As an essential part of any large scheme of decentralisation and redistribution of power and finance, the English local administration would have to be reorganized in the direction of more equalisation of its units, because it would not be possible to confer upon small local authorities the powers and responsibilities which could safely be given to larger ones. At present, within the counties, there are Urban District Councils, Rural District Councils, Boroughs, and County Boroughs. All these strike their own rates for their own objects, and correspond with and are directly controlled by Whitehall officialdom. The London County Council is subject to the same control as a cathedral city of twenty thousand inhabitants. It adds to the confusion that while all secondary education is in the hands of the County and County Borough Councils, elementary education is in the hands of County Councils in rural and many urban districts; but in the boroughs is managed by their Councils. Amalgamation and condensation of power is needed. The necessary units for provincial self-government are (1) great cities, and (2) counties, or county divisions. No great sentiment is attached to rural or urban districts, modern creations, and it would be easy to transform their councils into county sub-committees, but towns which are not large, and yet not very small, and have an ancient identity, might require more delicate treatment. There should be financial economy in the absorption of minor authorities in larger ones, because so many district official staffs would not be needed.

The suggestions made in this article are, summed up, these :(1). That clear demarcation should be made between national and local administrative business, and that the former should be transacted by national, and the latter, subject to national legislation, by local authorities, and neither by both. (2). That there should be a consequent and corresponding division of the sources of revenue, and that the system of grants-in-aid from the Exchequer to the local authorities should cease to exist.

(3). That there should be reorganization of local authorities in the direction of greater unification and equalisation. This, it is humbly submitted by one who has seen and taken part in a good deal of local and something of national government, is, on broad lines, the kind of reform which ought to be made for

the sake of freedom, economy, self-reliance, energy, and efficiency. Probably, therefore, it never will be made, and we shall steer, with ever-accelerating speed, on our present course in the direction of the Lower Empire. Clever men of the Fabian type have always pushed for centralisation and have seen their best weapon in the system of grants-in-aid. Things have for long been moving towards their paradise of central officials, uncontrolled by any representative body except an impotent Parliament, and monopolising all real power in the land, inspiring all legislation, controlling all administration.

It would be well worth the while of the new Cabinet to appoint a Royal Commission to enquire into this wide question of the right administrative and financial relations between central and local authorities. The Prime Minister in his pre-election speeches wisely said, that the recovery of this country from the effects of war could be best secured by as little interference as possible in the way of legislation and administration with the free energy and initiative of the people. This period of quietude could be utilised by careful enquiry as to the best future road to pursue in various matters of importance.

BERNARD HOLLAND

I.

2.

MOVEMENTS OF THOUGHT IN THE
ENGLISH CHURCH

On What Authority? By E. A. KNOX, D.D., late Bishop of Manchester. Longmans, Green. 1922.

Belief in God.

Belief in Christ. By CHARLES GORE, D.D., formerly Bishop of Oxford. John Murray. 1921, 1922.

3. Outspoken Essays. Dean of St. Paul's.

First and Second Series. By W. R. Inge, D.D.,
Longmans, Green. 1919, 1922.

4. Creeds or No Creeds? By CHARLES HARRIS, D.D. John Murray. 1922.
5. The Christian Idea of Sin and Original Sin.
Principal of Cuddesdon Theological College.

By E. J. BICKNELL, ViceLongmans, Green.

1922.

6. The Idea of Atonement in Christian Theology. By HASTINGS RASHDALL, D.D., Dean of Carlisle. Macmillan. 1919.

THE

HE War, as was to be expected, has led to many reactionsgood and bad. Among the most welcome is a renewed interest in religion and, in particular, a new appreciation of the genius of Christianity, its power not merely to comfort, but also to inspire.

The increased regard for religion shews itself in varying degrees in all the belligerent countries. It is strong and especially interesting in Germany and Great Britain, where the existence of different vigorous Christian communions encourages the spirit of free religious adventure. In Germany, among University students especially, the practical value of Christianity is emphasised. Competent observers report that the religious revival there has led to spiritual enthusiasm and moral earnestness, but hardly, so far, to intellectual speculation. The philosophicoreligious systems of German theologians proved anæmic during the war. Often they harmonised dangerously with theories of the State which have proved disastrous. Naturally there has been a reaction from such types of thought, and the present religious awakening has not yet shewn its intellectual results.

England has had a more happy experience. There has not been among us the same social disorganization. Neither before nor during the war did leaders of religious thought regard themselves as servants of the British Government or apologists for its actions. Men prominent both in the English Church and in

Nonconformist communions were often critical and outspoken ; not seldom they caused acute, though transient, irritation by their advocacy of absolute standards of conduct. It is now commonly said that the churches 'failed' during the war. Doubtless many clergy and ministers yielded to the passionate patriotism of the time or found in silence a way of escape from invective. But many Christian teachers struggled earnestly to preserve Christian standards. Few of those who rank as leaders in Christian thought failed to protest against the spirit of brutality engendered by war, or to urge that reconciliation must precede a lasting peace. Some privately endured much persecution. It was fortunate that these men stood firm in their conviction that Christian standards are absolute; for, with a refusal to compromise on moral issues, there goes naturally a passion for truth; and, when religion has two such allies as righteousness and truth, it is in no danger of decay.

The renewed vitality of English Christianity is due fundamentally to a conviction, reached or re-enforced during the war, that the Christian valuation of human life is true. This is the axiom which unites and gives confidence to all schools of Christian thought. It is the miracle of Christianity' on which all are agreed and which all seek to explain. In the Christian tradition, derived from the Founder of the Church, are standards of conduct, principles of action, which, as we now know, it is disastrous for humanity to ignore or reject. Christ's ethical system, moreover, was derived from a spiritual interpretation of the Universe with which it naturally coheres. Man's duty and God's nature and purpose form a unity in Christ's teaching. But this religious unity was associated, by Christ's followers rather than by Himself, with views of the world which modern science has rendered obsolete. It reaches us, moreover, through documents whose nature was imperfectly understood until the rise of modern literary and historical criticism. So the intellectual presentation of Christianity needs to be re-fashioned. Leaders of Christian thought are giving themselves to this task. Behind their activity is the feeling that the new knowledge at their disposal should enable them persuasively to commend the values uniquely preserved by the Church. So they are developing the re-statement of belief with fearlessness and confidence; and their work is beginning to receive respectful attention from observers both at home and abroad.

The Church of England, with its cumbrous machinery, its archaic formulæ, its internal dissensions, has repeatedly surprised friends and foes by its latent strength. Nominally tied to the State, its chief officers appointed by the Prime Minister, it might at the present time be expected to shew all the weaknesses of an Erastian institution corrupted by war. It shews, in fact, signs of marked vitality. Among its leaders there are a number of singularly able men, in whom intellectual force is combined with moral earnestness. They have learned-no easy lesson-to be indifferent to abuse and contemptuous of misrepresentation. They seek to be and are, in fact, loyal to the Christian tradition; though, in stating or re-stating it, they criticise one another with singular frankness. Their enthusiasm for the Christian ideal shews itself in shrewd and blunt estimates and indictments of our civilisation. No sham is sacred to the most outstanding of these new iconoclasts. To bad science and bad history, however closely entwined with Christian sentiment, they give no quarter. In some camps their activity naturally causes distress and evokes hostility. But enthusiasm and courage are infectious. So amid much talk of unity, and notwithstanding a real desire for Christian reunion, there is lively controversy between leading Churchmen who are eager to reach truth by valid argument. When religion is really alive, controversy is necessarily vigorous. The appearance of religious concord is often but a sign of the lack of religious earnestness. Human life, and the Universe of which it is a part, have so many facets, that spiritual enthusiasts with free and independent minds cannot think alike. And, among those whose religion is emphatically Christian, differences of temperament, of upbringing, of social experience, make mechanical uniformity impossible.

Yet, beneath the present discord in the Church of England, there is a fundamental harmony, a unity of principle, which is not generally recognised. It is commonly assumed that the three traditional parties of the English Church are now more widely sundered than ever in its history. High Churchmen, it is said, have become Anglo-Catholics, whose intellectual system is Roman scholasticism. Evangelicals are supposed to combine a belief in the verbal inspiration of the Bible with naive scientific obscurantism. Broad Churchmen are alleged to have become Modernists, who deny all things.' We shall endeavour to show