THE DECREASE OF CONVERSIONS TO ROME.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] Sra,—There is much force in the explanations suggested by Mr. Bartlett, with characteristic urbanity and equity of state- ment, of the decreasing number of High-Church converts to Rome during recent years. Of the fact of a notable decrease, especially among men of high intellect and culture, there can, of course, be no question. It is true, no doubt, as Mr. Bartlett points out that the average intellectual standard of the second is not equal to that of the first generation of Tractarians. It is true, again, that the growth, for better or worse, of toleration or laissez-faire, or whatever we please to call it, has helped to make the Church of England a more comfortable home for Sacramentalists—I purposely avoid the common but very mis- leading term, "Ritualist "—than it was twenty or thirty years ago. At the same time, I feel convinced—and I have had some means of forming a judgment—that one cause, which Mr. Bartlett omits to notice, has had more to do with the matter than any, if not all put together, of those be names ; I mean the Vatican definition of 1870. I could easily mention eases within my own personal knowledge, were it no breach of confidence to do so, where this has been the sole and decisive deterrent, and I am quite sure that there are a great many more where it has come in to reinforce and clinch objections which might not otherwise have been deemed adequate. The new defini- tion has, of course, exercised, and continues to exercise, a critical influence within the Roman Obedience, the final outcome of
which has yet to be awaited, and in Catholic Germany at least, I am sorry to know, it is acting as a powerful solvent of all religions belief ; but it has also certainly fallen, as Cardinal Newman at the time predicted that it must, like "a wet blanket" on intending or probable converts from Anglicanism, while it stops the months of many who were formerly zealous in seeking to win them over. Yon will perceive that this letter is designed to supplement, not to controvert, Mr. Bartlett's.—I am, Sir, &c., A CONVERT OP THLRTY YEARS' STANDING.
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