Excerpt from A Defence of the Church of England Against Disestablishment: With an Introductory Letter to the Rt. Hon. W. E. Gladstone, M. P TO whatever extent you may retain or may have relinquished your early views of the proper relations between Church and State, the subject (i am persuaded) is one to which you are not and cannot be indifferent. If your later public utterances concerning it have been (as must be confessed) uncertain and enigmatical, this may be due to the exigencies of a political position to which it would be hard to find a parallel in the history of this, or perhaps of any other country. Not even such gifts as yours can enable a Statesman to acquire and maintain boundless popularity, and almost dictatorial ascendency over multi tudes of persons of very various political aims, without an abdication of the functions of leadership on some important points, in order, perhaps, to enhance them on others. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.