On Saturday, Lord Randolph Churchill, speaking at a Prim- rose
League demonstration in the grounds of Plas Machynlleth, Merionethshire, e, after passing an eulogium on the organisation to which his audience belonged, attacked the question of Welsh Disestablishment in a tone which, as far as pluck ip.nd dash are concerned, must have amply satisfied the clerical portion of his hearers. " Whether in Wales, Scotland, or England, we Tories," said Lord Randolph, " are bound to oppose an inflexible resistance to the disconnection between the State and Re. ligion." On this point there could be no compromise or modification. It was said that so long as the Tories supported the Established Church, Wales would be against them. To such declarations, however, not the least attention was to be paid. " If I were a Welsh Tory," declared the speaker, " I would not fear for one moment this cry for Disestablishment and Disendowment." The Church in Wales is not an alien Church, but " racy of the soil," and no grounds such as existed in Ireland can be found to enforee the demand of the Libera- tionists. To justify Disestablishment, it would be necessary to prove first overwhelming necessity, and next the wish of an overwhelming majority. But these cannot be shown, and mean- time the Church gets yearly a greater numerical support, while, at the same time, the old hostility steadily decreases,—families in which one son becomes a Nonconformist Minister and another a clergyman of the Establishment, and which yet remain united, being by no means uncommon. In a word, the Welsh Church need have no fears, for she is certain to win in the end. Such was the line of Lord Randolph Churchill's argument, which seems to indicate that the next rile of the most volatile of statesmen is to be that of the uncompromising defender of the old doctrine of Church and State.
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