THE KING AS PRESBYTERIAN [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.]
don't suppose you wish to devote much more of your space to this topic, but as I started the hare, may I be permitted another Say ? As a Scotsman, I am quite aware that the King is not Head of the Presbyterian Church in spiritualibus : but that he has a definite legal and official connexion with it I should have thought was incontrovertible. The Dean of St. Paul's, in your last issue, calls him " the temporal head of both the Established Churches." If he be not this, what is the Royal Commissioner, who represents him, doing at the General Assembly at all ?
But this is really irrelevant. The point is—does his con- nexion with the Presbyterian Church, whatever it may be, turn him into a Presbyterian when he crosses the border, or not ? I would submit that Presbyterianism is a definite system of discipline, doctrine and Worship ; that in its most fundamental points it is inconsistent with the faith and practice of the Church of England ; that a real membership of both at the same time is logically impoSsible. What Queen Victoria thought on the matter is not decisive, any more than the eccentricities of an Anglican Rector with an estate in Scotland. I am not presuming to criticize in any way the practice of the Royal Family as regards the Church of Scotland all I maintain is that the King, when he enters Scotland, does not " become a Presbyterian," any more than, if he honoured Central Hall by attending a service there, he would temporarily, " become a Methodist."—Yours, &c., DUDLEY SYMON.
The School House, Woodbridge, Suffolk
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