27 DECEMBER 1884, Page 13

DISESTABLISHMEN T AND THE GENERAL ELECTION [To THE EDITOR OF

THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—With you, "I trust that the Society for the Liberation of Religion from State Patronage and Control" will discuss and reverse its decision, to make Disestablishment a test-question at the neat election.

Connected as I have been with the Dissenting county of Cornwall in elections for nearly forty years, I know how such a test now would injure the Liberal party even here, and the end that I wish for, as much as those earnest men of the Liberation Society, would be longer in being reached by such premature action. Besides, let us be generous and grateful to the Bishops for their wise action upon the Franchise Bill, and defer Dis- establishment as a test question until the Parliament after