This proposal of arbitration has occasioned so much innocent
mirth that, in justice to the maker of it, attention should be
called to the ambiguity of the language in which it is couched.
The wording of the passage is vague. It is just possible that by
"the question" which he would be content to submit to the judgment
of the four specified men of letters, he means, not, as he has been
understood to mean, the whole subject-matter of _The Book Annexed_,
but only the abstract question whether verbal variations from the
English original of the Common Prayer be or be not, on grounds of
purity of style, desirable. Even if this be all that he means there
is perhaps still room for a smile, but, at all events, he ought to
have the benefit of the doubt.

[43] _Discussions and Arguments_, p. 341.

[44] "The list might be brought down as late as the authorities
pleased to bring it, even to include, if they chose, such names
as John Keble, James De Koven, and Ferdinand Ewer."--_The Church
Times_ for August 14, 1885.

[45] This form of absolution suggested as an alternate in _The
Book Annexed_ is taken from the source mentioned.

[46] The paper read by the Dean of Worcester dealt exclusively
with the legal aspects of the question as it concerns the Church
of England.

[47] The Rev. Edgar Morris Dumbleton (Rector of St. James's,
Exeter).

[48] The Rev. George Venables (Hon. Canon of Norwich and Vicar
of Great Yarmouth).

[49] The Rev. Arthur James Robinson (Rector of Whitechapel).

[50] See letter of "J. L. W." in _The Southern Churchman_ for
August 6, 1885.

[51] See letter of "Ritualist" in _The Standard of the Cross_
for July 2, 1885.

[52] See the "Report of the Committee of the Council of the
Diocese of Wisconsin," _passim_.

[53] The evident intention of the Joint Committee in the
introduction of this Canticle was to make it possible to shorten
the Morning Prayer on week-days, without spoiling the structure
of the office, as is now often done, by leaving out one of the
Lessons. It is certainly open to question whether a better
alternate might not have been provided, but it is surprising to
find so well furnished a scholar as the Wisconsin critic speaking
of the _Benedictus es Domine_ as a liturgical novelty, "derived
neither from the Anglican or the more ancient service-hooks." As
a matter of fact the _Benedictus es Domine_ was sung daily in the
Ambrosian Rite at Matins, and is found also in the Mozarabic
Brevi