The Rev. S. D. Brownjohn, a priest and sometime rector
of East Lydford and chaplain to the late Bishop of Bath and Wells, has sent to the papers and presented at the confirma- tion of Dr. Temple on Tuesday as Archbishop-Elect of Canterbury, a curious protest against the confirmation of Dr. Temple in the See of Canterbury. " I make this protest," he says, "on the ground that the said Dr. Frederick Temple is a self-confessed believer in the fall doctrine of Evolution, and because I believe the acceptance of the full doctrine of Evolution concerning the origin of man to be absolutely inconsistent with the teaching of the Book of Common Prayer and the articles of religion of the Church of England." We should doubt Mr. Brownjohn's assumption first, as to whether Dr. Temple has ever given in his assent to Mr. Brownjohn's conception of "the full doctrine of Evolution," and next, as to whether, if he has, there is in that assent anything absolutely inconsistent with either the Book of Common Prayer or the Thirty-nine Articles, which were both of them settled and published before the modern doctrine of evolution was in any sense either accepted or denied by a Church which had never anticipated its meaning. Mr. Brownjohn must have remarkable courage and earnestness to publish to the world this quaint protest against Dr. Temple's confirmation, but we do not believe that he is quite as wise as he is courageous. The protest was formally presented on Tuesday and disallowed.
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