FUSION OF CONVOCATION.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR...1 S111,—I read in the Spectator of February 29th (p. 275) an asser- tion which will astonish many as much as it did me, and which must not pass unchallenged. "The first step," you say, "to be taken for a due representation of the Church is to ask the permis-
sion of Parliament for the fusing of the two Convocations into one." May I ask what is your authority for such a supposition P Convocation is as much a constituent part of the State as Parlia- ment. It is of a date much earlier than Parliament, and it does not ask permission from Parliament, but from the Crown only, for its enactments. If you refer to Joyce's "Acts of the Church," Part I., Sec. 4, you will find several instances in which the Convocations of the Northern and Southern Provinces have acted as one body. They do not require, in order to do so, even the licence of the Crown, still less the "permission of Parlia- ment."—I am, Sir, ttc.,
Bury Rectory, Lancashire, March let. E. J. HORNBY.
[We believe that we were in error, and that our correspondent is right as regards the condition of the law. It would, however, be necessary to alter the form of the Royal Writ summoning the Houses of Convocation ; and we hardly think that any Minister would advise this without first consulting Parliament. —En. Spectator.]
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