THE CONFIRMATION TEST FOR ENGLISK CHURCHMANSHIP.
[TO THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."]
Sin,—May I venture to advise the Editor of the Spectator that if he would wish many of us clergy to be less strict in our adherence to the Confirmation rule he should give up lecturing us from what many of us must regard as his own Erastian standpoint, and invite other correspondents to send him such appealing letters as that written by Mr. Arthur W. Leyland ?
Whilst regarding the necessity of Confirmation as a rule, to which isolation on board ship or in the Australian bush would compel the proverbial exceptions, I should find it very hard to refuse Communion even in a country parish, where everyone is known, and it is therefore so difficult to make exceptions, to one who thus asked for it in the old Wesleyan spirit of your correspondent, and I certainly should not do so without first consulting my bishop. But when appeal is made to the law of the land and the comprehensiveness of the National Church, and so on, that is another matter, and I begin to think whether Disestablishment is the worst evil we have to fear.—I am, Sir, &c. J. J. MALLOCK. The Rectory, East Allington, Devon.
[We cannot publish any more letters on this subject.—En. Spectator.]
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