ABSTRACT
The Act for the Disestablishment and Disendowment of the Irish Church was one of great importance for what it did, but of still greater importance for what it implied. For in that measure there was distinct legislative recognition of certain general principles, which are susceptible of far wider application than to the particular case they were invoked to sustain. One argument of Mr. Gladstone is this—that, except for conventional purposes, there is really no Church in Wales, that the Welsh Church is only a part of the Church of England, and cannot therefore be dealt with separately. The struggle between the ancient British Church, on the one side, and that of Rome, backed by the Saxon sword, on the other, continued for centuries.
