Lord Shaftesbury seems elated by the support his petition for
an optional use of the Athanasian Creed has obtained. He wrote on Thursday to the Times that it had then already obtained the signatures of 81 Peers and Members of the House of Commons, 141 officers of the Army and Navy, 181 Justices of the Peace, and so forth, coming down at last to 101 Churchwardens, and he enumerates some of the most distinguished names. Evi- -deutly Lord Shaftesbury thinks much of dignities, or he would feel a little ashamed of his 101 Churchwardens, (out of, say, about :32,000?) who are hardly numerous enough in proportion to the dignities. We wish him success with his petition, but we also wish that the people who seem to care least about his success were not -those who are likely to suffer most by the Church's indifference to the law of charity. Peers and bankers are apt to take all things easily, doctrinal heresies amongst the number ; but the mischief of it shows itself amongst those who have not attained to the culture of indifference, and who rather like to hear the thunders of damnation.
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