The vacancy at Bradford caused by the death of Mr.
Wickham seems likely to be competed for at present by three Liberal mem- bers. What the Conservatives may do under the new Act is un- certain; but with the present constituency they are ;not sanguine, though Mr. Wickham himself was considered a Liberal Conser- vative on his election, and became, in practice.at least, a Conser- vative-Liberal only after it. The most distinguished of the three candidates,—indeed, the only one known out of Bradford,—is Mr. Miall, the well known Voluntaryist. We do not sympathize with Mr. Miall's peculiar political tenets,—indeed, we think the creed of laissez-faire has been driven quite too far by the public opinion of the last generation,--but Mr. Miall certainly ought to be in Parliament, and if the Bradford constituency do not dislike his peculiar creed, we should prefer his election to that of any merely local celebrity. The activity of the Anti-State Church movement is not likely, as regards England at least, to give him much encouragement for parliamentary exertions in that direction, and as to the Irish State Church, complete secularisation for edu- cational purposes may perhaps prove the only practicable, though it may not be the best, alternative. On one point Mr. Miall has, we believe, altered his extreme Voluntaryist views very much for the better. He now wishes to support a thoroughly national system of secular education.
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