18 APRIL 1868, Page 3

The right of a clergyman of the Church of England

to teach

the doctrine of the Real Presence is about to be tried in the Court of Queen's Bench, of all Courts in the world. The case comes up in this wise. The Rev. W. J. Bennett, Vicar of Frome, recently issued a pamphlet called, A Plea for Toleration, which un- doubtedly does teach the doctrine in question. The Bishop of Loudon, in whose diocese the pamphlet was issued, refused to institute proceedings ; and Mr. Stephens, on behalf of Mr. Shep- pard, parishioner of Frome, applied for a rule to show cause why a mandamus should not issue against the Bishop. The rule was granted, and the Court will, therefore, have to decide whether or no such teaching is heretical,—a strange, but still a very direct way of raising that great question.