A somewhat important letter from Mr. Gladstone to Mr. Eubule-Evans
has been published this week. Mr. Eubule-Evans recently published a paper in the Contemporary suggesting re- forms in the English Church, and Mr. Gladstone tells him that they will never be carried. "At a certain age the framework of institutions becomes too stiff and stark for changes of a certain 'kind and extent." He is persuaded nevertheless that there is -"that in the Church which, with Establishment or without it, will keep for her a place and a name in the final record -of God's dealings with mankind for their salvation and that as to Establishment, "if it is hard to maintain, it is harder to destroy." He thinks the "most marked want in the Church is the want of great men as leaders," and that it is losing ground in this respect relatively to the lay mind of the country, but adds, "when I look to moral tone, if nobleness is repelled from Holy Orders, I know not where it takes refuge." One seems to detect it in Flintshire, not in holy orders.
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