The death of Dr. Dale, at the age of sixty-five,
deprives the Congregationalists of one of the most learned and scholarly, as well as one of the most high-minded, of their leaders. He was a leader in their political no less than in their religions life, and a theologian so accomplished that one of his books was accepted by the Bishops of the National Church as a standard treatise on the theology of the Atonement. In Birmingham he exerted great influence, not only over the Parliamentary politicians of the city, but over the municipal politicians also, and in every direction his influence was of the noblest kind. It has been represented as a sort of flaw in his nature that he deserted Mr. Gladstone on the Irish Home-rule question ; but if so, it was a flaw in his political nature which he shared with a considerable minority of Liberals who were reckoned before the split amongst the most loyal, the most thoughtful, the most independent, and the most courageous of their party. Also, he was among the most earnest of the personal admirers of Mr. Gladstone, and the wistful glances which he cast back at the leader from whom he had severed himself, sufficiently showed how reluctantly he had taken the final step. Such conversions are the most impres- sive testimonies to the intrinsic value of the convictions which they record.
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