The Sun.
London, England, 1869-06-24 00:00:00

PUBLIC OPINION AND THE BILL.

Ministerial journals, like the Morning Post, point
out that should the Lords insist upon concurrent
endowment, they will be as much negativing the
principle of the bill as if they had thrown the bill
out on a second reading. " Whether concurrent
endowment is preferable to universal disendowment
is a point on which men may differ, and on
which, probably, much may be said. But it is
difficult to understand how the question can be
raised in committee on the present measure with-
out jeopardising it. The difficulty with which
Protestants are induced to reconcile themselves
to the appropriation of a portion of the revenues of
the Church to the extinction of the Regium Bonum
and Maynooth Grant augurs ill, however, for the
success of any scheme which has for its object the
partial endowment, out of the same revenues, of the
Roman Catholic clergy." To this, it may be ad led,
that the Government would, for the same reason, find
it difficult to accept any such alteration. The Times
and the Teeyraph, having already put out feelers on
the s:lbject.are silent, waiting to hear what the country
will say. The Morning Sior,which is the organ of the
Nonconformist Radicals, has not yet spoken. being
perhaps, induced to maintain silence by the known
affection which Mr. Bright has for the proposal of
giving parsonages to the Roman Catholic clergy.
The Tally News, however, 'Teal s out in the pl:liiiest
manner. Referring to Lord Grey's proposal, and
shewing that it is much the same as Pitt's, our con-
temporary says that " Mr. Pitt would have been a
madman if he had advocated in the beginning of the
nineteenth century a measure such as that which is
now before the House of Lords. Mr. Gladstone
would scarcely have been more sane if he had revived
Mr. Pitt's plan a year ago."
Mr. Baines, M.P. for Leeds, who may be taken as
a prominent representative of Nonconformist Radi-
calism, writes to the secretary of the Reform League
in Leeds : " The division of Saturday morning was
a great victory; but now will come the difficulty of
knowing what concessions to make to the friends of
the Irish Church. I believe it will be prudent to
concede something, but not so as to destroy the very
object of the bill, which was the doing of justice and
the acting on principles of religious equality in Ire-
land."

"A Protestant Liberal M.P." condemns Mr.
Hamilton's proposal to solve the Irish ecclesiastical
problem by giving glebes and land to each denomina-
tion, the endowment being vested in laymen exclu-
sively. The " Protestant Liberal " believes it would
be a fatal mistake to attempt such an endowment
for the Roman Catholics without placing it under
the direction of the- hierarchy of their Church. The
Liberal. Irish members would approve, he thinks, of
tne gieues being given to the clergy of all denomina-
tions, but they could not sanction the proposal if it
were made in a form which the Catholics must, from
the nature of their organisation and discipline, refuse.
The gift of glebes to the Catholics would, he holds,
be an inestimable blessing to Ireland. Mr. Pim's
proposal to this effect was rejected by the Liberal
party from the sense that it would be unfrir to press
it on the Scotch and Nonconformist members, but
if the Lords send down an amendment embodying
the principle, it will, in this writer's opinion, be ro
longer open to this objection. It is evident that this
scheme has gained ground with members of different
parties since it was first suggested.

AUCHDEACON DENISON ON THE SECOND BEADING.

The union between Church and State is gone for
ever. Lord Salisbury and the 13ishop of St. David's
cut its throat on June 19; and Archdeacon Denison
is left lamenting. The venerable Archdeacon of
Taunton's lament over the decline and fall of the
State Church is very pathetic indeed. It is pitched
perhaps in rather too high a key, but it is very
" touching," notwithstanding. The Archbishops
(he cries) have, with a want of courage most deplor-
able, rung the knell of Church and State. Conser-
vatism has slain itself with its own sword; surren-
dering one post after another, it has died by its
own hand. His- (the Archdeacon's) great voca-
tion has been taken from him. " Church
and Queen" w:11 have in the future no
meaning at public dinners. The prayer for the
High Court of Parliament will be but a mockery.
The blow has fallen, moreover, from the fault of
Churchmen, and is likely to be repeated in the case
of the Church of England ere long. The Arch-
deacon does not thus cry without a certain amount
of bitterness. He characterises the Conservative
party as " hybrid," declares that nothing can reclaim
them, and counsels the withdrawal from influencing
legislation which leads invariably against the Church
of England for the Church of Rome, or for no
religion.at all.