[TO TIM EDITOR OF TIIR "SPECTATOR."]
Sin,—May I be allowed to point out that while the rest of the Bishop of Salisbury's speech at the Church Congress was "thoroughly moderate and reasonable," as you say in your last week's issue, there was one sentence which threatened a serious set-back to that policy of toleration and compre- hensiveness in the English Church which the Spectator has so consistently advocated ? The Bishop proposed an inter- ference with the liberties of congregations such as has never been attempted before,—viz., the suppression of hymn-books. Hitherto the free use of hymn-books has supplied just the element of elasticity which would otherwise be lacking in the Church of England. To remove this freedom would be disastrous. Yet the Bishop proposed, not merely to forbid the use of a possible heretical hymn here and there, but to suppress a whole book that might contain a hymn he should disapprove of. This might be the beginning of an Anglican Inquisition, which, I am sure, is far from what the Bishop really desires.—I am, Sir, &c., LATITUDINARIAN.
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