Mr. Disraeli has written a manifesto to the Earl of
Dartmouth intended to call the Church to arms, on the ground that Mr. Glad- stone's Irish Church Resolutions threaten the union between Church and State. If the English clergy respond to this appeal, ‘as Mr. Disraeli hopes, they are sillier than we give them credit for. To admit that the principle of a State Church is involved in the existence of a Church which answers no State purpose but that of alienating the affections of the vast majority of the population, is to expose themselves to a most needless and what ought to be an imaginary danger. Of course if English clergymen will put on the Irish cap which Mr. Disraeli holds out to them, and declare that it fits, they will do themselves a needless mischief. But are they so simple, or so blind to the noble position of their own Church ? Clergymen in general are apt not to know much of theology, but they are usually very canny and sensible men in practical life, and we really don't think Mr. Disraeli reads them aright.
