14 NOVEMBER 1885, Page 13

[TO THE EDITJH OF THE " SPECTATOH."1

"S111,—If you have not already done so, will you for a moment think if it won!! be worth while to draw the attention of Non- conformists to the fact that equality of religion—see Mr. Cham- berlain's programme—means "Disestablishment of the Church of England," and Disendowment, not of the Church of England -only, but also of other religious bodies ?

Surely one can imagine that the heart of many a Quaker, and of many a Wesleyan and Roman Catholic, would falter before he votes for a Liberationist, if he once thought how much he would dislike his meeting-house or his chapel to be put up "to let" to the highest bidder.

No doubt these are low, very low, grounds on which to appeal to voters ; but as we are told that our future English policy is to be a policy of sentimentalism, and not a policy of reason, ought we now to despise the " sentiment " which would make it pain to a Nonconformist to see the buildings in which he had worshipped from childhood used perhaps for a service of ritual, -to escape which his ancestors had suffered persecution ? Or, still worse, to have" no religion" preached under the same roof ? For really, is not this Disestablishment question in truth a .question between Christianity and Atheism, and nothing else ?