MR. BRYCE'S UNIVERSITY CLAUSE.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—" What hinders Presbyterian union in Scotland ?" you ask in the Spectator of June 8th. "Sad to say, nothing more important than the question of establishment and endowment. And the wretched thing which thus letteth will let till some- how it is taken out of the way." I agree with you as to the unimportance, not everywhere, but in Scotland at this moment, of these two considerations (though that a Parliament should have absolute power over the Kirk's creed goes a little farther than mere establishment). But this Parliament will not touch establishment or endowment. What it ought to touch on Thursday next, upon the motion of Mr. Bryce, is the present sectarian test in the Scotch Universities. That is the only point in the Universities Bill for which the Scottish people generally care, and the change would be, in your words, "eminently serviceable for practical utility and theo- logical advance." The only risk even pretended to the Church established is that, if the chain; were thrown open to the best man, it might occasionally have to salary another as extra-
mural teacher. Why not It would be thus only contributing to theological education about one-fifth of the money which each of the other Scotch Churches annually gives for it. And once the University is thrown open, the theologians and Colleges of all the Churches could be affiliated to it, a result which, so long as the present insulting exclusion is main- tained, they will plainly not even take into consideration.—I
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