[To THE EDITOR OF THE " BrECTATOR."] Sin,—Your correspondent, "A
Country Rector," has made at least two mistakes in his letter in the Spectator of December 15th. He says, "Twenty clergymen in all (the prefix Rev.' shows so much where other information is wanting) have been elected without opposition. As a District Counoillor is a J.P. ex officio, this shows a remarkable return to a former state of things when clergymen frequently sat on the Bench." If the Rector will consult the Act (Sect. 22), he will find that only the Chairman of the District Council shall be, by virtue of his office, Justice of the Peace. I think, too, if he will make further inquiries, the prefix "Rev." will be found to apply in many cases to the Dissenting minister, and not to the " clergyman " from his point of view. At least that is the case in the parish from which I write, the Wesleyan minister being elected to the Parish Council, the vicar and the squire not having a seat on it. What the Rector terms "a strange and most inconvenient provision in the Act," namely, that which forbids the Chairman of the Parish Meeting to be made a Councillor, was surely inserted for a most obvious reason. If it were otherwise, in the event of the election being by show of hands, the Chairman would be the returning officer at his own election,—an untenable position. I think if your correspondent, Mr. Trevilian, will make inquiries in a village within a few miles of his residence, he will find the principle of "cottage rents rising or falling according to the rise or fall of rates," has been adopted for some little time.—I am, Sir, &c., H. N.
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