[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR:1
SIR,—As my name appears in the letter of Mr. Fordham in your issue of the 16th inst., will you kindly allow me an explanation ? I did not see the manifesto printed at the foot of that letter until it appeared in your paper, and I regret that I cannot say I am "in thorough sympathy with the principles underlying the Education Bill" without a large
reservation. I am a Nonconformist who disapproves of any form of religion being taught at the publio expense, or by the authority of the State or of the local Councils, or through public officials while they are acting as such. I am, moreover, a " passive resister," because I have a strong conviction that it is against good conscience and religious liberty to compel a man (common gender) to pay, whether out of taxes or rates, for religious teaching which is antagonistic to his own faith. As regards this last point, I think the Bill of 1906 sins even more than the Act of 1902. I feel, therefore, that I cannot join—at least without large reservations—in the preamble of Mr. Fordham's manifesto, but with all the body of the mani- festo which follows the word " Government " I am in full
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