The Bishop of Peterborough has rather manufactured for him- self
an opportunity of attacking the Society of the Holy Cross. Asked by Canon Lowe to renew his subscription to the middle- class education system on which the Canon is engaged, the Bishop replied by declining, until he had received explanations as to one of the masters at Lancing College (an institution which appears to receive some of Canon Lowe's help), who had been a member of the Society. As it turned out, the master in question had wholly -withdrawn from the Society as soon as he heard about "The Priest in Absolution," so that Dr. Magee did not refuse his name and help, but nevertheless he demanded the publication of his letter about the system of Confession, and "The Priest in Absolution" in particular. As nobody, we imagine, ever sus- pected the Bishop of the least sympathy with the Confessional,— it is the last thing an eloquent clergyman of the Protestant Church of Ireland would tolerate,—Dr. Magee's letter seems to us to be liable to the criticism that it rather lugged the 'Society of the Holy Cross' by the head and shoulders into a very irrelevant matter. But unquestionably he is quite right that the teaching of that Society on the subject of the absolute necessity of confession for every mortal sin is purely Roman Catholic, 1 and wholly unsup- ported by any statement to be found in the English Prayer-book, —not excepting even the office for the Visitation of the Sick.
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