LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
LAY REPRESENTATION.
rTO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
Sin,—Whether I have shown "quaint impatience" and "serene indifference," whether Dr. Trevor did or did not sneer and lay traps, and the much more important question, whether the com- position of Parliament as to religious belief has not been wholly changed, I may leave to the judgment of those who can read and understand. Nor do I think it material who " invented " the Association for the Reform of Convocation. On other points I wish to say a few words.
1. I did not mean the word "insist " in the sense Dr. Trevor supposes. I merely meant to lay great stress on a legitimate use of the word.
2. We are not " touting" for a policy, or for anything else. Our object is to get a principle recognised.
3. I have not the slightest contempt, good-humoured or other, for logic. I should, indeed, have, with a vengeance, if I had said, " therefore provide a new body," in the absurd connection in which Dr. Trevor has put the words, but he has wholly muddled the passage. What I say is this :—The Church of England, like any other organic body, ought to have a corporate voice. It has not, and such as it once had cannot be revived; therefore, provide a new one.
4. Dr. Trevor says I will not face the question of the composition of the lay element, but he contradicts himself in the very next sen- tence, on the only point of any difficulty, the qualification of Lay Church-membership, as he quotes my suggestion that a declara- tion would be enough. If no one else is satisfied with this, no doubt cadit qusestio. Whether such a declaration would suffice for "any other society" I cannot say, without knowing what the society is. If it was a "club " of Churchmen, I, for one, should think it sufficient.
5. I do not think it a " defect in Parliament " that it is reluc- tant to meddle with Church matters. I think it quite natural ; and it is one of the chief points in the case. It is on that account that we are tending towards that very state of incapacity to make changes which shall be acceptable to Churchmen which I, follow- ing the Spectator, have objected to.
6. We have always expressly declined to go into the question of the functions of a Reformed Convocation ; our concern is with its composition. Its functions, to begin with, and till cir- cumstances might seem to justify a change, would be just what
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