The Sun.
London, England, 1869-04-15 00:00:00

THE IRISH cll-ußcii CONFERENCE,

The conference of the archbishops, bishops, clergy, and
laity of the " Irish branch of the United Church of
England and Ireland" was held on Tuesday, in the
Antient Concert Rooms, Great Brunswick-street, Dublin.
The same " No-Surrender " cry was raised which has
been so continually shouted out any time these eighteen
Months past. The Archbishop of ARMAGH struck the key-
note. His Grace told the meeting to be moderate in their
language and actions, and then, as reported in the Mail,
went on to say," One thing the meeting must understand,
and that was that the conference had no reference in the
remotest degree to Mr. Gladstone's Church body. They
studiously avoided giving it the slightest countenance.
This was an assembly met together for the simple
purpose of considering the bill, and protesting
against its injustice. That done, they should dissolve,
and leave no nucleus for the purpose of aiding in the Min-
isterial idea. They were not met there for the purpose of
considering any compromise. They threw out no sugges-
tion on the subject—they protested against it. They
looked upon it as confiscation —as assailing the prerogative
of the Crown—as unjustly dealing with the property
of the subject ; and for, he believed, the first time
in the history of the country, destroying that which
was the best of all titles—prescription. He recollected a
magnificent and apposite illustration of Mr. Plunket's. In
some cases where the title was defective he pleaded pre-
scription, and his words were to the effect that Time was
armed with an hour-glass as well as with a scythe—with
a scythe he mowed down the muniments of their pro-
perty, but with the hour-glass he gave stability to their
title. Mr. Gladstone's bill prevented them from using
the hour-glass, and treated them to the severity of the
scythe." This was received, we are told, with tremendous
applause.

The Archbishop of DUBLIN said very little, but the Earl
Of LONGFORD followed the suit of the Lord Primate.
There had been no approach to a compromise, the noble
earl declared. One side maintained that by the violation
of oaths, promises, and sacred engagements, by tearing
up Acts ofiParliament and crushing religious action, a
new era of peace could be inaugurated; but the
other side persistently refused their assent to this
arrangement. When it was said that the
Government was induced to bring forward this
contemplated change in the Church of Ireland as
tending to the mutual improvement of all classes, their
rejoinder should be—We do not surrender ;we do not
accept your inevitable; we protest against your bill;
we reject your proposal for the dissolution of the union
of the Church of England and Ireland ; we object to
your bill for its insulting title to put an end to the
Establishment of the Church of Ireland; we object to
your sham compensation ; we believe that if your bill
should pass Church and State, property, and all social and
political interests would suffer. Our case is that our
Church has been legally established, loyally maintained in
connection with the State, acknowledging the supremacy
of the Crown, served by faithful ministers and with no
excessive endowments, those which it has being, moreover,
its own property, which ought not to be touched by the
State.

The Bishop of Ossory, Sir Frederick Shaw, Sir Joseph
Napier, and others followed in the same strain.

Mr. Isaac Butt, Q.C., is mentioned as a Liberal-
Conservative candidate for Youghal.

The masters and men in the building trade at
Liverpool are in dispute about the code of trade rules. A
strike is feared.