At Ormskirk on Wednesday, Mr. Gladstone answered the chal- lenge
of his opponents to say whether lie thought, or did not think, that the English National Church ought likewise to be dis- established and disendowed. Ile said at once it could not be done, and ought not to be done. it cannot be done, because if done on principles as liberal as those offered to the Irish Establishment,— and none less liberal could of course be offered,—the English Church would be set up with a property of £80,000,000 or £90,000,000 uncontrolled by the State,—an imperium in imperio which no states- man would venture for a moment to contemplate. It ought not to be disestablished because the English Church is rooted in the national history, and her claim on English affection is an historical claim ; while even the best members of the Irish Church are compelled to entreat Irishmen to forget her past,—to forget the time when she endorsed all the horrible penal laws under which Catholic Ireland groaned. The Irish Bishops voted for the penal laws in the House of Lords, nay, pressed for them. The Irish Church has, therefore no history to which it dare appeal. It has :'been mm -antionationa1 Ohara, is sot yet a: national Church, and will End best,claini to men's-mardin. giving up the pretence at once.
