The Conservatives are puzzled by the question. They don't want
to make light of a rule without which the National Board of Education could not work, and Dr. Ball, who spoke for them, was careful to approve the rule defining ecclesiastical status. But they want to make capital out of the imbroglio, and they find an excuse in the exceptional character of a suspension by a Car- dinal, and not by the Bishop immediately over Father O'Keeffe. As if that were a matter for such a Board to investigate ! Indeed the Poor Law Board, who heard all about the circumstances of the suspension before any of them came before the Board of Educa- tion, had quite rightly refused to investigate a matter for which they were quite incompetent. The Government carried the day by a majority of 28 (159 to 131), the chief deserters to the enemy being Mr. Cowper-Temple, Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice, Mr. MacArthur (Member for Lambeth, but a Londonderry man), Mr. Duncan MacLaren (Edinburgh), and Mr. Saunderson (Mem- ber for Cavan County, who seconded Mr. Bouverie, and who is nominally a Liberal, but a Liberal of the Cave). It promises badly for the division on the merits of the case, especially if the Govern- ment should sheer off from the sinking ship, as they seem half inclined to do.
