NEWS OF THE WEEK.
IT is announced that a banquet is to be given in London, at the Hotel Metropole, on November 14th to Lord Salisbury and Lord Hartington by the Nonconformist Unionist Associa- tion. At the banquet an address will be presented to the two statesmen in favour of the maintenance of the Union, signed by Irish Nonconformist ministers. There are altogether 980 Nonconformist ministers in Ireland. Of these, the greater number have already signed, and it is expected that very few will withhold their names. The address, the text of which has been published, expresses the Unionist case with no uncertain sound. Not only can all present Irish grievances be removed by the Imperial Parliament, but "the establishment of a separate Parliament for Ireland would most seriously aggra- vate many existing evils, and would produce other evils greater than any that at present exist." The practically complete unanimity of the Irish Nonconformists in opposing Home-rule has, of course, long been known to those who watch Irish affairs closely. All the Protestant denominations pro- tested against the Bill of 1886; and only the other day, the Irish Methodist Conference, in their annual address to the English body, expressed their "earnest desire" that the Union should be maintained. The English Nonconformists who do not know Ireland are Home-rulers, but the Irish Nonconformists who do know it are Unionists.
