The Church Congress assembled on Tuesday at Newcastle- on-Tyne, the
Bishop of Manchester opening the proceedings with a fine description of a Bishop's office. We have made some comments elsewhere on the speeches of the Archbishop of York and the Bishop of Durham, and their hopefulness of tone ; but we must notice here a remark of the latter which has at- tracted great attention. Dr. Lightfoot seems to despair of giving to the Congress anything of a representative character. It is, he acknowledges, at present "a fortuitous concourse of atoms," but he "does not see his way" to make it anything better, and, indeed, is obviously a little afraid, if the Con- gress were made representative, of finding it a monster as un- controllable as Frankenstein's. We do not quite see how a body without legal powers could become so formidable, and would suggest that, if the end is desirable, a federal union of the Diocesan Conferences would not be beyond human ingenuity. We do not, however, admit the desirability. The English Church needs a reformed Convocation, or representative Synod, eiceedingly ; but it will not get one the sooner for calling an informal Parliament, in which the laity are certain to be either unrepresented or misrepresented. Men who are content to debate, without the power to act, are seldom of the type of men who accurately represent the laity.
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