Tuesday evening in the Commons was mainly occupied with the
Benefices Bill, Sir William Harcourt making a long speech, in which he is supposed by some people to have withdrawn his 4‘ No Popery" cry of alarm. As we have carefully explained elsewhere, he did not do this, but only repeated it in milder and more deliberate language. He was, he assured the House, overwhelmed with correspondence upon the subject. So is everybody who touches on any subject of ecclesiastical con- tention; but Sir William will find that decision rests with the silent minority who do not fire off letters. Mr. Balfour .answered in a very temperate speech, of which the following important paragraph contains the pith :—" I am no advocate, I am a strenuous opponent, of anything which violates or unduly stretches the law governing the practices of the Church of England, but, while I hold these opinions and act up to them, I will never be a party directly or indirectly to driving out of the Church of England any of those who are obeying the existing law of the Church of England, nor do I think anybody ought to desire under any guise whatever to narrow the boundaries which at present circumscribe them." The Tory is for toleration, the Liberal for repression by force, —a reversal of their proper roles, of which the world nowa- days presents an unusual number of instances.
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