DISESTABLISHMENT IN SCOTLAND.
[TD THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,—Mr. Shaw, writing in the Spectator of November 14th on the Scotch Disestablishment movement, says "that the Church Defence meetings, which are now being held all over the country-, are scarcely anything else than packed meetings in the Tory interest." It would be much nearer to the truth to say that the anti-Disestablishment movement is rather a Liberal than a Con- servative agitation, seeing that Liberals have taken such a prominent part in it. Last Friday I had the honour of pre- siding at Kelso, at one of the Church Defence meetings, where the tone throughout was as studiously non-political as it was moderate and practical, the two principal speakers, Dr. Macleod and Dr. Alison, devoting their remarks mainly to showing the sources from which the very slender endowments of the Scotch Church have been derived, and to proving that the Church is in no sense paid by the State. The only language that could be described as otherwise than extremely moderate was used by myself when opening the proceedings, and when calling attention to the remarkable manifesto put forward by Principal Rainy and others, which appeared in the Scotsman of November 13th, and especially to its concluding sentence, which declares that the disestablishers rely upon help from England to enable them to carry their point. Now, as the manifesto does not even pretend to state that the majority of the Scotch people wish for Disestablishment, it is plain that the authors of the document alluded to do propose to overturn the majority against them with aid from without ; and as regards this extreme and cool proposal, I confess I did use language of some, but certainly not undue, severity. The Scotch, I need hardly say, would view with extreme indignation any attempt such as is proposed to be made in the manifesto to which I have alluded. Permit me to add that I am a moderate Liberal, and that one of the motions carried at the Kelso meeting was seconded by a United Presbyterian of good standing.—I am,
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