DISESTABLISHMENT AND THE NEXT PARLIAMENT. [To THE EDITOR OF. THE
" SPECTATOR." J Sm.—I also, as well as my old friend the Master of University College, Durham, beg to thank you for the line you have taken on the question of Disestablishment ; and I agree with you and with Dean Vaughan, rather than with him, that, in the present Election, when that question—as even Mr. Chamberlain has proclaimed—is not one of present politics, a Liberal Churchman may give his vote to the Liberal candidate without demanding any pledge on the subject.
Bat I wish to call your attention to the injury which is being done to the cause of the Church by the vehemence with which some of the Church Party, and especially the Church news- papers, are not only, as you say, forcing the question to the front, but exaggerating the numbers of the supporters of Dis- establishment to the manifest discouragement of Churchmen and the corresponding elation of Liberationists.
Here is an instance. The candidate for the Division in which my parish is situated appears in the lists of the Guardian and the Record as pledged to Disestablishment, without any quali- fication. Now, I ascertained his views on the subject when he first came forward, and when his name appeared in those lists, I wrote to him and called his attention to the fact. The
following is an extract from his reply My view of the question is what it has always been, that it is not one for the next Parliament to decide. I shall certainly not vote for any motion in favour of disestablishing the Church of England in the next Parliament, unless advocated by Mr. Gladstone. You can guess how likely that statesman is to introduce any measure for the purpose from the Hawarden Manifesto ; and even in that case should reserve my judgment. I consider that the question is not ripe for settlement one way or the other ; and that, when it does come up, a special appeal ought to be made to the con- stituencies on the matter."
I have twice heard him speak to the same effect in public meetings, and in a long private conversation with him I found him desirous, in the interest of the Church, that the question should be postponed as long as possible.
I do not know whether he has thought it worth while to write to the papers to contradict their assertions about him ; but so many others have done so that I feel sure that those lists are utterly untrustworthy, and are inflicting a needless blow on the cause which they profess to have at heart. —I am,
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