Compromise Impossible.

That lesson, to our mind, is a plain one. Free Churchmen were, in the first place, actuated by a sincere—but, as the results show, mistaken—belief that a compromise could be come to with the Anglicans, on the basis of what is called simple Bible-teaching. Such a plan was bound to fail, because it overlooked the repugnance to this form of religious instruction entertained by Catholics, both Roman and Anglican, whose attitude towards religious as a subject to be taught differs fundamentally from that of Protestante It is really this stubborn fact which has frustrated all the well-intended attempts at conciliation; and it should be obvious, after the last of a series of fiascos hardly equalled in political history, that future attempts along similar lines will be no more successful than those made in the past. Surely by this time it must be clear to all who are prepared to learn from experience that a solution of the religious difficulty by means of a compromise is impossible possible—even if Anglicanism and Nonconformity were the only factors to be considered.

At this juncture, then, we venture to recall to the memory of Free Churchmen some truths which, in their desire for a settlement of a long embittered, and calamitous conflict, have been too largely forgotten.