THE MARQUESS OF WESTMEATHclaimed their Lordships' attention in regard to a personal matter which had arisen out of the debate which took place the other night upon the Ministers' Money (Ireland) Bill. The noble Duke the Postmaster General had expressed himself to the effect that the Government had introduced the measure for the purpose of protecting, in some degree, the Established Church in Ireland. He (the Marquess of Westmeath) rose and said that if the noble Duke thought that the Bill would have that effect he was quite mistaken, because he stated that the Roman Catholic clergy would, he was confident, agitate the country so long as they were permitted to do so, and that they would seek every opportunity of striking at the very existence of that Church. Now, a highly-respectable newspaper, a journal of the greatest and the largest circulation in the kingdom, stated in the Report which it gave the following day, that he said the Roman Catholics were seeking to strike down the Established Church. If such had been his sentiments he should not be backward in avowing them. But he added this, which he believed no one listening to him could have mistaken or misapprehended, that he was certain the Roman Catholic laity were not of that way of thinking, and that they would live peaceably with their Protestant fellow-subjects if they were permitted to do so. On looking at the paper in question the next day, he observed the principal limbs of what he said had been cut off, and what were the most odious were retained. He wrote a letter to the editor of The Times requesting that a correction might take place; for he had always observed that the newspapers generally had shown a generosity and a desire to correct any misconception or misinterpretation that occurred in their reports. The newspaper in question, however, had not had the common courtesy to take notice of the statement on his part. He 327 had no vindictive feeling about the matter, but he did not wish to have it represented that he uttered sentiments the very opposite to those he had really expressed; or that opinions respecting the feelings of the Roman Catholic laity towards the Established Church should be put into his mouth which he never entertained, and that such opinions should be circulated there and in the sister country to his prejudice. While thanking their Lordships for their attention while he made that explanation, he would only repeat that he had never uttered the sentiments that had been attributed to him by the paper to which he referred.