The Archbishop of York throws cold water on the plan
of Church Reform which the Bishop of Worcester bad suggested. He is very anxious that a short way of dealing with criminous clerks should be made legal, but be evidently does not take at
all readily to the notion of a Lay Assembly to take part in the work of Convocation. He thinks that such an innovation as that would be, to say the least, dangerous. Perhaps he is right. We have never doubted that such a reform of the Church as that might possibly bring the Establishment down sooner even than letting it alone. But then, it might give so new a strength to the Church, that it would render it impossible to disestablish it; and even if it did not, it might very possibly give so new a strength to the Church, that even in case of Disestablishment the work of the Church would not be seriously interrupted, but taken up with ardour at the very point it had reached when the severance from the State took place. We quite admit the danger of meddling with old structures. Still, the danger of not meddling with them is serious, and eventually it must be more than danger,—destruction.
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