Mr. Birrell wound up the debate for the Government by
a.
speech which can only be described as "rollicking." In con- sequence of this admirable discussion and delightful debate the House for the first time for more than two hundred years had had an opportunity of saying that "this old doctrine of the Protestant Succession represents really the fixed mind and determination of the vast majority of the people of these
islands." Every speaker who had taken part in the debate had made that as plain as could be. It was a very important and interesting thing to find that this doctrine of the Protestant Succession really was a living thing at that moment and accepted by everybody. We wish we could deal at length with Mr. Birrell's racy sketch of the history of the Declara-
tion, but we must be content to notice the passage in which lie dealt with the dispensing power of the Pope:— "It was commonly supposed by Protestants that the Pope had no dispensing power over an oath which contained references to a matter of faith; that, whilst he could dispense you from an oath of loyalty and supremacy, if you used language sufficiently offensive and disgusting to the Roman Catholic mind that was an oath from which the Pope could not dispense you. I am not going into the dangerous doctrine as to what a Pope could or could not dispense you from, but I am certain of this, that no such limita- tion as that forms any true part of the Catholic doctrine of dis- pensation. It is a Protestant delusion if you think, by putting in particular words having an insulting reference to particular articles of the Roman Catholic faith, that you have ' got ' the Pope. Nothing of the kind."
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