14 MAY 1881, Page 2

The Archbishop of Canterbury has issued a letter to his

fellow-Churchmen, lay and clerical, explaining what the Libera- tion Society are proposing to do in relation to Disestablish- ment, and calling upon them to organise themselves to resist the agitation, and answer the arguments of the Liberationists, We do not think this appeal of the Archbishop's wise. It should have been made by the laymen of the Church to the laymen of the Church, and not by the head of the Clergy,—who would defend themselves much more effectually by devoting themselves as exclusively as possible to their spiritual duties, without abdicating, of course, their full political right to join modestly in the political work of the laity, than by putting themselves forward as if they were defending their own interests merely in this agitation. The more it is supposed that the Clergy care about the Establishment chiefly for the sake of the loaves and fishes, the more strength the movement for Dis- ,establishment will gain.