CLERICALISM IN ENGLAND.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] Sin,—Your number for January 9th contains a letter from a correspondent ("Hibernicus "), describing the intolerance of some Roman Catholic priests towards a Protestant lady who, having obtained a situation as nurse in an infirmary in the South of Ireland, was compelled to relinquish it because she was not a Roman Catholic. The following statement will' show that Protestant England is not wholly free from the same influence.
The matron of a large county hospital in the East or England recently became a convert to the Roman Catholic- faith. Immediately a violent commotion took place. The Board of Managementpassed a resolution almost unanimously, that the interests of the hospital called for her resignation.. She was appointed without any reference to her religious- opinions, and having served the hospital faithfully and efficiently for fourteen years, she declined to resign. At the quarterly meeting of Governors on Saturday last, between thirty and forty subscribers gave notice of their intention, some of them entirely ceasing to subscribe, others of diminish- ing their subscription to the minimum amount which will enable them to vote for the matron's dismissal, should the opportunity occur. Happily, the good sense of the governors. has hitherto prevented such a scandal, but the considerable number of subscribers—chiefly clergymen of the Church of England and ladies—who object to support an institution which exists for the treatment of the sick poor of all denominations, and which is well supported by the Catholics of the district, because one member of the resident staff has changed her religious opinions, seems to place them on a level with the priests at the infirmary in Ireland.
Let us endeavour to bear with these toe conscientious scruples, remembering the saying of George Eliot, that "the last refuge of intolerance is in not tolerating the intolerant.'
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