Untitled - Electric Scotland

1 86o-68] MR. HUBBARD S DISSATISFACTION 431
readiness to receive a formal presentment from my co-church
warden and myself. Mr. Spiller, having first agreed, subsequently
declined to join in a formal presentment, upon the plea that Mr.
Mackonochie had published his intention to abide by the decision
of Convocation upon the points under contention.
"After the publication of the resolutions on Ritual passed
by the two Houses of Convocation, I again proposed to Mr.
Mackonochie a reference to your Lordship for a decision which
should be based upon those resolutions, but Mr. Mackonochie
replied that, a suit having been commenced against him in the
Arches Court, he preferred awaiting its result.
" The judgment of the Dean of Arches, by condemning the
ceremonial use of incense, has removed one of the causes of my
dissatisfaction. Incense is no longer used in the services at
St. Alban s, but I find no pretence for delaying my petition that
you
will take into consideration the other matters which I have
offered to your Lordship s notice. . . .
"
During all these years, although I privately made known my
dissatisfaction to your Lordship, I shrank from it giving any overt
expression, for I was especially jealous
for Mr. Mackonochie s
influence, and was satisfied rather to bear the penalty of being
personally misunderstood than to occasion any distrust of him or
of his office in the estimation of his people.
"
You, my Lord, who know the distress my difference of opinion
with Mr. Mackonochie has occasioned me, know also the sincere
admiration I entertain for his zeal and untiring devotion. I
gratefully acknowledge the disinterested, the abundant, and
efficacious labours of himself and his curates, especially among
the young, the aged, and the afflicted of his district, but I see no
connection between these, his meritorious services, and the
persistent introduction of strange and obsolete practices.
"
In these days it would be as impolitic as unjust to narrow
the liberty of either the clergy or the laity of our Church, but
liberty must not degenerate into licence. No Church, no cor
poration, no society, can exist without order and without law,
and it must be decided whether, consistently with order, law,
and the uniformity which results from them, individuals can be
permitted
their own.
to act independently of all authority and opinion but
"
I may not now claim your Lordship s hearing in any official
capacity, for I hold none; yet, as founder and patron of St.