A correspondent of the Guardian of this week—the Rev. G.
Cecil White—has a notable suggestion for the reform of Convocation. He thinks it quite right that the laity should be represented in the Church-body of the future, but,— they should be represented by the clergy. The question of admitting the laity to an equal position with the clergy in any House is, he says, "full of difficulty," while the formation of a separate Lay House " would be an experiment full of danger," so he recommends the expedient of letting the laity join in electing the clergy, but would not allow them to speak for themselves. Now, as the complaint of the laity is that the Church, as at present constituted, is much too clerical, and indeed dominated by the professional instincts of clergymen, this generous proposal strikes us very much like conceding Sir Wilfrid Lawson's Permissive Bill on condition that the authorities empowered to carry out its provisions shall always be licensed victuallers. We venture to recommend Mr. White to consider the proverbial objection against taking away with one hand rather more than you make a parade of giving with the other.
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