opposing the measure he objected to disestablishment, because he was in
favor of the union of Church and State.

Mr. Gladstone eloquently concluded as follows: "As the clock points
rapidly towards the dawn, so as rapidly flow out the years, the months,
the days, that remain to the existence of the Irish Established
Church.... Not now are we opening this great question. Opened, perhaps,
it was when the Parliament which expired last year pronounced upon it
that emphatic judgment which can never be recalled. Opened it was,
further, when in the months of autumn the discussions were held in every
quarter of the Irish Church. Prosecuted another stage it was, when the
completed elections discovered to us a manifestation of the national
verdict more emphatic than, with the rarest exceptions, has been
witnessed during the whole of our Parliamentary history. The good cause
was further advanced towards its triumphant issue when the silent
acknowledgment of the late government, that they declined to contest the
question, was given by their retirement from office, and their choosing
a less responsible position from which to carry on a more desultory
warfare against the policy which they had in the previous session
unsuccessfully attempted to resist. Another blow will soon be struck in
the same good cause, and I will not intercept it one single
moment more."

The bill passed by an overwhelming vote--368 against 250--and went up to
the Lords, where stirring debates occurred. But there, as well as in the
House, the Irish Establishment was doomed. The bill, substantially
unaltered, received the Royal assent July 26, 1869.

The Annual Register for 1869 declared that the bill "was carried through
in the face of a united and powerful opposition, mainly by the resolute