The Church Association does not repent in the least of
its persecution of Mr. Green. It sees, indeed, that imprisonment is too severe a punishment for the temper of the present day; but it will only remit that punishment on condition that de- privation of his benefice is substituted for it. The President of the Council (Mr. T. R. Andrews), who presided at Wednesday's meeting, was very sharp indeed upon the Bishops for dis- approving of deprivation as a punishment. Various other speakers denounced the Bishops and Convocation for their ten- derness towards Mr. Green, in similar tones. The Church Association is rather purblind. It may possibly succeed in get- ting Mr. Green, and all men of similar views, deprived of their livings ; but if it does, it will certainly succeed in getting the Church disestablished and disendowed. Is that what it wishes ? A comprehensive Church, including all shades of opinion tolerated after the Reformation, may go on for generations, yet. But a sectarian Church, whatever the sect which gets the upper hand, will be severed from the State in no time. With the first great ecclesiastical schism, the Establishment will cer- tainly disappear.
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