The Sun.
London, England, 1869-04-08 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF LIE PUBLIC) JOIFILNALS, j ARCHDEACON DENISON ON THE ,PRISE
CHURCH,

The _Herald says we have been so frequently told, both
in and out of Parliament, that the Conservative Govern-
ment was unpopular with the great bulk of the Irish
people, and so frequently assured that tranquillity could
only be established and maintained in Ireland by the con-
cession of Liberal measures, enacted and administered by
Liberal statesmen—that unless good proof to the contrary
could be shewn, it is more than probable that the public
mind of this country might, iu the end, yield credence to
assertions so perseveringly reiterated. Yet, when we
appeal to admitted facts, it becomes evident—test-
ing their truth by the commission of such illegal
acts as are generally allowed to evince the real state
of Irish popular feeling—that such assertions are
perfectly unfounded. The surest indication of the social
condition of any country is to be found in its criminal
statistics ; and taking the past condition of Ireland under
a Conservative, and its present one under a Radical,
Administration as our guide, we can easily prove that it
was more satisfactory under the Governments of Lord
Derby and Mr. Disraeli than it now is under that of their
successors in office. That is to say, that there have been
three murders and two attempts at murder, within nearly
two years and a half in the one case, and just the same
number of murders and shooting within four months in the
other. Such a disparity in the amount of crime between the
two periods we have alluded to, is, we should think, quite
sufficient to satisfy us that—whether arising from a want of
confidence in the present Government, or from a determina-
tion to exhibit their discontent at the postponement of the
land question in favour of the Church question—the Irish
peasantry are far more hostilely disposed than they were,
and are little likely to be satisfiei, by the abatement of a
grievance which does not touch their pockets, while pant-
ing for an arrangement which, according to the promises
of the statesmen they have assisted in elevating to power,
would convert them from occupiers into the more enviable
position of proprietors of the land. We have, to support
our views, only stated the number of outrages which can
be strictly termed agrarian 1 did we extend our notice to
acts of violence arising from private motives and resulting
in death, the proportion would still more strongly indicate
the present unfavourable condition of Ireland as compared
with its past.

The Daily News says that the House of Lords has been
occupying itself during a good part of the present session
with one of the most important innovations of modern
times. Hostile critics have already described it as the
introduction of a new principle into our law, the creation
of a new class of " suspected persons," and the introduc-
tion among us of police surveillance in its most tyrannical
and odious form. But the very title of the bill deprives
such rhetorical descriptions of more than half their force.
A bill which only professes to deal with habitual
criminals is not likely to excite much alarm among
honest men. Their question about it is not very
likely to be—What new legal principle does it
apply, or with what new power does it arm the police?
They are more likely to ask—Does it afford a chance of
dealing effectively with well-known rogues? The bill
does not, in fact, create a class of "suspects ;" it merely
provides legal recognition for a class which is already too
well known among us. It is a magnificent principle of
English law that every man shall be presumed to be
innocent till he is proved to be guilty, and to all honest
Englishmen that principle is a guarantee of safety. But
underneath the fair seeming surface of modern civilisation
there has been long spreading• a social rot which needs a
new principle to enable us to deal with it. The old dis•
tinctions of classes have been supplemented by
another, and the very phrase the " criminal
classes" is an addition to our social nomencla-
tuse which merely recognises a new, and fright-
fully significant social fact. A section of society
lives, and is known to live, by preying on the other
sections. A suspected class actually exists among us.
The law does not recognise a criminal class, but a criminal
class exists ; its members are to some extent known.
Why should not the law, therefore, recognise the
fact? By Lord Kimberley's bill it does recognise it.
That bill does not create a class of " suspects ;" it gives
legal recognition to a class which already exists. It does
not creat police surveillance ; it gives an existing surveil-
lance more effectual power to protect society. It does
not affect a single honest man, except to protect us all;
:t does not even alter the status of an ordinary criminal ;
it deals only with ticket-of-leave men, who are only free
by "license," and with twice-convicted habitual rogues
and it simply removes from them the shield of that
assumption of innocence which the law throws over al
persons when they are first accused, but to which ha,bitua
criminals have forfeited all right or claim.

The Teienraph observes that Mr. Disraeli's speech on
the second reading of the Maynooth College Bill, in 1840,
is rm-noralilc, as :mong the fiercest of his diatribes against
Sir Robert Peel ; and in that speech he plainly,- disavowed
the " supposed " connection of Church and State,
declaring that it had no existence, and was not
desirable. " I have," he said, " unfaltering confidence in
the stability of our Church ; but I think that the real
source of the danger which threatens it is its connection with
the State, which places it under the control of a House of
Commons that is not necessarily of its communion.
Leave the Church to herself, and she will shrink
from no contest, however severe. I believe in Ire-
land itself, if the question be Will you sever the Church
from the State, or will you endow the Roman Catholic
Church ?' for my own part, I believe the Protestants of
Ireland would say, 'Sever the connection between the
Church and the State, and 'don't endow the IZOman
Catholics.'" This memorial passage deserves to be recalled
now that we are threatened with another debate on the
owe exciting

The Times in discussing the condition of Irish politici
admits the great importance of the land question. Every
Administration during the last eighteen years has acknow-
ledged the necessity of dealing with it. The colleagues of
Lord Mayo are as much committed to this truth as the
colleagues of Mr. Chichester Fortescue. The practical
question to be considered by Lord Stanley and every
statesman is whether he will pluck up courage to satisfy
so much of the claims of the Irish agriculturist as
is founded in justice, or will allow him to become
exasperated by deferring attention to his COM.
plaints. It is an issue on which the common sense
of every one can judge whether the better way to
silence extravagant demands, in cases where there is an
acknowledged ground for some demand, be to concede
what is justly due or to refuse to concede anything. Pre-
cisely the same reasoning applies to the agitation for
legislative independence. The strength of this cry has
always been the injustice of the legislation suffered under,
or by permission of, the Imperial Parliamen47 : take away
this foundation for it, by abolishing the Establishment
and securing to the tenant his just claims, and the
agitation collapses. Refuse to do anything, and every
year will add to the violence and unreason of its demands.
The question of education is apparently more com-
plicated, but in reality equally simple. It is almost
entirely a clerical grievance, and we have hitherto
done our best to strengthen the clerical influence. We
have furnished both priest and peasant with grounds for
discontent in maintaining the Establishment and in allow-
ing the land question to pass unheeded, and priest and
peasant accept and support each other's objects. Disunite
them as they are disunited in America, and if the priest
does not cease to be influential, he ceases to be a leader
commanding unquestioning obedience. We arrive at the
same moral with respect to education as with respect to
land, to nationality, or the other cries which influence
Irishmen ; ff we would maintain what is good and with-
stand what is evil, we must be prompt to remedy what is
evil and to sanction what is good.
The Standard declares that some of its Liberal con-
temporaries of the weekly press are just now a good deal
occupied with the condition, the policy, and the prospects
of the Conservative party. They profess to be very much
concerned with the fortunes of their opponents, and are
good enough to spend much labour in speculating on their
position and in advising them how to shape themselves, so
as to conform .to that true ideal of Conservatism
which has been formed for our benefit. Notably
the Saturday Review has been for some weeks past
profuse of counsel and of instruction to Conser-
vatives. The behaviour of the Conservatives at
this period of their history is to that journal a
subject of much interest and of speculation. As we
stand at present it may be perhaps useful to ourselves to
know that we are not altogether such as we should be in
the eyes of our censor. We have a good deal to amend
before we can arrive at the standard of that perfect oppo-
sition which our contemporary has imagined. We con-
tinue to be influenced by two opposite influences—the
persistent ambition of our leaders to govern the country,
and the stolid apathy of our rank and file, who are only
too happy to remain in peaceful obscurity, and to let the
Liberals carry all necessary measures. There are special
reasons, chiefly springing from their unlucky nomencla-
ture, why those who call themselves Liberals should always
exceed in number those who reckon themselves Conser-
vatives. Most men are naturally anxious to pass in the
catalogue as Liberals. Eve rypne would like to be considered;
and considers himself, a Liberal. Upon a bare enumera-
tion, therefore, of the respective denominations, it is
reasonable to suppose that the Liberals will always out-
number the Conservatives. But it is absurd to suppose
that this condemns the Conservative party to a perpetual
exclusion from power. It is puerile, moreover, to rest the
position of the Conservatives on a question of nomencla-
ture. Those 'who anticipate that the function of Conger.
vatism is over, and that the party are doomed to a per-
petual opposition, have scarcely studied with due attention
either the duties of Conservatism or the temper of the
English people. Certainly nothing has happened within
the last two years to put Conservatives either out of date
or of hope.

The Ven: Archdeacon of Taunton held a visitatiait al
St. Mary's, Taunton, on Tuesday. Referring to thr
Irish Church Bill, he said it was a measure of confisca
tion, by which Mr. Gladstone's suppoiers were pledges
to more than they at the time of the general election;
intended. This was ground sufficient to justify the
Lords in throwing out the bill. It-had been reported that'
many of the English bishops would not vote against it,
although present. He could not believe so monstrous
a thing. Mr. Gladstone had bought the support of the
Nonconformist, the Roman Catholic, and the unbeliever,
at the price of the sacrifice of the Church of the Reformer.
tion. Worse acts done under fine names, acts of more
deserved reproach to the contriver, and of more lasting
injury both to Church and State—acts with nothing to
redeem their character except the temporary consolida.
tion of a shattered party—a test more unsound even
upon the bare principle of the world's statesmanship—
a blunder of policy more egregious and more fatal—
a more distinct and emphatic and slip.: ~, subordi-
nation of the truth of religion to party policy were not to
be found in any history. It was not too late for the people
to save themselves from, complicity with so great a sin.
He approved of the first assumption of the "High Church
Radical," that the Church ought to be free de facto as well
as de jure ; but that Mr. Gladstone would set the Church
free, or that, if free, she would be allowed to retain her
endowments, he regarded as the most curious hallucination
he had seen even among the clergy.

TILE FORTHCOMING VOLUNTEE.R
REVIEW AT PORTSMOUTH

The subjoined letter has been received by the Lord-Lieu.
tenant of the county of Hants, the Marquis of Winchester,
from the Secretary of State for War, relative to the pro-
posed review of the volunteers at Portsmouth :—" War
Office, April I.—My Lord,—ln reply to your lordship's
application of the 24th ult., I have the honour to
inform you that I approve of a field-day of volunteers being
held at Portsmouth on the 2Gth of April, 1869, and the
attendance of the Ist Administrative Brigade Hants
Artillery Volunteers on the occasion. I have further
to request that your lordship will be good enough to
inform me, as soon as possible, of the probable number
of volunteers who will be present at the field-day, as,
in the event of a large number of volunteers wishing
to take part in the review, it will take a considerable time
to make the necessary arrangements. All applications
should, therefore, be sent in not later than the Bth inst.—
I have the honour to be, myLord, your Lordship'sobedient
servant, EDWARD CARDWELL." Major-General Lindsay
has sanctioned the time of application from corps to be
present at the review to be extended from the Bth to the
12th inst. Commanding officers of volunteer corps intend.
ing to be present should make application at onco to
the railway authorities for the conveyance of their corps.
There appears to be every prospect of a large number of
volunteers being present, and, to insure a successful and
creditable result, it only remains for those who may have
the preparation of the day's programme that such a plan
of battle may be drawn up t'n:At tl.e voHmtcere may not
be compelled to fight in impos:,l3,e pct.:Cons, and that alt
ranks may have leant something of their duties as citizen
soldiers at the close of their day's work,