The proceedings of the Convocation of the Clergy have practi-
cally altered the relation of that body to the State. The Arch- bishop of Canterbury has permitted actual debates in both Houses ; the Upper House has passed an address to the Crown, and has ap- pointed a Committee to consider the better enforcement of disci- pline; the Lower House has appointed a Committee on griev- vances ; and the Committee of the Upper House is empowered to communicate with the Lower. All this is done upon the suffer- ance of the Primate. When Mr. Walpole was asked on Monday, whether Convocation had received a Royal licence to proceed to the despatch of business, he said that Government had taken "the usual course " ; an equivocation to which the sequel has given a very sinister aspect. He must have meant, that the forms exe- cuted by the Crown did not vary from the recent precedents; but why not say so Every colleague of Mr. Disraeli will find it ne- cessary to be doubly careful in avoiding equivocation. Whatever Mr. Walpole may have said, the actual proceedings of the Convo- eatioa amount to the practical restoration of the Church Synod as a substantive and deliberative body.
