There is much truth in these objections, but the most potent objection of all is, that here, again, as in all other modes proposed by way of remedy, there is the real and tangible repeal of the Rubric; so an alteration of the Prayer Book, and a manifest change in the _status_ of the Church and of Churchmen.
The Bishop next touches upon another plan, which indeed is not a mode of remedy (in the sense of making a change to meet the difficulty) at all, which therefore does not lie open to the same objection. The Bishop, indeed, dismisses it at once as hopeless and useless, though it remains to be seen whether it really be so. I mean the due interpretation of the law by the courts of law; which being done, to let the law alone, and the Prayer Book alone, and the Church alone. However he continues;—“But, lastly, it may be said, is all hope entirely past of finally settling the question by an appeal to the law courts, and thence to that highest tribunal that has already had the impleaded rubric before it, though under a somewhat different point of view? Yes, I fear we must now say that all hope is finally past. The knot cannot now be laboriously untied; it must be removed by gentle drawing out on either side, or—it must be cut. In the first place, the country at large would not now be content to wait for what experience has shewn might be a long-delayed issue. It would be urged that such delay would only aid the progress of innovation, and that now when a Commission has been appointed and has not recommended a reference to law courts, it would be a practical retracing of steps that would seriously add to our present disquietude. To which we may subjoin this comment—that even if a speedy reference to the ultimate tribunal (by some thought possible) could be secured, the decision now, after the startling evidence given before the Commission, would not, it is to be feared, whichever way it might be, bring to us all the blessing of peace and settlement. If it were _for_ the Ritualists, a prompt effort would be made to set aside the rubric by legislation; and then bitterness, struggle, and all the evils above alluded to, in connection with a sense of injustice, would at once be in malignant working among us. If it were _against_ the Ritualists, I now sadly fear, after the painful language publicly used by many of them against those in authority, and the disregard of the Convocation Resolutions of last year, that they would decline to submit to the decision, force unwilling men to put the law in action against them, accept the issue, and leave the communion of the Reformed Church.”