The Commission for revising the subscriptions of the clergy leave
presented their report. What they propose is certainly an improvement so far as it goes, the more so that it was expressly meant by the Commissioners to solve small scruples in a liberal sense, and permit young clergymen in sympathy with the general doctrine of the Church, but not entirely with all its minor points, to sign without any slur on their conscience. It abolishes the bond fide "assent and consent" to all that is contained in the Book of Common Prayer. The general declaration substituted is " ' I, A. B., do solemnly make the following declaration : —I assent to the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion, and to the Book of Com- mon Prayer, and of Ordering of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons : I believe the doctrine of the United Church of England and Ireland, as therein set forth, to be agreeable to the Word of God : and in Public Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments I will use the form in the said Book prescribed, and none other, except so far as shall be ordered by lawful authority." Why the declara- tion of assent should be " solemn " and the assent itself not so, is a problem which the Commissioners alone can solve. Probably it was thought that by throwing the solemnity over the general act, instead of affixing it to the intellectual assent itself, more scope would be left to the consciences of clergymen. It is a concession even to wish to concede. But the Commission ought to have done more.
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