Yesterday week in the Commons Mr. France, the Liberal M.P.
for the Morley Division of the West Riding of York- shire, moved an amendment to Clause 4 of the Welsh Disestablishment Bill, limiting disendowrnent to tithe. By this means he calculated that the Church would gain £47,000 a year, and hoped to effect a working compromise. The proposal, which was seconded in an excellent speech by Mr. Gladstone, was declared to be impracticable by Mr. McKenna, though he promised the mover and seconder that their arguments for the retention of glebe by the Church
would be considered when Clause 8 was reached. Mr. Lyttelton having declared that the amendment could not be accepted as a settlement by the Opposition, Mr. Lloyd George, in an eloquent but irrelevant speech, fastened upon this admission as a fatal objection. Mr. Balfour contrasted the brutal candour of Mr. McKenna with the pacific tone of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and after the Solicitor-General had replied in a conciliatory speech the amendment was rejected by 265 votes to 215. Nine Liberals, excluding the tellers, voted for the amendment, and 68 Irish Nationalists supported the Government.
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