Mr. Parnell offered a bill to amend the Irish Land Act of
1887, which was opposed by the Premier and lost.
An affirmation bill was introduced at this session by the Government,
which provided that members who objected to taking the oath might have
the privilege of affirming. The opposition spoke of the measure as a
"Bradlaugh Relief Bill." Its rejection was moved, and in its defense
Mr. Gladstone made one of his best speeches, which was warmly applauded.
He said: "I must painfully record my opinion, that grave injury has been
done to religion in many minds--not in instructed minds, but in those
which are ill-instructed or partially instructed--in consequence of
things which ought never to have occurred. Great mischief has been done
in many minds by a resistance offered to the man elected by the
constituency of Northampton, which a portion of the people believe to be
unjust. When they see the profession of religion and the interests of
religion, ostensibly associated with what they are deeply convinced is
injustice, it leads to questions about religion itself, which commonly
end in impairing those convictions, and that belief, the loss of which I
believe to be the most inexpressible calamity which can fall either upon
a man or upon a nation.
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