Mr. Vernon Harcourt, in a very impatient House, insisted, with
his usual tenacity of purpose when he has anything ad captandum to say, on pointing out that religious equality, as interpreted by Mr. Miall, would repeal the law of Settlement, and open the Throne to a Catholic ; and then the division was taken, and Mr. Miall was defeated by a majority of 295 (356 to 61). Of those S56 members who negatived the motion, 117 were Liberals. Mr. Miall's dioam may perhaps be less of a mere castle in the air than the dream of the Republicans, or than that of the mortal foes of wine and beer, but it takes deeper springs of conviction than any of which he has given us any sign, to produce the kind of moral shock before which the walls of such a structure as the English Church might fall down. As an earthly institu- tion, it is pretty strong ; and though that is not enough to secure it, even spiritually it is at least stronger than its present assailants.
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