LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
CONSTITUTIONAL PRIVILEGES.
[TO THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."] Gedge has given notice that he will move a Resolu- tion in the House of Commons memorialising the Crown to abstain from appointing any member of the English Church Union to preferment' at its disposal. Is not this an insult to the Crown, and an' interference with its constitutional privi- leges ? Our Low Church friends have long misused the power of the purse by the questionable purchase of important advow- sons in various parts of the country, and now invite the House of Commons to a fresh invasion upon the rights of freedom. Have they forgotten the palmy days when Lord Palmerston trusted the Earl of Shaftesbury with the choice of men to vacant Sees and Deaneries . during his Premiership ? The Motion of Mr. Gedge should be viewed by every lover of freedom as the thin edge of persecution, which always finds congenial support in religious controversy. I am not myself a member of the English Church Union, or of any society less inclusive than the Church of England, happily established in
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