MR. MAURICE AND SIR E. STRACHEY.
(TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR:1
SIR,—I have no claim to speak from any special knowledge of the opinions of the late Mr. Maurice, for whose character, indeed, have always felt a high respect, but with whom I had only the honour of the very slightest personal acquaintance, and whose doctrinal position I am unfortunate enough to find it more than difficult, I do not say to accept, but to understand. I do, how- over, distinctly remember his telling a friend of mine, who repeated it to me, that when present in foreign churches during the Mass he always knelt and joined in the service in his own way. No doubt his way was different from ours, but I venture to think that one who so spoke and acted would certainly not have applied, to what the overwhelming majority of Christians regard as the highest act of divine worship, such language as Sir E. Strachey's, which I do not care to quote here, but which he ought to know that they would condemn as equally foolish, indecent, and blasphemous. If I do not sign my name for publication, it is only because it would add nothing to the weight of a remon- strance against what I trust and believe is no less an outrage on the memory of the dead than on the faith of the living, which I make, in the interests not of theological truth, but of common
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