MR. DALE.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.']
SIB,—Most people would agree with the opinion expressed by you last week, that all parties in the Church should be obliged to obey "the law," or that equal latitude in disobedience should be extended to all. As it is, the unpopular or " Sacerdotal" party is prosecuted, and the Low and the Broad parties are allowed to carry their theories into practice with impunity. The Broad Churchman omits the Athanasian Creed, whenever it is ordered to be read. The Low Churchman omits Saints'- day services, and the prayer for the Church militant ; he intro-
duces a black preaching vestment, and an unauthorised prayer before his sermon, and an unauthorised hymn at the same time;. while his " Sacerdotal" neighbour is prosecuted for singing an equally unauthorised hymn a few minutes later, after the Prayer of Consecration. This unfairness it is which really amounts to persecution, and would in itself fully justify the " Sacerdotal" party in waiting for Disestablishment (which has been called by one of their most respected leaders "the salva- tion of God ") with perfect equanimity. But the wrong is still' more palpable, for while Mr. Dale is in prison for wearing " Sacramental garments," as you term them, in his parish church,. the Twenty-fourth Canon orders every minister who celebrates the Holy Communion in our Cathedrals to wear a " sacramental' garment " on the great festivals. This very plain and distinct order is openly violated in these mother or pattern churches of each diocese ; and yet the Public Worship Regulation Act places sins of omission and commission on the same footing. When the sword of Justice falls so unequally as this, can it be wondered at that the Court of Appeal itself has the evil reputation of acting on policy, and not on law ? And when to all this is added the opinion of so grave and sober-minded a person as Mr. Hubbard, M.P., that the inferior Court which condemns Mr. Dale is destitute of all spiritual authority whatever, we" must, I think, admit that Mr. Dale's case is a hard one, and likely to provoke a good deal of feeling which will not easily be- allayed.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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