The popular demonstrations against the Lords' Amendments have been coarse
affairs,—the stump reduced almost to a level with the mud. Thus one speaker at St. James's Hall argued -that because the French priests support Napoleon against the people, the Irish priests should not get a respectable manse from the State, for fear, we suppose, they should do likewise. For -our parts, we entertain no great hope that the Irish priests, even if decently housed by the State, would be at all inclined to support it too warmly. But as for fearing that very remote contingency, surely the learned professor who condescended to that argument must have hoped that it would pass current, as it probably did, in the confusion of his audience's thoughts. At Leeds Mr. Baines called the proposal to give such manses to the Catholics "casting crumbs to the beggars," ignoring the fact that said crumbs would only be given as a makeweight against the crumb and crust which he himself proposes to give back to the rich man. These meetings were sound enough in their opposition to the Lords' pro-. pos918 for re-endowment, but on Lord Stanhope's amendment their views were mere popular clamour. The speakers knew well -enough that the Irish Catholics were not willing to refuse an unconditional gift of manses, if given in the same spirit in which the churches and parsonages are given back to the Protestant Church. But they affected to think the Catholics would not like it, because they knew they themselves were not willing to -offer it.
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