Mr. Newdegate brought on the second reading of his "Monastic
and Conventual Institutions Bill" on Wednesday, and was promptly counted out ; but as it was a Wednesday the rules of the House required that the sitting should be suspended only till 40 members should be present, if that happened before 4 o'clock, and Mr. Newdegate was silenced for no longer than half an hour. Mr. Newdegate related with horror that there are now 260 convents and 77 monasteries in Great Britain, and he asked 'Great Britain to imitate Prussia in imposing the closest inspection on these bodies. Mr. Matthews, however, showed that there was no inspection of convents in Prussia (i.e., we suppose of those which are permitted there at all, for the sisters of the Sacre Cceur are, we suppose, tteated as a branch of the Jesuits), though convent schools were inspected ; and he showed that the same was true of Belgium, Austria, and France ; and Mr. New- degate got no support of any value except from Mr. Greene, who brought the Speaker down upon him by speaking of " all " the Irish Roman Catholic Members as returned by the priests. The Bill was thrown out by 131 to 96 votes, and Mr. Newdegate will never succeed till he can show that men and women are retained in British monasteries or convents against their own will. As Mr. J. Martin observed, when Catholics ask for protection,
Catholics will get it. Till they do, we may assume that Mr. Newdegate hardly represents their wishes. Protestants would laugh if Cardinal Cullen proposed a measure for the protection of their liberties.
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