The Convocation of Canterbury has made a new attempt to
deal with the " Ornaments Rubric," and apparently has again failed. The Upper House, indeed, agreed upon a rubric which, if adopted by the whole of the Convocation, and sanctioned by the Legislature, and obeyed, would have introduced uniformity into the Church. The Bishops passed, by a vote of 14 (five Bishops abstaining), ,a recommendation that the new rubric should specify the surplice, together with the stole or scarf and University hood, as the only dress for the minister "at all times of his ministration," though it is provided that this rule is not to be construed as repealing the Canons which order the use of the cope in Cathedral and Collegiate Churches. But when this recommendation reached the Lower House of Convocation, Canon Gregory moved to disagree with the proposal of the Upper House, objecting especially to Convocation adopt- ing hints from the Judicial Bench, and thou proposing to the Legislature of the land to enact them into laws of the Church--and Canon Gregory's amendment to the proposal was carried by sixty-eight votes against thirteen. The Lower House of Convocation appears to hold, with Canon Butler, that if you so much as touch even one Rubric of the existing Prayer-book, the whole structure will crumble into dust, like a Prince Rupert's drop. That is possible, though we doubt it much. But does it really evince great reverence for what is held to be a quasi-divine body of devotional teaching, to liken it to .a Prince Rupert's drop, the whole substance of which vanishes with the loss of its minutest fragment
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