Dr. Pusey wrote a clear and sensible letter to the
Times, of Wednesday, defending himself against the imputation of having encouraged parsons to persecute the laity ; and he cer- tainly makes out a complete defence. The only weak part of his letter is his allegation that " the only way of testing Judge- made law is to disobey it, and so obtain a rehearing of the cause." That would hardly apply to the case of "Judge-made law " even when declared by the inferior Courts, but how it applies to the case of the decision of a Court of Appeal, we cannot imagine. If you disobey a Court of Appeal, there is no cer- tainty—hardly, in general, a probability—of obtaining a re- hearing. You set an example of disobedience to the law, and that is all. That the Clergy of a Church which is under no obligation to the law in question, except so far as that Church is provided with an Establishment by the State, should set such an example, seems to us hardly decent. If it is a case of real conscience, they may leave the Establishment. If it is not a case of con- science, they should surely waive their own predilections, if only for the sake of setting an example of respect to the law. And we say this well knowing the grave objections to the lot
Privy Council judgment in the Ridsdale case, and without in any degree concealing our own belief that those objections are sound.
