The Press.
London, England, 1856-06-28 00:00:00

Factum nepotibus umbram,

but which could not, without promtitude, afford
either fruit or shelter to ourselves. This species
of disinterestedness is unnecessary, but we
conceive the risk of it will be very much in-
creased by permitting the House of Commons
to be continually throwing ill-considered ob-
stacles in the way of the Commissioners.
This board, it must be admitted, forms
an unexceptionable judicature on such a ques-
tion as the present. In matters of art and
science the Prince Consort can never be re-
ferred to without the greatest respect. He has
shown himself an unwearied friend to their
interests, and a liberal and deserving patron
of their professors. The Great Exhibition—
the most successful enterprise of the kind
iu any country—was principally owing to his
exertions. But all classes of men, and all
shades of opinion, are combined in the pre-
sent commission. Art, science, literature, and
politics, have their representatives. The
leaders of the two great parties, both in the
Lords and Commons, are members of it ; so
that its decisions must be uninfluenced by
political bias. And, if we will not listen to
the opinions of such men as these, what
respect can any decision of the House of Com-
mons itself expect to meet with? We hope
the present s►te may bo preserved, and the
grand scheme, first sketched by Lord DERBY'S
Government in 1852, be promptly carried out
in a manner worthy the intelligence and
wealth of this country.

IMPERIAL POLICY OF PROTESTANTISM.
THE debates which have taken place on
Irish Education and Maynooth have been
amongst the most interesting and important
of the present session. Under different titles,
the relationship of the Roman Catholics
of Ireland to the State is substantially
raised in both discussions. It would tend
to clear up the difficulties attending a
complicated problem, if in our concep-
tions of the word " State " we enlarged our
views to the consideration of the " British
Empire." In its prodigious expansion towards
the close of the last century, the Union with
Ireland was a main consideration. By ab-
sorbing the Irish
_Parliament we obtained a
firm Executive and a united Legislature, re-
sulting in supreme command of the popula-
tion, from which our armies were largely
recruited. For that mighty boon of the
" Union " a great political price had to be paid.
We were saddled with the Roman Catholics
and the troublesome polemical questions
entailed by junction with the sister country,
where they form at present a clear (though
lessening) majority of the population. It was
worth paying the price even of "Catholic
Questions " for the sake of having ono vast

SATURDAY,

empire, with eight hundred miles of Irish
seacoast, completely under our authority.
We could scarcely have kept the East Indies,
with thein•. of white
men, and 'two ld have con-
fron tecl It conquering
enert been carried
by t Ind the con-
sum to 3H.
lielsie possibly have
pass its had not
been xt& .th the Irish
Catholict— -They were promised "Emanci-
pation"; they did not, therefore, actively sup-
port Mr. GRATTAN and the Whigs in the oppo-
sition of the latter to the great measure of
Mr. PITT; and hence the Roman Catho-
lics obtained a constitutional locus standi
in our imperial system. We are far from
underrating certain dangers to be appre-
hended from the presence of a Roman
Catholic party in Parliament. But the
danger is not new to us. We have seen Mr.
O'CONNELL and his Tail assuming triumphant.
airs, and we have seen the law of the land
crushing the wild attempts of " Old " and
" Young Ireland." We have beheld the Queen
received with enthusiastic loyalty by the peo-
ple of Ireland, in spite of all the efforts of
demagogistn to sow anarchy. In short, we.
have seen the imperial policy of Mr. PITT'
splendidly triumphant in giving us a united
empire.
The question is now raised, " Shall our.
" course be retrograde, and shall we undo the
" beneficent and grandly comprehensive aims.
" Of Mr Prrr ?

The time has come when we must answer
that question with the candour that belongs
to unreserved sentiment, and with the calm.
emphasis of high political truth. We say,
frankly, that a sense of former obligations, the
results of experience, and aversion to opening
the fountains of discord in Ireland, forbid us-
to entertain thoughts of a retrograde policy.
It is our deep conviction that such a policy
would be sure to be baffled; statesmanlike
spirits would not help ua ; we could not carry
it out even if wo wished to do so; and in
striving to go backwards, wo should be op-
posing ourselves to a whole host of sound and
sagacious politicians. In the past generation
we think highly of the wisdom of Lord CASTLE-
REAGH ; and we submit that on Irish ques-
tions the deliberate opinions of the Duke of
WELLINGTON, and his scarce less illustrious
brother, the Marquis WELLESLEY, are en-
titled to profound respect. But we are far
from being enslaved by deference to great his-
toric names. We look at the present with eyes
wide open to the emergencies of the time, and
we form our opinions on politics from the exist-
ing condition of affairs. On this whole question
of the relation of the Roman Catholics of Ire-
land to the empire, we rejoice that our convic-
tions are in favour of the wise and healing
views of the Earl of DERBY, of the Earl of
&MINTON (than whom an honester Viceroy.
never ruled Ireland), of Mr. DISRAELI, of
Sir JOHN PAKINGTON, and other sincerely
ardent champions of the cause of Conser-
vatism, and the Protestant institutions of the
realm.

Nor can we pass the name of the Earl of
DERBY without reminding our readers what
special weight should be attached to his re-
spected authority upon any question relating
to Protestantism. The vigorous course of Lord.
DERBY in 1834, and in subsequent years, suc-
cessfully defended the Irish Church ; and so
long as the United Church of Great Britain
and Ireland stands unbroken, we have not the
least dread of the advances of Roman Catho-
licism. The certain presence in every parish
in Ireland of an educated Protestant clergy .
man, with the performance of our established
public worship, is the greatest of all securities
against the advances of the Church of Rome.

It is necessary that those points should be
remembered when we discuss the education
proposals of Mr. WALPOLE and the views of
Mr. SPOONER about Maynooth. We shall con-
sider these subjects separately.
1. We think it plain that Mr. WALPOLE has
laid the Church Education Society under great
obligation by his admirable advocacy of its
cause. We could desire that all Irish ques-
tions were discussed with similar temper. Mr.

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