The Bishop of Manchester said at Warrington on Thursday that
out of 750 clergymen in his diocese, not five were extreme Ritualists, and intimated that although he would enforce the Public Worship Act where it was his clear duty to do so, he did not greatly like its provisions. Cases were very frequent in which clergymen did not come up to the prescribed rubrics of the Prayer-book, and if in all such cases he were to enforce the Act, he should raise a storm he did not care to encounter. Men wanted more liberty, not less, and "rather than join in a general persecution of all who fell below or went beyond the exact limits of the Rubrics, he would resign his office." That is clear speaking, at all events, but we do not think the Bishop will be so greatly tried. When the Bishop clearly wants a little more liberty and perfect justice for all his clergy, a diocese is very apt to be peaceful, and eccentrics who nevertheless do good to find themselves forgiven by their parishioners.
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