The meeting of the Congregational - Union held this week has
been a very important one from several points of view. In the first place, it shows that at least one denomination of Dissenters has not lost its bigotry, for Mr. Hirst Hollowell was cheered to the echo for thundering against the proposal of the Government Education Bill to let Roman Catholic priests teach Roman Catholic children their parents' own faith. This proposal he denounced with a violence that would have suggested that it was a proposal to let them attempt the conversion of Protestant children. "If the Board-schools," he said, "were to be turned into the happy-hunting-grounds of the priest, they would certainly refuse to pay the Education rate." " The men who had introduced this Bill wished to make a doormat of Nonconformists." Would it not be truer to say that the Nonconformists,—at least, as represented by Mr. Hirst Hollowell,—wish to make a doormat of the Roman Catholics ? But the most important result of the meeting remains to be told. Dr. Berry, the Chairman-elect of the Union, declared that after the Anti-Parnellites had deserted them as they did on the Education Bill division, Irish Home-rale must be content to wait indefinitely for its chance of coming forward, and must be postponed to a " date which could not be guessed." That means, we suspect, even more than it says,— namely, that the Nonconformists are heartily glad to seize the first opportunity of getting rid of that heavy weight round their necks which Irish Home-rule has long proved to be. If so, exit Irish Home-role.
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