Mr. Maguire tried on Monday to raise a debate on
the character of Mr. Murphy, the lecturer who is going about the North incit- ing people to attack Catholics. He wanted the Home Office to interfere. Mr. Hardy, in a sensible speech, showed that any magistrate could interfere if information was sworn before him that a lecture tended to cause a breach of the peace, and argued that as Murphy usually spoke within walls, it would be impossible for the Legislature to restrain him except by measures which would endanger free discussion altogether. Mr. Whalley writes to the Times to say that the lecturer is a man of excellent moral character—a fact not unprecedented in the history of fanaticism— and the Rev. W. Crickmer, Incumbent of Beverley, states that Murphy's father, a convert to Protestantism, was "stoned to death at the negative instigation" of some priests. The Catholic Church, therefore, is paying dear for a persecuting priest, just as the Protestant Church will pay dear for a persecuting Murphy.
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