The Sun.
London, England, 1863-05-20 00:00:00

THERMOMETER.

This morning
This day at Two o'clock 5B

Barometer-30.02.

Wind—N, W, ; light breeze, and cloudy weather,

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Tats DAT.—Morning, 3h. 39m.—Afternoon, 3h. 56m.
To-wonsow.-Morning, 4h. 14m.—Afternoon, 4h. 32m.

,so
,„

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, MAY 20, 1863,

The Irish Church Establishment has long been
recognised by millions of thoughtful men in this
country as one of the most flagrant anomalies among
all the institutions of the Three Kingdoms. Dur-
ing years upon years, at uncertain intervals, it has
been discussed and re-discussed, literally usque
ad nauseam, because hitherto quite fruitlessly, both
within and without the walls of Parliament. Time
was—now nearly a whole generation back—when
it was the theme of stormy debate down at West-
minster, a subject of contention so fierce and imp.
tuous that upon the result hung the fate of parties,
the coming in and the going out of Governments, the
incitement to loyalty or to revolt of six
millions of the population. In spite of all
which, the loyalty of those millions—so far
as it could be in any way affected adversely
by that galling and most irritating provocation—
was then maintained, is to this moment maintained
inviolate. Yet all the while that same monstrous
anomaly here alluded to has been continued intact
and uninterruptedly. There has been all this time no
abatement whatever of the evil, no abatement of it
even to an infinitissimal degree, as an anomaly,
since SYDNEY SMITH flouted it with his wit and
DANIEL O'CONNELL denounced it in imperishable
words of eloquence. Notwithstanding every strenu-
ous effort made with a view to its subversion, there
that huge anomaly still survives like an immovable
incubus—there it yet remains by the sheer might
of its /NS Inertia.

Again, last evening, in the House of Commons the
old source of so many heartburnings upon either
side of St. George's Channel, was, in a new form,
brought under consideration. Once more, yesterday,
the notoriously invidious and anomalous position of
the Church Establishment in Ireland was—(there is
no other word for it)—revcmatilated. One is pain-
fully conscious while listening to the renewal of
these discussions in the Imperial Legislature, whi e
turning over the report of them this next day with
a weary deliberation—one cannot possibly do other-
wise than feel all the time poignantly con-
vinced that no amelioration is in any way
likely to result from it. Representative after
representative has his favourite panacea, his pet
anodyne, his cherished compromise, to suggest
and to dilate upon : but one after another, we know
full well from a bitter experience, that these pro-

jects will be vaunted by their respective projectors,
only to be rejected more or less peremptorily by the
House. A House, too, certain as fate almost, to be
bored to death by listening to them. Of ail this
last night's discussio❑ of the subject-matter in de-
bate, afforded just one of the old stock illustrations.
A Select Committee was moved for, in the first
instance, by the re-ventilator of the old thread-
bare grievance, Mr. DILLWYN. That hon-
ourable gentleman's motion being made simply for
the appointment of a Select Committee that should
be empowered to inquire how far the present dis
tribution of endowments for religious purposes
throughout Ireland might be so amended es most
to conduce to the welfare of all classes of her

MAJESTY'S Irish subjects. Secondly, to search the
journals of the House for any resolutions passed
since the act having reference to the application
of any surplus revenue arising from ecclesiastical
endowments in Ireland. And, finally, to re-
port bow far such resolution or resolu-
tions have been subsequently carried into
effect. In reality, altogether, upon the face of it, a
reasonable proposition enough : and one consist-
ently supported, considering the bearing of it, by
Sir JOHN TRELAWNY. Yet, while the motion was
all this beyond any doubt, it was none the less
unlikely to end where it set out : resulting in nothing
d t , t her
at e foo nrcee,
DEG.
more certainly than in a little further waste of
seconded by Mr. ~EW
time. Mr. SEYMUvO
R'SalTeEn,m followed e
upon the original motion almost as an inevitable
consequence. That amendment, nevertheless, being
operative of good as the original for which it
obviously about as likely to prove in every way as in-
motion
was intended to be substituted. The suggestion pnt
forward by the amendment meaning, in point of fact,
nothing more nor less than the substitution for
A Select Committee, of A Royal Commission. A
Royal Commission, as Mr. SEYMOUR put it,
formally appointed and empowered to inquire
into the territorial arrangement of existing bene-
fices ; into the provision of the cure of souls ; into
the amount of population and number of Protes-
tants in each benefice; the erection of new parishes
were required ; the districts whirl: it might be de-
sirable to serve provisionally by stipendiary curates ;
he incomes of benefices and parts of ben; fives in
Ireland ; and other subjects enumerated in the ori-
ginal proposition. Certainly a modest prot,pectus
altogether ! The amendment manifestly propound.

ing a scheme, not for the mcdification, much less
for the diminution, but rather it would seem for the
still further extension and amplification of an
already gigantic grievance. Hence these proposals
for the erection of new parishes, where required !
For providing certain districts provisionally with
stipendiary curates, supplemented as a class to
the Irish church Establishment, as it is.
An amendment, in reality, just simply out.