However, Mr. Miall's statesmanlike temperateness of tone was not followed
up by his somewhat unruly followers. The Rev. H. W. Crosskey expressly urged on the Conference that they should vote only for candidates who were 'sound' on the subject of Disestablishment, 'otherwise it would be said they were mere debaters," and it is stated that the result of the discussion on this point was in favour of the absolute test and against Mr. Miall's advice. The Rev. R. W. Dale said boldly that there was no earthly reason why they should not vote for Tories as willingly as for Liberals, unless Liberals were also Liberationists. Councillor Chamberlain, an able man and a genuine agitator, used all his influence in the evening meeting on the side of peremptoriness, and Mr. Miall's policy of " tenderness " had hardly one or two open apologists. The Birmingham Conference undoubtedly held that Mr. Disraeli and his colleagues, if not absolutely as good as Mr. Gladstone and his colleagues, are quite infinitesimally inferior, so long as Mr. Gladstone is not ready to disestablish and disendow the English and Scotch State Churches. So that Mr. Miall may yet turn out to be like Hosea's baker who wakes in the morning to 'find his oven burning like a flaming fire,—but then, as we hope, with a very little modicum of Liberal dough in it.
