27 FEBRUARY 1886, Page 3

The Association for Church Reform, of which Mr. Albert Grey,

Lord Camperdown, Lord Wolmer, and others are the pillars,—or, as the Archbishop of York would term them, "the ill-adjusted buttresses,"—does, however, appear to aim at reforming the Church by "the sinking of differences" and "keeping back the truth." At least, that seems to us the only interpretation to be attached to the method they advocate,— namely, the method of giving to all the ratepayers indifferently the right of determining, for the present" within the limits of the law," but in the hope of greatly relaxing the law, what the wor- ship in the various parishes should be, and ultimately of getting the law so far stretched as to admit all forma of faith,—not, we auppose, necessarily Christian or even Theistic forms,—to the use of the ecclesiastical buildings and revenues. Mr. Albert Grey demanded that the law should be so reformed as to enable the parishioners to determine quite freely the kind of worship they preferred, and to take part in the appointment of the minister and the application of the endowments to religions uses ; whereupon Dr. Martineau very logically pointed out that this involved the abolition of all subscriptions to articles of faith and the repeal of the Act of Uniformity. May we add that it also involves dispensing with all prescribed liturgical forms, and the inclusion, if necessary, not only of Positivists, bat of Brad- laughites, among those who are to have the use of the parish churches of England ?