[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR, ---Your article in the
Spectator of July 4th, entitled" The Crisis in the Church," will be read with thankfulness by a very large number of people in all parts of the country, and I do not doubt -that the census of opinion which you propose to obtain as a result of the questions you are addressing to representative
clergy will be of considerable interest. As a signatory, how. ever, to "A Call to Action," I would venture to urge the importance of the fact that the National Church is the priceless possession of the nation as a whole and not only of the clergy, and that even if the vast majority of the latter were in favour of the abolition of the Principles of the Reformation, that would be no justification whatever for such a change unless the laity concurred in it, which I do not myself believe they would ever do if they were really given the opportunity of expressing their wishes. Unfortunately, no such opportunity exists at present, except through Parliament.
[Other correspondents have asked us to open to the laity our canvass of the clergy. But we are unable to do so at present.—En. Spectator.]
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