Mr. Baines, MI'. for Leeds, reported to the Times of
last Monday a very great improvement in the attitude of the Dis- senters towards the Government Education Bill,—and their decided preference for a religious as distinguished from a secular educa- tion,—whereupon Mr. iVinterbotham, M.P. for Stroud, replied in an evidently sore letter in Tuesday's Times, what comes to this,— that Mr. Baines is not the confidant Of the Dissenters in this, and that he (Mr. Winterbotham) is. We suspect he is very mach mistaken indeed if he thinks that the oniendments he has proposed,—which practically enact the farce of reading the Bible "without note or comment" in the elementary schools,—are widely supported by those whose confidant in the matter he claims to be. Mr. Baines was not mistaken in thinking the May religious meetings some of the best of opportunities for gauging the true Dissenting -feeling in relation to-education, which it was possible to get. Mr. Winterbotham may represent the ' political ' Dissenters better than Mr. Baines ; but after all, political dissent draws all its vitality from the religious opinions of the Dissenting bodies; and if the latter are cooling towards the Birmingham League, as we believe- they are, Mr. Winterbotham will proclaim his "watchful jealousy" in vain.
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