29 DECEMBER 1866, Page 2

Archdeacon Allen promises to bring forward a motion in Con-

vocation to prohibit the use of any vestments except the black gown, the black cap, and the surplice, and to refer all disputed questions of ritual to the Ordinary. He had much better get his county member to bring a short Bill to the same effect into Parlia- ment. Convocation cannot alter the law, and a Ritualist is

-always the last person to obey the authority he vaunts so highly. All these practices could be put down in a session, supposing that expedient, if moderate priests were not as much afraid as immo- derate priests of acknowledging the only true principle, that the • nation is above all its churches, and has as much right to esta- blish a new dogma as a new tenure, to order a new sacerdotal dress as a new uniform for beadles. Archdeacon Allen calls that -"Erastian," and consequently will fail, just as everybody who refuses to acknowledge facts always fails.