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

SPIRIT' OF T1T.13 PUTOLICI JOURNALS.

The Post observes that the House of Lords has disposed
of the remaining clauses in the Irish Church Bill, and the
measure has now substantially assumed the shape in
which it will be ninitt2el to the Commons. It must be
confessed that it has undergone no inconsiderable modifi-
cations. It is coil ain'y recognisable, but perhaps that is
all that can be said in its favour. Disesta,blishment does
not admit of a greater or a less, and, bo far as the bill
severs the union between Church and State in Ireland,
it has been left unaltered. But disestablish-
ment admits of postponement, and the Peers did
ro,t. throw away the opportunity of staving off the
clay. even though it were only for twelve
months. lis ,dowment, in the strict sense of the term,
is as little capable of being toned down as disestablish-
went, but as the Peers were unwilling to disendow, they
substituted partial endowment for that almost total
deprivation oc property with which the House of Commons
area tone,' th disestab!ished Church. Practically, how-
ever, the n ca3ure is now in the form in which the Lords
1 will ask the 4 ominous to accept it, and, without neccs-
eerily p Li g a collision between the two Houses,
e may feel confident th: t .f the bill is to become law the
Upper House must undo much that it has done.
The Daily News declares that the rapidity with which
the House of Lords have worked their way through it,
touching nearly every salient point, but by no means lin-
oving all that they have 'touched, is very remarkable.
The measure which will leave the Uprer Chamber will be
of a very different character from that which entered it.
and mile' less acceptable to the country. It is quite
, impossible that the House of Commons should assent to
the Lords' amendments. It will be the business of the
Government and of the Liberal party in the Lower Chamber
to restore the Lill to its original foim ; and unless in con-
ference the Lords skew themselves more reasonable than
in their own debates, we may expect an autumn session of
an exciting character. The Peers have done their best to
spoil a measure which they prudently refrained from
rejecting. In the llonso of Commons the deformed must
be transformed. Lord Kimberley plainly intimated that
the bill would not be accepted in the form which the Lords
have given to it. This declaration on the part of the
Ministry will relieve supporters of the measure from any
anxiety they might otherwise feel at the fantastic tricks
of a capricious majority-in the Upper House.
The Standard says that the bill has now received the
form in which the Lords are willing to accept it. In that
form it will go down to the Commons, and it remains to be
seen how Mr. Gladstone will deal with it. His opponents
have shown great forbearance and made great sacrifices;
wil; h a in return chew a little moderation and give up a
little of his own way, or will he throw the country into
confusion in order to exact an implicit compliance with his
individual will and pleasure? In a word, will he act like
a respo::s:hle statesman, or like a reckless demagogue:
'lime will chew ; we can only hope that the evil auguries
of his past career may not now Le fultiiied.

Such as it now is, says the Star, the Lords have passed
the Irish Church Bill through committee. In dismissing
it they gave it the cruellest cut of all. They resolved by
ico votes against v;io that the surplus should be hung up
indefinitely, to be disposed of hereafter at the pleasure of
Parliament. A more slashing blow could hardly have
been aimed at the bill, but there was little virulence in
the debate 'a hich accompanied it. The preamble was
destined, not only to be mangled by the prime enemy of the
bill, but to be spurned by the leader who had charge of it.
"I shall say `Not content' to the question that the
preamble stand part of the bill"—so spoke Lord
Granville—" in order to mark my disapproval of the
course your lordships have taken with the bill." TI e bill
is now substantially in the state in which it will be read a
third time. When this stage has been reached, as it pro-
bably may be on Monday, the Clerk of the House of
Lords will, in the course of the week, bear the bill back
to the Lower House. It will then be seen what response
the Commons mean to give to the emphatic " Not
content," which is Lord Grauville's verdict on the
Government bill in the disguise which has been thrust
upon it.

The Herald, in discussing the volunteer meeting at
Wimbledon, observes that the importance of the volunteer
movement consisted in its spirit, and, all discouraging
influences notwithstanding, its spirit is better than ever.
The very breakdowns which have happened testify to the
earnestness of the public ; they have been marked, repro-
bated, and remembered ; we no more tolerate the insub-
ordination or incapacity of riflemen than we should the
incapacity or insubordination of regular soldiers. In the
volunteer establishment now existing Great Britain
has given a proof of her historical character. Where
artificial or purchased methods failed she helped
herself ; she put on a uniform, she sounded a bugle ; forth-
with recruits came forward, and at this date 170,000 men
are, of their own accord, uncNr arms, prepared to protect
the country. Their cost to the nation is less than £200,000
a year. Of their importance to the empire, judging a
military force by its military exploits, we cannot of course
judge ; yet we may perhaps be right in saying that the
temper of a time when war is not imminent is more crucial
as a test than that of a period when an invader might be
hovering along our shores. In our volunteer organisation
we possess a national fortress ; it is growing more impreg-
nable every year ; it is the physical pick of England,
and we may trust . to it, should the occasion ever be
created, for cool firing, accurate aim, well-judged
distances, ability to adapt movements to the
nature of the ground, and fearless exposure or safe
concealment at the proper moment. Wimbledon is their
grand school, although certain anniversaries may bring
out qualities different from those of the mere marksman.
The marksman, however, provided he be of the nature
to undergo a trial without an oversetting excitementof the
mind, is the model volunteer ; he is not exactly a soldier ;
he is a weapon of defence, and each July Wimbledon tells
us what may be expected from him. In point of fact, the
rifle makes the rifleman, and once perfectly instructed in
the use of his arm, the volunteer may doff his shako to
" the four quarters of the world," inviting them to a
friendly or unfriendly competition.

no Telegraph declares that for Faraday's fame it
~^".or3 nothing whether England shall do him honour—
h in that comparatively obsolete and clumsy fashion
wii.cti is the only way that seems to have occurred to Mr.
Lowe, or in the admirable arrangements for carrying on
his noble work which have suggested themselves to
his brother students ; but it. matters a good deal to
England herself. Mr. Lowe, to do him justice, seldom
cants and seldom talks sheer Philistinism ; but there is a
strong savour of both vices in such a phrase as this. "I
will say further, that the principle of this country, has
been to have its citizens actuated by a feeling of duty
rather than of glory; as if "the principle of this country,"
or a dozen others, could get us a single Faraday when we
wanted one. We are contented to meet Mr. Lowe on the
strange moral ground which he has so oddly chosen,
in his retreat from a :till more untenable position. He
ended thus : " The nation is not hi an ascending scale
which is prodigal of its rewards." England, we
reply, i 3 prodigal to many men ; it. is only
when she has to deal with literature, science, and
the arts, that she spews herself the meanest aid most
niggardly among the nations. She was beginning, as we
hoped, to grow ashamed of such defects ; to be a little
more discriminating in her judgment of the men who
really render the loftiest services ; but we find that the
old leaven is still strong, and that the old prejudices are
hard to kill. We have, perhaps, no right to be surprised
at this ; but we have at least a right, as Liberals, to
lament that when a national memorial was, proposed to
ono of the most illustrious of modern Englishmen, a
Minister of State should have endeavoured to discourage
the proposal—firstly, by citing a " rule" which existed
only in his own brain, and, secondly, by sophistical com-
monplaces to which such a brain should have refused a
hearing. • •

The Times remarks that the last act of the Lords in com-
mittee has completed the transformation of the lainiste-
rial scheme. " What is to done ?" is the question which
must receive the attention of Government during the
next week. The bill has passed through committee, it
will be reported on Friday, and though a strenuous effort
will be then made to reverse Some of the decisions of
the committee, and in the matter of the release without
payment of the glebe-houses of the Establishment
many Liberal peers will now support the Government
who before voted against them, yet we have considerable
doubt whether any real modification of the bill
will be effected, and we are constrained to adopt
the conclusion that it will return to the Commons
Practically in the shape in which it now stands. We
confess that we look upon this as a serious matter, calling
for ail plainness and sincerity of thought and expression
on the part of those who have to consider it. The solution
of the difficulty is not hard to discover if persons will
honestly confess the truth. Let the Government recog-
nise the wishes of Parliament and the ccuntry. None of
us supposed the nation had advanced so far in the pro-
gress of liberality as we flaw see it has done. 'l'l er ;is
no humiliation in finding that the world is better than
we had believed. Adopt the policy of providing resi-
dences and glebes for the priests and ministers of
Ireland, and Lords and Commons can easily be
reconciled. The grant of houses to Presbyterians and
Catholics will balance the concession of the parsonages to
Irish Churchmen. Such a settlement would be easy and
satisfactory, and if anyone doubts whether it is demanded
by every sentiment of justice to Ireland, let him read
Lord Taunton's speech on Tuesday night. Why should it
not be adopted ? Do the Ministry object to any appear-
ance of endowing error? The Duke of Argyll on Tuesday
night protested that he was not betrayed by this prejudice
into the doing of injustice. Is it because the opinion of
the country rejects it? We believe the country to be
ready and willing to Support it. No. If the opportunity
be once more rejected it will be became the governing
powers of the country, being unable to rise above the
catchwords of party, dare not look openly and courageously
at the truth.

HPERIAL PARLIA A ENT

HOUSE OF COMMON6'.—Tins DAY.
The SPEAKER took the chair at 12 o'clock.
TRADES' UNIONS, &c., BILL.
Mr. T. HUGHES moved the second reading of this bill,
the object of which was to relieve trades' unions from an
exceptional position in the eyo of the law, leaving them
separated, liko other bodies, to the general law of the
country when charges were preferred against them. It
also proposed to prevent the recurrence of illegal and ob-
jectionable acts on their part, and to enable them to
take measures for their protection against fraud in a sum-

mary and inexpensive way beforn a justice of the pace.
Ho denied that trades unions—in which strikes were un-
avoidable— were favourable to them, or that their opera-
tion bad the effect of driving trade out of the country. The
remedy proposed by the measure, which Le bad the honour
to ask the house to • read a second time, was to
sweep away the combination laws, and to allow masters
and workpeople to make their contracts with respect to
the manner in which work should be performed, and for
making such societies subject to the common law of the
country. The only other proposal of the bill was
to protect the funds of these societies, which
the Embezzlement Act passed last year did not

sufficiently guard. He thought those societies
deserved well of the country if only for the amount of
good they did in the way of benevolence. The Engineers'
Society bad paid away no less a sum than £lOO,OOO in
supporting the members of their own body against the
privations caused by want of work and other circum-
stances; the ironworkers had also paid upwards of .00,000
in support of their members when in want, and nume-
rous other societies had done equally large amounts
of benefit; and, if on no other ground, he
hoped that the house would read the bill
a second time if only on the grounds of expediency.
(Hear, hear.) If these large trade societies were placed
on the same position as other friendly societies, the most
beneficial results would follow, but if Parliament refused
them that which was but justice, there never would be
peace amongst the industrious classes of the country.
Mr. MUNDELLA seconded the motion.

Mr. MASSEY said that while the bill gave protection
to a large body of persons belonging to trades' union;
yet he thought it ought to be so arranged that the same
amount of protection ought to be given to those w'ho kept
aloof from those societies. Ho did not believe that
trades' unions did anything like the benefits claimed for
them by those engaged in them. Tko great regulator was
supply and demand—(hear) —and he could safely assure
the house that the rate of wages did not give a true view
of the value of the work done, because he could speak
from certain facts that in works carried on by his father
abroad, that in all cases where the highest price for la-
bour was paid there the work was better and more satis-
factorily performed than. in cases where low wages were
only given.

111 r. FORSTER supported the second reading of the bill.
Mr. HENLEY said it was much to be regretted that as
the gulph was widening between the employer and tho em-
ployed Goveinment should have delayed introducing a bill
on the subject, and also stood in the way of a private
member dealing in the matter.

The bill was then read a second time without a division

SUNDAY TRADING BILL.

Mr. RYLAND said as this bill had bees on the list for
a considerable time, and there did not appear to be the
least likelihood of its being passed during the present
session, he hoped the hon. member would now move the
discharge of the order.

Mr. T. HUGHES said lie could not do so, and he should
bring the bill forward ou Monday week.
The house ►►greed to the Lords' a►ncnd►rents to the
Deerhouscs Act.

The other orders having been disposed of, the house
acljourLed.