ises, the
sentiments of her people, will far more clearly manifest, and
while manifesting will extend, deepen, and consolidate, that
unity. It is all very well to sneer at councils: but who among us
will deny that the councils which we acknowledge as lawful
representatives of the universal church, were great and to all
appearance necessary providential instruments in the establishment
of the Christian faith?

But, say some, we cannot admit the laity into convocation, as it
would be in derogation of the rights of the clergy; or as others
say, it would separate the church from the state. And others, more
numerous and stronger, in their fear of the exclusive constitution
of the convocation, resist every attempt at organising the church,
and suffer, and even by suffering promote, the growth of all our
evils. I will not touch the question of convocation except by
saying that, in which I think you concur, that while the present
use is unsatisfactory and even scandalous, no form of church
government that does not distinctly and fully provide for the
expression of the voice of the laity either can be had, or if it
could would satisfy the needs of the church of England. But in my
own mind as well as in this letter, I am utterly against all
premature, all rapid conclusions.... It will be much in our day
if, towards the cure of such evils, when we die we can leave to
our children the precious knowledge that a beginning has been
made--a beginning not only towards enabling the bishops and clergy
to discharge their full duty, but also, and yet more, towards
raising the real character of membership in those millions upon
millions, the whole bulk of our community, who now have its name
and its name alone.

II

In 1860 a volume appeared containing seven "essays and reviews" by seven
different writers, six of them clergymen of the church of England. The
topics were miscellaneous, the treatment of them, with one exception,(113)
was neither learned nor weighty, the tone was not absolutely uniform, but
it was as a whole mildly rationalistic, and the negations, such as they
were, exhibited none of the fierceness or aggression that had marked the
old controversies about Hampden, or Tract Ninety, or Ward's _Ideal_. A
storm broke upon the seven writers, that they little intended to provoke.
To the apparent partnership among