On Wednesday Mr. Silvester Horne moved an amendment to nationalize
the Welsh cathedrals, but Mr. Asquith, on behalf of the Government, admitted the validity of the argu- ments used against the proposal when it was made in the Bill of 1895. Three out of the four cathedrals are now parish churches, and two, possibly three, have been restored or reconstructed by private benefactions. He appealed to Mr. Horne to withdraw his amendment, but it was pressed to a division and lost by 335 to 56. Subsequently the two amendments reserving to the Church the Parliamentary grants and the Queen Anne's Bounty grant were agreed to after a debate in which Sir D. Brynmor Jones and other Welsh members loudly protested against a concession wrung from the Government by Liberal Churchmen and Liberal Nonconformists. The Welsh members, said Sir D. Brynmor Jones, disclaimed all responsibility for these amendments, but in view of the fact that Wales above all demanded religious equality, and that any financial question must be secondary, they had come to the conclusion that it was their duty to support the Bill in its subsequent stages. These confused professions of mutiny and loyalty led Mr. Boner Law to observe that, after making their protest, the Welsh members were going to become, as before, the most docile followers of the Government. I•f religious equality was the motive, why did they not go the whole way and say they would leave the Church all the endowments P
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