445 ART. IX.-First Report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the Rubrics, Orders, and Directions for regulating the Course and Conduct of Public Worship, &c., according to the use of the United Church of England and Ireland; with Minutes of Evidence and Appendices. Presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of Her Majesty. London: Printed by George Edward Eyre and William Spottiswoode, Printers to the Queen's most excellent Majesty. For Her Majesty's Stationery Office. 1867. Folio, pp. 162. IT will scarcely be denied by any thoughtful person that the Church of England is on the verge of a great crisis-a crisis which will demand the utmost sagacity on the part of the Government for the time being, a discretion amongst her bishops greater than they have of late years displayed, and a more forbearing spirit amongst the clergy than perhaps we have much. reason to calculate upon. This crisis has been brought about mainly by the influence of a school which has been gradually forcing itself into public notice-a.school commonly, though very unfortunately, designated as ' Ritualistic,' because to persons who view things ab extra they appear to insist much upon external rites and ceremonies. The school has taken its rise out of the opinions which thirty years ago were advocated in the 'Tracts for the Times.' The Tractarian' school, as it has been commonly designated, dates from that period, and may be considered to have been the regenerator of the Church of England. Those who would demur to giving it this title will, at least, admit that it has entirely leavened the Church; that from the remotest district of Northumberland to the extreme west of Cornwall, there is scarcely a parish which has not felt its influence. Not only has this influence extended amongst those who would be spoken of by the external world as belonging to the school, but its most violent opponents have been obliged to advance from their old position, and take up higher ground than they like, in order to have any chance of success in a pitched battle with it. The battle ground has been perpetually shifting, and the place which at the commencement of hostilities was occupied by the Tractarian party is now pretty much the territory occupied by its more intelligent antagonists; and the first volume of the Tracts for the Times,' which sounded the war-note, would probably now be spoken of on the one side as representing ultra-Protestant opinions, whilst on the other it would be thought to represent moderate teaching, in which the whole Church might easily acquiesce as in a convenient compromise. Thus those who should describe the parties as at present existing in the Church would probably speak of this school as now embracing more than a third of the number of the clergy. But such a division would be doing but scanty justice to the success of this party, which is much more to be measured by the change that it has brought over the whole face of affairs than by the number of its adherents as compared with the two other schools which are still contending for the mastery. We do not say that the party itself has remained wholly stationary. In its beginnings its efforts looked much more conservative than it can appear in its present aspect. The so-called Tractarian' movement commenced in an antagonism to that liberal spirit which threatened to lay its hand on the English Church in somewhat the same way as it had spoiled the Irish bishoprics. Its views were to preserve what we had got, and having succeeded beyond all expectation in that, it may perhaps be thought to have somewhat changed its character, to have become somewhat aggressive, democratic, and reforming. But whatever changes it may itself have undergone, certain it is that it has left no other school what it found it. It has infused life into all parties. It has taught even Evangelicals to think, whilst, by the very definiteness of its own assertions, it has drawn out the energies of the party who are opposed to all definiteness of religious dogma. All this has been the silent growth of thirty or forty years, and the result of the whole is an appearance of things which represents a far greater improvement in the tone of clergy and laity in the Church than its most sanguine well-wishers would have thought possible. Place your observer in whatever centre you please, and within a radius of a few miles, a church would be found restored from the miserable state of decay into which it had fallen, or a parish would be seen where celebration of Holy Communion and other services have been greatly increased, or where new schools have been built, or where the wealthier residents have been induced to take part in assisting their poorer neighbours; whilst guilds, fraternities, societies of all kinds have sprung up, testifying to the immense development of religious life which has resulted from the movement. There exist associations for promoting the union of the English with the Eastern Church, for restoring unity to the Western Church, and for maintaining the rights and privileges of the English Church. And the English Church Union presents an imposing and somewhat defiant front, which would scare some of the bishops of the northern province if they could once be brought to understand the widespread influence of its organization. For good or for evil this society is steadily and slowly operating in the way of transferring power, influence, authority, weight-call it by what name we may from the hands of bishops into those of the more earnest among the clergy and laity of the Church. And herein consists one of the most remarkable changes that have come over the face of this party. Deference to episcopal authority was almost their watchword, and indirectly contributed much to their success. Not only was it a genuine feeling of loyalty to superiors, but it was regarded as a strong point to make against Roman novelties and the development of the papal power, if each bishop and his church could be regarded as a miniature representative of the whole Church as governed by its chief Bishop and pastor; and the tone of the African Church in the age of S. Cyprian was thought to have been in a degree reproduced by Anglicanism in the nineteenth century. This view was promoted, also, by the tacit acquiescence, if not by the active support, of the bishops themselves, who seemed to have no objection to accept, in addition to the honour and rank which the world concedes to them, the homage and submission of the foremost men of the age. The movement spread rapidly under all these fostering influences. But strange to say, it has spread far more rapidly under the most unfavourable circumstances which followed. It seemed as if such a movement could not have survived the secession of its great leader-if, indeed, he may not more justly be called its originator. But all the adverse influences that have affected it have not retarded its advance. Its opponents said that its tendency was towards Rome, whatever its abettors might say or believe to the contrary; and the facts of the case seemed to be on their side, for converts dropped off from the school in considerable numbers. How many have dropped off from other schools into utter infidelity it is not our business nor desire to inquire. There was enough of secession to Rome from the Tractarians to make both friends and foes anxious. It was of no use to urge that those who went to Rome had come originally from the ranks of the Evangelical party. It was manifest that this was in itself no sufficient answer, inasmuch as the success of the school itself must in the first tion depend mainly upon converts from this school, or else upon those who had been brought up under no religious influences; and it was very damaging to its pretensions to find, that though it could offer a shelter for a time, it could not provide a permanent asylum for those who were in search for the best method of leading a holy life. Yet after all the instances of secessions to Rome on the one side, and of shattered faith on the other, the school throve and propagated itself, till at the present moment it is the dominant school of thought within the pale of the Church of England. In making this estimate, we do not count only by genera mere heads. We take into consideration the work that it has done and is doing, not to say the work that it can do, the influence it exerts on the different strata of society, the compactness and unity of belief among its members, the learning of its leaders, the tone of mind of its adherents. No other school makes its appeal to those who are at once refined and devotional. No other school can point to so many or so remarkable instances of self-sacrifice. No other school gives scope to the development of the fine arts. None other, except as the merest accident, cares for Church architecture or Church music, and none has produced proficients in any of the fine arts as used in subservience to religious purposes; and finally, this school alone has produced any sample of oratory which will bear comparison with the sermons and the addresses of the rest of western Christendom. The progress this school has made is so remarkable, that it might almost reasonably seem like a 'Jesuitical conspiracy.' The chief actors in bringing about the existent state of things have been working secretly. They have been content to forego the advantages of wealth and station. They have, as it were, sacrificed the appearance of influence and power to its reality. It is as if they did not care who were thought the authors of the result, so long as that result was brought about. So far from there having been any parade about the movement, it has courted the utmost privacy. So far from being noisy, it has seemed as if the school ran some risk of becoming extinct from its excessive shrinking from publicity. The names of persons of influence who belong to it, and who are doing its work, are scarcely known beyond a cherished circle of friends. They began by advocating the doctrine of reserve, and they have all along consistently carried out their principles. They would not cast pearls before swine. They have never seemed to be proselytizing, but the quiet confidence of strength has ever been making proselytes. They have never frightened people who differed from them by a rash exposition of unwelcome truths. Evangelicals and old-fashioned churchmen have talked with them, and believed that they upon the whole agreed with them, whereas the agreement was bounded within narrow limits-though the intercourse itself was gradually widening those limits. It has been indirect and moral influence that has been brought to bear upon the world, and the success that these tactics-if tactics they are to be called-have achieved, is one of the wonderful phenomena of the day. We speak of it, indeed, as a phenomenon, but it is hardly such in the etymological sense of the word. It is one of those things that are said by the poet to be · φωνᾶντα συνέτοισιν, that have a voice for those who can hear it, but which does not make its appeal to the vulgar. Much is esoteric, and it is difficult to say which is most wonderful, the real strength of the party, or the entire absence of a true estimate of its strength amongst those who are its opponents and those of the two schools we have mentioned who fancy themselves its adherents. We have already implied that there is nothing at all approaching to an organised conspiracy to convert men to their opinions which characterises this school. It is only that people who do not understand it might be driven to this supposition to account for a result which, when they begin to take it in, they consider inexplicable. This is the school which upon the whole, whether truly or falsely, is supposed to be represented by the Christian Remembrancer. But springing up from this school, arising out of it, forming part of it, as some would say, or separating from it, as some would perhaps think, is another school which has of late years made considerable progress, and has adopted tactics in many respects the very opposite to these which we have been describing. It seems to have forgotten all the lessons of economy and reserve in which its teachers had been educated. It is plain spoken, and it is not content with plain speaking; but its very characteristic is that it flaunts its colours in the face of friend and foe. The party so foolishly called 'Ritualistic' are thought to lay an undue stress upon ceremonial. The world at large considers that they sacrifice the essential to the accidental, that they subordinate real piety to external observances, that they are fond of unmeaning display. And the party itself, small as it is, is already far better known than, though perhaps as little understood as, the great Church party of which it really forms an integral portion. We have already implied that this party is much misunderstood. It could hardly be otherwise. People may not be able to understand the recondite doctrines of this faith, but all have senses, and can tell whether they dislike or like that which is proposed as an object to their senses. Nay, the very novelty of the observances involved in a gorgeous ceremonial forces people not only to form an opinion, but to express their opinion when formed, whether favourable or unfavourable. It would be difficult at the present moment to predict whether this exhibitions of Ritualism will be more popular or unpopular, regarded as mere external observances. On the one side we have the almost universal feeling of dislike to Romanism-a feeling, however, which is gradually diminishing, partly owing to the increase of the number of those who do not care enough about any form of religion to offer any active opposition even to the Papacy, and partly owing to the growing intelligence of the masses who are beginning to see that Roman Catholics can be |