The parishioners of St. Paul's, Lorrimore Square, Walworth, are not
in a very happy frame of mind. During two incum- bencies they have had very High-Church incumbents, and they have taken cordially to the ritual introduced. On the 13th of last month, the late Vicar, the Rev. W. P. C. Adam, died. On the 15th, the vacancy was notified to the Bishop of Rochester (Dr. Thorold), who is patron of the living. On the 18th, the Bishop replied, expressing his sympathy, and stating that the subject of the vacancy should have his careful consideration. On the 24th, the Bishop wrote that the appointment was finally settled, and the new Vicar is the Rev. Evelyn Ferguson Alex- ander, of Brasenose College, Oxford, long Dr. Thorold's curate at St. Pancras, and a zealous Evangelical. Bishop Thorold preached at St. Paul's, Walworth, last Sunday, explaining to the congregation the necessity of obeying the law, and rather lecturing them on their extra-legal ritual. Coming out of the church, he was nearly mobbed, the panes of his carriage windows broken, and his coachman's hat knocked off. Afterwards, a meeting was held, in which the congregation quite rightly expressed their disgust at the violence which the Walworth roughs had used against the Bishop, and their complete guiltlessness of any share in it, but otherwise pro- testing most warmly against the new appointment. Nothing can be more plain than that Evangelical dictation will no more root out Ritualism, than Ritualistic dictation can root out Evangelicalism. Dr. Thorold has made a big mistake,—the same mistake as Lord Beaconsfield and the Public Worship Act.
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