The Prime Minister has written a very interesting and wise
letter to the Diocesan Conference at St. Asaph, of which he is a member, on the subject of "The Duty of Churchmen in regard to Disestablishment," confining himself to the special point that their duty is to take care that dissensions from within shall not bring the Establishment to an end. Mr. Gladstone remarks that since the Reformation the Anglican Church has been almost the only one which has deliberately set itself to include both the parties which struggled together in the Roman Catholic Church before the Reformation. The Anglican Church has deliber- ately set itself to include both parties, just as Parliament includes both political parties ; whereas most other Churches have taken up the position of political clubs, all the members of which pro- fess to be agreed in the same political creed. Of course, the result has been, and must have been, that there has been far more internal strife and discord in the Anglican Church than either in the Church of the counter-Reformation (the Roman Catholic since the Council of Trent), or in the Puritan Churches -which separated themselves from it, just as there is and must be more internal discord in Parliament than there can be in a political club. But then the very reason why more discord has been natural and almost necessary is also a reason why it should not be pushed to extremity. The Anglican Church was meant to include elements of difference, just as other Churches were meant to exclude them; and therefore the contending parties in it should jealously respect each others' rights and freedom, and not push their struggles to the inter- necine point. That was at once Mr. Gladstone's argument for comprehension, and excuse for the strenuousness of past and present internal strife. He held that both parties have done great service to the Church, and that neither should try to push the other out.
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