6 AUGUST 1954, Page 16

LORDS SPIRITUAL

Sta,—In your comment on the Report of the Royal Commission on Scottish Affairs you ask why the State Church of Scotland is not represented in the House of Lords like the State Church of England. The answer is that to be eligible for the House of Lords a man must be either a spiritual or a temporal lord, and the Church of Scotland, unlike the Church of England, neither has nor can have any spiritual lords, in view of the Presbyterian doctrine of the parity of presbyters. Repre- sentation of the Church of Scotland would therefore involve, as the Commission them- selves recognise, a transformation of the House of Lords.—Yours faithfully, F. W. ARMSTRONG