After Mr. Disraeli had made this curious retreat from an
un- tenable position, Mr. Gladstone rose and remarked how unfortunate it was that Mr. Disraeli had not discovered the unintelligible char- acter of the Bill before the Opposition were charged with obstruc- tiveness for steadily resisting its progress. He pointed out that after removing the old Commissioners expressly because they could not be expected to carry out anew religious policy, Mr. Disraeli had now determined to abandon the new religious policy itself, and the war declared by Lord Sandon against "political Nonconformists" was to be heard no more of. The Commissioners were to submit to the sacrificial knife, as an atonement and reconciliation to Tory prejudices, and there the matter was to stop. Their policy was to be carried out by others, who, "with faint hopes and weakened powers, were to prosecute the duties imposed on them by the country."
