n a position of control and authority. Sir, I say
to you that you would not dare. The nation will not allow it."

"Time will show," replied the other smoothly.

"Ah!" cried the Archbishop passionately; "you trust to time; I to the
power of the Eternal. If such an attempt is made to violate the body of
our Mother Church then I pronounce sentence of excommunication upon all
who take part in it."

"It would have no legal effect," said the Prime Minister. "You miss the
point in dispute. We have not to discuss matters of faith and doctrine,
but only of government. If you prefer--if you will give us your
co-operation and consent--we are ready at any time to offer you the
alternative of disestablishment. It is a solution which for the moment I
do not press; but undoubtedly it would leave the spiritualities of the
Church more free. Your real fear, I have gathered, is that it would
prepare the way for extremes of doctrine, which you yourself cannot
countenance. The Church Triumphant, I am told, would run the risk of a
larger recognition than is allowed to it under present forms; and the
limitations imposed by a State connection are your most hopeful means of
retarding doctrinal development. Is not that so?"

"We have not to discuss matters of doctrine," countered the Archbishop
stiffly, "but only of government. Our concern is not with the Church's
teachings but with her powers for enforcing them upon her own members."

"Including," commented the Prime Minister, "what you have called 'the
power of the Keys.' That power you seek to extend over temporalities to
which we claim access; and to retain it you have in the past used
political means; we are using them to deprive you of that power. I
recognize that had your Grace occupied to-day the position of advantage
which is now mine, you would have used it--and with justification--for
the strengthening of your order; from the popular verdict you would have
had authority to deliver sentence against me. Upon the same ground I now
take the only sure means that are open to me to strengthen my own order
and to safeguard its future liberty."

"What is your order?" smoothly inquired his Grace.

"My order is the representative system, which voices the popular will."

"Mine," said the Archbishop in richly reverberating tones, "is divine
revelation, which voices the will of God."

"You claim a closer acquaintance with that Authority than I," remarked
the Prime Minister. "Yet I, too, ha