MR. GRANT AND MR. " DAVIES."
(TO TILE EDITOR OF TILE " SPECTATOR:1
Sm,—To prevent any misunderstanding, and to allow a most respected clergyman to receive the approbation which his noble deed deserves, instead of suffering under the stigma of a " puerile indiscretion," as you term it, taking Mr. Grant's word for gospel, will you allow me to state that the clergyman who tore up the petition in his church was the Rev. H. R. IIaweis, of the Episcopal St. James's Chapel, Westmoreland Street, Marylebone ? He tore up the said petition at the foot of the pulpit stairs, and the said petition not only condemned the " errors " of Dr. Colenso, but declared that he ought to be sent to " Coventry " in this world and " elsewhere " in the next,—of course, in clerical language, and not as I have put it. Mr. Haweis explained why he tore it up at the time he did so, saying that it was not because he sympathized with Dr. Colenso's opinions, for he did not, but because of the terrible anti-Christian spirit the petition contained, and for nothing else. For this he is surely entitled to our admiration and esteem. Mr. James Grant may use the worst of language about it, and it is nothing; but when the Spectator terms it a " puerile indiscretion" it is serious.—I am, Sir, &c., J. B.
[Mr. llaweis does not usually do puerile things. Neither the editors nor the writer of the review saw the scene, and our correspondent is probably quite right in his interpretation of it.—ED. Spectator.]
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