The most interesting of the amendments moved in the Welsh
Church Disestablishment Bill Committee was Mr. Lloyd George's motion to substitute in the third clause of the Bill the word "Council," in the place of the words "Welsh Commissioners," his object being to intrust purely localfunds to a central Council elected by the various County Councils of Wales and Monmouthshire, and so to guard against the possibility that, under a Conservative Govern- ment, Commissioners might be appointed to deal with these local funds, in whom the Welsh people might feel no con- fidence. Mr. Asquith resisted this proposal in the strongest manner, insisting that it was of the first importance that such funds as these should be administered by a body in whose impartiality and strict conscientiousness both parties, indeed all the nation, would have absolute confidence, and he declared that the carrying of such a motion would be fatal to the Bill. On this, Mr. Lloyd George asked leave to withdraw his amendment, but was not allowed to withdraw it without a division, in which 198 voted for the Government and 188 against it,—majority, 10. Again, Mr. Macdona's amendment limiting the operation of the clause to "the property which is ascertained to have been given to the Church by Parliamentary grant," was defeated by the very narrow majority of 9. But on Tuesday the majority of the Government in the Committee never sank below 18. Still, it seems improbable that, without a stringent and early application of the guillotine, from which Sir William Harcourt shrinks, the Committee on the Bill can over be carried through.
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