Convocation has been prorogued, after expressing a great wish to
do various acts of bigotry, and discussing the possibility of sending the consecrated elements to sick patients who are not able to attend the communion service in church. The Bishop of London pointed out that sick persons in this condition are assured by our Church that they have all the spiritual benefit of the Com- munion without joining in the physical rite, and objected to the practice of sending the consecrated elements to private houses. The Times points out that if adopted, it would be adopted only by those extreme Churchmen who would think it irreverent to take it except in solemn procession through the streets, and that thus we should have the processions of the Host reintroduced, and a very lively stimulus to Protestant rioting. There would be acts of adoration by those who shared the high view, and acts of ridicule and scoffing by those who did not. The Bishops came to no con- clusion on the petition presented to them, but they did not seem to bring to the subject much of the common sense which a few English magistrates would have lent them. It is certainly greatly to our discredit that there would be so many ready to take the most offensive line towards the religious superstitions of others, but when we see the scenes already so common in Ritualist churches, no wise man will wish to adjourn them to the public street.
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