The terribly difficult question, in a - party sense, of a
Catholic College for Ireland came up on Wednesday. Mr. Fawcett moved the second reading of his Bill, nominally intended to throw open . Dublin University and Trinity College to all denominations, but also intended to prevent the establishment of any purely Catholic College with right of entry to the University. Mr. Gladstone supported the previous question in a splendid speech, in which he accepted fully the principle of denominational equality, but de- clared that to maintain it the Catholics were entitled to a College where their religion could be taught without prejudice to their right to a degree ; they might be wrong in desiring it, but they were as much entitled to it as any denomination in England, and this the Bill did not secure. One would have thought this pro- position was self-evident, but it is certain that a Charter so pre- pared would rend the Liberal party in two, would alienate every Scotch and every Evangelical member, and rouse up, as Mr. Gladstone fears, that odium anti-theologicunz before which the odium theologicum is weak. It was understood that on a division Gevern- ment would be severely beaten, but the Home rose before it could be taken. The danger was in fact avoided by a "talk-out."
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