The Committee felt assured that upon no point was the judgment of
the Church likely to be more unanimous than in approving the
restoration to their time-honored home in the Evening Office of
_Magnificat_ and _Nunc dimittis_, and yet so unwilling were they
to displace _Bonum est confiteri_ and _Benedic anima mea_ from
positions they have only occupied since 1789 that they authorized
the unquestionably clumsy expedient of printing three responds to
each Lesson.

Probably a large majority of the Committee would have preferred to
drop _Bonum est confiteri_ and _Benedic anima mea_ altogether,
retaining _Cantate Domino_ and _Deus miser eatur_ as the sole
alternates to the two Gospel canticles, as in the English Book,
but rather than have a thousand voices cry out, as it was believed
they would cry out, "You have robbed us," the device of a second
alternate was adopted, to the sad defacement of the printed page.
In may be charged that, in thus choosing, the Committee betrayed
timidity, and that a wise boldness would have been the better
course; but if account be taken of the attitude consistently
maintained by General Convention towards any proposition for the
change of so much as a comma in the Prayer Book, during a period
of fifty years prior to the introduction of _The Book Annexed_, it
will perhaps be concluded that for the characterization of the
Committee's policy timidity is scarcely so proper a word as caution.

SPECIAL CRITICISMS.

(_a_) _Foreign_.

As there is reason to believe that opinion at home has been very
considerably affected by foreign criticism of _The Book Annexed_,
it will be well at this point to give some attention to what has
been said in English journals in review of the work thus far
accomplished. The more noteworthy of the foreign criticisms are
those contained in _The Church Quarterly Review_, _The Church
Times_, and _The Guardian_.[40]

The Church Quarterly reviewer opens with an expression of deep
regret at "the failure to take advantage of the opportunity for
reinstating the Athanasian Creed." As already observed, no such
opportunity existed. By formal vote the Joint Committee debarred
itself from any proceeding of this sort, and the Convention, which
sat in judgment on its work, was manifestly of opinion that in so
acting the Committee had rightly interpreted its charter.

The reviewer, who is in full sympathy with the movement for
enrichment as such, goes on to recommend, as a mo