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 THIRD MARQUESS OF SALISBURY 259

which puzzled Gladstone, as will be seen later on, and has puzzled other students of Lord Salisbury.

Lord Cranborne's last speech in the House of Commons was delivered in March, 1868, in the debate on Gladstone's resolution with regard to the Irish Church, which gave him an opportunity of defending in powerful and eloquent language the principle of an established Church. On April 1 2th, his father died and he succeeded to the title, and took his seat in the House of Lords.

He soon gained the ear of this assembly, and took a leading part in the debates. His most important intervention in the session of 1868 was on the second reading of the Irish Church Suspensory Bill, which had passed through the Lower House by large majorities. Besides pul- verising the measure itself, and showing the futility of attempting to conciliate the Fenians by destroying the Church, he laid down in admirable terms the principle which should guide the House of Lords when it found itself in opposition to the Commons. This principle he consistently upheld, and his words are worth quoting at the present time, when there are still people who think that the House of Commons invariably represents the judgment of the nation, and that the duty of the Lords is merely to register its decrees :

" When the opinion of your countrymen has declared itself," he said, " and you see that their convictions their firm, deliberate, sustained convictions are in favour of

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