21 MARCH 1868, Page 1

The Irish debate was resumed yesterday week by Mr. Chichester

Fortescue, but the speech of the evening,—in many ways the great speech of the debate—was Mr. Bright's, of the power of which we have attempted to give some impression in another column. He assumed the truth of all Mr. Maguire's facts as they related to the present moral condition of Ireland, and of all Lord Mayo's facts as they related to the present physical condition of Ireland, and argued that the impressions which the former ought to make is far from weakened,—indefinitely strengthened,—by the separate impression which the latter ought to make. He argued that if it is wise to lend money to tenants,—as Lord Mayo pro- poses,—for improvements in which they would have only a tem- porary interest, it is far wiser to lend it for the sake of helping them to become proprietors, and identify themselves absolutely with the soil of the country. He argued powerfully for the disestab- lishment of the Protestant Church and withdrawing the Regium Donum from the Presbyterians, but for breaking the fall in both instances by some absolute grant out of the capitalized property of the Church, and a corresponding grant to the Catholics, to make up for the cessation of the Maynooth grant, and to put them on an equality with the others. He concluded in a strain which, even for Mr. Bright, was unusually exalted and solemn, speaking of the thick darkness which brooded over Ireland, and indeed all the British Empire, citing from the old psalm that " to the upright there ariseth light in the darkness," and exhorting Parliament to try if perfect uprightness and justice might not, first, evoke this light, and, in time, dispel this cloud for ever. Sir Stafford North- cote's reply was an intellectual chirrup.