The Bishops have struck the heaviest blow at the National
Church which it has received for many a long year,—without knowing it ; but three righteous men have been found, the Bishops of St. David's and Exeter and the Dean of Westminster (perhaps four, though the Bishop of Peterborough's speech, as reported in the Guardian, is not very explicit and far from strong), to show that ecclesiastical dignity does not uproot common honesty and common sense. "S. Winton," emulating the S. Oxon of former days, finding that the appointment of a Unitarian on the Com- mittee of Revision had given offence outside, suddenly proposed by a coup d'etat to break faith with the Committee of Revision, and with the bodies it represented, and carry the following resolution, intended to have the effect of expelling the Unitarian divine, Mr. Vance Smith, from the Revisers. Dr. 1Vilberforce moved :—"That in the judgment of this House it is not expedient that any person who denies the Godhead of our Lord Jesus Christ should be invited to assist in the revision of the Scriptures, and that it is the judgment further of this House that any such one now in either Company should cease to act therewith." This resolution the Bishop of Winchester supported by a great display of his usual unctuous and Pharisaic eloquence, distinguish- ing between " sanctified " and " unsanctified" learning, and ex- plaining that fellowship between such as he and such as Mr. Vance Smith on a question of Biblical scholarship is quite unfitting. We are disposed to agree with him. The Bishop seems entirely incompetent to discern what strict intellectual veracity in relation to such a duty as the revision of the Bible really means. His resolution was carried by 10 votes against 4 ! The Bishop of St. David's, in a speech which increases our honour for him to reverence, has consequently resigned his distinguished place amongst the Old Testament Revisers.
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