Last Saturday the Daily News printed the names of 5,270
Free Church ministers who had signed the peace manifesto, with the comment—"there is thus a clear issue between the Free Church ministers and the King's advisers." It further contended that the manifesto helped "to restore the solidarity of the Protestant alliance between the Evangelical Churches of this country and those of the Continent." Mr. W. E. Blomfield, writing to Tuesday's Daily Chronicle, deals in a crushing manner with these facts and inferences. He shows that, the total number of Free Church ministers in the United Kingdom being, , according to official records, 14,609, 9,339 have not signed the manifesto, including one-half of the Baptist ministry, nearly two-thirds of the Congregational, more than two-thirds of the Presbyterian, and four-fifths of the Wesleyan ministry. So much for the solidarity of the Free Church ministers. The abstinence of the great majority is, as Mr. Blomfield justly observes, most remarkable.
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