THE CITY CHURCHES.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR...] SIR,—Mr. Freshfield is clearly of opinion that to make astir over the ruin of the City churches is to beat the air. The only thing that matters is the veto of the vestries, which is not now threatened. It would be a shocking thing to remove a City church without the parishioners' consent; but, given that con- dition, there is nothing in it to shock anybody—not even the Chairman of a Society for City Church Preservation! As his letter recalls quite contentedly, a number of these venerable fanes—about twenty, to be exact—have been "disposed of as superfluous and the funds used elsewhere." The vestries being amenable, all has been for the best : "the Act continues to be applied as occasion requires, and has worked smoothly and well."
No doubt legal right is a good thing; but some of us think that moral right is a better, and better worth defending. The particular right for which we stand is the indefeasible claim of London to retain its own monuments—a claim made on grounds religious, reverential, patriotic, artistic, economic, historical, utilitarian. Our appeal is to educated public opinion, and it is just this that we hope to reach through the
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