17 FEBRUARY 1883, Page 15

THE PROMOTION OF LIBERAL CLERGY.

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]

Church appointments of Mr. Gladstone have been so admirable, that one is -very reluctant to find fault, but you have undoubtedly hit a blot in pointing out that the Liberal Clergy -are, as a rule, passed over. When you consider that nearly all the Broad-Church school and most of the younger members of the High, including such well-known names as Messrs. Headlam, -Horsley, Stanton, and Shuttleworth, are Liberals, and that even in the Low-Church party, Messrs. Bickersteth, Cadman, Cal- throp, and D. Moore are also on the popular side, it seems that -there is little reason for giving the Tories all the great positions. All the men I have mentioned are able and zealous workers, and one, Mr. Calthrop, had the courage (in a minority of one among he clergy of Islington) to support the Irish-Church measure -of Mr. Gladstone.

I am an earnest supporter of the English Church Union, but, for all that, should like to see some of the moderate Evan- gelicals, like Mr. Cadman, promoted ; it would not do, perhaps, in the present crisis, to make any of them Bishops, but a few Deaneries and Canonries given to the (not many) able and scholarly members of the school would benefit the Church as a -whole, and help to raise the tone of a still important party.—I