Sir George Trevelyan, having first given in his adhesion to
the general principle of Disestablishment, and remarked that no men care so much about their own form of worship as those who find the means for its support out of their own pockets,----a kind of care which, as we are bound to remark, is often very far indeed from the most spiritual kind of care,— he proceeded to apply the argument to the case of Wales, and to maintain that Wales has the same sort of right to a separate ecclesiastical system as either Scotland or Ireland ; that it makes no difference whether the Anglican Church in Wales is gaining ground or losing ground,—that, in short, as we under- stand him, if in any geographical area the Dissenters are a majority, in that geographical area, be it small or great, there is an abstract right to Disestablishment. If that be conceded, there is no reason why the Church should not be separately disestablished in a county, a Union, or even a village ; and if this be granted to Sir George Trevelyan, he might have spared himself the trouble of making any special case out for Wales, which, indeed, he hardly attempted. The abstract and a priori style of argument is the style which he now oftenest prefers.
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