in aid of the Reform of the Church EDITED BY CHARLES GORE, M.A., D.D. Of the Community of the Resurrection Hon. Chaplain in ordinary to the Queen LONDON JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET 1898 PREFACE BOSWELL informs us that on one occasion in 1763 he mentioned to Dr. Johnson that very strange sayings were ascribed to him by current rumour. 'Johnson. "What do they make me say, Sir?" Boswell. "Why, Sir, as an instance very strange indeed (laughing heartily as I spoke), David Hume told me, you said you would stand before a battery of cannon to restore the Convocation to its full powers." Little did I apprehend that he had actually said this; but I was soon convinced of my error; for with a determined look he thundered out, "And would not I, Sir? Shall the Presbyterian Kirk of Scotland have its general assembly, and the Church of England be denied its convocation?"" After more than a hundred years we are reiterating the great and dear Doctor's question. Convocations indeed for discussion we have But, again since 1852, after a silence of nearly 150 years; but they exist-except on rare occasions when royal authority has given them 'letters of business'-in word only and not in power. They can debate, and resolve, but not legislate. It is this disability that the church reformers of our time are resolved to do their best to remove. We feel sure that it might be removed if the Church was fairly united and determined in the matter. following earlier groups of church reformers, we are convinced that before any real grant of governing powers can be given to the Convocations of the Clergy, there must be associated with them Houses of Laymen really representative of the whole body of church laity; which, again, they cannot be unless they rest upon a system of Diocesan Councils and Parish Councils, in which the laity can be exercised to take their share in managing local church affairs. In this conviction of ours we are only giving a new form to the ancient sentiment of Richard Hooker: 'Were it so that the clergy alone might give laws unto all the rest, for as much as every estate doth desire to enlarge the bounds of their own liberties, is it not easy to see how injurious this |