Lord Cairns on Tuesday got a majority of 70 for
delaying the division of the surplus sine die (160 to 90),—a step in which he was supported by many who hoped in this way to get a locus penitentix for the vote of the Peers on the Duke of Cleveland's amendment ; but Lord Cairns meant it cynically. He would like to have it a question at every Irish election for years to come, whether the Catholics should or should not have a shilling of the surplus. That would be a nice bitter party question to keep dangling before the eyes of the Irish Orangemen and Ultramon- tane Catholics. The House of Lords never passed a more fatal and unstatesmanlike vote. If it be turned to account as a mode of introducing the Duke of Cleveland's proposal at the last moment, well and good,—if not, this malignant delay will, of coarse, be peremptorily rejected by the House of Commons. If giving the apple of discord to one of three competing goddesses caused a fatal war, what would hanging it up till they could have persuaded their several constituents to fight their battle delibe- rately out have been likely to cause?
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