The Anti.State Church Society (inconveniently and pedantically called the Society
for the Liberation of Religion from State Patronage and Control) held a conference last Monday, at which the members were a good deal exercised by the lukewarmness of Nonconformist M.P.'s in the cause. The Secretary stated that of the 22 members returned for the metropolis, 20 were Liberals, 2 Conservatives, 3 of the Liberals being members of the Government. Of the unofficial Liberals,-17 in number,— only 5 voted for disestablishtnent, and 3 against it, leav- ing 9 who did not vote at all. Two Nonconformist mem- bers for the City both absented themselves, and in short, the Nonconformists showed unpardonable lukevvarneness. What is the interpretation? The Liberationists seem to think it is want of courage and principle, but is it not more likely to be want of conviction? The Nonconformists are not usually behindhand in their feeling of esprit de corps. We should suspect that the absenteeism was in more cases caused by dislike of voting publicly against a Noncon- formist cause with which they did not sytnpatkiize, then by the. dislike of voting publicly agaiust the Government. Those who are Dissenters in opinion do sometimes keep their opinions close, from cowardly fear of the world. But avowed Nonconformists,, as far as we know, are not apt to desert their party out of deference to anything but political conviction. Of their staunch- ness in this respect the Conference gave a praiseworthy instance in rejecting Mr. Lyulph Stanley's proposal to keep the religious side of the movement in the background, and go in for a political agitation against an exclusive Torified institution that always. Bides against the working-class.
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