The Bishop of Peterborough has been holding the triennial visitation
of his clergy this week, and telling them how he intends to act in relation to the Public Worship Act. He would not give his consent to any litigation unless the complaint made to him had been "the last, and not the first resort of the complainant" : If a parishioner had not first spoken to his clergyman, and asked him to alter what he objected to, he would conclude that what he wanted was not justice, but litigation, and would not allow the suit to proceed. Further, he would allow no suits for the purpose of 'ascertaining the law,' as it was called. The cases he would allow to go on would be those in which the claimant had, or believed he had, a clear and bond fide grievance to be redressed, and not simply a rubrical investigation to be pursued at the cost of the peace of the parish He would make the condition that no clergyman in the diocese introduced after this date any of the practices now being litigated in the superior Courts, for if it were reasonable that a clergyman should not be harassed by a prosecu- tion now for a practice which six months hence might possibly be dechired legal, on the other hand, it seemed to him equally reason- able that he should refrain from interrupting the peace of a parish by introducing the same practice, which might, perhaps, be de- clared illegaL" These are, on the whole, sensible rules in the interests of peace. But we are not sure that "suits for the pur- pose of ascertaining the law" might not prevent other and more hostile suits, without themselves giving rise to heated passions.
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