Is it quite impossible to make new rules for the
admission of men to Orders ? At present the profession is absolutely at the mercy of the territorial bishops, who could if they chose to com- bine bring it to a close, or insist on every candidate being six feet high, or impose religious tests not in any way ordered by law. There is, we believe, absolutely no compulsion upon any bishop to ordain any one, not even that of opinion, for he may reject with- -out assigning a reason. Hitherto the policy of selecting bishops from different parties in the Church has modified the evil, but as those differences become deeper and wider it is quite possible that really learned theologians may either be excluded altogether, or com- pelled to conceal their real convictions. It is quite useless to relax subscriptions if a bishop can refuse ordination because the candidate doubts whether a man ever lived three days in a fish, and it is worth while to consider whether the law ought not to .grant some right of action against a bishop for rejections not authorized by the law of the Church. Could there not be an appeal to the Archbishop, with a law compelling that functionary to state his reasons for rejection, when opinion would keep him within certain limit; ?
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