Mr. Henley "did not believe that the humbler classes themselves desired to see the parish churches managed in such a way as to allow the costermonger a seat beside that of a duchess. It reminded him of the couplet which says that: 'Something the Devil delights to see Is the pride that apes humility.'" [Illustration: WHAT NEXT, INDEED! GRATEFUL RECIPIENT: "Bless you, my lady! May we meet in Heaven!" HAUGHTY DONOR: "Good gracious!! Drive on, Jarvis!!!" (She had evidently read Dr. Johnson, who "didn't want to meet certain people _anywhere_.")] [Sidenote: _Religious Snobbery_] What Punch thought of this fashionable Christianity may be learned from his truly admirable comments on the protest of a lady's maid in a provincial paper:-- Here is a letter which might very well have passed muster in the (original) _Spectator_. It is, however, addressed to the Editor of the _Hampshire Independent_, in which journal it appeared the other day under the title, "Is the Church Free?" The Church therein particularly referred to is the old parish church of Millbrook, near Southampton:-- "Sir,--I saw lately in your paper a very pleasing paragraph, asking for free and open sittings in Parish Churches. Now, as the Bishop is coming amongst us, will you kindly insert this letter, that he may know how proper it would be at Millbrook, where the rich people, who are objecting to a new church nearer to the poor, won't let a servant of any station sit in the body of the church, and we are sent upstairs, if the masters or mistresses are agreeable or not. We don't blame Mr. Blunt, and we hope the Bishop will ask him about it, and order free pews in the new church.--I am, Sir, etc., "August 17, 1871. A Lady's Maid." Well said, Mary. Your rich people at Millbrook, some of them, apparently need to be told that at Service in Church everyone is a Servant, and all Servants are equal. Perhaps, however, those rich exclusives attend Church for the same kind of reason as that which makes them go to County Balls, if they can, or would make them if they could. If their church-going is merely an airing of their respectability, it is needless to remind them that a Church is a place where the Presence they are supposed to enter is no respecter of persons. The Bishop of Winchester will doubtless, if possible, not disappoint Mary's hope that he will order free pews, or seats, to be provided in the new Church at Millbrook. In old Millbrook Church, by Mary's account, existing accommodation would be improved on principle by another arrangement. The sittings could be divided into First, Second, and Third-Class Pews.