The Sun.
London, England, 1869-06-23 00:00:00

THE AMENDMENTS ON THE BILL.

Earl Grey is the first to move an amendment to
the Irish Church Bill. It is a radical amendment,
and will attempt to set aside one of the primary
principles of the bill, that no part of the surplus
Church funds shall be devoted to the teaching of
religion or to the maintenance of churches or clergy.
There is no doubt that a very large number of peers
on both sides of the House are favourable to
Lord Grey's proposition. Even the Bishop of
St. David's has expressed his"preference for levelling-
up, and so have Earl Russell, the Duke of Cleveland,
and many other of the peers who supported the bill.
The form that this principle will probably assume is
that of giving the present globes and parsonages to
their present occupants and their successors, and pro-
viding others for the Roman Catholic priests. This
would be thoroughly in accordance with Pitt's inten-
tions, who indeed was prepared to go much farther than
this. It remains to be seen if the country is so violently
opposed to any sort of provision for the Roman
Catholic clergy as to compel the' Government to
resist this amendment. The indifference with which
the Maynooth compensation clause has been viewed
would imply that there is no such strong feeling.
There is no doubt that the Government, notably Mr.
Bright and Mr. Bruce, would like such an arrange-
ment. Meanwhile the Ministerial journals are feel-
ing the public pulse by suggesting the propos'l,
without committing themselves to it.
The Irish Church Bill is still giving active employ-
ment to speculative politicians, and several correspon-
dents of the Times are ready with suggestions for
improvement. Mr. Tighe Hamilton notices two
features in the debate in the Lords—the absence of
any serious defence of the details by the Ministerialists,
and the tendency, perceptible on both sides, to favour
the principle of concurrent endowment. Mr
Hamilton himself strongly upholds this principle,
and would give a parochial entlewment to the laity
of each religious creed, treating the question in
an economic and social, not in a religious,
sense. He would provide a respectable resi-
dence and such quantity of land as will yield
the comforts of life for the clergy of each religious
denomination in each parish, and is especially anxious
that such endowments shall be made to the laity for
the use of their clergy, not to the clergy them-
selves. The ecclesiastics of the Romislt Church have
often r‘lused such offers, but the people would not,
he thinks, refuse it for them. Only by such an akera-
ation will the Church Bill, in Mr. Hamilton's opinion,
satisfy the Irish.
Sir Charles Trevelyan. writing as " C. E. T.," advo-
cates a similar scheme. lie would out of the surplus
church funcls.assign a sufficient sum to provide suit-
able houses for the clergy of the three great divisions
of the Irish Christian Church.—" A Conservative
Peer" thinks that any one-sided action must result
in failure, and would like to see adequate provision
for the Anglican Church, full compensation for the
Presbyterians, and the endowment of the Komar
Catholic clergy with glebes and residences.
Another correspondent dislikes the appropriation
of the surplus to hospitals and lunatic asylums. and
would prefer to see the money laid out in official
residences for the national schoolmasters, so that
there is no lack of schemes and suggestions ready to
be argued on the reopening of the question.