The second day of the joint meeting was chiefly occupied
with a somewhat academic discussion as to thequalification of the lay electors to the proposed Church Council. The Bishop of Worcester and Lord Hugh Cecil could not accept a lower franchise than that of confirmation; while the Bishop of Ripon felt that this, though it had an "enormous attraction," could not be carried into effect, since we are a "national Church." He also felt that a communicant suffrage was a depreciation of the Holy Communion ; while Mr. Athelstan Riley con- sidered this the only possible suffrage. The scandals of the Test Acts were evidently in the Bishop of Ripon's mind. Eventually the meeting unanimously adopted the following Motion The initial franchise of lay electors shall be exercised, in each ecclesiastical parish or district, by those persons of the male sex (possessing such household or other vestry qualification in the parish or district as may be defined by the Committee hereafter to be appointed) who declare themselves in writing at the time of voting to be lay members of the Church of England and of no other religious Com- munion, and are not legally and actually excluded from Com- munion, and by such other persons residing in the parish or district as are lay communicants of the Church of England of the male sex and of full age." This is verbose and expressed ; but it certainly includes, as it undoubtedly should, baptised but unconfirmed persons who declare themselves to be members of the Church of England and of no other Communion.
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