§ SIR THOMAS BATESONBeing opposed to the endowment of the Church of Rome in any form, I wish to put a Question to the First Minister of the Crown, and I trust he will be able to give a clear and explicit Answer. ["Order."] Well, I will ask him if he can save a clear and explicit Answer; and also, if he is aware that the sympathies of many hon. Members on this side of the House depend upon the Answer he will give? I wish to ask, Whether his attention has been directed to a Letter purporting to be written by the right hon. Gentleman the Member for South Lancashire on the 26th May, with reference to the East Worcestershire Election, in which it is stated that Her Majesty's Government proposed during the present Session to endow the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland, and also to create a Roman Catholic University, paying its expenses out of the taxes of the country; and how far such statement is correct?
§ MR. DISRAELISir, I am afraid my hon. Friend has fallen into a trap which I evaded. My attention was certainly called—as it is called to most things—to a letter purporting to be written by the right hon. Gentleman the Member for South Lancashire on the 26th of May. I believed it to be, and still believe it to be, one of those effusions which, in election language, are sometimes called squibs and sometimes hoaxes. It appeared to me to be a gross caricature of the right hon. Gentleman's least happy style, and as it contained assertions which could not be proved, and which nothing but the excitement of an election would justify, I really have given no further consideration to it.
MR. GLADSTONE, who rose amid cries of "Order," said: I only wish to give notice to my hon. Friend opposite that I think his Question calls for comment from me. But as I do not wish to interrupt the Business of the House, I will take an opportunity of making such comment on 1111 the Question that the House go into Committee of Supply.