Yesterday week Mr. Edward Jenkins moved in the House of
Commons a series of resolutions against Ritualism, ask- ing for a Royal Commission to inquire into its excesses, into the character of the party in the Church opposed to the Reforma- tion, into conventual institutions, and so forth. It was a motion meant rather for show than for use, and was withdrawn, at Sir Stafford Northcote's request, after it had given rise to a debate in which every one expressed himself shocked at Ritual excesses, and almost every one recorded his conviction that a Royal Commission to disinter and expose them, could do nothing but harm. The Public Worship Act was generally praised on all sides, in spite of its not working very well, and probably by some of the genuine statesmen because it does not work very well, and is on that account so much the safer as a safety-valve of imprudent Zeal. The Public Worship Act was passed, as we all know, to " put down Ritualism," and apparently it only fires blank- cartridges against it. Probably it is none the worse for that. The Ecclesiastical Titles Act was a measure of the same kind, and was wisely repealed in due season. There are measures which are more useful as lightning-conductors for excited popular feeling than for any other practical purpose, and this is one of them.
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