Commissioners, I trust, I have already shewn in both its parts.  After some words further on the doctrine symbolized, on the conduct of the clergy who use the vestments, and on the not unnatural “fears in some minds that the settlement of the English Church of two hundred years ago is about to be changed” (and truly here he has “harped our fear aright”), he goes on to express his desire for an effectual restraint.  “But we must not less recognize the plain fact that there is a sad and pressing necessity now laid upon us by prevailing licence, anarchy, and I fear disloyalty, to restrain; and that now restraint must be applied.  We must, then, solemnly ask those true hearts who may deprecate, not for themselves, but for what they may deem the interests of the Church, any authoritative application of restraint, to suspend for a time even their own innocent longings and predilections, to acknowledge with us the overwhelming nature of the necessity, and to join cordially and hopefully, not the side of recklessness, scornfulness, and self-will, but the side of recognition of rightful authority, moderation, and order.”

“Brave words, indeed, as you shall see in a summer’s day,” but as it seems to me wholly misapplied, when it is remembered that the “recklessness, scornfulness, and self-will,” attributed to the Ritualistic clergy have never, so far as I am aware, or as I think is borne out by evidence, gone further than this, that they have temperately and respectfully objected to any “manipulators” being placed above the law, and asked to be allowed in quiet to obey what they believe the law to require; where, too, to speak generally, they have found such obedience to the law to be acceptable to the mass of their people, or even demanded by them; whilst, upon the other hand, the whole violence of opposition and clamour (again to speak generally) has been exhibited by those who have not belonged to the parishes or churches where such ceremonial has been in use, but who have chosen gratuitously to interfere in order to prevent others, with whom really they had nothing at all to do, having such a Ritual, believed to be within the four corners of the law, as by them was desired, and to them was edifying.

And now we come to the proposal itself—this remedy to meet so great an evil.  “Lastly, then, if there is to be this restraint, what will seem to be the safest and most effectual mode of applying it?  Certainly not, as I have already said, by merely arming bishops with a little more power, and then leaving the whole question in its present unsettled state to be adjusted by individual authority and individual bias; nor yet again, as I have already said, by the omission or authoritative repeal of a rubric that has held its place in our Prayer Book from the date of the last settlement; but by a simple and positive enactment declaring what shall be, and be considered to be, the ministerial dress—until further order be taken.  This, of course, must be by direct legislation.  We may shrink from it, but in my judgment it is now inevitable.  The very appointment of the Commission seems to involve it, and the general temper of the country will demand it.  There are many melancholy signs that we are fast drifting towards open violations of the public peace, and that some prompt interposition of law will not only be desirable but imperative.”

Observe here the course proposed, and the marvellous declaration concerning it, that it is “not a repeal of the rubric which has held its place in our Prayer Book from the date of the last settlement.”  Yet the remedy is “a simple and positive enactment (by direct legislation) declaring what shall be, and shall be considered to be, the ministerial dress—until further order be taken.”  This is the remedy; and after details as to what it would prohibit, or at least allow to be prohibited (which would include all now distinctly contended for under the rubric on ornaments), the Bishop says, “the rubric would not be repealed, but placed in abeyance.”  This is the special point to which I desire to draw your attention!  Such a plan to be adopted, such restraint to be put in force and imposed; and the rubric not to be repealed! the Prayer Book not to be altered!  Imagine anyone after this “simple and positive enactment” acting upon the rubric, using the things “prescribed,” or “in use by the authority of Parliament in the second year of King Edward VI.,” and then being proceeded against under the new Act.  Would he not soon learn whether the rubric were not repealed?  What will lawyers say?  What does common-sense say on the matter?  What would those who believed the Bishop (ill-starred mortals), that the rubric was not repealed, find and feel to their cost, when his assurance had led them to believe the law of the Church remains as it is?

Take a case in illustration.  Say you treated thus the Decalogue, or any part of it.  Take the Sixth, Seventh, or Eighth Commandments: suppose you left them to be printed in the Prayer Book still; but by “a simple and positive enactment” set men free from obedience to them, or rather prohibited obedience to them, until further order be taken.  Would they be thus repealed so far as human enactment goes, or would the Prayer Book still remain unchanged in respect to them?  Or, still better, look to the Fourth Commandment—I say better, because the others are negative, and this is positive.  “Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath Day.”  Grant that it were still permitted to be printed in the Prayer Book, and recited in church; but then that there were “a simple and positive enactment” restraining men from keeping it holy; prescribing and requiring a uniformity of work, according to custom widely prevailing, reminding us that a careful observance of the Lords Day had become obsolete; that long custom to the contrary had abrogated the usage, and now it was expedient to restrain it.  Would this be no alteration?  Would this be no repeal of the Decalogue, or change in the Prayer Book?  Oh! but the Bishop says the restraint is only “until further order be taken.”  Well, what is the force of this?  Whatever hope it may hold out in the future, is it any qualification even, for the present?  Surely not.  Whilst the “simple and positive enactment” lasts, the former law is repealed.  Besides, how much hope does it hold out, even for the future?  If the Bishop’s temper and counsel are to prevail, I must affirm none.  For we have seen that not merely the more violent enemies of Ritual, but even the Bishop himself, whom we must assume to represent its more moderate opponents, I say he himself is not for waiting to give those who are certainly more nearly maintaining and obeying the law than those who clamour against them, even the chance of making good their position in the eye and mind of England.  He will not do this at present, when there is at least a fair presumption that in the main the law is in their favour, but he will hold them out a dim hope of something turning up propitiously for them in the future; when he has thrown all his weight and influence into the scale against them, and when, if he can have his way, he will pass a “simple and positive enactment” to condemn them, and alter adversely their status in the Church!  He will have them put down now with the strong hand, by legislation framed expressly and on purpose to catch them for their obedience to the existing law; but they may console themselves with the thought that “all contemplation of a future when further order might be taken concerning the questions now under consideration would not be