31 DECEMBER 1927, Page 2

At the end of last week a strange rumour was

current that the Bishops had made a bargain with the Evangelicals led by Sir William Joynson-Hicks. Possibly the chief reason for this belief was that the debate in the House of Commons did disclose a stricter Protestantism than had generally been thought to exist, and no doubt those members of Parliament who declared that before opposing the Measure they had satisfied themselves of the general feeling in the country acted with conviction. However this may be, there was not a word of truth in the sugges- tion that the Bishops, finding that the Anglo-Catholics were less strong than they had thought, now deemed it advisable to parley privately with the Evangelicals.