The Sun.
London, England, 1869-07-08 00:00:00

71,1 E CRISIS.

The last defeat of Ministers in the Lords made an
impression even upon Lord Granville's usually beam-
ing face. It was an overwhelming defeat, and was
due as much to the usual supporters as to the regular
opponents of the Government. There is no doubt
that Ministers are now in a very painful position.
In connection with this matter the summons of the
Lord Chancellor to Windsor on Sunday has
excited a good deal of notice, and it is stated
that immediately on his return from his interview
with the Q teen Lord Hatherley wrote to Mr.
Gladstone and Lord Granville. These circumstances
gave rise to a rumour in quarters where the wish
would be father to the thought, that Mr. Gladstone
had determined to resign, and in confirmation of this
rumour Mr. Gladstone's words at the Mansion House
" that Ministries are sometimes measured by weeks,"
were quoted. It is, however, more generally thought
that this remark was a sarcasm at the expense of
Mr. Disraeli, rather than an intimation of his own
intentions.

The Nonconformists of Walsall, like their breth-
ren elsewhere, have, in public meeting assembled,
condemned the concurrent scheme. Their resolu-
tions were communicated to Mr. Gladstone. The
Premier, through his secretary, in acknowledging
the receipt, " desires inc to request that you will
observe that the plans in question have neither origi-
nated with nor found countenance from her
Ma;esty's Government."
The Record is responsible for the statement that
the heads of the Irish Church have resolved to
convene a Clerical Synod or Convocation in Ireland,
from which the laity are to be entirely excluded. " In
the event of the bill be-:oming law, it is intended that
this Clerical Synod shall be called on to give a sacer-
dotal and ecclesiastical sanction to the appropriation
of the property of the existing Irish Church
Establishment to the purposes directed by Parlia-
ment ; so that by this device the property might not
lose its character as a deocland, and the Free Irish
Church should receive it, not as the gift of a secular
Parliament, but as coming under the sanction of a
clerical synod claiming divine authority." The same
paper intimates that the Bishop of Oxford is the
author of the scheme.

The Bev. J. Macnaughten, Presbyterian minister
of Belfast, thinks it right to set before the public at
this crisis the real views of the Presbyterian Church
in Ireland. At a recent meeting of the General
Assembly some of the principal members insisted
on giving an additional insiruction to the
committee, who are negotiating with the
Government, directing them to offer " the most
strenuous opposition to the scheme of concurrent
endowment." There is much diversity, he affirms,
among Irish Protestants as to the merits of the bill ;
but there is alarge amount of unityagainst all"level-
ling up." " An Irish Roman Catholic Priest," on the
other hand, writes to the Times in support of the plan
of a Government grant of glebes and houses to the
priests, who often cannot obtain sites for schoo:-
houses, chapels, or parochial-houses. Sometimes
the landlord at the expiration of the lease refuses to
let the house again to the priest ; sometimes ho
exacts dough: the rent. In one parish the funds are
ready to build the priest's house, but no site can b 3
obtained. A glebe of twelve or fifteen acres at a
reasonable rent would be hailed with delight.