JOHN BULL'S MOTHER
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—There is just one comment which I hope you will allow me to make on Mr. Stephen Coleridge's letter in your issue of this week. He complains that the Church of England fails to take notice sufficiently of the ordinary everyday things that matter. I think he is mistaken. The Church, to take one example alone of its activity, cannot be said to be backward in an enthusiasm for housing reforms in St. Pancras. But I should like to point out that it is precisely this zeal for good works, which Mr. Coleridge finds wanting in the Church, that enrages so many people. How often one hears the remark : " What a 'pity it is that the parson meddles with things lie knows nothing about I " One has only to remember what was said in connexion with the Bishops' action in the General Strike to realize that there is at least as great a desire among the general public that the parson shall mind his own (other- worldly) business as that he should show a greater zest for the concerns of this world. '
From further comment on Mr. Coleridge's letter I must refrain, for I suppose that my arguments would be somewhat vitiated if I were to explain that I am an embryo priest and an Anglo-Catholic! The disclosure of my future profession would deprive me of the right to speak as a man, just as the con- fession of Catholicism would put me outside the pale of pure religion.—I am, Sir, &c.,
A THEOLOGICAL STUDENT.
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