RELIGIOUS LIBERTY STRUGGLE.
By Editor
It is not in America alone that freedom of conscience has its inveterate foes under the guise of the conservatives of public morality. Those “reformers who hope to mend the morals and manners of society by making and patching up old constitutions, exist all over the world; and Britain and her colonies are in the conflict. In Australasia the great general question before the people is that of federation of all the colonies, and among the sub-questions which must be decided is that of the attitude of the federated colonial government toward religion. Two petitions have been circulated, one asking for a declaration of religious belief, and the other a counter petition asking that the constitution should have nothing to do with religion or religious belief. These petitions were laid before the Federal Convention, held at Adelaide, and the Constitution reported by the delegates was free from any religious declaration. The friends of liberty under the Southern Cross did yeoman work in the circulation of the Southern Sentinel and other publications, and God has helped men to see where right is. Now the issue comes before the parliaments. We will present one of these appeals in a near issue.