On Monday, Mr. Cowen renewed, and on Thursday resumed, his
attack on Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice, in relation to Lord Granville's supposed congratulations to Mr. Errington on the- occasion of the Papal letter to the Irish Bishops ; and, on the former occasion, was told in reply, by Lord E. Fitzmaurice, that Lord Granville had sent no letter of the kind either to Mr. Errington or to any one else in Rome, and that Lord Granville regretted that his former denial through Lord E. Fitzmaurice had been more sweeping than the question, and had consequently been as evasive. This was, we suppose, an amiable way of conveying to Lord E. Fitzmaurice that he had not shown Sir Charles Dilke's tact in answering questions, and no one can- question that so it is. On Thursday, a great deal of time was discreditably wasted in this miserable guerrilla warfare; but the Opposition only elicited that Lord O'Hagan and Lord Houghton had both done exactly what Mr. Errington has done,—i.e., con- veyed to the Pope on their own authority trustworthy information in relation to the state of Ireland,—and that it is as absurd to speak of Mr. Errington as an official ambassador to the Pope,. as it is to speak of Lord O'Hagan and Lord Houghton in that light.
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