IMPERIAL CONFERENCE WITH A VIEW TO TRUE IMPERIALISM IN CHURCH
AND STATE.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
Sin,—At the time of the first Imperial Conference I addressed a letter to you pointing out that the same wisdom which had led our country to invite the Premiers of daughter nations to conference should he brought to bear on the relation be- tween the National Church and her daughter Churches.
By just such unwisdom and lack of sympathy, it seemed to me, as that by which the United States were lost to the Empire were we losing (on the Church side of our life) the affection of daughter institutions as they grew up. By just such respect for their claims to self-government and inde- pendence as was now happily bringing the Colonies back to affectionate allegiance could our country win back, I believed, the loyalty of her alienated children on the ecclesiastical side of her life, if true to the principles of Imperialism as we now understand them.
It would be an additional star in our King's crown if the time of his Coronation could be marked by the issue of an invitation from the King's Government to our present Arch- bishop to confer with the heads of such (spiritual) " dominions," principalities, and powers as have grown up (and claimed some sort of independent life) among the members of Christ's Church in Great Britain. Who can doubt that such a rapprochement (in the spirit of true Christian Imperialism) would be hailed with tumults of applause from the King's subjects P It is clear, Sir, that we stand at the parting of the ways. We must either re-establish our National Church system on much broader lines or drift into unmitigated com- petition by giving up all national recognition of that Christian Church which has been to us throughout our history the life of our life and the light of all our being.
Who can doubt that the result of such conference would be the appointment of a Royal Commission, and that it would lead before long to just such a rearrangement of boundaries— parochial, diocesan, and provincial—just such a redistribution of endowments, just such a recognition of various grades of minister and ministrations on free and elastic principles, as would give new life to our National Church and start her with a suitable Book of Common Prayer on a new era of healthy expansion as the people's Church.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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