11 FEBRUARY 1899, Page 3

At the joint meeting of both Houses of Convocation and

the House of Laymen at Westminster on Thursday, the Archbishop of Canterbury made an important statement in regard to the working of the proposed Court of Archbishops for settling the interpretation of rubrics. Without pledging himself that there would not be ultimately any prosecutions, he was desirous to exhaust every means of avoiding that altima ratio : accordingly, in future, in all disputed questions of ritual, ample opportunities would be offered to clergymen to argue their cases, either in person, or by counsel, or by experts, before the two Archbishops. That is to say, the Arch. bishop of York would sit as an assessor when a case came before the Archbishop of Canterbury and vice versd. He was led to this decision by the conviction that it was no more than justice that in matters touching the conscience of many clergy, they should not be deprived of the opportunity of stating their doubts and difficulties before a Court w)iich represented the Church and the Church alone.