The London Nonconformist Council determined on Monday, with five dissentients
(three of whom were Mr. Bompas, Q.C., the Rev. Hinehdiffe Higgina, and Dr. Clifford), to adopt "the extension of Local Self-government, municipal and national as the best means of securing Imperial unity," for one of the articles of their political faith as Nonconformists. This is certainly what is called a "new departure" in the Nonconformist Council, and it involved the departure of one of the ablest of their members, Mr. Bompas, Q.C., from the body. How the Council have managed to persuade themselves that it is part of their duty as Nonconformists to support the Irish claim to Home-rule, —if they have so persuaded themselves, and have not rather resolved to strengthen Mr. Gla,dstone's hands in defiance of any pretence of Nonconformist reasons for so doing,—we cannot imagine. If the Church Defence Association had embodied Unionism in their platform, we wonder what the Nonconformists would have said of the inveteracy of their political prejudice. For the future, we shall regard the Nonconformist Council 813 political parasites of the Irish Nationalist Party.