GLADSTONIANS AND ANTI-GLADSTONIANS IN SCOTLAND. go THE EDITOR OF TUE
' SPECTATOR."] SIR,—There is a letter on "The Clergy and Politics" in your
last issue, dated from Manchester, and signed "J. A. B." Of the general argument of this letter, I have nothing to say. You have yourself, in a few words at the end, suggested the best answer to it. But I wish to advert to a single sentence in the letter, as follows. Speaking of Scotland, the writer says :— " Mr. Gladstone's return was mainly effected by non-Establish- ment men, and opposed, very nearly to a man, by Established Churchmen, who obtruded the Establishment principle at every contested election."
Now, all who know the facts as to the Midlothian and other elections in Scotland know how far from the truth this state- ment is; but I venture to mention, in illustration of how far it is astray from the fact, that I sat at a table the other day, the occupants of which (a large number) were "to a man" office- bearers of the Church of Scotland, and that a quite consider- able proportion were not only not opposed to Mr. Gladstone, but had voted, without any hesitation, for Liberal candidates, while some of them had been amongst the most active members of Mr. Gladstone's Committee, without whose co-operation, it may be safely said, his election would not have been carried.
If in any case the Establishment principle was " obtruded " by Liberal Churchman during the late elections in Scotland, it was not in opposition to Mr. Gladstone, but specially because the candidate's views on the Church question were at variance with those which Mr. Gladstone had expressed in his Gilmerton speech; and because the candidate himself, under cover of devo- tion to the Liberal cause, sought to snatch an unfair advantage for an extreme section of the Liberal party.--I am, Sir, &c.,
A LIBERAL CHURCHMAN.
Previous page
