The Sun.
London, England, 1869-07-24 00:00:00

SPIRIT OP THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The Irish Church Bill, says the Saturday Review, has
really passed. After so much fierce discussion, after so
many perils, it has become law, and this great
success is not alloyed either by an access of religious
bitterness, or by the imminence of a constitutional con-
flict, or by a good bill being made a bad bill. A compro-
mise has been effected, but it is not a compromise which
in any way goes to the principles of the bill. England
has made a great sacrifice to Ireland, and has made
it in the only way in which a sacrifice can do good, by
making it boldly, generously, and without hesitation.
The general result is in every way satisfactory. Dises-
tablishment is complete, and disendowment is complete,
excepting that where there was a point, not of principle,
but of detail, fairly open to doubt, the leaning has been,
as it ought to have been, in favour of the disendowed
Church. The unexpected escape of all parties from a
position of much embarrassment is mainly due to Lord
Cairns. It is true that the Government have shewn
moderation, judgment, and a conciliatory spirit in the
final negotiations ; but then they have substantial'y got
all that they wanted, and people who triumph ought to
be in a good humour. But Lord Cairns had a very diffi-
cult task to perform. He had at once to reinstate himself
in the leadership of his party, which had passed away
from him since his defeat on the second reading, and he
had to act for and lead his party without consulting it.
He acted in the right way at the right moment, and he was
rewarded by the applause of men of all parties. He ren-
dered a great service to the Conservative party, for
he once more gave them a leader in the Lords, and they bad
begun to feel how much they wanted one ; and he ren-
dered a great service to the House of Lords, for the peers
had begun to long for some gentle and dignified means of
getting off the high pedestal on to which they had
worked themselves on Tuesday. There can be no doubt
that things were beginning to look ugly for the House of
Lords. A dangerous spirit was beginning to gather
strength and find utterance, and the Lords had the sense
to know this, and to yield in time. Eut they would not
have known how to yield if Lord Cairns had not stepped
in and shewn them the way. So everyone was more or
less contented and happy, and the Irish Church Lill was
passed, to stand, we trust, as a lasting record of what
England is willing to do for Ireland, and of what can be
carried in a few months by a strong and resolute Ministry,
backed up by a nation anxious to do right and justice at
any cost.

The Spectator declares that the House of Lords is get-
ting quite an adept in the sensation drama. On Tuesday
night the curtain fell on a most stormy and exciting scene.
It seemed to everybody that their lordships were about to
be logical, and act in real consistency with the strong
language which they have been using fur months past in
relation to the disestablishment and disenclowinent of
the Irish Church. When the curtain fell, the attitudes of
various noble lords was in the highest degree dramatic.
There, in the foreground, was the tall dark figure of the
Marqmis of Salisbury, shaking the finger of scorn in the
most contemptuous manner at the Prime Minister, attri-
buting all the mischief to the perverse disposition of his
one " arrogant will," and giving grating utterance as he
did so, to the scoff, "In the labyrinth of that mind I am
lost." In the background, on the same side, was the
austerely rebuking figure of Earl Grey, stooping mena-
cingly forward, and asserting with that characteristically
earnest and tragical scowl of his at the Ministerial
benches, that her Majesty's Government were all acting
a part ; that their motive was a petty desire for triumph
over the House of Lords ; that they were "comparatively
indifferent as to the passing of the bill, unless they can
pass it in such a manner as to gain a triumph over this
House, and subject it to humiliation and degradation in
the eyes of the public." On the other side was the Duke
of Argyll, proud, stern, defiant, with his hack set. like James
Fitz-James's, against a rock, crying in effect, "Come one,
come all ! this rock shall fly from its firm base as soon as I!"
—and there was Lord Hatberley, weighing Lord Salisbury,
with severe mien, in thescales of justice, and referring him
to Sbakspere's scornful remedy for the cure, orrather for the
suffocation, of a "gibing spirit." A little apart from the
group—something like where the exulting little boy stands
throwing up his cap and occasionally standing on his head
in delight during a London street row—was the Earl of
Winchilsea, screaming out that Mr. Gladstone was in
effect the Jack Cade of the moment, " the master of the
moment was not always a wise man—Jack Cade, for
example, was once master of the moment." When the
curtain rose again, on Thursday, all was changed. In the
interval it seems that the same thought had struck Lord
Cairns which struck the young lady in the burlesque,
"Let us swear eternal friendship !" The House of Lords
was once more at peace with the country, in concord with
the House of Commons, in amity with the Ministry, in
love with itself. Lord Granville, beaming forth his usual
placid radiance, explained that the Cabinet— had not
thought it right to take so formidable a step as dropping
the bill on a mere amendment in the preamble, and after
intimating that he had come isa some arrangement with
the leader of the Opposition, he made a formal motion,
and left Lord Cairns to explain. Then burst forth Lord
Cairns in all the splendour of a conqueror who had
achieved that greatest of conquests, the conquest over
himself. He threw himself on the favour of the House
for a somewhat irregular statement. He explained that
he had concluded a sort of Villafranca convention with
his noble friend on the morrow of the great Con-
servative victory of Tuesday night. He, like Napoleon,
was scared at his own triumph. He, unlike Napoleon,
was so scared at his own triumph that lie was going to
give up all he had gained rather than persist in claiming it.
'e net result of the peace appears, then, to be this--that
the Ministry have abated their price by an infinitesimal
sum to make a loophole for the dignity of the Lords, and
the Lords have accepted the loophole with enthusiasm,
and crept through it with unaffected joy. Well, that is a
profoundly English end to a menacing situation. The
English people thoroughly enjoy an all-but catastrophe
which fails of being a catastrophe because principle breaks
down under the strain, and that is what they extol as
statesmanship. We have no objection at all, so long as
the principle which breaks down at the last moment is
not our principle but the principle of the enemy—and that
is the caae in this instance. It will in any case be an im-
mense relief to the country to have got this big question
settled after some fashion at least, and virtually settled in
a single session.

The Economist thinks that the acceptance of Lord
Cairns's compromise by the Government is quite a legiti-
mate occasion for the congratulations which have come
from the majority of all parties concerned. It should end
happily a long and bitter agitation which was almost
getting too trying for the temper of our public men.
Extreme partisans on both sides will probably be dissatis-
fied, but English parties are mainlycomposed of moderate
and almost neutral men, and the more violent members
will be discouraged in criticising and opposing the settle-
ment. The country is heartily tired of the controversy,
and will hardly mind the few drawbacks, if any, to the
completeness of the triumph which has been won for the
national policy. The friends of the Irish Church, in
the first place, should be very well contented. Detest-
ing the bill as Lord Cairns still says he does,
they must know very well that no farther
fight could barnacle for their cause—that they had carried
resistance to the utmost limits of a fair constitutional
struggle, and it had become only a question what shape
their defeat would take. When the Government resolved
on Tuesday to consult on their future• course no one
doubted what the end would have been, though the exact
measures to be adopted were uncertain. The last moment
had come then for making conditions; if an unconditional
defeat very soon after was to be averted ; bat that they
have been able to make conditions at all, when the conflict
had been carried to so extreme a length, is a success for
which they cannot be too grateful. lint, secondly, the
promoters of the bill may rejoice in their triumph, since
after all they have not conceded anything essential. The
bill as much as ever disestablishes and disendows the
Irish Church—puts an end to Protestant ascendancy, and
does not by any trickery re-endow the disestablished body.
There is thus no deviation from principle, although the
Irish Church, if there is enthusiasm and public spirit in it,
will have a chance of partial re-endowment. We.shall be
much surprised if the settlement is in any way carped at
even by the Irish Catholics. At the same time the form
of a compromise is a matter for satisfaction, as the mode
in which the bill finally passes. It proves the new
arrang'ment to be not wholly unacceptable to the Irish
Protestants—that they will not in r, ality be alienated
by a measure of justice to their fellow-subjects.
Had the measure been forced to the last against
the votes and protests of its opponents, the danger
of alienating; them might perhaps have been appreciable.
We do not think the bill improved, but there is evidence
that the points yielded are mainly in form. The positive
direction will be considered binding—a settlement to
which both sides can successfully appeal, and which
future party leaders, afra id of irritating disputes, will be
unwilling to disturb. The outline of the bill is blurred a
to use Mr. Lowe's phrase, but it will serve the pur-
pose now that the fight is over.

The John Lull thinks that the importance of the com-
promise cannot be exaggerated. The co-ordinate authority
of the two branches of the Legislature is declared ; the
dictatorship of Mr. Gladstone and his myrmidon, Mr.
Bright, i 3 repudiated by Constitutional Whigs as well as
Conservatives ; and the most arrogant Minister of our
time is taught that however great his majority in the
Lower -House, measures must be prepared with a know-
ledge that they will be thoroughly sifted in another place.
It may be said that dissatisfaction all round proves how
true a compromise it is ; but we believe that, as far as
a,serting the dignity of the Horse of Lords is concerned,
the comrroinisc is in favour of the Constitutional patty;
f,,r the Pc^rs will think twice before, by their own act,
tie y are compered to acce!,t such a compromise. But
1, most
iltertA

L-rd Cairns Las
has heel, in alh,wimz 11:e _
::s, inferentially at, le,:st, to coromit
of Lords to the secu!ar;sation of Church revenues.
'When such a bishop as the prelate who voted with the
Gott normW, rg-sinst his brethren on Tnes,lay, to the
inexp;.essihle grief of hi, Let friends, can overlook the
importance of maii.taining this solemn principle, Lord
Qairns may Le excuse ,1 for not seeing that the only prin-
ciple for which it was possible to contend, after the second
readily, was in seeing that double distilled sacrilege was
nit sanctioned by the Horse. flow far in the clause it is
htid down is a question we have for casuists ;
but we can assure ti,e noble and learned lord that many.
peers feel keenly that their solemn pledges have beers
violated by an arrangement which, however well intended,
was not authorised. We cannot hold with many of our
friends that the authority of the llouse of Lords has
been jeopardised by Lord (.'airns ; hut a solemn principle
has been yielded through sheer inability to appreciate its
importance. Instead of glehing a!! round, dishing all
round seems to be the end of this atrocious bill for rob.
Plug LktRIAAPPY .krikk Qhl3r9ll.

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