THE KING'S CONSCIENCE
Snt,—Your correspondents on this topic seem to shy at mentioning the main point, viz., the Chancellor's ecclesiastical patronage. Of the men who have been Lord Chancellors during my lifetime (and are now dead) I have had conversation with two and some greater intimacy with a third. All three were, I believe, agnostics, and two of them men of outstanding character, sense of duty and high moral courage. As far as I know these two exercised their ecclesiastical patronage with credit to their high office and advantage to the Church. The Church may not like this position. But while established it is reasonable that the State and not the Church should exercise the State's patronage. Nor do I see why a Jew or, a Roman Catholic whose ability and character make him fit for the Chancellor's judicial duties-and the appointment of judges, &c., &c., make him less fit than an agnostic to exercise the ecclesiastical patronage of the Chancellor honestly and judicially.—Yours faithfully,
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