The debate of Thursday was not one of great note.
Mr. Dis- raeli, who would not fight a stroke for concurrent endowment, was advisedly weak. Dr. Ball defended concurrent endowment, quoting from Mr. Bright's letter written 17 years ago to Sir John Gray, in which the very proposal of Lord Stanhope's amendment was made, and Mr. Bright replied justifying the proposal, but appealing to the absolute failure of his letter to gain any concurrence in the country as an adequate reason for abandoning the suggestion. "We hear by every poet," he said, " that the Protestants of Ireland would rather go out naked to the hillside than hand over any portion of the funds of the Irish Church to the Roman Catholics. If I were in favour of religious endowment I should be ashamed of such a sentiment." The present Prime Minister, he said,. had greater power in the country than any Prime Minister of whom he had known anything, but his "power and influence would break and shiver like a broken glass if he were to propose to endow the Roman Catholic Church." And Mr. Bright concluded by one more very powerful and solemn plea for the unfortunate beings to the amelioration of whose lot the surplus is to be devoted.
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