Mr. Richard and Mr. Winterbotham took occasion on Monday night
to declare with some bitterness that the Premier had thrown over the Nonconformists. Mr. Richard said Mr. Gladstone was " riding his own friends down roughshod," and Mr. Winterbotham declared he was forfeiting the confidence of more than half the Liberals. So far as these attacks regard the Secularist section of the party there is some truth in them, though even they obtain the right wherever they obtain a majority to act on their own principles, but as regards the Nonconformists the censures are most unjust. It is clear to any one who will impartially watch Mr. Glad- stone, that in spite of many early prejudices and many remaining sentiments, he is intent on securing for the Nonconformists the very thing they most desire,—absolute legal equality with the Church. Look at his conduct on the University Tests' Bill, the
Burial Bill, and this very Bill itself. When ever before was the Church compelled to exclude its formularies while Dissenters are exempt from any similar provision, or the Church and Dissent equally called on to submit to a rigorous conscience- clause, or Dissenters authorized equally with Churchmen to use public funds in disseminating their own religious teaching? If there is a Baptist town in England, it may elect an exclusively Baptist sthool board, and, subject to the Conscience-Clause, teach that conformity is a crime. No step so great towards social equality has been made since the repeal of the Test Acts.
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