The Sun.
London, England, 1869-07-10 00:00:00

T:ln CRISIS.

Neither the Times nor the Telegraph has anything
definite as to the intentions of the Government with
respect to the Irish Church Bill. The former paper
is for once entirely silent about the bill; the latter
dwells upon the stultification of the measure by the
Lords, and leave it to be inferred that Ministers will
be no party to a settlement which settles nothing.
The Daily _News is far more explicit. As the mouth-
piece of the thoroughgoing Liberals, it points out
that the Lords have refused to accent the decision
of a House of Commons elected upon that very
subject as representing the opinions of the
people, and appeals from that constitutional
body to outdoor clamour ; and, therefore, if
the appeal from Parliament and Mr. Gladstone to
Hyde Park and Mr. Beales is answered by the last-
named gentlemen and his friends, the Lords must
not complain. The same journal intimates the
absolute necessity of popularising the House of
Lords, so as to deprive it of that power to
obstruct important legislation which is so invariably
and mercilessly used.
The Morning Post is silent. The Morning Star
refers to the matter obliquely in relation to Earl
Russell's Life Peerages Bill, and laughs at all the
pother about the introduction of two life peers a
year when everybody is thinking about other changes
of a far more extensive character. The Monting
Advertiser believes that a conflict between the two
Rouses is imminent, and that in the midst of it the
Irish Church Bill will founder and be lost, and be
re-introduced next November. The Standard believes
well founded the rumour that the Government mean
to reject the Lords' amendments, and is, by anticipation,
very indignant at the affront about to be offered to a
body of '“,sli-spirited gentlemen. The herald thinks
that the .urds did very wisely in throwing out the
Life Peerages Bill, because if such a measure were
sent down to the Commons at this juncture, it would
be almost a provocation to the Radicals (just now
" furious with the Peers") to discuss and revolu-
tionise the constitution of the Upper Chamber.
The Irish 7 inies says that when Mr. Gladstone
heard that the Lords had, on the motion of the
Opposition leader, topped all their previous per-
formances by inserting with a majority of seventy,
in a House of 2.50 Peers, that for some time no
arrangement should be come to as regards the
appropriation of the Church surplus revenues,
he sarcastically remarked that it would not
surprise him if the Upper House ignored altogether
the preamble and omitted the title of the bill. Five
of the eight important amendments which the Lards
have made are to be disagreed to, so that it now
appears tolerably certain, if the followers in combi-
nation with Lord Cairns and Lord Salisbury remain.
resolute, as they say they will, on the main pro-
visions they have introduced, the session of 18C9
may pass over without any Irish Church Act.
Some leading Conservatives of the House or
Lords are, in spite of the changes which they have
made in the bill, so little satisfied with it that they
have induced a summons of Irish peers to be issued
for a meeting to be held at the Duke of Abercorn's
to-day. These peers are anxious to reject the
bill altogether on the third reading, which takes place
on Monday. There is also to be a meeting of Arch-
bishops and Bishops at Lambeth to-day, to con-
sider the bill before it reaches its final stage.
The Birmingham Post says that " the temper or
Conservative peers is so unconciliatory at the present
moment that grave apprehensions arc entertained of
a collision between the two Houses, and loss of the
hit for the present session. The Liberal party will
bear with satisfaction that a considerable creation of
Li bend peers will take place during the recess." This
extensive use of the royal prerogative is said to be
absolutely necessary to overrule the antagonistic atti-
tude of the Upper House.