OBJECTIONS TO DISESTABLISHMENT.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE 41 SPECTATOR."] Si it,—In consideration of your numerous readers, for whose benefit, of course, this correspondence is published, I ask you to admit the following one or two remarks that they may not consider Mr. Loftie's last letter an undisputed finale to the discussion he has raised.
As several points in my letter are met by a simple contradiction, I can only leave those in the hands of your readers to decide upon. Mr. Lof tie, in reviewing my letter, makes one important omission. In arguing that the Irish Church will not perish when disestab- lished, I mentioned the benefices and private property she possesses. Where her communicants are fewest it has often been noticed how great are the endowments. Then, again, will not the numerous and wealthy Anglican landowners do all they can to support the only Church they can attend when on their estates. When all these sources fail, and the district is wholly a Roman Catholic one, with, perhaps, the exception of a score of Anglicans, then I think the injustice to be so great that nothing can extenuate its continuance.
I am astonished to find Mr. Lof tie passing over with so little notice the " small tradesmen and small farmers." These are always a very important class in any nation, and to class them as Mr. Lof tie does among the peasantry, is surely a mistake.
Mr. Loftie finishes his letter with these three questions : I give the substance. "Are we to do evil that good may come? Are we to help our Church by attacking English authority in Ireland ? Can the Protestant Church survive the shock of disestablishment ?" Each and all of these three questions are ably and positively answered in the speech delivered by Mr. Bright at Limerick a day or two since. By all means let Mr. Loftie and those who think with him get a copy of the speech as reported in the newspapers. I believe it to be the finest speech Mr. Bright has delivered on the subject. Thanking you, Mr. Editor, for your courtesy, I am,
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