What tact some of these Irishmen have ! Mr. Pope
Hennessy, the new Governor of Barbadoes, has had, like every other Governor, to receive an address from the Bishop and his clergy. The address was presented, and as it asked protection for the Church, and Mr. Hennessy is a decided Roman Catho- lic, the situation was a little -awkward, but the Governor turned it very neatly. He told the deputation that he had once when in Parliament travelled from the east of Europe night and day to vote against a proposal which attacked the Church of England. Arriving an hour or two before the division, he made the vote, which would have been 274 to 273, an equal one, and the Speaker, as usual, gave his vote for further consideration. Mr. Hennessey had, in fact, "saved the Church" for that night, and was told by Mr. Disraeli that his vote was a "significant incident in his career." The obvious deduction for the Bishop of Barbadoes was that the Governor would protect the Church in the colony, and he made it still more plain by declaring that he regarded the Anglican Church as "a breakwater against the tide of infidelity now unhappily rising in Europe," an opinion in which Dr. Mitchison no doubt. heartily coincided. Whether the Governor's admiration will gain many adherents for the Church in Barbadoes, where most people not Churchmen are rather pronounced Dissenters, is a different matter.
Previous page
