25 JULY 1874, Page 2

In the second night's debate, Mr. Gladstone commented most powerfully

on the inconsistency of the defenders of the Bill in alleging, first, that the old Commissioners could not carry out new principles, and secondly, that there were no new principles to carry ont, but merely a development and expansion of the old ones, and succeeded in pinning Sir Stafford Northcote to the admission that, as regards religious education, a great change of policy was really intended. Nor did Mr. Disraeli succeed in extri- cating himself from this admission, though he maintained that every issue joined was a question "for Committee ;" indeed, he had to take refuge in jokes about Mr. Watkin "violent good- humour," and the very satisfactory result of a debate which was said to have reorganised the Liberal party, while it gave the Tories a majority twice as great as that on which at the opening of the Session he had ventured to count. The proposal to go into Committee was carried on Tuesday night, by a majority of 69

(262 to 198). - -