The movement on the part of liberal clergymen intended to
pro- mote religious intercourse with Dissenters is not likely to prosper -without a change in the law. At present there is every encourage- ment held out to common religious worship between the clergy of our Church and the other " branch " Churches which retain a hierarchical form, but no sooner does a clergyman officiate in any Dissenting chapel than his hierarchical superiors are down upon him in a moment, and he is inhibited from preaching until, as the phrase is, he has "purged himself " of his offence. The Rev. J. Knapp, Vicar of Portsea, has just been inhibited from preaching in the diocese of Chichester, in consequence of having recently preached in Emmanuel Church, Brighton, a Nonconformist place of worship. He is informed that by so doing he has rendered himself liable to a criminal action in the Ecclesiastical Courts, and so no doubt he has. To seal up the Church of England closely on -one side,—the side to which all the largest-minded clergymen feel the most attraction,—and leave it perfectly open on all the other sides, towards the Greek and Armenian Churches, for example, is clearly grossly unjust. The movement towards a more cordial intercourse with all other Churches is good,—but most good where those other Churches are themselves simple in form, and free from all the nonsensical arrogance of hierarchical monopolies.
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