Two hundred and eighty clergymen of the Church of England,
including the Dean of Winchester, the Dean of Manchester, Canon Scott Holland, and various other eloquent and earnest men, have addressed Mr. Gladstone, expressing their view in favour of Home-rule for Ireland,—the concession of which, as they intimate, is in effect the only Christian method of treating the differences between the two countries,—and Mr. Gladstone has replied expressing the satisfaction he feels in such weighty moral support, and the hope that the country will follow in the track of these excellent And thoughtful men's counsels. We are far from condemning them for expressing what they evidently seriously believe, that the concession of Home-rule to Ireland is required by Christian principles; but we utterly and heartily disagree with them, believing as we do that it is not Honie.ruleiwhich the people of Ireland care for one tenth-part so much as they care for the agrarian settlement which they believe that Home-rule would give them, and that the concession of Home-rule on Christian principles would lead to the very un- Christian act of unjust and unprincipled confiscation. It may be right under certain conditions to give our cloak to those who would take away our coat, but it is never right to make a pre- sent of our neighbour's cloak under the like circumstances.
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