The Archbishop of Canterbury, in reply, spoke out very plainly
as to the safeguard of the clergy being influenced by public opinion, as Chancellor Smith believed they would be :— " I know my brethren pretty well. I have been thirty years a Bishop, and may speak, not of Bishops only, but of the clergy generally; and I do not think the clergy generally are so amenable to public opinion as you might suppose and as Chancellor Smith thinks inevitable. I think there is a sort of feeling in the clergy that it is a grand and noble thing to resist public opinion, and to face all the persecutions which may beset them." The two things which he cared about most, said the Archbishop, were, firstly, a single Synod to unite the whole Church, and, secondly, that the Houses of Laymen should be really representative. The Archbishop of York, while generally approving the movement for greater autonomy, declared that it would not do to be too timid about giving the franchise to those who may seem to stand aloof from the Church, but are still to be reckoned members of the Church. The whole subject is undoubtedly a very difficult one, so difficult that one may be excused for feeling very doubtful as to any practical results being reached. Meantime we have nothing but praise for the spirit in which the two Primates approached it.
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