The Ritualists have found another absurdity to worry their Bishops
with. They want to build " baldacchinos," or canopies, -over their altars, of course to signify that the mystical Presence is there ; and their congregations are very angry, and of course rush to the Bishops, who are perplexed, as the ques- tion happens never to have come before the Courts before. Endless dissertations are being written and to be written on the subject, but none of the writers seem disposed to lay the least stress on the ideas of the congregation. If clergymen and laymen alike find in the baldac,chino or other piece of upholstery a symbol of their deepest thoughts, the canopy can do no harm, and may even, though in a very riskful way, do good. But if, as is the case in say 13,000 parishes out of 13,500, the baldacchino merely compels the congregation to a perpetual and compulsory recognition of what they deem a false- hood, it must do them from its conspicuousness extreme injury, which the Bishops, if they ever could prevent anything, ought to suppress. There is no hope, however, in them, unless creamy apologies for doing nothing are things to be hoped for, and it is in Lord Sandon's Bill the laity will find relief. The parish council will soon make an end of the baldacchino.
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