The Press. — London, England, 1858-07-03 00:00:00

maker for being supposed to know from a few what many are anxious to conceal. In short, an English clergyman must not seek to be a father conti:ssor. Our Church appeals to holy Writ, and no such character is there to be found. We are nowhere taught that instead of laying down our own burden at the foot of the Cross, we are to co mmit it to CHIST'S minister, that ie may de posit it there. SOCIAL PROGRESS IN IRELAND. Tin: decline of party politics in Ireland, and the concentration of public opinion in the sister country upon social progress, are amongst the most interesting changes that are taking place in the United Kingdom. In 1848 Ireland was con vulsed with excitement; there were deputations to Paris, SMITH O'BRIEN plotted, and " MEAGHER of the Sword" harangued, and a bad imitation of the "Red Republic " was attempted by a noisy platform of loquacious declaimers. In 1868 everything is altered. There are deputations, indeed, but they do not go to Paris, but to London, and it is the CHANcEr.r.on of the Ex ciaorEtt, not M. DE LAMARTINE, to whom Ire land appeals in the cause, not of fomenting revo lutions, but of fostering the fine arts. In 1848 seditious journals were popularly circulated, and now the sons of her Majesty are received with enthusiasm amidst the people who then heaved with agitation. The surplus population finds an outlet tor its energies in the colonies and in emi gration to America ; the rate of wages in Ireland is raised to the labouring classes ; and the poor rates have fallen to a trifling figure. No sign of the times in Ireland can be more significant than this filet, that in many parts of the country it is thought that the workhouses were originally proportioned to too narrow an area, and there have been attempts made to consolidate adjacent unions, so as to diminish expenditure by working with one staff what a few years since required two sets of doctors, masters, matrons, clerks of guardians, &c. It has been pleasantly observed that as the Martello Towers were " built to puzzle posterity," so future ages may wonder why so many workhouses were erected in Ireland. Some statistical facts recently brought before the Royal Dublin Society strikingly demonstrate the advance in prosperity of the sister kingdom. Mr. THOMAS MILLER read a careffil paper show ing how numerous and how successful were the settlers in Ireland since the year of the famine. Nearly 4,000 persons (chiefly Scotchmen) have recently settled in Ireland as proprietors, farmers, agents, or chief stewards. Mr. MILLER addressed letters to many of the settlers in various localities, inquiring how they were satis fied with their investments of time and money in Ireland, and out of 170 replies there were only eight or nine unfavourable. In Connaught numerous Scotch proprietors employ thousands of labourers ; near Tuam are many English yeomen located on small properties purchased by themselves, resembling the so-called " states men" (or petty proprietors in fee) of Cumberland and the Border districts. The Cheviot sheep in troduced into Connaught reach a larger size than on their native hills. In the province of Leinster the largest number of Scotchmen have settled ; and in the vicinity of the town of Athy, in Kildare, there are about forty Scotch men located as farmers, the country around pre senting the usual aspects of a choice Scotch district. The whole agricultural class in Ireland is now possessed of money, and (unlike the case of former times) rents are now generally paid to the day in Ireland. At a single glance the statistics of pauperism conclusively show the strides which Ireland has made in prosperity: — Number of Paupers in England fur IKiti .. 871,667 Dirt° dim, in Sendai - id 137,3N3 Iri•to ditto in Ireland .. 7:3,083 That is to say, Ireland, with double the popula tion of Scotland, had in 1856 only one-halt' of its helpless poor. Those who have lived by political agitation, and derived personal consequence from their ac tivity in exciting the political passions of the Irish, are not much pleased at the tranquillity of Ireland. The Whig party (proper) was almost extinguished in the sister country by the Aiiita tors, and its place has been for many years tilled THE PRESS, JULY 3, 1858. up by an anomalous bevy of place-hunting " Liberal " M.P.'s, playing fast and loose with the Whig aristocracy in England and with the priests and peasantry of Ireland. Small squires, flippant nisi-prius lawyers, fast adven turers of various kinds, abounded in that con nection ; but Ireland has got wearied of their duplicity, selfishness, and legislative incapacity. It is from this class of Irish politicians that the loudest complaints are made upon the restoration of a Conservative Ministry ; but a large portion of the really Liberal party in Ireland holds aloof from the place-hunting section attached to Lord PALMERSTON and Lord JOHN RUSSELL. These " Irish Independents" comprise several gentle men with considerable personal resources. Colonel FULKE GRP:VILLE, M.P. for Westmeath, is a gentleman of fashion, birth, and fortune ; The O'DoNoGituE, M.P. for Tipperary, is the re presentative of one of the most far-descended of the ancient Irish families; Mr. JOHN ENNIS, the Member for Athlone, is a great capitalist, of the highest commercial standing; and Mr. JOHN MAGUIRE, the Member for Dungarvon, has the reputation of being one of the most effective popular speakers in Munster, and he has gained the "ear of the House," These gentlemen are subjected to much censure because they decline becoming the allies and followers of the Whig clique, who think that if they fill up the Bench with their legal partizans, they have done for Ireland all that is necessary. The question of tenure of land in Ireland is, undoubtedly, a difficult one, presenting many embarrassments to the Legislature, but we do not despair of its finding a settlement. The present Lord Chancellor of Ireland is profoundly versed in jurisprudence, which he understands in a comprehensively philosophical, as well as in a practical and technical sense. Mr. WHlTEsmic, the Attorney-General, is not only an accom plished orator ; he also possesses great reach of understanding, and has a fertile intellect. And many persons of opposite political convictions look with much hope to the present Cabinet for some measure for improving the relations be tween landlord and tenant in Ireland. It is cer tainly a most important question, and deeply concerns settlers in Ireland. Those who wish to buy property in the sister country would be naturally anxious that their proprietorial powers and privileges should be clearly and accurately defined. There are also another class of settlers, who wish to farm large tracts of land rented from Irish holders of the soil, and who desire to use their superior agricultural knowledge in tilling and reclaiming. These latter parties Are natu rally desirous that their position as tenants should be defined without unnecessary legal ambiguity. It is a curious fact that the present rapidly advancing state of Ireland, and its increased social prosperity, utterly belies the dismal antici pations of the late Sir ROBERT PEEL. A few years ago it was interpreted "in the City " as a bad sign for Ireland that Sir ROBERT, in his last will and testament, positively forbade his executors from lending on mortgage in Ireland the fortune of his (then) unmarried daughter! Was it not strange that while advising Parliament about sending " messages of peace ' to Ireland, and delivering stilted perorations about laying the foundation of a Temple of Concord, that the same man should have been cautiously guarding against the possibility of any portion of his own fortune being invested in Irish securities ? _ _ _ The present prosperous state of Ireland demon strates how little there was of a prophet in the nature of Sir ROBF.ItT PEEL. The Conservative party, which he so shattered and prostrated, is now in power, and there is no sign of discontent in Ireland. On the contrary, the Independent Irish M.P.'s, and many of the advanced Liberals, are rejoiced that Ireland is delivered from the rapacious grasp of the Whigs; and the announcement of the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER that the Government will turn its attention to the landlord and tenant question has given great satisfaction to all classes. The natural influences of rank and property are regaining their legitimate power; the age of dis cord and demagogism has passed away, and a happier era has dawned upon the island, which has undergone such trying visitations. There are some special features in this remarkable change which may claim our notice on another day. 629 THE MEMBER'S DIARY. HOUSE OF LORDS. MONDAY. THE " state of the Thames " has become a sub ject constantly introduced at every Parliamentary night's entertainment. Nulla dies sine linen, and no day in either House without its complaint, its question, or its suggestion, founded upon the fact that the river whose "silver winding way" has been so gloriously described in prose and poetry since the time of WALTON and GRAY just at present exhibits nothing but a putrid tidal ditch. To-night his Grace of Guarrox asked the customary question—what was doing, or to be done, with the Thames ? Lord MALMES• BURY described the means which the Govern ment had adopted, under the advice of Mr. GOLDS-. WORTHY GURNEY, to mitigate the immediate nuisance. Lime was thrown upon the river bank, and disinfectants injected into the sewers, especially in the neighbourhood of the Palace of Legislature. All these agencies, as the Foreign Secretary confessed, were mere palliatives. The permanent cure had still to be contrived, but, even if devised and adopted, its execution, as the Noble Earl sensibly remarked, must be postponed until the cold weather. We have on our hands one hot-weather campaign in India, and must, with whatever regrets, endure the sacrifice of health or life which will inevitably arise, in con sideration of the vast interests at stake. But a summer campaign against the Thames mud is not absolutely necessary, and would prove ten times as murderous. Clearly we must wait until November before commencing any serious operation. Parliament, however, must not sepa rate until the plans are arranged, and the money provided for the work. The evil has grown so rapidly that another year may exhibit it under a most formidable aspect, if the intervening winter is allowed to pass over without any remedial application. The nuisance of 1858 seems more than likely to become the plague of 1859. At such a price must Parliament pay for any pre sent neglect in the matter ! The abolition of what are called the " poli tical services," appointed for certain anniver saries in the churches of the Establishment, was afterwards moved by Lord STANHOPE. These comprise the special services ordered by Royal Proclamation to be used on the 30th of every January in acknowledgment of the martyrdom of CHARLES 1., on May 29 for the Restoration of CHARLES 11., and on November 5 as a double recognition of deliverance from the Gunpowder Plot and of the landing in England of the Prince of ORANGE, afterwards William 111. All of these services, as the Primate explained, were retained in the Prayer-book under very excep tional conditions. Though in the Liturgy, they are not of it. Acts of Parliament had ordained that the events themselves should be held in remembrance on their several anniversaries, and these enactments there is no intention of repeal ing. But the special services introduced into the customary ritual of the English Church on each day have no higher injunction than a Royal Proclamation which each Sovereign has hitherto been accustomed to issue shortly after their accession to the Throne. The use of these ser vices is therefore not compulsory ; as a matter of fact they are never used except in a few cathe drals or collegiate chapels, or by way of attesting certain pronounced opinions on the part of indi vidual clergymen, in which case they sadly con travene the real intention of the union between Church and State, which, as Lord STANHOPE quoted from an old Divine, was "designed to " make the State religious, and not to make the " Church political." The motion, which had been thrown into the form of an Address to the Crown, was carried without opposition, and with scarcely a word of dissent from any quarter. TUESDAY. Considerable progress was made with various Bills, such as were judged fit to ripen for present legislation, or consolidate into more definite shape and substance for enactment in another session. Another question relating to the discipline of the Church was then mooted by Lord ST. LzosAnDs. As the law stood—and as some recent cases had practically proved—the mcum bent of a living might get heavily into mortgaging the revenue of his when matters had gone so far incumbency, and •as to lead to se- /•