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I have clung to the notion of a conscience, and a Catholic…

Quote byWilliam Ewart Gladstone · 1809–1898

Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Letter to John Henry Newman (19 April 1845), quoted in The Correspondence of Henry Edward Manning and William Ewart Gladstone: Volume Two, 1844–1853, ed. Peter C. Erb (2013), p. 141.

English (original)

I have clung to the notion of a conscience, and a Catholic conscience, in the State, until that idea has become in the general mind so feeble, as to be absolutely inappreciable in the movement of public affairs. I do not know whether there is one man opposing the Maynooth Bill upon that principle. When I have found myself the last man in the ship, I think that I am free to leave it.

— William Ewart Gladstone

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