[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—I cannot let pass without a protest Sir Edward Strachey's letter in the Spectator of the 18th, where he classes us Irish Liberals with Bismarck and his party. Bismarck has commenced an undisguised religious persecution, though for political ends. We adhere to the doctrine of "a free Church in a free State," but this doctrine must be more elastic than we take it to be, if it involves the freedom of the Church to spend the money of the State for ecclesiastical purposes. Bismarck and his adherents are endeavouring, by persecution, to compel a Church to which they do not belong, to govern itself in accordance with their ideas. We maintain that British statesmen ought to prevent national money from being spent for sectarian purposes, and to prevent secular education from getting into sectarian hands. There is not even a superficial resemblance between the two positions. Sir E. Strachey speaks of my "patronising approval" of the pro- posal of separate boarding-houses for Roman Catholic teachers in training, with a common school education for them and the Pro- testants. I think this not only a possible compromise, but an arrangement in itself desirable. If there was any sneer in the passage of my letter to which he refers, it was at the Protestantism that could be offended by so reasonable a proposal.
I think, further, that it would be most desirable to use part of the Church surplus in providing a hall of this kind for the Roman Catholic students of the University of Dublin.—I am, Sir, &c.,
JOSEPH JOHN MURPHY.
Old Forge, Dunmurry, County Antrim, July 20.
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