline.
The disorder in the clerical government is reviving intro.- ecclesiastical demands for Church reform ; so that every day the question is becoming more complicated. Indeed, there seems to be no alternative; but prompt settlement of the question that occasions the dispute, or disruption of the Establishment. Yet the Premier, fortified by his notion of " general satisfaction," says that he is not prepared' to do anything, at least for the present.
