The Sun.
London, England, 1869-03-29 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF

The Times observes that the Irish Church Bill has been
described as a message to Ireland, and there is some truth
in the description ; but it is a message which can appa-
rently be very easily misunderstood. Two classes of Irish-
men, as far removed as possible from one another, have
taken it to themselves, and each has given it a response,
and were it not that we know that the bulk of the people
is to be ranked with neither, we might be disturbed at
such answers to the proclamation of the Imperial Parlia-
ment. The members of the Established Church have
rallied together at different points of the country
to denounce the " injustice," the " robbery," the
" tyranny" about to be practised upon them, and to
threaten the most tremendous consequences should Parlia-
ment persevere in supporting the Ministerial Bill. On
the other hand, Fenian sympathisers have met together,
taking advantage of the inconsiderate weakness of the
Executive Government in letting loose the convicts who
were but yesterday conspiring to overturn the State by
violence, and who boast to-day that they have abandoned
none of their aims, and they, too, threaten the united
nation with unceasing turbulence until all they demand has
been conceded. The mass of the Irish people-are neither
Protestants nor Fenians, and we would willingly
believe that the mass of the Protestants do not share
the inflammatory temper exhibited at the meetings
of last week. We have some assurance for this conclusion
in the character of the representatives sent to Parliament
from the Protestant constituencies of Ireland itself. But,
however that may be, there remains in Ireland a solid
majority—a majority always increasing as education
spreads and knowledge is disseminated—who are proud
to be co-partners in our national progress, who join with
immense energy and excitement in the election of represen-
tatives to sit in the United Parliament, who watch the
proceedings of the Legislature with no less feeling of being
sharers in its life, and of having a power to influence
its course, than Englishmen and Scotchmen. To these
men the disestablishment and disendowment of the Irish
Church will be an assurance of their equality with the
rest of the empire, strengthening their own loyalty, and
encouraging them to propagate it. We should be utterly
faithless if we had not confidence in this result. Disaffec-
tion will not cease in Ireland when the bill becomes law;
the voice of discontent will still be heard to murmur ; but
the strength of disloyalty will be broken, if not subdued;
the efforts of sedition will be paralyzed and die away in
weakness.
The Standard believes that one result of the dissolution
of the Irish Church is already announced from Ireland.
This is the estrangement of the great body of the Protes-
tant laity from the cause of the Union. Hitherto the
movement in favour of repeal has been confined exclusively
to the Roman Catholics. They have been the only
agitators for what is called the parliamentary independence
of Ireland, from which they alone expected to derive any
benefit. We have now to call the attention of the British
people to the fact that henceforth repeal has become a
Protestant as well as a Roman Catholic cry. The effect
of the second reading of the Irish Church Bill has been to
swell the ranks of the discontented and the " National"
party, by throwing among them the mass of the Protestant
laity. The Union, no less than the Irish Church, is the
sign of English ascendancy—the badge of conquest. The
first is a sentimental grievance even more than the other.
If we are to ignore all past history—to reverse the policy
of three hundred years—to consult only the individual
tastes of the Irish nation, without respect to the interests
of the empire, then there is no case for the supporters
of the Union. There has ceased to be any motive or object
in that conduct which has hitherto been consideredloyaltas
in Ireland. The Irish Protestants, being told that they
are no longer members of the National Church, are
absolved from all allegiance to the empire as an integral
whole. No one can complain should they better Mr.
Gladstone's instruction, and proceed from disestablish-
ment to repeal. The political enfranchisement of the
Irish " nation " is the logical corollary of the doctrines on
which the severance of the two Churches has been based ;
and if we are to regard only the wishes of the majority of
the Irish people in a matter of Imperial concern, then
we are bound to concede a separate national Parliament.
nay, a total separation from the empire, whenever the
voice of disaffection becomes louder than that of loyalty.
The Daily News says that it is worth noting how great
a change has come over our few national holidays of late
years. We have begun to believe a good deal more in
holiday-making than we once did, and though it may be
still true of us that we take our pleasures sadly, we are
much more inclined to make the most of our holidays than
our grandfathers were. Indeed, we not only lengthen out
our traditional holidays, but we seize every opportunity of
making others. The Derby Day has long been a metro-
politan holiday which even Parliament has sanctioned by
an adjournment, of which, every year, it is half ashamed .
and it was pretty generally remarked that the day of the
Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race had begun this year
to put on a very holiday Ipok. The fact is that the
working classes know much better how to make holiday
than the middle classes do ; and as the railways have
taught them what to do with a holiday they readily take
one when an excuse is given them or an opportunity
provided for them. The excursion trains have made a
workman's holiday worth having. He need no longer
spend it idling about at home or getting muddled at the
public-house, for a score of cheap trips are offered him
and he can spend his holiday on thehills, or in the fields, or
at the sea, for less, perhaps, than it would have cost at home
Then, too, the railways are always on the look out f a
good occasion to tempt the people to make a holiday. No
fear that any should forget that Easter is a holiday, for
offers of country trips or town amusement for the Easter
holidays have for weeks past stared at us from every wall.
These old ecclesiastical holidays evidently have before
them a future of increasing observance. The changes of
the age give them new life ; and though we may never
add to them any other national holidays, and holiday-
snaking may become more and more a matter of local or
individual occasion, we can see no likelihood that any
future generation of Englishmen will overlook Christmas
Day, or forget Whitsuntide, or snake anything but fes-
tival and holiday during the great week of Easter.
The Telegraph asks some important questions—ls the
Church of England doing her work? Is she fulfilling her
trust? Are the results commensurate with the means
employed ? It is not necessary to make these inquiries in
the same spirit as a barrister cross-examines a hostile wit-
ness ; but asked they will be, and answered they must be,
as recent controversies clearly shew. We have some fif-
teen or twenty thousand clergymen, with a magnificent
annual income of probably seven millions sterling. Is
this great spiritual army combating with energy and
success its foes—immorality, ignorance, and irreli-
gion? Why should it be assumed that every one
who puts these questions is on the side of those
foes? Surely an anxiety to know whether an
institution can be improved does not imply hostility to it.
That the clergy of England are generally doing their task
with zeal and honesty of purpose few close observers will
deny; but that the results are insufficient is equally
patent. On this vital point we need not the testimony of
any but favourable witnesses. Do not bishops' " charges'.
continually lament the practical infidelity of the large
mass of the population ? Do not working clergymen con-
tinually make appeals to the laity to relieve spiritual
destitution? Let any careful inquirer walk through the
poorer districts of London, of Manchester, or any other
large town, on a Sunday morning, and he wilt find abun-
dant evidence that the Church has but little power over
the indigent classes. It is a common thing to hear
persons belonging to the lower half of the middle classes
avow, and that without shame or compunction, that they
have not been inside a church for years, except on the
occasion of a marriage, a baptism, or a funeral. Is it veise,
is it honest, to ignore these notorious facts? Whatever
the cause may be, it is indisputable that the ministrations
of the clergy fail to attract the greater part of the hand-
workers and brain-workers of this country. What we
need is a considerable variety of services suited to the
intelligence, habits, and even tastes of very different classes
of the people. If St. Paul could be all things to all men
that he might save some, those who in the nineteenth
century preach his doctrines may well be content to follow
his example.
The Herald refers to the lecture which Mr. Lomas has
delivered at Manchester on the subject of the tally trade,
and declares that, if it be true that England contains
10,000 of these trading marauders, the evil must operate
on a very large scale. Mr. Lomas also dwells on the fact
that he tally trade is immensely promoted by the county
courts. At every sitting of the court there is a long string
of " tally cases," and sometimes the court has little else
to do than to deal with cases of this kind. The
county court agent—a sort of spurious attorney
—is the devoted ally of the tally-man ; and what
with summonses, warrants, incarcerations, and costs,
the unlucky defaulters must be placed in a most lamen-
table position. County courts were certainly never
intended to promote the tally trade. Nevertheless they
have done so. Intended for the ready recovery of small
debts, these courts have really led to the multiplying of
debts which people cannot pay. Mr. Lomas suggests a
somewhat complicated remedy for this scandalous state of
things. It seems to us that a good deal depends on the
discretion of the county-court judge. There are many judges
who detest these cases, and who give as little help as they
can to the tallrnan. As for the county - court
agents, Mr. Lomas describes them as such myr-
midons that it seems unaccountable that the
judges of the courts should have allowed them to
gain such a status as they seem to have won. But
the prime evil of the whole thing appears to be this—that
women incur debts (and those of a peculiar kind) un-
known to their husbands. In estimating where the chief
blame lies in this matter it should be remembered that the
woman does not seek the tally-man, but the latter comes
to her and tries his utmost to inveigle her into debt. If he
simply tried to persuade her into purchase without credit
the proceeding would yet be fair. But there is something
altogether peculiar in getting a woman to pledge her bus-
band's credit for the payment of so much per week for
months to come. The husband is the real judge of his
ability to fulfil such a contract, and it would seem that
some modification of the law on this point might
reasonably be inastuyith immen:4l t 44N jt.gat
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