15 MAY 1909, Page 14

[TO Tsm nurros or Tao - SPXMAT011.1 SIH,—In your comment on

my letter on the above subject which appeared in your last week's issue you state that my letter in no way met certain allegations of the Bishop of St. David's on the question of Nonconformist statistics which appeared in the Times of April 24th. The Bishop's allega- tions, however (relating as they do to only one of the three points on which I ventured to correct the Spectator), do not affect the ,question of the substantial accuracy of the statistics furnished to the Commission on the authority of each denomination. Certain discrepancies between their figures and those collected on a different basis by different witnesses were inevitable; and the evidence tendered on behalf of the Established Church has not been free from similar, if not greater, inaccuracies. It was found, for instance, before the Commission that in certain areas communicants of that Church had been twice counted; and in the Times of the '6th' inst. the Bishop of St. Asaph corrects certain state- ments made by the Bishop of St. David's as to the per- centage of increase in confirmations in the period 1887 to 1907. But, as a Nonconformist, I would not regard such discrepancies as invalidating the general accuracy of the statistics of the Established Church. Are the Noncon- formists not entitled to the same measure of toleration from the Established Church, and especially from a journal of the Spectator's status P—I am, Sir, &c.,