A rather amusing incident preceded the great debate of Mon-
day night. Mr. Newdegate, who was much horrified at the invitation to the recent anti-Fenian meeting sent to Cardinal Cullen by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, and the ceremony with which the Cardinal was treated, had given notice of a question to Mr. Disraeli as to whether it was consistent either with the laws of this country or with international law that a Cardinal legate should interfere in any matter touching the government of the United Kingdom. Mr. Disraeli enjoyed his own answer. The Lord Mayor of Dublin, he said, had not consulted the Government about the invitations he had sent out. But he had made in- quiries as to the Lord Mayor's motives and arrangements at far as he could with decent respect to the Lord Mayor,—Mr. Disraeli said
this as if he bad exerted all his tact and diplomatic craft in trying to get at the truth without wounding the Lord Mayor,—and it did not appear that there had been any exclusiveness. The Arch- bishop of Dublin, a pillar of the Presbyterian Church, and a Filler of the Wesleyan Church, had all been invited. ' Cardinal ' was not a merely ecclesiastical rank, as Mr. Disraeli had himself known lay Cardinals, but only denoted a Prince of the Roman State, and Mr. Disraeli was not sure if Cardinal Cullen were a Cardinal. legate. ("He is not," in very loud tones, from Sir George Bowyer.) At all events, as a Roman Prince, he would naturally rank high, and the late Sir Robert Inglis—who was " at least a very well in- formed man, though his opinions were perhaps extreme " (loud laughter at Mr. Newdegate's expense), —had once presided over a committee which Cardinal Wiseman attended in full costume, and had not only treated him with great ceremony, but had ad- monished his Protestant friends that they had no right at all to feel annoyed. Mr. Disraeli concluded by saying, amidst great -cheering, that he very much wished the Roman Catholic prelates would mix a little more in the world and with the Protestants, as it would be very beneficial to both parties. Mr. Newdegate, however, would not be beaten. He asserted afterwards that -Cardinal Wiseman had been summoned to the committee referred to only by the title of Dr. Wiseman. But he could not deny the scarlet stockings.
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