TOPICS OF THE DAY.
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE.
LORD Dimwit stated an undeniable fact the other day, at the Protestant Society's meeting, when he said that the question of
the separation of Church and State was not yet ripe for legisla-
tion. But when he declared that he should always be opposed to sever the connexion between Church and State, we think he
spoke unwisely ; though it was very manly in him thus to avow
an important difference of opinion on the subject to his admiring audience. How can Lord DURHAM tell what change may take
place in the public mind, or in his own, as regards this growing question, in the course of a few years? Is he prepared to form one of a bigoted minority opposed to the spirit of the age and the reasonable wishes of the mass of his fellow subjects? The whole tenor of his public life forbids the supposition. We wish therefore that he had not spoken so decidedly, so rashly on this point.
Mr. ABERCROMBY was more cautious. He has studied the signs of the times; and is prepared for great changes. The pe- riod, he said, was not far distant, when this question would be forced upon the attention of the Legislature; and it is plain that Mr. ABERCROMBY will not be a martyr to his love for Ecclesiasti- cal Establishments.
Another discreet and clear-headed Member of Parliament, Mr. CLAY, dealt with the subject very much in the same style, when. addressing his constituents on Wednesday, at Hackney. He also is aware that it has become a question of time merely ; and that before a very long period has elapsed, all sects will sup- port their own clergymen and build and repair their own places of worship. This is the natural tendency—the "equitable adjust- ment" of the question ; though it is not a practicable one at pre-
sent. It has been too recently mooted, and too little discussed in a passionless temper. Before its settlement. Dissenters and reli- gious Churchmen will have come to nearly the same way of view- ing it. In the meanwhile, Lord ALTHORP and his colleagues are doing their best, unwittingly we believe, to accelerate the downfal of the
Establishment. His Lordship declared on Thursday, that he was determined to proceed with his measure for perpetuating the pay- ment of Church-rates by the Dissenters. Thus, every year the support of the Church will be directly connected with a vote of the public money. Could the worst enemy of the Establishment have contrived a better method of rendering it odious to tax-payers and economists?
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