Mr. Charles S. Miall, in a letter to Monday's Times,
sum- marises and analyses some of the recent religious statistics of attendances at religions worship on the Sunday. He makes out that in the population of 17 towns, amounting in the whole to nearly two millions, the total attendance on religions worship was 36-16 per cent. (678,160) ; and that in six large towns, with a total attendance on religious worship of 486,014, the Esta- blished Church numbered 177,332 ; Nonconformists, 270,802'; and Roman Catholics, 37,880. From this he infers, somewhat• rashly, that the Church of England is, " in a numerical sense, no longer the National Church." Surely, this depends on one or two other matters, on which Mr. Miall has no information to give us. In the first place, what difference would the returns of the public worship of rural populations make ? In the next place, what are the political convictions of those who do not attend public worship, on the subject of the National Church.? As we cannot exclude those who possess the franchise, even though they do not usually go to the poll, from the considera- tion of any issue in which they may happen to take an interest, so we cannot exclude those who, for whatever reason, do not usually attend public worship, from the right to give their opinion on the question whether there ought to be a State Church or not.
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