(TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—In your remarks on the absurdly illogical exclusion of the Clergy from the House of Commons, you have not noticed one, and that not the least weighty, argument against it. Surely it is a -tacit recognition by the Legislature of the sacerdotal character of the English priesthood. For if a man on whom Episcopal hands have once conferred ordination is thenceforth ipso facto disqualified for sitting in the Lower House of Parliament, it must be because he is thereby raised above the level of ordinary men. Mr. Goldney's limitation of his Bill to clergymen who are not beneficed removes all pretence that the exclusion is in- tended to prevent Parliamentary duties from interfering with clerical work, and proves that it is maintained simply on the theory that the priest is not a citizen.
For my part, I cannot see why even beneficed clergymen should not be eligible. As it is, a man may be absent from his benefice for three months in the year, or longer by licence from his Bishop ; and if a constituency are con- tent with ninety days' attendance in Parliament, which would cover a large part of the Session, or if the Bishop, being satisfied that the parish was not neglected, gave his licence for a longer absence, I tbink a clergyman might be as usefully employed in Parliament as on a School- Board or a Charity Committee. If the citizens of Westminster -chose to return their Dean, or if the Hampshire electors had. re- turned the late Rector of Eversley, the Church need not have suffered, and the State would have gained greatly. In the present temper of the constituencies, a clergyman who should stand any chance of election must be either a man of excep- tional capacity, or a representative of some strong opinion or interest; and in either case, the House is the poorer for his -absence.
The present system, quite indefensible while clergymen who are Peers may sit in the Upper House, and Nonconformist ministers in either, tends to confirm the idea that the clergy are a separate, sacred class, who have nothing to do with the things of secular life,—a theory which, in these days, certainly needs no artificial encouragement.—I am, Sir, &c., R. E. BARTLETT.
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