THE WHIGS AND RELIGION.
ITO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR "] 13IR,—Will you oblige us by elucidating an obscure passage which has perplexed us in your last issue ? We both agree with your criticism of Mr. Trevelyan's recent speech at Liverpool. We respect the convictions which led him to sacrifice in 1870 the office he then held in the Government ; but we think with you that his opposition to the Education Act was intolerant and narrow, and must have ended, if successful, in the lose of that great measure. The passage, Sir, which we do not understand, and which we feel to be offensive to our creed, is this :—" We do
not call Mr. Trevelyan's action in that matter the true sort of Liberalism. Rather was it the Whig Liberalism which discourages all eager personal convictions."
We do not know, of course, what your conception of Whig principles may be, and we would attach little importance to your opinion, if we had not had so many opportunities of appreciating your fairness and justice to political opponents ; but, to say the exact truth, our simultaneous exclamation on reading that passage was,—" What the devil does he mean r Mr. Forster, let us remind you, was supported through his difficulties against the opposition of Mr. Trevelyau and the Radicals by the Whigs ; and it is to their support that the passing of the Education Act is due.—We are, Sir, &c., Two OLD WH 'GA.
[We should have expressed our thought more clearly had we written "Rather was it the Liberalism of those Whigs who made so light for themselves of personal religious convictions." As we read history, the Whigs have always tended to regard religious belief as a security for society rather than a necessity for man.—En. Spect«lor.]
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