LORD SHAFTESBURY ON DISESTABLISHMENT.

Samoa Times and South Sea Gazette, Issue 4, 27 October 1877, Page 3

LORD SHAFTESBURY ON DISESTABLISHMENT.

THE Earl of Shaftesbury, strong Church- | man as he is, begins to see that disestablishment is being forced on by the action of ('hurehmen. At the meeting of the Church Pastoral Aid Society, lie said: —" 1 tell you candidly that it would he far more agreeable to me never to speak again on matters ecclesiastical. The state of matters ecclesiastical has produced in the minds of very many pei-sons, and especially in those of the work people, so much mistrust, so much misgiving, and so much doubt as to the true character of the Church of England, that you may rely upon it that many of your ministrations an: hindered, many of your efforts frustrated, and much of your work, in consequence, is thrown away. Tin truth is that year by year your matters become worse. Some years ago I ventured to say that 1 thought such would be the issue in a short course of time. 1 was afterwards looked upon as one of those who take a black view of things; 1 was almost universally spoken of as a croaker. I did croak, ami I croak now, and rely upon it you will soon croak also. How can we now do otherwise than pay serious attention to the progress of events ami the peculiar character of the times ! The eruptions of the last few months—the eruption in St. Paul's, the eruption in the Convocation of York, not excluding the great eruption at Colombo—have all tended to darken the prospects and to complicate the previously dangerous position of matters ; ami the country is beginning to he wearied of these things, ami beginning to think of something whereby it may '»■ rid of them. There is a limit beyond which tie- patience of this country wiil not go—and, terrible as the disestablishment of the Church might be in the eyes of vast numbers of ] pie, the i ntry will, 1 believe, accept that alternative iii preference to a continuance of disordersand aggressions."