to pay on the score that a national Church implies the Church of every body, in defiance of the whole current of legislation since 1688, must, to be consistent, land us in principles which are wholly inconsistent with belief in the Church as a Divine institution independent of the civil polity within which it is situated.
The signal check given to the agitation for legalizing marriages which Christianity calls incestuous, must not be passed over, nor must it be forgotten. The cause so rebuffed is a very damaged cause, but those whose selfishness egged it on are still living and still suffering for their own misdeeds. It would be deep ignorance of human nature not to be prepared for attempts on their part to regain their lost ground, if they saw the opportunity, through the negligence of the defenders of the marriage law.
The refitting of Lichfield Cathedral, which was reopened at the close of October, is an event which calls for our grateful commemoration. It is not so much on account of the material beauty of the pile itself and of the fittings which Mr. Scott has created, that we dwell upon this event as one of great importance. For years past cathedrals have been on their trial. They have been overhauled and mutilated, and they seemed ready to perish. How then is it that the reopening of a cathedral in a small midland town presented the unwonted spectacle of an earnest crowd of reverential worshippers, which dispassionate reckoners estimated at five or six thousand? How came the thousand singers and hundreds of communicants? These circumstances point to a great change in public feeling. They do so the more because the rehabilitation of Lichfield cathedral is but one among many instances. Llandaff cathedral had also been reopened very few weeks before. Peterborough is being restored and popularized, and every one knows what is being done at S. Paul's. Dean Peacock's work at Ely is matter almost of history. Dean Goode is stirring up Yorkshire to a restoration of Ripon Cathedral. The thirty thousand pounds which Sussex has found to reinstate Chichester Spire is something more than a merely architectural excitement. In Ireland, too, Tuam and Belfast are going to follow the example of Kilmore, and build cathedrals. Choir gatherings have become a national institution—in one word, cathedral bodies have met the people half way, and the people accept their advances. We do not yet see more than the first glimmerings of what may come from this all-important event. Even in regard to external worship, the spectacle of Lichfield cathedral, so sumptuously and so correctly fitted, is a standing contradiction to the assertions of
