The Sun.
London, England, 1869-05-07 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PLELIC JOURNALS,

The Times rejoices at the rapid progress made by the
House of Commons on Thursday evening. Two large
Ministerial majorities disposed of the amendments of Sir
George Jenkinson and Mr. Aytoun, and when this was
accomplished nearly twenty subsequent clauses were
approved in rapid succession. The issue raised by Sir
George Jenkinson was simply whether the compensation
should come out of the Consolidated Fund or out of the
funds of the disendowed Establishment. The conclusive
answer to the argument was that advanced by Mr.
Gladstone. The Maynooth Grant and the Regium
Donum are Irish charges imposed for Irish purposes, and
they have been borne by the Imperial Exchequer
simply as a compensation for the injustice of an Establish-
ment forced on Ireland by the Imperial will. Upon the
abolition of the Establishment these charges are properly
thrown back upon Ireland ; and if it be resolved, as a
matter of Irish policy, that they shall be withdrawn, the
compensation to be afforded in respect of vested interests
ought to be provided out of Irish resources. The defeat
of Sir George Jenkinson's amendment was a victory of
common sense. The majority against Mr. Sinclair Aytoun,
though numerically smaller, affords us, perhaps, higher
satisfaction as an unmixed triumph of Liberal feeling.
When we remember how liberal have been all the previous
provisions of the bill, it is impossible, with any show
of equality, to carp at the Maynooth settlement.
Sir Stafford Northcote, indeed, declared that the
disestablished Church had not been liberally dealt
with, and, no doubt, to a, man who believes that
nothing ought to be taken away, the gift of all the
churches for nothing and of the glebe-houses for nominal
payments has no appearance of generosity. The House of
Commons has reserved for the Free Church and its mem-
bers property and interests estimated by Mr. Gladstone at
nine millions, and if we exclude. as we think ought to be
excluded, from the comparison the life interests of incum-
bents, the amount reserved for the Church in its corpo-
rate character will still be reckoned by millions. We
prefer not to dilate on the enormous bribe which has been
given to Irish landlords. The Presbyterian reeerve has
been £750,000 ; and the whole contest raised by Mr.
Sinclair Aytoun turned on whether a sum of £565,000
should be handed over to the trustees of Maynooth. The
House of Commons resolved that it would not draw back
from the liberal course pursued in the conduct of the bill.
This is the true interpretation of the vote.
The Standard thinks there is no manner of doubt that,
under the influence of the irritation produced by the game
of cross purposes, both parties went a little too far. Mr.
Gladstone had no right to throw it in the teeth of the
Conservatives that they had assented, without debate, to
the compensation of the Presbyterians out of Church
funds ; for he certainly gave them to understand that
the entire question was to be debated upon the case of
Maynooth. Nor can he fairly deny that the country did
distinctly understand and expect from his speeches last
year something very different from his actual proposal in
regard to Maynooth. The possibility that if Sir G.
Jenkinson's amendment passed, it might deprive
the professors and students of Maynooth of their
present incomes, without any compensation whatever,
afforded an excuse for voting against it, and may account
for the greatness of the majority. But Mr. Aytoun's was
direct and simple, and put the issue between compensation
and endowment broadly and plainly before the House, so
that no man could record his vote against it without
declaring himself in favour, not of justice to Roman
Catholics individually, but of endowing a Roman Catholic
college in perpetuity out of the spoils of the Protestant
Church. Of this fact, and of those who so declared them-
selves, we trust that the nation generally, and the Scotch
constituencies in particu'ar, will take accurate and heedful
note, and remember the pledges of 1868 and the fulfilment
of 1869 on the next occasion when a Liberal Government
sends Liberal candidates to ask the suffrages of their coun-
trymen on the strength of their implicit obedience to Mr.
Gladstone.
The Daily News points out that the object of this May-
nooth debate was very obvious all through the discussion.
As Mr. Bright said, it was another outbreak of that reli-
gious and political hostility to the religion of the Irish
people which has now existed for three hundred years.
Mr. Gladstone said that it was the rekindling in its last
days of the very spirit of that evil institution which they
were then engaged in removing ; an attempt to fan the
embers of religious prejudice in order to hinder a great
act of justice to Ireland. These expressions exactly
characterised the situation. But all this anti-
Popery zeal had been kindled for a purpose. Drown-
ing men catch at straws, and a straw had
floated by in the shape of a presumed antipathy
on the part of Scotch members to give money to the
Roman Catholic Church. This was evident from the first
by the dead set made at the Scotch members, but Mr.
Lowther blurted it out. Mr. Aytoun's motion for more
rigidly limiting the compensation to Maynooth seemed to
look in the same direction as Sir G. Jenkinson's, and there
seemed to be a chance of getting a few ardent Protestants
to go a little further along the road which Mr. Aytoun
appeared to indicate. The Opposition might then have
enjoyed the rare excitement of detatching a few followers
from the ever-victorious army, and of' taking their beating
from a somewhat diminished majority. But the Scotch
members were not to he caught by so obvious a ruse.
The Herald declares that the annual banquet of the
Royal Literary Fund has an interest beyond the profes-
sional circle which it represents. In fact, it can hardly be
said to represent a profession, except that the individuals
who come within its benevolence generally belong to a
class that has staked itself upon one, and that, as Lord
Stanley said on Wednesday evening, a precarious pur-
suit. For, letters are followed from all the high-
ways, down all the byeways of life. The peerage,
the clergy, the army, the bar, medicine, music,
idleness, take them up, and carry them, as though they
were the lightest loads to bear in the whole of creation.
The main question for the noble chairman of Wed-
nesday's dinner was " The fund existing, how to apply
it." This for many years has been a vexed point
both for the subscribers and the recipients. There can
be no doubt that, under each head, considerable dis-
satisfaction has long prevailed. The names of few men
of letters are absent from the donation lists in one
year or another. They, respecting, as Lord Stanley did,
the wise and generous rule of secrecy observed with
regard to individual grants, never inquire concerning
them ; they trust, as they ought to trust, in the
council ; and they will, as he asks them, take Lord
Stanley's word for it that this confidence is not abused.
In a very high spirit, natural to him, Lord Stanley says
he should like to see gifts to the fund, anonymous, from
those who have enjoyed its bounty and risen to better
fortunes. We, on the other hand, should like to feel sure
that it,
.as a rule, recognised the claims of those who, in
prospenty, have been its constant supporters. We do not,
emphatically, see the literary class illustrated by the Literary'
Fund. The blame, it maybe dsboe. saA'dtitmualy lie as much on one
side as on another.'
is
.a doubt in the
matter which, if resolved, might place institution in a
position which, candidly speaking, it has never yet
occupied.
The Star, in commenting upon the bill which Mr. della and Mr. Hughes have laid upon thetabl e Mu
Llsll-
House of Commons, says there are many
evilsinie
s
world which legislation is unable to suppress or to control,
but legislation can at least prevent trades
unionism
being a perpetual source of angry controversy
andiirrfratraa-
tion. It can do so by frankly recognising it as a great
social fact, by conceding the principle of the
right of
association, by imparting to unions an established legal
status, and by rending its members solely responsible to
the common law of the realm, which is strong enough to
protect the liberty of the subject and to repress every form
of outrage. This, broadly stated, is what is accomplished
by the Trades Unions Bill, the provisions of which
been fully discussed, and lucidly explained to
the representatives of the amalgamated trades
by one of its chief authors, Mr. Frederick Har-
rison. That bill will, we believe, be accepted
in its integrity by the working classes of this
country ; and its passage, while subserving every interest
of law and order, would be hailed with satisfaction by
tens of thousands of honest artisans, whose associations
have hitherto existed only on sufferance ; who have enter-
tained a keen sense of the injustice of the ban under which
they have been placed ; and who, in consequence of the
lawless acts of a small minority, have been made to suffer
an undeserved weight of obloquy. The whole question
resolves itself into one of mutual confidence, which is a
better foundation for the relations of capital and labour to
rest upon than any that can be devised by legislation.
Difficulties will, of course, arise under any system which
the wit of man can devise ; but recent experience has
shewn that a way is opening for the solution of one of the
greatest problems of our time, and that ono day strikes
and lock-outs will be superseded by the less exciting but
more satisfactory machinery of arbitration.
The Telegraph says that Mr. Sumner's speech was
composed as a deliberate public expression of the views
held by President Grant and his Cabinet; and Mr.
Motley, a personal friend of the senator, comes to
England as the representative of a policy based on these
views. True, the new Minister will not arrive
here with a palpably outrageous claim fur damages
to the amount of two hundred and fifty millions
sterling—the total at which Mr. Sumner, with an
expression of dOlll,l-, as to his own prudence in be_irPg so
very moderate, assessed our supposed liability. 11...0t1ey
himself will, of course, be received with that courtesy
s
which British statesmen always display toward the re-
pcesentatives of friendly Powers, and which his personal I
rid ...tits and character would, undr.r any cssum-
stances, entitl,i him to receive at one hands. I
His own unfriendly criticisms on this country and
her policy will tot be remembered against him,
nor will they in the slightest degree affect our behaviour
to himself nor our judgment of his mission. But lie will
be told, in language of the utmost clearness and sincerity,
that his pretensions are utterly inadmissible ; that the
claims he advances cannot even be examined, in the ab-
sence of a basis for discussion ; and that the concessions
we have already made go to the extreme verge of what
our national dignity and our rights as an independent
Power will permit. The bitterest enemies of England
in the Irnited States cannot deny that we have throughout
shewn a willingness bordering even on anxiety to con-
ciliate our angry cousins, soothe their susceptibilities,
avoid causes of fresh offence, and arrive at a just settle-
ment of all disputed points. They cannot, then, mis-
apprehend the motive or the spirit with which we shall
inform Mr. Motley that it is not the habit of England to
depart from pled,,7es which she has given to her own
honour and consistency in the presence of the whole
world.