The Sun.
London, England, 1869-07-01 00:00:00

cessity of husbanding his strength for exertion in his
place in the House of Lords, has prevented him at
the latest moment from sharing your lordship's hos-
pitality—as was well said by my noble friend,
we shall be grateful for every improvement that can
be effected in our measure, and every change pro-
posed we shall respectfully consider, even though
at the first moment—and possibly at the last—we
may not be able to find that it is an improvement.
(Cheers and laughter.) But our respectful consi-
deration will be given to it, subject to the recollec-
tion of the position in which we stand, of the words
we have spoken, and of the pledges which we have
given. (Cheers.) These pledges m ere few and
simple. We told the country, in language intelli-
gible enough, that in our opinion, if the Irish
Church was to be removed from that position of
legal preference that it had so long enjoyed, it
must be removed subject to these conditions, that
there must be a most careful and literal attention
paid to every just and equitable claim. The second
of these pledges was that these just and equitable
claims must be considered not only in the case
wlesre they were crude, and on behalf of those who
had been ministers or members of the dominant
Church, but wherever directly or by consequence
they could justly be held to arise out of arrange-
ments connected with the winding-up of this anclent
system, which must be applied with the greatest
impartiality on behalf of every religion. So far
as respects the arrangements growing out of the
complicated and exceptional stats of ecclesiasti-
j cal affairs which we found existing in Ireland.
But the basis of the plan was this, that it was a
plan for disestablishment and a plan for gene-
ral disendowment. And there was a third pledge
no less momentous and no leas definite than
the rest—a pledge freely tendered to Parlia-
ment, and freely tendered at the hustings ; and I
do not hesitate to say a pledge which, even if it
had not been freely tmderal, would have been ex-
torted by the national sense and opinion, namely,
that for the satisfaction of these equitable claims
upon principles of cqaity as between the different
religious denominations, the remainder portion of
the property of what is now applied to the Church
of Ireland should be applied for the benefit of the
Irish people, but not for the maintenance of a
Church nor the support of a clergy. (hear, hear.)
These declarations, which are matters of historical
fact, define our position between us and the coun-
try. We tendered the terms of that covenant
'when we sat in the exile of the Opposition, and
we will not forget them now that we are in-
stalled in the seat of power. (Cheers. I believe
that both branches of the Legislature will apply
themselves to the adjustment of this great contro-
versy in the full and clear perception of what the
nation expects, and of what the times and circum-
stances permit; and I am sanguine enough to be-
lieve that within the shortest period the work, which
I believe to be alike one of justice and peace, will
have reached its final term of consummaion.
(Cheers.) I beg again to thank you, my Lord
Mayor, fur the kind way in which you were pleasrd
to propose this toast, and the company for the
courteous reception of it. I venture to assure you
that no exertion on our part will be wanting to
show that as far as depends at least on our will,
whatever our power may be, that your confidence
is not misplaced. (Cheers.)
The Lord Chancellor responded for the House
of Lords, Mr. Bruce the House of Commons, and
the company shortly afterwards separated.

A ill ER I CAN AFFAIRS.