If Sir William Harcourt bad only couched his letter on
the confessional, published in Thursday's Times, in lean violent language, it might have done far more good than we fear it now will. We feel quite as strongly as he can against the confessional as an institution, and against anything approach. ing to compulsory or systematised confession—we would only allow confession to a clergyman when made to him spon- taneously as a good man in the service of God—and we regard with indignation the shocking letter quoted by Sir William Harcourt. The nature of the terrible dangers complained of call, however, not for violent invective, but for the language of moderation and good sense. If Sir William Harcourt will concentrate his efforts in a sober spirit upon seeing that the Bishop's admonitions as to the confessional are obeyed he may do real good, and he is sure to have the support of the vast majority, not only of English. men, but of Churchmen. The confessional is an institution which can never be tolerated in the Church of England, and is on a perfectly different plane from an ornamental ritual.
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