On Friday week, the only explosion of Conservative prejudice in
the Church Congress occurred. It was caused by Canon Curteis's attack on the Dissenters for their claim to the freedom of the Churchyards, and when Mr. Thomas Hughes rebuked his violence of language, and declared that whatever the clergy might 'resolve on, the country had made up its mind, and that Mr. ,Osborne Morgan's Burials Bill, or something equivalent, was as good as passed, the clergy roared at him like an angry mob. Nevertheless, Archbishop Tait, in closing the Congress on the same evening, congratulated everybody almost without ex- eeeption or limitation, on its success, and complimented it on avoiding " burning questions,"—which, with the exception of the Burials question, certainly had been done very effect- nally ; though on the only burning question really discussed, the ',clergy had done themselves little credit. The Archbishop praised the Bishops, praised the Judges, and praised the laity for their part in ecclesiastical affairs ; and the general drift of his closing speech was that it was well to work with the institutions you have, .and not to alter them too hastily. No doubt that is an exceedingly safe and popular sentiment with ecclesiastics. But surely a 'Church exists for the sake of getting the real world to conform itself more than it does to the ideal world; and we cannot, there- fore, ourselves see with so much admiration as many appear to feel, this more than contented, almost jealous, optimism in the Primate of All England.
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