nal Cullen the day after the bill was
produced, "strongly urging them to accept it." It seemed to him to rest on
a base so broad that he could not tell how either the opposition or the
radical doctrinaires could attack it without adopting "the German
tyranny." He admitted that he was more easily satisfied than if he were in
Ireland, but he thought the measure framed with skill and success. After a
fortnight the archbishop told Mr. Gladstone, that he still saw reason to
believe that the Irish hierarchy would not refuse the bill. On March 3rd,
he says he has done his utmost to conciliate confidence in it. By the 7th
he knew that his efforts had failed, but he urges Mr. Gladstone not to
take the episcopal opposition too much to heart. "Non-endowment, mixed
education, and godless colleges, are three bitter things to them." "This,"
he wrote to Mr. Gladstone, when all was over (March 12) "is not your
fault, nor the bill's fault, but the fault of England and Scotland and
three anti-catholic centuries."

(M145) The debate began on March 3rd, and extended to four sittings. The
humour of the House was described by Mr. Gladstone as "fitful and
fluctuating." Speeches "void of real argument or point, yet aroused the
mere prejudices of a section of the liberal party against popery and did
much to place the bill in danger." Then that cause of apprehension
disappeared, and a new change passed over the shifting sky, for the
intentions of Irish members were reported to be dubious. There was not a
little heat and passion, mainly from below the ministerial gangway. The
gagging clauses jarred horribly, though they were trenchantly defended by
Mr. Lowe, the very man to whose line of knowledge and intellectual freedom
they seemed likely to be most repugnant. It soon appeared that neither
protestant nor catholic set any value on these securities for conscience,
and the general assembly of the presbyterians declared war upon the whole
scheme. The cabinet--"most harmonious at this critical time,"--still held
firmly that the bill was well constructed, so that if it once reached
committee it would not be easy to inflict mortal wounds. On March 8th the
prime minister reported to the Queen:--

Strange to say, it is the opposition of the Roman catholic bishops
that brings about the present difficulty; and this although they
have not declared an opposition to the bill outright, but have
wound up their list of objections with a resolu