17 AUGUST 1901, Page 13

[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR:1 Szn,—Mr. Howard Hodgkin tells

us that the Manifesto did nothing but "repeat the well-known tenet of the Friends that all war is necessarily un-Christian." Why, then, did the meeting circulate it among the clergy of the Church of England, who must be supposed to hold with Article XXXVH. that "it is lawful for Christian men, at the commandment of the Magistrate, to wear weapons, and to serve in the wars,"—circulate it, it must be remembered, with the suggestion that it should be made the subject of pulpit teaching? It was as impertinent a proceeding as if Convoca- tion had appealed to the Friends to raise a Volunteer battalion for service at the front.—I am, Sir, &c.,

CLERICITS.