[To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR:1 SIR,—I enclose a letter
and declaration which speak for themselves. I shall be glad to receive the names of those who are willing to sign the declaration, and still more glad to hear of any who will assist by collecting names in their own locality.-1 am, Sir, &c., ARTHUR E. T. NEWMAN. Granboro. Vicarage, Winslow, Bucks.
"Sir,—The keenness of the debate which has raged round Mr. Chamberlain's Fiscal Proposals tends to obscure the deeper issues involved. Our attention is concentrated upon those salient details on which the controversy has focussed itself—the possibilities of Retaliation—the subtleties of Dumping—the complicated effects of Preferential Tariffs.
In the meantime we are apt to forget that behind all this superficial discussion lie certain fundamental judgments, ethical and social, which are profoundly involved in the issue. It will not then be deemed impertinent or intrusive if those who are charged with any special responsibility for the national conscience venture to detach and emphasise these essential considerations, which are vital to the verdict that is to be given.
We, therefore, clergy of the Church of England, invite those who share our responsibility to join us in making the following declaration.
We, the undersigned, desire to protest against the re-establish- ment in Great Britain of a system of Protection, because, how- ever sincere and patriotic may be the intention of its advocates, in itself it inevitably tends to evoke the motives and foster the tendencies against which we are all accustomed to protest as immoral.
(2) No nation can adopt it without danger to the uprightness of its public life; it makes bribery pay; it creates monopo- lies; it opens the door of Parliamentary lobbies to all those influences which it is our main object to exclude. It is bound by its very conditions to tell hardest upon those who are least able to protect themselves. It will be secured by those who can best apply the pressure necessary to make their case heard. The tariff will be moulded by and for the best organised. The weak and unorganised will be least able to make their interests felt ; and will have to bear the burden of the gain of the strong.
(1. W. KiTcnrw, Dean of Durham.
C. W. STUBBS, Dean of Ely.
E. C. WICKHAM, Dean of Lincoln.
JAMES M. WAsox, Archdeacon of Manchester.
H. S. HOLLAND, CRUOR Of St. Paul's.
SAMUEL A. Bannarr, Canon of Bristol.
W. EMERY BARNES, Hulsean Professor, Cambridge. V. H. STANTON, Ely Professor, Cambridge. R. ST. Joan PARRY, Fellow & Tutor of Trinity, Camb. A. I. CARLYLE, University College, Oxford. C. H. PARRY, late H.M. Inspector of Schools. T. C. PRY, Head-Master of Berkhamsted.
J. LLEWELYN DAVIES, Vicar of Kirkby Lonsdale. S. D. HEADLAX. A. E. T. NE/max, Sec."
[We gladly publish this appeal, and trust it may be widely signed. The clergy should, we hold, keep as much aloof as they can from ordinary party politics, but here they have a moral trusteeship which they cannot neglect. Those who feel that the abandonment of Free-trade will expose our public life to the influences of corruption cannot but do all that lies in their power to combat Protection. We sincerely hope that the duty of protesting will not be taken up only by Liberal clergymen, but that the Unionist clergy of the Church of England, who are in so great a majority, will show that they are not less mindful of the great moral issues at stake in the present controversy.—En. Spectator.]
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