Those who, like ourselves, desire that a spirit of comprehen-
sion and compromise, the spirit which so strongly inspires the preface to the Prayer-book, shall be the ruling spirit in the Church of England, will be well satisfied if the recommenda- tions of the Lower House are carried into law. Would it not be possible to couple with this alteration in the rubric the recommendation made thirty years ago by a very representa- tive Royal Commission on Ritual,—the addition of the following note to the directions respecting the administra- tion of the Lord's Supper :—" The foregoing directions are not to be held to authorise the refusal of the Holy Communion to those who humbly and devoutly desire to partake thereof " ? The addition of such a note would put an end to a controversy which gives pain to many good Churchmen, would make clear the truly national position of the Church, and would prove that the Church is no respecter of persons, and that what is done in the ease of members of the Royal Family who have belonged to foreign Communions can be, and ought to be, done in the case of members of the Presbyterian and Nonconformist Churches.
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