Ninety-six Peers have signed a letter to the Archbishop of
Canterbury protesting against the use of " The Priest in Abso- lution," and declaring that the practice of auricular confession on the principles set forth in that book "will destroy all friendly relations existing between laity and clergy." They therefore urge the Archbishop to condemn the system and the clergy who use it. The Archbishop, who at heart entirely agrees with, the Peers, but who has read his Prayer-book, and knows that the Church of England does, in the Ordination Service particularly, something more than tolerate confession and absolution, promises to lay the letter before the Bishops, and meanwhile has no hesitation in assuring his correspondents that " nothing shall be wanting on his part to maintain, with God's blessing, the purely Scriptural character of our Reformed Church," which is euphonious, but not a little vague. It would be strange if the first determined attempt at an authoritative revision of the Church-of-England teaching came from the House of Lords, but many things are more impro- bable. More than half the Peers are old-orthodox, with a lean- ing to Evangelicalism, and any revision they might demand would be swept through the House of Commons.
