The debate on Mr. Fawcett's Bill was as dull as
an Indian Budget night used to be under Sir Charles Wood. The ques- tion which burned everyone's fingers last month had grown so chilly that not even The O'Donoghue's eloquence could foster into flame one spark among the cinders. The House appeared to take no more thought of the question than it ordinarily does of a Turn- pike Bill ; and the efforts of the Irish Members to make believe that they felt a vast interest in it themselves were somewhat painful to witness, though not without their comic aspect. Two of the Ultramontane Protestants, Mr. Mitchell Henry and Mr. Butt, took the leading parts in the discussion. How is it, by the way, that the most violent representatives of Catholic opinion in the House at present, Mr. Mitchell Henry, Mr. Butt, and Sir John Gray, not to speak of Cap- tain Stacpoole, are Protestants ? The question is one that suggests strange reflections on the state of Catholic politics. Mr. Gladstone made two rather important statements in his speech which practically closed the debate,—one that education must be regarded as an Imperial question, and dealt with on Imperial principles, and -therefore that no denominational system can in future be endowed in Ireland ; and the other, that it would be a mockery to regard the Bill as "acquitting us of our debt to the people of Ireland in giving them the full advantages of University education."
