MR. GLADSTONE AND CHURCH DEFENCE.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPIICTATOR."1
Six,—I crave a small portion of your apace to express my demurral as well to the reasoning as to the accuracy of "A Churchman," who writes to you on this subject.
Supposing it were the case that " the English Church Defence Society "—by which I presume is to be understood the institution of which I have the honour to be secretary— excluded explicitly " the defence of anything but the loaves and fishes, temporal emoluments and privileges," what would there be in the fact to stamp such a Society as a Tory organisation P The principles of true Liberalism are, it may surely be admitted, not exclusively destructive ; and emoluments right- fully acquired and usefully employed, along with privi- leges honourably bestowed and held, are by consequence entitled to the just respect of the most ardent member of the Liberal Party.
Your correspondent yet farther affirms that the defence of emoluments and privileges, to which he somewhat hastily limits our efforts, is "a degrading policy to Churchmen." While I take exception to his description of our work as wholly inadequate, seeing that he ignores absolutely that im- portant aspect of it which is concerned with Establishment, and more especially with the principle of the national recog- nition and in some sense confession of Christianity, in respect of which we stand on common ground with our brethren north of the Tweed, I cannot conceive how—except on the assumption, which "A Churchman" would not maintain for a moment, that every priest of the Church has sought his office in order that he may eat a piece of bread—the conser- vation of religious endowments can be regarded as degrading.
If it needs to be said, let it be said emphatically, we are not concerned for individuals, whether Archbishops or curates. Under any scheme of Disestablishment, the working clergy would one and all be cared for. Our care is for the State, for the children and the poor, and it is their interests which are too often lost sight of. The motive may be old-fashioned ; but our conviction is that the Church endowments are at once a heritage and a trust, and that we are bound to defend them, for the sake of those who cannot speak for themselves, of those who have not learnt the value of their inheritance or claimed their share in it, of those who do not realise the far- reaching and irreparable consequences of its confiscation,— indeed, I would add with reverent earnestness, for the sake of Him to whom we sincerely believe these endowments belong. Need I labour it out that this is not a degrading policy ? Nay, may I not claim that it is one which we can invite all patriotic Englishmen most strenuously to promote P—I am, Sir, &c.,
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