6 DECEMBER 1919, Page 2

The Manchester Guardian of Wednesday week published an important letter

from Mrs. Humphry Ward protesting against the reimposition of tests which is proposed in the Enabling Bill. Our readers are familiar with the scheme embodied in the Bill, whereby voters for the Church Parochial Councils and the Church Assembly would be required to make a declaration that they did not belong to any religious body except the Church of England. They are also familiar with the proposal tha tonly communicants should be eligible for the Church Assembly and the Parochial Councils. It is against this principle of reviving such tests as were done away with at Oxford and Cambridge—some fifty years ago no Nonconformist could have a degree conferred upon him at either University—that Mrs. Ward protests.