The Express.
London, England, 1868-10-10 00:00:00

MR. OLADSTONES ADDRESS.

Yr. Gladstone has issued the following address
to the Electors of South-west Lancashire :
Gentlesnen,—From you, the Electors of the
South-western Division of the County of Lan-
caster, I solicit a renewal of the trust, which was
confided to me in Ina, in a manner demanding
from me peculiar gratitude, by the Constituency
of the entire Southern Division.
I then came before you as the advocate of a
policy of trust in the people, tempered by pru-
dence, andaverso to violent and hasty change.
In tho spirit of that profession, I was a party. m
1866 to proposals for the extension of the franchise,
which I thought the smallest that • could meet the
just claims of the unenfrancliised classes, and
which were studiously limited in order, it possible,
to disarm jealousy, prejudice. and fear.
We were met by an opposition, not indeed as
direct, but yet as persevering and detrimental, se
was ever offered to any measure. At length a
point was reached at which the Government Of
Earl Russell found that the resignation of their
offices to be the most becoming method
by w they could secure the early triumph of
Reform.

We resigned accordingly. The result was, that
the opponents of reduction in the franchise took
office, and found themselves compelled by the
public sentiment, after much vacillation to make
proposals on that subject, which, though not only
narrow, but strongly reactionary in the shape in
which they were presented to Parliament, issued
in the passing of a measure, larger and more demo-
cratic than the Bill, which in 1866 wo were told,
by the highest authotity, would reduce our insti-
tutions to the pattern of the American Republic.
From the extensive, though unequal enfran-
chisement, which has thus been secured for the
people, past experience and all present signs lead
me to anticipate increased strength for our insti-
tutions, and a more vigorous march, both of
legislative and administrative policy.
The Bills which _have been passed, and espe-
cially that relating to England, introduced by
the Government, but amended and almost trans-
formed by the Opposition, present the marks of
conflicting handiwork, and lend a doubtful aspect
to a settlement, which ought to have been con-
clusive. One point, indeed, I fear that the expe-
rience of the present. year already proves to be, not
only of great, but also of pressing importance. In
1867, two hundred and eighty-nine gentlemen
voted that the borough franchise, founded on
rated occupation, should be enjoyed alike, whether
the rate were laid on the owner or on the occupier.
The rejection of this proposal by Parliament,
under the menace of the Government to drop the
Bill if it were carried, has led to grievous incon-
venience and vexation in a large number of
boroughs. This you will readily believe, that we,
who struggled hard to avert them, shall be not
less anxious, under more favourable auspices, to
remove.

The rapid growth of wealth, especially among
the classes of the greatest activity and enterprise,
has led, for a number of years past, to a dimi-
nished watchfulness, outside the walls of Parlia-
ment, respecting the great and cardinal subject of
economy in the public charges, and the relation
between the income of the State and its expendi-
ture. I earnestly desire that the paramount inte-
rest of the lately enfranchised classes in
tlgifty administration may operate power-
fully to bring about a change. This ten-
dency cannot but be strengthened by the
present decline of the permanent revenue, and by
the addition, since the present Government took
office of three millions (in round numbers)—to
the public charges, apart from the demands of the
Abyssinian war. This increase has extended not
less to the civil than in the military and naval de-
partments. In my opinion it has not been jus-
tified either by the wishes of the country, or by
the demands of the public service.
I perceive with satisfaction, that attention has
of late been increasingly directed to the local
charges of the country. Their amount, the manner
of their incidence, and the means provided for
their administration and control, appear to demand
careful consideration. It will in my opinion be
just and politic to allow to ratepayers, by the
principle of representation, a contrul over county
expenditure.
No question is at the present clay more compli-
cated by differences of opinion than that of pri-
mary education. But all are agreed both upon
its vital importance and upon its pressing urgency.
In the year 1839, Earl Russell, for the Govern-
ment of Lord Melbourne, placed upon official re-
cord the de sire of her Majesty that the rights of
conscience should be respected, and that the
youth of this country should bo religiously
brought up. Further measures are certainly
required to establish and secure the first of
these great principles ; and they need not in my
opinion involve the slightest disparagement
to the second. I think that the declaration
of Earl Russell still marks the proper basis
of national policy in Education for the Three
Kingdoms. But it has become increasingly de-
sirable that the State should stand clearly apart
from responsibility for the teaching of particular
and conflicting creeds in schools aided by grants
from any national fund.
There are many subjects of public moment,
some of them especially affecting your great and
varied interests, which I am unable to notice
within the limits of this Address.

For at this time one question, or group of ques-
tions, overshadows all the rest. The state of
Ireland, and the actual temper of no small portion
of its poople towards the Throne and Government
of the United Kingdom, imperatively demand tho
care of all public men, and of all good citizens,
who would seek, not merely to live by expedients
from day to day, but, looking onwards into the
future, to make provision, as far as human means
avail, for the strength, concord, and stability of
the Empire.
The object of a truly liberal policy is by equi-
table but decided measures to make the name of
law in Ireland respected as it is in Great Britain ;
to make it respected, by making it loved; and to
create this attachment by creating in the national
mind the conviction that law is a friend and not
an enemy ; the friend of every class, but especially
of those classes which have the greatest need of its
protection.
The present Rouse of Commons has four times
been called upon to suspend the Act for securing
personal liberty in Ireland; but it has not for-
gotten the work of improvement in that country.
1886, the Government of Earl Russell ad-
dressed itself to one absolutely vital portion of
this work, by introducing a Land Bill for
securing to tenants the value of their improve-
ments, which the obstruction of the Ministers
now in power prevented from passing into law.
But this year, those Ministers, rightly judging
that the necessity of coercion did not impair the
obligations of Justice, very deliberately proposed
a policy for Ireland ; did nct shrink from the
questions of Education and Religion ; asked to
establish at the charge of the Exchequer a Roman
Catholic Vniversit7 ; and declared their readiness
to recognise the pnnciple of religious equality in
Ireland by a great change in the status of the
unendowed clergy of that country, provided always
that the Established Church should bo maintained
in its integrity. In this statement, for the mho of
accuracy, I have adhered as nearly as may be to
the language which they used.
We thought that Ministers had mistaken Glare
the interests and the ootivietions of the country.
We refused to open a new soaves of discord
through the establishment by the State of any
denominational university. We repudiated the
policy of universal endowment. But, agree.

ONE PENNY.

ing with the Government that the subject was
ripe, we proposed a counter-plan of disestablish-
meat of the existing Church, with strict regard to
the rights of property and to vested interests,
without establishing any other Church, and with
a general cessation of State endowments for re-
ligion in Ireland.
The Church of Ireland is the Church of a mino-
rity, insignificant in numbers. True, while insig-
nificant in numbers, that minority is great in pro-
perty, in education, and in power. All this does
not amend, but aggravates the case. For if a
National Church be not the Church of the Nation,
it should at least be the Church of the poos.
Every argument which can now be used in favour
of civil establishments of religion is • satire qn
the existence of the Church in

But while that Establishment is thus negatkie
for good, it misapplies the funds meant for the
advantage of the nation at larFe. It remains Is
the memorial of every pest mischief and oppres-
sion. It embitters religious controversy by infus-
ing into it the muse or the spirit of political
injustice; and it carries the polemical temper into
the sphere of social life and public affairs. Nor
need we feel surprise when we find that, since the
wnal laws began to be repealed, the relative num-
ber of Protestants in Ireland appears to have
declined.
In the removal of this Establishment I see the
discharge of a debt of civil justice, the disappear-
ance of a national, almost a world-wide reproach,
a condition indispensable to the success of every
effort to secure the peace and contentment of that
country : finally, relief to a devoted clergy from
.a
false position, cramped. and beset by hopelsks
prejudice, and the opening of a freer career to
their sacred ministry.
This is a great change, and it can only be
effected with the aid of much energetic, and much
considerate, support.

In the manner of proceeding we ought, I think,
to be governed by three considerations : a regard
for Irish interests and feelings; an enlarged equity
towards those who would lose in point of civil pri-
vilege; and a careful heed to the spirit of equal
dealing throughout the detailed arrangements.
After all that these rules can warrant has been
done, there may remain a considerable property at
the disposal of the State. The mode of its appli-
cation can only, in my judgment, be suggested
to Parliament by those who, as a government, may
have means and authority to examine fully the
provision now made by law for the various public
and social wants of Ireland, and to compare in
each case both the urgency of the demand, and tho
facility of meeting it with general satisfaction. It
would , however, ill consist with the principle of
the measure for which we are now contending, if
the State, having disestablished the Church, were
to apply its funds to the teaching of religion in
any other form.
To sum up this great subject—
Rest as we are, by common consent, we cannot.
Endowment of all, after the events of the last
Session, is out of the question. Retrenchment or
mutilation of the existing Church, by reduction of
its spiritual offices, has been proposed by a Royal
Commission ; but I do not learn, from the latest
and most authentic declarations of the Ministry,
that they adopt that, or indeed any other,
method of proceeding. We, of the Opposition,
Gentlemen, have done our part. The matter now
rests with you. One path, at least, lies before
you, broad, open, and well defined. One policy
has advocates who do not,,shrink from its avowal.
It is the policy of bringing absolutely to an end
the civil establishment of the Church of Ireland.
It has received the solemn sanction of the repre-
sentatives whom the nation chose in 1863. For
this line of action, the only one just, and the only
one available, I confidently ask your approval.
I have the honour to be, Gentlemen,

Your grateful and faithfulaervtint,
W. E. GLADSTONE.

Hawarden, October 9, 1868.

Mr. Grenfell, Mr. Gladstone's associate in his
candidature, has also issued an address :

PROROGATION OF CONVOCATION.—The convoca-
tion of the province of Canterbury was formally pro-
regued yesterday morning by Sir Travers TRiSd, the vicar-
general. by commission from the archbishop, until Friday;
Nov. 27. but there will not. of course, be any meeting for
the desrateh of business on that day—in fact, the Lower
Route of Convocation, like the House of Commons, is vir-
tually dissolved.
DLATII OF TILE VICE-PROVOST OF ETON.—Tile
Rev. Thomas Carter, Vice-Provost of Eton College, died
at his residence Burnham Rectory, Bucks, on Thursday
evening last. The reverend gentleman had passed through
the day in his usual health and clear intellect, and retied
to bed, as has been his custom latterly, at half-past six
o'clock, and in half an hour afterwards quietly breathed
his last without pain in the presence of his constant and
watchful attendant and amiable daughter, Mrs. Salmon.
The reverend divine had entered on his dith year: he was
elected fellow of the college in 1828, previously to
which he had for many yeah eatisfactonlr discharged
the responsible duties of assistant master and under-mas-
ter of the college. In 18.57 he was elected vice-provost
on the death of the Rev. George Bothell. The death of
this estimable man will be much felt, not only by his
family, but by the many men of science who had re-
ceived their early education at Eton under him. The
vacant appointment in the fellowship, it is expected, will
be filled up by the Rev. Edward Ralston, sou-ill-law of
the deceased, who recently retired from the head master-
ship of the college on being appointed honorary fellow.
The remains of the deceased were privately brought to
Eton College last night, previous to interment ui the
cemetery.
FVEERAL OF CANON HAWRINB.—The remains
of the late Rev. Ernest Hawkins. 8.D., one of the canons
residentiary, was interred yesterday morning in West-
minster abbey. A large number of the members and
friends of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel,
with which Mr. Hawkins was connected for many years
as assistant and principal secretary, were present. The
Dean performed the service, in the presence of Lord John
Thyme, the sub-dean ; Canons Jennings, Conway, and
Xepean ; the Rev. S. Flood Jones. M.A., the precentor;
and other members of the collegiate body. Mr.'Furls
presided at the organ. The funeral was also attended by
the Rev. W. Cardall, incumbent of Christchurch, Mayfair
(in which parish Curzon chapel, of which Canon Hawkins
was incumbent. was situated), Mr. H. Stevenson, and
Mr. R. Druitt, members of the committee of the Curzon-
street scholars, and a detachment of the scholars. These
schools were built mainly through the exertions of the
late canon.

THE REV. W. C. TENTLE AND TIIE BISHOP OF
Ssuenusr.—Mr. Temple has published the following ex-
planation of a recent occurrence which has given occa-
sion to much comment:—" A few days before the pro-
posed confirmation I wrote to the Bishop, and askialliim
whether, on the occasion at Burton, he would confine
himself to the words of the Confirmation service in the
l'reyer-book, and not address the candidates iu his own
words. His lordship's reply was to the effect that he had
no intention of altering his usual plan. Thereon I in-
formed the candidates, who had attended my classes for
two months, that while I greatly valued the rite of Con-
firmation, I could not take on myself the responsibility of
exposing them to the Bishop of Sidisbury's teschssg,
at a time when their minds would naturally bo sus-
ceptible of a lasting impression. I told them that I should
neither present my own daughters, nor attend the ordi-
nance myself. But I told theta after conferring with
their parents and sponsors, any ofthem should wish to be
confirmed, they would find me at home on Wednesday
and Thursday awnings, and that upon • personal inter-
view I would supply the candidate with the required
testimonial. One candidate alone applied to me for the
ticket in m_y_ own hasten Eight othersreceived theirs
from me at The Hyde. Three more were confirmed, I
believe, without my testimonial, not because I refused it,
but because I was not applied to for it, and the remainder,
soon sixty young penes from Burton, !Milldam, and
Walditch,dia not present themselves at at.'
Tux Pxorosimx BRIGHTON AQTJARTriI. The
Brighton Town Oeuneil have sanctioned the plans for this
structure, and have agreed to contribute 7,ootif. toward"
the cost of the protecting sea wall.
Da. DZ Jouou'e LIGHT-BROWN COD Lnvu OIL.
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ESSIM.I CASES in Walnut and Coromandol
Rums. Morton*, and %lid Leather, for Wks and
ortsupd vile salon. and opted auto" trots Ti Id. to
&114-I.ertiabltllACK BROTHERS. Xt. Lattioto-Nll, London.

DESPATCH BOXES and WRITING CASES in
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JOHN BROOMS'S EARNING&

LIFEBOAT SERVICES.—During the Stones
of the peat and present year the NATIONAL LIFEBOAT
ENTITTIOTION contributed to the saving of 1.584 lives from
various ehipwreeks and id vessels from destroctimi. The Institu-
tion also expended VMS in the same period on its Lifeboat
Xetablishments, la addition to granting LIAO for revanin
Mb Committee of the Institut= earnestly appeal to the public
fey aesistanee to enable theta te meet the continued heavy demands
se their lit Lifeboat Establishments.
Contributions will be thankfully received by the London and
Country Bankers. and by the , RICHARD LEWIS.
ab.. at the Institutes. 14. Johnetreet. Adelphi. London.

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