7 AUGUST 1869, Page 23

The Rights and Liberties of the Church. By the Rev.

S. Kettlewell. (Skeffington.)—It may easily be understood from the title of this book that the writer's notions of "the Church" differ tote coslo from our own. He looks upon it as 813 independent corporation having an existence of its own, with all appropriate rights, etc., wholly independent of civil society. And his political notions are equally remote from ours ; he says, for instance, that when the Church placed herself under the protection of the Crown, it was no part of the bargain that she could come under the power of the Parliament. The upshot of the matter is that Mr. Kettlewell would like to see "the rights and liberties" secured even at the cost of disestablishment and disendowment. As we want to be protected from Mr. Kettlewell and his friends, as well as from other persons who might interfere with us, we shall do our best to oppose him. At the same time, we are bound to say that we see nothing at all uncourteous or uncharitable in the book before us. It is written without any pretension to literary skill, and is naturally in consequence often obscure in style ; but the writer knows what he means, and says it as straightforwardly as he can, and with as little offence to others as may be. We do not know whether he claims kindred with the nonjuring divine of his name,. but he certainly preserves some of the tradition of his opinions.