PROBABLE FATE OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

Southland Times, Issue 1157, 1 November 1869, Page 2

PROBABLE FATE OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

The Law Times says : — Although ]it will be an Irish experiment, it will excite almost as much interest in England, for it is impossible not to recognise the fact that the Englishjinstitutipn must speedily share the fate of its Irish sister. The Liberal whip, we believe, gives to the English Church twenty years of life. We believe it will not survive for ten years, and for a reason which does not appear, to have presented itself to any one of the many speculators upon the value of its life. There will be arrayed against it precisely the same forces that have extinguished the Established Church in Ire. land, and they will be recruited by a force which nobody seems to have calculated •upon. The disestablished Protestants' of Ireland who have been hitherto the staunch allies and supporters of the Church of England, will now go over to the opposite camp, and be among the foremost of its assailants — at once weakening the defensive force they ■ quit, and increasing the hostile forces they join. Churches are made up of men, and the fox with the shorn tail illustrates a universal weakness in human nature. The Irish Disestablished Church will naturally desire to seethe English Church treated as themselves. The Protestant party in Ireland returns some thirty members, and their secession will swell the majority of L2O to 180. With such a majority in favor of the abolition of tae English Church, it is not probable that any long time will be suffered to pass without turning it to account. Wisdom counsels preparation.