But those who are disposed to echo Professor Dicey's sneer
should read Mr. MacCall's extremely able paper. There they will see that it is in no way the refusal to obey the law which excites sympathy, but the refusal of a man in earnest to obey a very doubtful provision of the law, so long as Bishops who are not in earnest show not the smallest hesitation in setting at defi- ance provisions which are not doubtful at all. It is the gross inequality of the way in which the law is applied, and the cool indifference to previous decisions with which it is laid down, that has gained for a few Ritualists a sympathy which would never have been accorded to their specific views. More instruc- tive reading on the relation of the law to ecclesiastical affairs than Professor Dicey's and Mr. MacColl's papers, we have not encountered for many months.
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