The Sun.
London, England, 1869-05-14 00:00:00

LONDON, FRIDAY, MAY 14, 1869.

Yesterday at the close of the discussion upon the
consideration of the Irish Church Bill as amended, it
was—amidst some very comprehensible cheering at the
virtual completion of so important a stage in its pro-
gress towards transformation into an enactment—or-
dered to he reprinted. The Premier had previously an-
nounced his intention to take the order for its recom-
mitment for Friday, May the 28th —neni dy, the Fri-
day inamediattly after the Wnitsuntile recess or
vacation : Cie third reading Still standing fix si for
the last day of this present month. So far as the
House of Commons is coocerned the Irish Church
Bill may bealready regarded, therefore, as passed and,
-what is more, passe 1 triumphantly. The question now
lies exclusively, we may assert, with the Lords. It is
generally understood, moreover, that, directly after
AV Ifftsuuti le,theConserva•ive members of the Tlous- of
Lords, or,inother words, a majority of thathouse quite
as formidable in truth an I as overwhelming as the
Liberal majority in the other branch of the Legisla-
ture now backing up the policy of Mr. GLADSTONE'S
Government, will Meet for the purpose of considering
seriously and without any further delay the ceuree
they ought to pursue, under the extraordinary circum-
stances of the case, in regard to this particular mea-
sure for the simultaneous disestablishment and dis-
endowment of the Protestant Church in Ireland. The
triumphant manner in which the Bill is known to
have been carried through its every stage in the
House of Commons cannot fail of course to be taken,
among other things, unler their lordships' most seri-
ous consideration. The overwhelming preponderance
of members on the side of the Government, as mani-
fested upun each division that has been taken both in
and out of Committee—divisions always showing a
clear majority on the side of the Government ex-
pressed in three numerals—will necessarily have
weight with the Peers, in their deliberation as to the
rssolve they may arrive at in dealing with the Bill
when brought up for their consideration. Uncom-
promising opposition to a measure so victoriously
passed through the popular branch of the Legislature,
would bring the house of Lords at once into direct
1 collision with the House of Commons. There is
the consciousness, moreover, all this while that
the vast majority secured to the Liberal
Party in the House of Commons, represents a still
vaster majority of earnest and resolute supporters of
the policy of the present Government in the country
at 1 among the mass of the electors portioned
out into the different constituencies. The majority in
the Commons, the majority in the Country, are at
the back of the GLADSTONE Government. . That the
Lords know perfectly well. And they know equally
well this, that supposing, for the sake of argument,
the Irish Church Bill, having been triumphantly I asset
through the House of Commons, were to be peremp-
torily rejected, nevertheless, notwithstanding, by the
}louse of Lords, and that the Prime Minister were
then, in the exercise of his Constitutional privilege,
to dissolve the present Parliament, and appeal once
more to the electors of the three kingdoms, his
already enormous majority would, by the very in-
iignation excited by so direct and perverse an
evidence of antagonism on the part of the Lords, be,
as a matter of dead certainty, very considerably and
very appreciably enhanced. A General Election,
occulting under more advantageous circumstances,
for a Ministry already strongly in power, c•,uld not
very readily be imagined. The last one carried
, Ministers into office on the shoulders of the people
even before the new Pailiament had a sembled.
Under the peculiar conjuncture of circumstances we
are just now imagining, simply for the sake of argu-
ment, they would be borne back again, to confront
the newly-elected Legislature, not upon the shoulders,
merely, but upon the very heads and uplifted hands of
the enfranchised population. The Lords are wiser, we
may be sure, than to hring about the hazard of any
such (for them) aisastrous anti-climax. The House
,f Peers and the House of Commons, we may be
quite certain of thus much, in regard to this particu-
lar matter of the Irish Church Bill, are not about
to be brought into coflisbu. Of that, we are per-