MR. GLADSTONE'S CHAPTER OF AUTOBIOGRAPHY.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IV, Issue 52, 4 March 1869, Page 2

MR. GLADSTONE'S CHAPTER OF AUTOBIOGRAPHY.

The Pall Mall Gazette observes,— - Mr Gladstoue has done many characteristic things in the course of his life, but we doubt whether he has ever done anything more characteristic than the publication of a ' chapter of autobiography* in the very heat of a contested election and by way of a contribution to its literature. Though characteristically lengthy, not to say longwinded, the substance of the pamphlet is short enough, and is this:— ,r It is desirable that public men should be as consistent as possible. It is, however, impossible that any man in these days should retain pre^ cisely the same opinious at every stage o_ his life; but his changes ought to be honest and wise. In 3838 I: wrote a book about Church and State, which maintained emphatically that the Irish .Church ought to be. kept up; and as I now propose that the Irish Church Establishment should be pulled down, I wjsh to explain the extent

knd character of the change {[which has come over my views. I thought in 1838 that it *was the duty of the State, which in my opinion had a conscience, to propagate religious truth. I also thought ihat the creed of the Irish Church was Teligious truth, for which reason it ought to be upheld by the nation at large for the benefit of the Irish people. As time went on, I perceived that public men did not share and would not act on my views as to the duty of the State to propagate religious truth. On the contrary, they endowed Maynooth in 1845. This step twas indefensible if my theory was right, •land though I was beginning to think that my theory was wrong and my party right, yet I gave up office rather than make _ change in my own favor. I acted like a woman who, because the man to whom she is engaged is unfortunate, refuses to break off an. engagement of which she regents apart from his misfortunes. I became convinced by the course of events, and especially by the Maynooth grant, that my theory had been wrong and I felt that the abolition of the Irish Church was a question of time. However, I did not feel called upon to make an attack upon it. I thought it might as well have a change or a day of grace: but I was so much impressed by my new views that wheu I contested Oxford, in 1847, I would not pledge myself to stand by the Church. -Moreover, In 1851, in the debate on the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill I used language which showed that I had in my mind the principles which have now led to my disestablishment "resolutions. In 1865,1 made a speech which was regarded by Mr Whiteside as intended to be fatal to the church when the opportunity should arise, but my views upon the subject were not then matured. I thought the Irish Bishops would have to be kept , In the House of Lords, and I also thought that the question might not arise in my time, as it seemed a long way off. I now think that the time has come for dealing with the subject, for reasons often assigned in public'