The Duke of Argyll opened the debate of Monday in
a vigorous but somewhat acrid speech, the great points of which were three, —first, that the disestablishment of a Church which keeps up the tradition of the old miseries of Ireland must help to pacify a disaffection mainly traditional ; secondly, that the successive removal of invidious privileges had strengthened the position of the Established Church of England, though all Bishops said it would not strengthen it ; and thirdly, that the only test whether money was given to God or not was the results flowing from its application. His speech, however, bristled with sharp hits at the Ministry. He did not wonder, he said, that persons "in whose hands the noble instrument of party government had been for more than two years so much degraded" should object to see the Irish Church made a party question ; but for his part, he was proud • that Liberals should have given Ireland that proof of their earnest- ness. He thought the motto of all ecclesiastical bodies, English Bishops included, was "Non possumun" held that the proposals to endow Catholics were the Premier's " pilot balloons which did not float in the direction he desired ;" and detested government by minorities, because it "is a great law of nature that all creatures which cannot live by strength shall live by cunning." Good hard hitting, all that, and it delighted the House much more than the more solid argument.
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