One  was  the  foolish  policy  of  Lord  Liver-
pool's government  in  attempting  to  depress
dissent  in  the  supposed  interests  of  the
Church — a  policy  which  was  supported  by
too  many  of  the  bishops.  This  drove
dissenters  together,  and  diffused  among
them  a,  general  hostility  to  the  Church.  The
other  was  the  change  wrought  within  the
Church  by  the  Oxford  Movement  {q.v.),
which  rendered  conspicuous  points  of  differ-
ence which  hitherto  Evangelicals,  both
Anglican  and  Congregational,  had  been  able
to  ignore.  It  was  not  by  accident  that  the
new  spirit  reached  its  chmax  of  violence  in
1841,  when  the  Church  of  England  was
described  as  a  '  life-destroying  upas.'  Such
exaggeration  has  in  recent  times  disappeared  ;
but  perhaps  the  competitive  spirit,  en-
gendered in  business  circles  of  the  north,
has  not  ceased  to  influence  the  attitude
taken  up  by  Congregationalists  towards
the  Church.  Meanwhile  their  tendency
is    away    from    Separatism    and    towards


(  398_)


Nonconformity]        Dictionary  of  English  Church  History        [Nonconformity


organisation.  It  must  also  be  said  that
Congregational  thought  has  been  peculiarly-
open  to  modern  influences  from  Germany
and  elsewhere,  and  is  now  often  quite  as
'  emancipated '  as  that  of  the  Unitarians,  for
whom  their  forefathers  felt  such  repugnance.
The  denomination  is  the  most  insular  of  all
our  large  religious  bodies.  It  has  never
taken  root  on  the  Continent  of  Europe.  In
great  Britain  it  has  some  495,000  Church
members,  in  Canada  only  some  11,000,  and
in  Australasia  about  20,000.  In  the  United
States  are  730,000.  Converts  in  various
mission  fields  number  120,000  members
(Diet.  Religion  and  Ethics,  1911,  iv.  p.  24).
