5 JANUARY 1884, Page 2

Lord Coleridge has published a memorial on the subject of

the tribunals to which ritual and doctrinal questions should be submitted, with the general drift of which we heartily agree, though we do not think that it touches either the heart of the difficulties which rendered the appointment of the Ecclesiastical Courts Commission necessary, or the difficulty of the theologians. The real difficulty is to get a Court which will not look to " public opinion," but to the Law only, in deciding ecclesiastical ques- tions. The difficulty of the theologians is, that lawyers know so very little about theology and ecclesiastical history, that they often make very ignorant mistakes. Lord Coleridge touches neither difficulty, but lays down a few almost self-evident prin- ciples with bland lucidity.