[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.") connexion with the
important paper on " The Increase of the Episcopate " in the Spectator of November 26th, may I call the attention of your readers to a valuable lecture given in 1918 at King's College by Canon Watson, the present Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Oxford, on " The Con- tinuity of the Church of England "? It is to be found in a volume of essays published by the University of London Press, under the title of The Church of England: Its Nature and Its Future, which was reviewed in the Spectator at the time. The professor points out that, while the system of small dioceses prevailed from the first in the Mediterranean countries —" to-day, in what was the Kingdom of Naples, there are bishoprics no larger than an English rural deanery, and provinces, with an archbishop over them, with the dimensions of an English archdeaconry "—once this region is left, a regular succession of great dioceses is found. " We see, then, that Christendom from the first was governed after two fashions, equally primitive." And we cannot be surprised that English dioceses follow this latter typo, because the established and normal type of diocese in the regions with which England was originally in contact was after the larger scale. "My master in these studies " (he adds) " was Bishop John Wordsworth; and he has stated, frequently and forcibly, his preference for dioceses large and few."—I am, Sir, &c., Ashby St. Ledgers. ALFRED rAw HES.
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