The artistic interest was provided by the rich and varied feast of oratory. We have had the best speech (against the Book) the Home Secretary has made or ever is likely to make; the best speech (from Lady Iveagh, in its favour) that any woman member yet has made, and from Dr. Rosslyn Mitchell, the "pocket on the Labour benches, a effort (against the Book, torical rococo which the Hous youthful had great idol nervousness made powerful by consummate handling of detail (for example, in Sir Thomas Inskip's speech). We have had the hai pitiless logie of the Nonconformist argument for disestablishment from Sir John Simon, the more generous Noncomformity' of Mr, Dunnico, which would share a freedom that itself enjoys; the views of the narrow church, the low church, the broad church, and the high church; and the views of disestablish Orangery in Ireland put with re-morseles brilliancy and contrasted with that milder, more tolerant, tradition of the English Midlands expressed with more than his usual fervour by Mr. Baldwin, The debates, again, were rich in aromatic interest, with their alternating hopes and fears, with the tense, set faces of the two Arch bishops in the gallery. For the indifferent, there has been the excitement of the steeplechasing of debate, with its clement of sheer luck. It is agreed that the opponents had all the good luck in the. Commons and the supporters all the bad luck. After. no debate has there been 50 much speculation in the might-have-beens—had Lord Hugh opened instead of Mr. Bridgeman; had Mr.
bridgeman spoken when Lord Hugh lid; or had Mr. Baldwin, instead is guest at the overriding of the Church Assembly by belief in the value of the State asso-elation, Extreme Anglo-Catholics, of whom Lord Halifax is the mouthpiece, will rejoice at what has happened, at least as fervently as will extreme Protestants. There now can be no question of a fresh attempt by the Bishops to apply the moral suasion of the Church in order to bring determined lawbreakers under discipline, while those who been hovering on the. bord may be expected to take the plun It is regarded as unlikely that any' further effort will be made during the present generation to produce revised Book, although the rejected Book may be presented for amendment. More than 20 years' work has been annulled, and the vitality of the Church Assembly hardly is likely to be equal to a fresh start. All that we know as to the future is that unofficial negotiations are in progress and it is rumoured the House of Cor approached measure. The Anglo-Catholics are starting a Disestablishment movement.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.