11 JUNE 1864, Page 1

Dr. Hook, the Dean of Chichester, has written a manly

and ex- cellent- letter_ to the limes on the attempt of Lord Robert Cecil and the Oxford _Conservatives to identify the Church with the Con- servative party. ;He thinks that the Church should stand above the conflicts of party, but he has always found among ths Liberals "sofne of the most enlightened, beat informed, and most munificent supporters of the.alittreh of England." Dr. Hook does not wish in any way to tbrow. doubts on the sincere Churehma.nship of the Conservitiyesi, . but only to bear testimony to the equally sincere Churclunanship of Liberals. -He ends with a warm tribute to the working classes; for thirty years he has lived among them, and learned "-to honour ancirespeci them." He rejoices that statesmen of such opposite views as Lord Derby and Mr. Gladstone have at last arrived at the - same conclusion about their fitness for - the snit-rage. And he does not hesitate to express his conviction "that' the operatives who influence the public opinion oftheir' class will be prepared to take a more com- prehensive vie* 'of their responsibilities than the respected individuals whose conduct has provoked this letter, and who, to serve a temporary purpose, would expose to risk and disparage- ment an institution which they doubtless desire to uphold." Lord Robert Cecil and Mr. ManSel Will not be cheered by this very blank repudiation on the part of so high and so good a Churchman

as Dr. Hook.