The Press.
London, England, 1856-06-21 00:00:00

which Captain KENNEDY used when certain
Irish Orangemen were subsidised for " law and
order," about the period when the Earl of
ENNISKILLEN was a favored guest of the Vice-
roy. An experienced eye can discern in every
act of Mr. CaAmexoN the superior agency which
was moving the wire. There is the system
acted on, whatever may be the latitude
or longitude, in which small and subterra-
nean artifices are employed in a manner sure
to eventuate in official embroilment, in poli-
tical disclosures of the " Birch " kind, and
in what we may be branded by the significant
term of—Clarendonian complications, result-
ing in Clarendonian capitulations.

THE HOUSE OF COMMONS AND MR.
WALPOLE'S RESOLUTION.
ON Monday night, with the connivance of the
Ministry, the House of Commons will be
called upon to stultify itself in the eyes of the
country, and to rescind the resolution passed
on Tuesday with reference to National Educa-
tion in Ireland. We can state both special
and general reasons why we hope the House
of Commons will decline to behave itself in so
humiliating a way.
In the first place—and this is an important
consideration—neither the House nor the
Ministry were taken by surprise. Every one
knew that the motion was fixed for that parti-
cular day, and the public attention had for
some time past been concentrated on the reso-
lution of Mr. WALPI)LE. The Secretary for
Ireland was ready in his place, and care was
taken that a brace of Irish Government
lawyers should be - briefed" upon the debate,
so that it is idle to talk of the Ministerialists
having been suddenly outwitted. So much for
the position of the House of Commons in its
relation to the question ; but there aro in-
trinsic reasons why the House should on
Monday decline to rescind its resolution. The
merits of the question are entirely with Mr
WALPOLE, and his resolution does not at all
endanger the existence of the National Educa-
tion system. In his able and conciliatory
speech, Mr. WALPOLE distinctly guarded him-
self from differing on the whole question from
Lord DERBY, the founder of the " National
System " in Ireland. All that the Right Hon.
Gentleman sought was that some decent con-
sideration, some honourable recognition of a
conciliatory kind, might be given to the con-
scientious feelings of the clergy of the Church
Establishment, who aro actually placed in a
more disadvantageous position with reference
to the working of the system than the Pres-
byterian clergy. Surely, an anomaly like that
deserves to be redressed. Privileges possessed
by the Presbyterians undoubtedly ought to
be given to the clergy of the Church Estab-
lishment.

We should be grieved to introduce sectarian
considerations into the discussion of this sub-
ject, but we must say that it is a great evil
that the more recent rules of the " National
Board" are framed in such a manner as to
compel the clergy of the Establishment upon
the point of honour to refrain reluctantly
from a joint effort to educate the poor chil-
dren of Ireland We are convinced that the
road might easily be smoothed for bringing
the Established clergy into harmonious action
with other denominations in Ireland. But
there certainly does appear to be some grounds
for suspecting that some of the rules of the
Board have been aimed almost offensively at
the clergy of the Established Church. We
ask that the peculiar situation of those emi-
nently respectable persons should be calmly
considered. They are the ministers of the
" United Church of Great Britain and Ire-
land ;" they are the clergy of the State ; the
funds are supplied by the State for the sup-
port of the " National S 3 stem ;" and yet they,
the clergy of the State, are placed in a worse
Position than the Presbyterian ministers, for
whom some of the rules have been relaxed.
Now, we must caution the House a Com-
mons against being led away by a false cant of
" neutrality "on this subject. The system, as
now carried on, is in many respects at vari-
ance with the principles originally laid down