The Folkestone Ritual Case. (Kegan Paul.)—Here, in a full-sized octavo
volume of nearly eight hundred pages, we have a complete account of the great Ritual case. Tho volume begins with the articles of accusation brought by the three parishioners of St. Peter's, Folke- stone, against Mr. Ridsdale, the defendant's answer, and the judgment delivered by Lord Penzance. Then follow verbatim reports of the four speeches delivered in the appeal before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. Sir James Stephen's argument occupies (together with oc- casional interruptions from the Court) about two hundred and fifty pages. Mr. Arthur Charles followed on the same side, with the moderate allow- ance of sixty-four pages. For the other side, Dr. Stephens replied for the respondents, at a length of a hundred and thirty pages ; and Mr. B. Shaw followed, in another hundred. Sir J. Stephen's reply was not quite so long, and their Lordships occupied about seventy pages with their judgment. We have happily, on this occasion, nothing to do with the case. It is enough to describe this very complete record of it, mentioning at the same time that the reports of the speeches are from the shorthand writer's notes, revised by the speakers (in the case of Mr. Shaw, by Mr. H. R. Droop), and that the judg- ments are from the official copies. But we may quote a few lines from Sir J. Stephen's argument :—" It is true that intellectual sub- tlety and ecclesiastical learning are no safeguards whatever against gross superstition and intellectual cowardice of a very bad kind. It is true that, under the operation of these bad influences, distinguished men may embrace a superstitions creed ; but they do not embrace it for the sake of worshipping wood and stone, or because they attribute any particular efficacy to bits of iron, like that which was bought at the ironmonger's at Folkestone. They embrace their new creed for other reasons. You have to deal with other dangers, and the mere presence of an image, more or less, at one end of the church, and of a painted window, more or less, at the other, will exercise no appreciable effect whatever upon the minds of those who are to stand before it."
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