[To THE EDITOR OP THE " SPECTATOR. " ] Sin,—No doubt we
are terribly in the bondage of tradition- alism, as " J. W. B." implies, and it would be a happy event for the Church if, without loss of continuity, its bondage could be lightened. As a clergyman I cannot think that the fault lies in the measure of independence secured to us by endowment and the appeal to the law. It may be a clerical obsession, but to me the cause seems to lie in a Liberal laity who seldom take any active part in Church life. Jowett, unless my memory misleads me, complained bitterly of the Liberal laity of his day. What would he have thought of a House of Laymen in which only seven members could be found to support the cause of Prayer-book revision ! When the Churchmen's Union can boast as many active and self- sacrificing laity as the English Church Union better times
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