advanced the defences of the country, armed the soldiers with an admirable weapon, rendered the military service popular, and by placing the control of the military expenditure in the hands of a single individual commenced a reform which would conduce to greater economy both in peace and war. They had baffled in Ireland a conspiracy formed by foreign military adventurers, and had pursued a policy of sympathy, conciliation, and justice towards that country.

Under such circumstances Mr. Disraeli had thought that he and his colleagues might have been allowed tranquilly to wind-up the business of the session; and then to have asked, in accordance with the provisions of the great statute which had just been passed, the public verdict on their conduct. He complained, however, that this natural current of affairs had been interrupted, and that the leader of the opposition had seized the occasion of an expiring parliament, which had proclaimed its inadequate representation of the country, to recommend a change in the fundamental laws of the realm, and propose a dissolution of the union between church and state. He announced that her majesty's government would offer an uncompromising resistance to this policy; and insisted that the connection of religion with the exercise of political authority was one of the main safeguards of the civilisation of man. He argued at some length and with great ingenuity in favour of the maintenance of this principle in Ireland where the members of the established church were a small minority, as well as in England and Scotland where they perhaps constituted the majority.

As the views of the leader of the conservative party with regard to the questions which were to decide the fate of the government and much else besides, were stated in this document with energetic terseness, we place them before the reader in the words of its author.

'It is urged that in the present instance the application of the new policy is to be only partial; and that only one portion of her majesty's dominions, Ireland, is for the present to be submitted to the revolution; and on this plea, that in Ireland the members of the established church form only a minority of the population.

If this numerical test is to be accepted, its application cannot be limited to Ireland; and if, in a country of entire

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toleration, a local instead of an imperial gauge be adopted, the religious integrity of the community will be frittered away.

'Instead of Ireland being made an exception to the fundamental condition of our constitution, there are many secondary reasons why the established church should be maintained in that country.

'Its subversion would aggravate religious hostility and party rancour; would suppress a resident class of men whose social virtues are conducive, as all agree, to the welfare of the country; and would farther diminish the security of property in a land where its tenure and enjoyment are not as unquestioned as they hitherto have been in other parts of her majesty's dominions.

'But even in Great Britain the spoliation of the church in Ireland would not be without its effect. Confiscation is contagious; and when once a community has been seduced into plunder, its predatory acts have seldom been single.

"There are, however, even weightier reasons why this new policy should be resisted.

'The religious liberty which all her majesty's subjects now happily enjoy is owing to the Christian church in this country having accepted the principles of the reformation, and recognised the supremacy of the sovereign as the representative of the state not only in matters temporal, but in matters ecclesiastical. This is the stronghold of our spiritual freedom. So long as there is in this country the connection through the medium of a Protestant sovereign between the state and the national church, religious liberty is secure,

That security is now assailed by various means and on different pleas; but amidst the discordant activity of many factions there moves the supreme purpose of one power. The philosopher may flatter himself he is advancing the cause of enlightened progress; the sectarian may be roused to exertion by anticipations of the downfall of ecclesiastical systems. These are transient efforts; vain and passing aspirations. The ultimate triumph, were our church to fall, would be to that power which would substitute for the authority of our sovereign the supremacy of foreign prince; to that power with whose traditions, learning, discipline, and organization our church alone has

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hitherto been able to cope, and that too only when supported by a determined and devoted people.'

This manifesto was issued on the 1st of October; that of Mr. Disraeli's great rival was dated on the 9th of the same month; and addressed to the electors of South-west Lancashire, for the representation of which division Mr. Gladstone was a candidate; and it stated with great clearness the policy of that great party of which he was the leader, and the issue which was placed before the constituencies of the empire.

After going over the various questions which were placed before the country, he gave the following concise summary of his views on the Irish-church question:

'Rest as we are, by common consent we cannot. Endowment of all, after the events of the last session, is out of the question. Retrenchment or mutilation of the existing church by reduction of its spiritual offices has been proposed by a royal commission; but I do not learn from the latest and most authentic declarations of the ministry, that they adopt that, or indeed any other, method of proceeding. We of the opposition, gentlemen, have done our part. The matter now rests with you. One path at least lies before you, broad, open, and well defined. One policy has advocates who do not shrink from its avowal. It is the policy of bringing absolutely to an end the civil establishment of the church of Ireland. It has received the solemn sanction of the representatives whom the nation chose in 1865. For this line of action, the only one just, and the only one available, I confidently ask your approval.'

A man who occupied a very prominent and important place in our history passed away on the 7th of May, in the 90th year of his age,-Henry Lord Brougham and Vaux: H. Brougham, as he continued to the last, in defiance of all etiquette, to sign himself. It is hardly possible for those who have not seen this extraordinary man in the days of his matured power, fully to comprehend the strong energy, the indomitable perseverance, the indefatigable industry with which he laboured and fought against that tory domination which pressed so heavily on this country from the close of the war in 1815 to the end of 1830, or the audacity with which he braved the displeasure of the court of George IV. in defending his

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1868.] queen. These efforts won him the honour of representing the county of York, and made him one of the first men in the kingdom. When the vehement tribune of the people was suddenly transformed into lord high chancellor he discharged his new functions with marvellous diligence. But the atmosphere of the lower House was more congenial to his ardent temperament than the calm and quiet dignity of the upper chamber. And when he lost the chancellorship, he felt, and showed that, his proper place was not that of a peer; displaying a restless and consuming energy that for want of fitting employment oftentimes expended itself in ways that did not tend to elevate his character or raise his reputation. But the services that he had rendered during his younger days and when lord chancellor entitle him to the gratitude of his country, and have secured for him a prominent place in the history of the earlier portion of the nineteenth century.

Seldom perhaps has a more frightful accident happened in any country than that which occurred on the Chester and Holyhead railway, near Abergele, on the 19th of August in this year. The limited Irish mail, one of the swiftest trains in the kingdom, known to the people who lived near the line of railroad which it traversed by the name of the 'Wild Irishman,' was rushing up the slight incline between the Abergele and Llandulas stations at a speed of more than thirty miles an hour, when it met some wagons from a luggage-train which had been carelessly allowed to run down the incline. One of these wagons was loaded with barrels of petroleum. The violence of the collision that ensued broke the barrels, the vapour from the oil thus released reached the furnace of the locomotive, and in a moment the engine and the foremost carriages of the train were enveloped in a fierce flame which speedily reduced them and their occupants to ashes. The enginedriver, who had leaped from the train a moment before the collision, aided by the guard and some of the passengers, succeeded in uncoupling that part of the train that came from London and pushing it beyond the reach of the flames. But a composite carriage, two first-class carriages, a second-class carriage, and a luggage-van were consumed, and all within them perished. Indeed, such was the intensity of the heat, and so suffocating the vapour emitted,

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that an hour elapsed before it was possible to approach them. No fewer than thirty-three persons perished by this terrible disaster. A thorough and searching investigation of the causes of the accident was, of course, instituted, and it was found that a heavy luggage-train was due at the Llandulas station, and had to be shunted there only about a quarter of an hour before the Wild Irishman swept by like a whirlwind, and it was manifest that a little delay in labouring up the incline, a break-down of the heavily-laden engine, or a mishap in the hasty shunting, were things which might at any time cause a frightful catastrophe. But at the Llandulas station the operation of shunting had to be performed at the top of the incline, up which the Irish train might be rushing at the very moment amidst the hurry and trepidation which the knowledge of its proximity was calculated to produce.

When these facts became generally known, it was naturally asked: Ought not circumstances so likely to lead to fearful accidents to be avoided by allowing a longer interval between the trains? Ought there not to be the means of communicating with the preceding station by telegraph, so that in case of such a casualty as had occurred, the express-train might be stopped? Should not some special precautions be taken for the safe conveyance of a substance so inflammable as petroleum? The accident also drew attention to the practice of locking the doors of railway carriages-a practice long since denounced by Sidney Smith with his usual humour and ability, but which was continued in spite of all his wit and arguments.

A few days after the accident the village of Abergele was the scene of a sad and solemn rite. The poor charred remnants of thirty-three bodies were committed to one huge grave in the humble churchyard. Though the persons who had so terribly perished were wholly unconnected with the village, and it was only by the accidental circumstance of the collision having occurred near the station that they were to be interred there, every token of sympathy and respect was displayed by the inhabitants. The shops were closed, a dead silence reigned throughout the neighbourhood, and a large number of the inhabitants followed the relatives and friends of the deceased to the grave, where the impressive service for the dead was duly