Mr. Gladstone has written a characteristic letter to the editor
of the Baptist on the subject of Disestablishment in Wales. The Baptist had, we should infer, declared that Wales was ripe for Disestablishment, and that it is very wrong in Mr. Gladstone not to devote his attention to the subject, instead of occupying himself exclusively with the Irish Question. Mr. Gladstone makes no complaint of the criticism, and acknowledges with cordial gratitude the" just and generous treatment" which he has received from "the Nonconformists both in and out of Wales." He declines to meddle with any electoral resolution which he cannot follow up by a Bill; and he treats the case of the Established Church in Wales as one which demands the same sort of judgment as the Established Church in Scotland. But even if it were to be admitted, for the sake of argument,. that the Welsh Church ought to be disestablished, he believes it to be absolutely incontrovertible that the Irish Question blocks the way, and that nothing else of importance can be done till Ireland is out of the way. That may be so, or may not be so ; but if it is so, it is to Mr. Gladstone's own attitude that this vast magnification of the Irish Question till it eclipses and excludes from consideration all other questions, is unquestionably due. Further, Mr. Gladstone expresses in his letter something like annoyance at the apparent assumption of the Baptist that he is bound to stay in Parliament to the very last moment of his life, endeavouring to carry every reform for which the country is ripe. The Irish Question, Mr. Gladstone implies, is enough for him now.
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