LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
DISESTABLISHMENT IN SCOTLAND.
[To THE EDITOR OF TILE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,-I think I may claim to be an impartial witness on the question of Disestablishment in Scotland. A Scotclannan myself, I belong, when I am in Scotland, not only to a Non- conformist communion, but to a communion which was some- what ruthlessly disestablished and disendowed. Yet I never feel the stigma of a gross injustice, though I have at least as good a right to proclaim a vendetta against the Establish- ment in Scotland, as Mr. Chamberlain has for his vendetta against the Establishment in England on account of the ejection of one of his ancestors from a comfortable parsonage more than two centuries ago. Moreover, I do not believe that the question of Disestablishment in Scotland has any close practical bearing on the question of Disestablishment in England. Let the Church of England remain at peace within her own borders, and devote her energies to the discharge of her high duties, and I shall have no fear of her falling before the blows of the Liberation Society. I can, therefore, venture to question with perfect impartiality the correctness of the view which Mr. Taylor limes has expounded in your columns.
Before my letter is in print, we shall all know what Mr. Gladstone has to say on the subject ; but I wish to put on record, while I am still ignorant of Mr. Gladstone's intentions,
the impression which his words have left on my mind. Mr. Taylor lanes speaks of Mr. Gladstone's "promise." To the best of my belief, Mr. Gladstone has never made any " promise " at all. He has more than once declared his agreement with Lord Hartington's statement that the question of Disestablish- ment was one which the people of Scotland must decide for them- selves. That is little more than a truism, and is a very different thing from promising to press, or even vote for, a resolution on the subject in the next Parliament. Any attempt of the kind might split the Liberal Party in pieces ; and Mr. Gladstone is certainly not committed to ran the risk of political suicide on a question which is confessedly outside the recognised programme of the Liberal Party in the General Election. Has Mr. Taylor Innes forgotten Mr. Gladstone's speech in 1865 on the question of Dis- establishment in Ireland ? Mr. Gladstone then announced his be- lief that the Establishment in Ireland must cease to exist (which is more than he has yet done in the case of the Establishment in Scotland) ; but he declined to vote for an abstract resolution on the subject, on the ground that it was contrary to the duty of a statesman to do so till the time had, in his opinion, arrived for giving practical effect to the resolution. Whatever be the result of the elections in Scotland this month, Mr. Gladstone is certainly under no engagement whatever to take up the question of Disestablishment in Scotland during the ensuing Parliament ; and I shall not be surprised if the event should prove that Mr. Taylor limes has considerably postponed instead of accelerating the catastrophe by his tactics.—I am, Sir, dr,c.,
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