THE KING AND THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND. [To THE EDITOR
OF THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,-1 have just read a paragraph in the Spectator of Novem- ber 22nd which says that the King is a member of the Church of Scotland (presumably because in Scotland the Presbyterian Church is the Established Church). May I be permitted to ask whether the King is also a member of the Roman Catholic Church because the R.C. Church is established in Malta, which I believe is the case am, Sir, &c., R. ACLAND-TROYTE.
[No. By Act of Parliament the King would cease to be King if he professed Roman Catholicism, or, to be technically correct, if he did not make a declaration absolutely incompatible with the Roman Catholic faith, or again if he married a Roman Catholic. The whole of this talk about membership of the Church of England is really incorrect. The Courts have never, we believe, given a definition of membership,- and we trust never will—because our Church is the Church of the whole nation, and there is none of that exclusion which is involved in membership. A definition of membership would un-Church a portion of the English people, and the essential principle of our Church, as Fuller said, is to " un-Church " none but to com- prehend all.—En. Spectator.]
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