Lord Selborne, who signed Lord Grey's protest against Us- establishment—and
who, it will be remembered, opposed PO reso- lutely the disestablishment even of the Irish Church that he held aloof from Mr. Gladstone in 1867—has written a letter in which he intimates that in his opinion the Church Question is and remains a much more important matter than any party question. He does not maintain that the final test of a candi- date's fitness should be his view on the Church Question ; but he thinks that he should be "very slow to recognise the claim of any person to be considered Liberal who endeavours to recom- mend himself by promising to vote for taking away from about half his fellow-countrymen the churches in which they worship and the support provided for the ministers of their religion." On the other hand, the Dean of Manchester (Dr. Oakley). a High Churchman who, we venture to conjecture, entirely disapproves of Disestablishment, though he reserves that part of his subject for another letter, confides to yesterday's Times his intention to vote for a Nonconformist Liberationist rather than not strengthen the hands of the Liberal Party. Especially he seems to think that Mr. Chamberlain's views on free education and on the condition of the agricultural labourer deserve a good Churchman's support. Perhaps; but we cannot at present persuade ourselves either that education will be improved by making it qnite free, or that the agricultural labourer can be petted into a higher moral culture.
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