The President of the English Church Union, the Hon. C.
L. Wood, said in his address at the annual festival of the Union at Bristol on Wednesday night, that the return of Mr. Brad- laugh to Parliament rendered " the discussion of any of the Church's internal affairs in Parliament, with the consent of Churchmen, absolutely impossible." We wonder why. Wu know there were a number of Agnostics in Parliament before Mr. Bradlaugh, and we do not understand how the more fact of their not having proclaimed themselves Agnostics alters the character of their influence upon Church legislation. Besides, as Parliament represents the nation, it represents men of all creeds and no-creed, and it is the nation which should decide on the relation to be held by the Church towards the State, after taking into account the wishes of men of all creeds and no-creed, and not only that of members of one Church aloue. In a word, we cannot follow Mr. Wood at all in his ex absardo demonstration of the impos- sibility of a Parliament that contains a single specimen of the English Atheist, having anything to say to the terms on which the State,—which, unfortunately, contains many Atheists,— should continue its support to a Christian Church. Parliament discusses the internal affairs of the Church, only in virtue of its right to determine the conditions of an Establishment, which right is absolutely unaffected by the creed or no-creed of the Members of Parliament.
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