3 APRIL 1915, Page 15

[To Ills Enmoa 07 T. "Srtcraros."]

Sim—Your correspondent Mr. Boultbee tells us that in buying a Prayer Book be always asks for one in which the Lord's Prayer is punctuated in the traditional manner. But how can he get one except by chance from old stock P For the only printers of the Prayer Book are the Universities and the King's printers, and they have no option but to put the comma after the words "Thy will be done." What happened was this. A Committee was appointed to bring the text of the Prayer Book into conformity with the standard—i.e., the Sealed Book—and they made some useful corrections. But also, under colour of correcting a blunder, they jockeyed the Presses into adopting a fad of the moment, and repunctuating the Lord's Prayer. Protests have frequently been made, but both the Committee and the Presses lie low and say nothing. A question was even naked in the House of Commons about it but the Home Secretary professed himself unable to interfere. The situation is extraordinarily ridiculous. A small Committee appointed to "standardize" the English Prayer Book takes the opportunity of introducing a novelty, which has had no place in the Prayer Book since the English Prayer Book existed, and the Church of England seems to be helpless. The real fact is that people will not believe that a Committee of scholars could have acted in so underhand a manner. They think there most be some authority for the change somewhere. I hope, if the Prayer Book is ever revised, that we may be allowed to have the clause " Thy will be done, dx." printed with no comma at all, as it frequently is in the old books; then all parties can satisfy themselves. As it is, I have not been able to buy a new Prayer Book since the change was