[TO THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR.'
SIR,—Probably there are many members of the Church of England who could " cap " the stories told by "A Nonconformist" in your issue of October 18th. E.g.,— I know some Church people who send their daughter to a Wesleyan boarding-school because it is situated in a very healthy place, recommended by their doctor. They have several times asked the Head-Mistress to allow their daughter to go to the neighbouring parish church, but have always received the same reply : " The rule of the school is that every pupil must attend the Wesleyan church." When the parents told me this I said : "Are you not afraid that your daughter will become a Wesleyan ? " And they both exclaimed at once ; "Oh, no; she hates the Wesleyan service, and looks forward to her holidays, when she can go to the Church service again." What does "A Nonconformist" think of a Wesleyan boarding-school without even a Conscience Clause ? I once had a housekeeper who had been a parlour-maid in a Dissenting household. Her former mistress impressed upon me the fact that she was a Nonconformist, and hoped that I would not expect her to go to church. I said that of course she might go to chapel if she liked. As soon as she arrived I told her that although I myself was a Churchman, yet I wished her to understand that she was perfectly free to go to chapel, and that I hoped she would not go to church in order to please me. She replied that she was a Churchwoman and much pre- ferred the Church service, and that until she went to her last place she had always gone to church and never to Chapel. In fact, she was confirmed and had been a regular Communicant, and all her relations were members of the Church of England. In great astonishment I repeated to her what her late mistress had said, and asked her why she had always gone to chapel when in her last situation; and she replied that when she first went there one of the older servants had told her that it would be better for her to go to the chapel where the family attended. Have you, Sir, room for another story ? Readers of the Church Times, Church Bells, and the Bucking- hamshire papers of 1896 will remember that for many months the Aylesbury Guardians (or, rather, a Nonconformist majority of the Board) compelled the Church children in their workhouse to attend Dissenting services. If your Noncon- formist correspondent bad lived in Aylesbury then, be would know that what you call the "petty tyranny" of the three Evangelical vicars whom he mentions is as nothing corn. pared with the bigotry and narrow-mindedness of many Dis- senters. I could tell you some more stories to illustrate this fact; but neither my yarns nor those of "A Nonconformist" have anything whatever to do with the Education Bill. Jam a manager of a Church of England elementary school, practically the sole manager. It is an endowed school, and therefore less de- pendent upon voluntary subscriptions than most of the denomi- national schools. Thus I have no interest in this new Bill so far as our own school is concerned. But the political Dis- senters have opposed it with such unparalleled ferocity, and have made it the excuse for such envenomed bitterness against the Church of England, and especially against the clergy of the Church, that I for one am inclined to think that there must he much that is good in it.—I am, Sir, &c., A COUNTRY PARSON.
(Not an Evangelical Vicar.) P.S.—" A Nonconformist" does not tell us whether the pupil-teachers wished to be confirmed. Presumably they did. I have never heard of a clergyman presenting for confirma- tion an unwilling candidate. The parents of the candidates are often indifferent. With regard to the children who left the Chapel school and entered the Church school, "A Non- conformist" does not tell us whether they did this with the consent of their parents or not, or even whether their parents were Church people or Dissenters. These are important points.
[We publish the above letters in order to represent both sides, but we do not desire to continue this correspondence, which might easily degenerate into mutual recriminations...-. ED. Spectator.]
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