Lord Spencer, speaking at Newport, in Monmouthshire, on Wednesday, with
his accustomed moderation, committed him- self to the Disestablishment of the Church in Wales as soon as the Welsh people, speaking by their representatives, shall desire it. As that has already been demanded by a considerable majority of the Welsh representatives, we sup- pose Lord Spencer means to declare for Disestablishment in Wales; and he can hardly do that, we imagine, without con- ceding the logical inference, that piecemeal, and even county by county, the Church should be disestablished wherever a majority of the people ask for Disestablishment. This is the sort of piecemeal disintegration to which the Home-rule movement is already committing us. The United Kingdom will soon be taken to pieces like a dissected map, and we shall have as many Constitutions and Governments as the Swiss Cantons. Lord Spencer insisted, however, that before Dis- establishment for Wales must come the question of Home-rule for Ireland, on the ground that the condition of Ireland is a real danger for this country. The first necessity for Ireland, he said, is to have the Land question settled, and it could not be settled without an Irish Legislature to help in settling it. That is just the one postulate for which Lord Spencer gives no reason except the danger of identifying the British Government with the power which must evict peasant-pro- prietors who do not pay their instalments. As we have had already a very considerable experience in testing the magni- tude of that danger, and have not found it a danger at all, we are very much puzzled by the feebleness of Lord Spencer's reason for the most tremendous and dangerous of constitu- tional revolutions.
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