The Bishops, too, have had their little battle over a
more im- portant matter,—whether or not they should declare, on the motion of the Bishop of Oxford, the Church of England to be • out of communion with Dr. Colenso and in communion with the orthodox party in Natal. The Bishop of Lincoln (who did not
hesitate, however, to say that he would refuse to administer the holy communion to the Bishop of Natal if he presented himself for it when he was officiating) moved an amendment intended to get rid of the direct negative as to Dr. 'Colenso, namely, " That in the opinion of this House the Church of England holds com- munion with the Bishop of Cape Town, and those Bishops who lately with him in Synod declared Dr. Colenso to be ipso facto excommunicated," and for this amendment, which only declared the Church to be in communion with those who had excommuni- cated Dr. Coleus°, but did not exactly endorse that excommuni- cation, there voted the fire more Liberal Bishops,—St. David's, London, Lincoln, Lichfield, and Ely ; against it the four most bigoted, Oxford, Salisbury, Gloucester, and Bangor,—the Arch- bishop of Canterbury characteristically not voting. It was a discreditable kind of compromise after all. The Liberal Bishops should have voted against the Bishop of Oxford's motion altogether instead of meeting it by amendment, asserting that they were not bound specially to declare themselves in communion with excom- municators who appear to have excommunicated on bigoted and insufficient grounds. What they did do was to dispose of a vote of confidence in A, by carrying a vote of confidence in his op- ponent B, reciting that B had declared his want of confidence in A, but not expressly reciting that their confidence in B was based on that declaration of his. Surely it is not possible- for a trumpet to give forth a more uncertain sound, than this indecisive trumpet of the more Liberal Bishops. If the Liberal Bishops be Laodicean, the Tory Bishops may fairly hope to secure for Liberal opinions the appropriate Lsodicean euthanasia.
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