THE SCOTTISH EPISCOPAL CHURCH.
[TO THE EDITOR 01 THE " SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—In your able article on the late Bishop of St. Andrews, there is an expression used which lends itself to misinter- pretation among those of your readers who are but slightly acquainted with Scotland and its ecclesiastical history.
You say that Anglican Episcopacy is an exotic here. Now, if by this you mean that an episcopate manned from England has a foreign aspect to the Scottish mind, you are obviously right. But you will be understood to mean by many—some of whom dearly wish to have it so—that Episcopacy per as had ceased to live on Scottish soil, and that it has only begun in recent years to occupy ground where it was in no sense in- digenous. And that is far from being the case. In parts of the Western Highlands, and in other districts of Scotland, the Episcopal Church has never ceased to retain the allegiance of a considerable section of the people. The penal laws of the Jacobite period, and migration of the population in this cen- tury, have, with other causes, greatly diminished its relative numerical strength in its old strongholds, but to speak of Episcopacy as an exotic in Scotland, is to repeat an oft-exploded figment.
With your contention that the Episcopal Church in Scot- land follows a mistaken policy in filling up its bishoprics from England, I most heartily agree.—I am, Sir, &c.,
Previous page
