The Express.
London, England, 1868-02-25 00:00:00

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LONDON, TUESDAY, FEB. 25.

TO-NIGHT'S DEBATE.

Tan debate which will open in the House of
Commons to-night on the state of Ireland will be

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no mere repetition of the barn discussions on
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that theme which have been fur so many years an
annual and tedious form of the parliamentary
session. The questions involved have ripened fast,
and the public mind is greatly advanced in the
path of dealing with them. It may not be very
credit able to English practical sense and candour
that this disposition has been in no inconsiderable
degree brought about by acts of violence. But so
it is, that the necessity of doing something, which
chronic misery and legal agitation failed to con-
vince us of, has been converted into an admitted
truism by lawless deeds which have filled us with

a horror that came close to our own percep-
tion. We all agree to repress there
outbreaks with stern vigour. But we are

not the less compelled to face the prao-
tical causes which hare brought about a state of
things that is at once an immediate terror and a
European scandal. Tho Peers themselves, the

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slowest to bo moved from decorous indifference,
are at but brought to abandon as untenable the
position that if the Irish arc not contented they
ought to be, and that there ends the diseustion.

Last night there was not one on either aide
of the House, save the Marquis of Wsuseesvn
only, who stood up to defend things u they are.
The changes, indeed, which were suggested by the
peers who successively approached the subject, were
nothing less than, a brief time since, would have
been denounced as revolutionary. Every speaker
agreed that something must he done with the land
question entirely ai1..., rent from anything that is
done with it in England. Every speaker conceded
the principle of religious( quality. Ihe differences of
opinion only concerned the question how far we must
give rights to the Irish tenant which the English
tenant has not, and whether we must establish re-
ligious equality l'y disendowing or by endowing all

the churches impartially. And among the organs
of opinion which this morning comment on the
debate in the Lords we find the Times declaring
that the latter alternative, in the sense of pre-
serving the Irish Church r. 3 it is, and setting up a
co-established Roman Catholic Church alongside of

it, ij merely futile, while the Man: and pleads only
for delay and consideration, nut fur denial and
defiance.

With these signs of yielding on the part of the
must inveterate and interested sections of society
the question comes before that House which has the
real power of decision in its hands, and which is
the most sensitive to the necessities of the case and
the progress of public feeling. Here the discussion
will embrace three Frauches. There is tho Land
question, the Church question, and the Natio•.ality
question. Each of these has been debated time after
time, yet each will now come before the House in a
now aspect, because the leaders of English thought
have made each a sew subject of study, and are
ready with fresh interest to press the result of
their convictions. Never before has there been
practically supported a theory respecting the land
so broad as that which our chief living
economist, and the man whose enlightened
liberality has placed him in the front
rank of popular favourites, has told us we must of
sheer necessity adopt. Never bef. re has the pos-
sibility of compromises with the di:•tribution of
church revenues been so plain a thing of the
past. Never before his the need of recognising,
and respecting a distinct spirit of nationality among
the Irish people been propounded by men hold.
ing tho rank of Engliyh Statesmen. And
vital interest or every word that is said on all these
topics will be for the first time enhanced by the
sentiment, which will fill the iilence and inspire the
cheers, that be)ond a doubt something must be
done on each of them, or far worse will follow to
the British nation than it has yet had to pass
through.
It detracts nothing from the grave urgency of
the situation that etch of the remedies
proposed ie to a certain extent supported
by its advocates exclusively of the rest.
It is only a weakness of humanity that makes
every man think his own idea the most important.
The result will be so far beneficial that it will carry
into every point of the discussion the special know-
ledge and reflection of those who have peculiarly
mode it the subject of their study. But while each
prises most earnestly his own theory, all confess also
that some attention must be given to the coll►teral
points. Mr. Minn assumes that the Church
must be levelled, when he urges that, above all,
the land must be re-apportioned. Mr. BRIGHT in
his compromises deals with Loth these matte= at
the same time that he recognises to a certain
extent the necessity of conciliating Irish public
opinion. Mr. GOLDWIN Swim would settle the
land and the church though he thinks that national
sentiment must above all things be encouraged. But
at least there is in the ideas of every reformer
a confessed element which may serve to reconcile
them all. Whatever is done must be with the ex-
press purpose of contenting Ireland. No remedy is
worth considering which will not have this effect,
because if it fails the: e it is no remedy at all.
Chronic disaffection and seditious violence must be
appeased whatever be the new institutions, or
the modifications of old ones, that are adopted.
First of all, then, Englishmen have to set themselves
to learn what it is that Irishmen want. When that
is ascertained, and they may fairly ask Irish mem-
bers to be specific and definite in stating it, the
next business is to grant it. In the act of doing
this they will appease one of the most obscure yet
1111 Pd dangerous of Irish symptoms. There