A word in season has been spoken by Archbishop Whately.
In the charge addressed to the clergy of the diocese of Dublin at his annual visitation' the Archbishop directed their attention principally to what has been called "Papal aggression." Dr. Whately's views are characterized alike by profound philosophical truth and a pure spiritual devotion, lie showed of how little avail the Ecclesiastical Titles Act had been, except as a source of irrita- tion; and pointed out that the evil against which it was directed, however formidable as a symptom, was of little consequence in itself. He enforced the important truth that it is not to legis- lative enactments that men are to look for securities for their faith, but to their own earnest and unremitting vigilance. He attributed the stationary or receding condition of the Reformation for nearly three centuries less to the efforts of the Church of Rome than to the remissness of Protestants. From these topics he proceeded to expatiate on the compatibility of mutual tolerance with earnest assertion of individual convictions, and upon true Christian unity, springing not from external laws or compacts, but from an in- ternal spirit of truthfulness and charity. The whole address is instinct with an elevated and affectionate spirit. It is indeed the voice of a reformer that we hear—of one who aims at making men wiser and better, and relies upon the sole agency of simple vera- city and Christian love. At this time of renewed sectarian tumult it is like oil poured on the stormy waves. It contrasts beautifully with the Wiseman petulancies on the one side, and with the sple- netic trickiness of the Durham Letter on the other.
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