30 APRIL 1892, Page 19

Mr. Gladstone has not much influence with his own left

wing. It was pathetic on Thursday night to watch him trying to per- suade Mr. Lloyd George and Mr. Lloyd Morgan, and the rest of the Welsh irreconcilables on Church questions, not to stand in the way of a reasonable reform of the procedure by which .criminous clerks are removed from the cure of a parish where they do nothing but mischief. Mr. Balfour had moved the second reading of the Clergy Discipline (Immorality) Bill, —a Bill constituting no new crime, but improving the procedure for getting rid of clergymen whose " cure " of souls is rather of the nature of an inoculation of evil, than of an administration of purifying influences. But the extreme Disestablishers in Wales are determined that while the Church remains established, it shall remain as fast in the stocks of bad or imperfect legislation as they can keep it, and all Mr. Gladstone's mild and earnest eloquence had no effect on these unruly Members. Mr. Balfour, however, carried the Closure by 197 to 58, negatived Mr. Lloyd George's amendment by 231 to 26, and passed the second reading by 230 to 17. On the motion that the Bill be referred to the Standing Com- mittee on Law, the irreconcilables made another fight; but Mr. Balfour again carried the Closure by 193 to 41, and the Bill was referred to the Committee without a division, as only 14 Members stood up in their places to oppose it.