Protestantism and Popery.
"On Friday evening," says the Daily Telegraph, "the Marquis of Westmeath, in the Lords, did the State the service of eliciting a remarkable declaration from the Bishop of London. The Marquis had witnessed a spectacle in the church of St. Matthias, at Stoke Newington, on Whit-Sunday last, which 'their lordships would hardly suppose possible of occurrence in the Church of England.' The sacred edifice was got up with the showy millinery and ornament of a Romanish 'function.' There were vases of flowers on the communion-table, with a crimson cloth, and a large brass cross. The priests, who were numerous, and strangely garbed in vestments for which Protestant congregations have neither a name nor a taste, formed a procession with the choristers, and carried the cross round the church; and when it was deposited on the altar, a youth swung a censer, and filled the building with incense. Then the priests made obeisances and genuflexions, with their backs to the congregation; and when the preacher's time was come to ascend the pulpit, he divested himself of a flame-red garment, and put on a surplice, explaining in the course of the sermon the fact, which would certainly not have been obvious without that explanation, that the fiery robes represented the tongues of flame which descended upon the apostles at Pentecost. At these vagaries the Marquis rubbed his eyes, and asked himself if he could really be in a Protestant place of worship. Lord Westmeath also drew the attention of the peers to the perfectly familiar truth that the same kind of parody upon Romish rituals goes on in several London churches, and in not a few among the provincial towns and country districts. There was, without doubt, a great deal in the discontent of this noble Churchman with which his countrymen can sympathise; and, in conclusion, turning to the bench of bishops, he claimed from the spiritual lords, if not a remedy for so startling a state of affairs, at least an explanation. The question certainly demanded an answer; and in meeting it, with the utmost gravity and sincerest Church-statesmanship, the Bishop of London declared that fresh legislation alone could deal with the matter. . . . Thus there is nothing for it but that the Legislature should take these dubious rubrics under consideration, and either define what they do mean, and shall mean, de novo, or, if necessary, alter and amend them. That is the only real remedy; and the Bishop of London pledges himself, and a good many of his right reverend brethren, to vote for a practical Act upon the subject with the greatest alacrity and accord."