The Conservatives are indulging in what seem to us very
fanciful hopes that Convocation may yield to the wish for a revision of the Rubrics in the sense desired by Parliament. For -example, both Lord Galway, M.P. for East Retford, and Mr. Foljambe, the other Member for the same place, stated last week, in speeches at Worksop, that they hoped to see some reform effected by Convocation in this direction; and Mr. Foljambe added that if Convocation would not do it, Parliament would
have to do it itself, -truly formidable undertaking, which we venture to think Parliament will decline to attempt, even though -earnestly invited to the task by Mr. Foljambe. Mr. Foljambe was yet more sanguine ; he ventured to hope that Parliament might make So great an alteration in the conditions of the Establishment as to bring,--back some of the great Dissenting bodies. But this is a dream which it will take a very different state of the public mind from any we have seen for a long time to realise. It seems much more likely that Parliament, when it finds that Convocation stands stock-still -under the invitation addressed to it, will leave the Public Worship Act to take effect on the Rubrics as they are-; will discover that that effect strengthens the party it wishes to weaken ; and will finally be compelled to repeal in a hurry the Act which it carried in a huff.
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