THE POLITICAL EFFECT OF DISESTABLISHMENT.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPZOTATOR:9
Sin,—In your article on Mr. Bright's recent speech on Dis- establishment, you express the opinion that "the Episcopal Church, even if it were disestablished to-morrow, would in both its sections—its High-Church as well as its Evangelical section —remain, on the whole, a distinctly Conservative force."
May I suggest that you have forgotten a very material fact, viz., that, even supposing your view to be correct, the political power of the Bishops and the Clergy must of necessity he diminished by the loss of their present privileged position and legal powers, to say nothing of pecuniary resources derived from public endowments ? And, in addition, it must surely be the case that the desire to retain all these, supplies a powerful stimulus to political activity, which would be wanting after the Church had been disestablished.—I am, Sir, In., J. C. W.
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