Mr. Bruce has withdrawn the Lectionary Bill, and the Times,
for some reason or other, is very angry. It says the Bill was ?universally approved, and that "it is too bad to be compelled to listen in church not only to tedious recitations, but to offences -against all our instincts of taste and decency." The new Lectionary is, no doubt, an improvement, but surely this wrath is :a little misplaced. The Government wants every moment of its Parliamentary time ; the Bill, though sure to pass, was to be op- posed; the House is in no mood for chatter about the Apocrypha, and as to tedium and taste, we have borne the offending chapters *erne centuries without much harm. Let the clergy leave them out without authority for another year, and plead the Royal Commis- eion if anybody attacks them. Mr. Bruce is not a striking Home Secretary, but to refuse to be worried with ecclesiasticisms just -slow is no proof of weakness.
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