The Sun.
London, England, 1869-05-31 00:00:00

OND 0.4‘7, MONDA iLI Y 31,1:69.

After the discussion of the House of Commons
this evening, the interest of the session will be trans-
ferred to the House of Lords in regard to the Go-
vernment Bill for the Disestablishment and Disen-
dowment of the Protestant Church in Ireland. With
the third reading of that bill by the Commons this
evening will terminate the labour and the respon-
sibility hitherto devolving through it upon the
popular representatives. A final division will
have to be taken to-night upon that third reading.
If the Opposition could with any decorum evade the
ignominy of once more revealing to the sight of all
men their utter powerle,sncss—that is to aay, by not
challenging another division upon the final stage of
the measure's progress through the Lower House of
Parliament. —we may rest assured that the third read-
ing would be allowed to pass in silence. A division,
howet er, is a painful necessity, forced upon
tl:e:n I.y unavoidable e'rcumstaeci-s. Tee re.- ult of
it all, we know perfect'y well befor. hind. 'Hereto-
at every successive step ie regard to this the le
gislative act (as it is designed to be) of the ses-
sion—the Liberals have kept together as they hive
not kept together for years past. They h e
voted all along—upon every occasion—in respect
to this great me :sure of Mr. GLADSTONE'S Go-
vernment in regard to the Irish Church, with
an unanimity so remarkable that it has almost seemed
like an reiterated protest on the part of the Liberals
as a body against the sneering dictum lust session
uttered by the right honourable gentleman
the member for Kilmarnock. In the new House of
Commons—whatever may have been the case in re-
gard to its immediate predecessor-- the Liberal Party,
it would be simply absurd to describe, now, as one
having leaders who would not lead and followers who
would net follow. No leaders could have spoken
more plainly, boldly, clearly, from the first as to their
policy—and certainly no followers could have evi-
denced a more complete, a more instant, or a more
unfaltering obedience. The Liberal majority is re
tnarkable for its overwhelming magnitude, but it is
still more remarkable, if that be possible, by reason
of is persistent unanimity. Its significance is this—
ts authority may be thus cl:fitted -s that it is the deli-
berate out-come of the last General Rection. Its
opinion is the opinion of the whole country. It is the
sense of this that renders the Opposition so powerless.
Nothing is to be gained by that Opposi, ion through
withstanding the measure proposed by Mr. GLAD-
;TONE, supported by the Liberal Party, and sustained
,y the coinci lent opinions of the gre tt mass of the
.:onstitucecies. It was upon this very question of the
Irialt Church that the two great contending parties
went to the country immediately u. on the dissolution
,f the late Parliament. The 6uepenscry Bill of last
session was the distinct foreshadowing of the Irish
Church Bill of the present session—the bill introduced
in fttlfliment of the promises deliberately made by the
Liberal leaders, promises addressed by them to the
douse of Cominoes, alai sulescuet.tly to the dee-
:ors of the United King loin, pro nixes in tufully
carried out in every particular, directly the present
Ministry found themselves face to Pace with the newly
returned representatives of thee nation.i)erfeetly Aspesa
:natter of course it would be
Aible for the Conzervative Opposition in the
Upper House of Parliament to throw out the
Irish Church Bill immediately after it has passed
triumphantly at every stage of its progress through
the popular branch of the Legislature. They could
lo so if they so pleased, for the simple reason that
the Conservative Opposition is as unmistakable in a
aiajerity in the House of Peers as the Liberal Govern-
ment is in a majority in the Honee of Commons.
Only- —that the present is precisely one of these
great crises in the legislative proceedings of the coun-
try, when, by their resolute exercise of t h.ir right of
veto as the hereditary legi.datots of the empire, the
Peers of the United Kingdom would be brought into
tired antageniem with the lletisc. of Commor s, and,
more tl.an that, into dirt c'.; antagonism with the
'neat mass of Public Opieon throughout the country.
Political cri.ses of this kind have occurred before row,
tad 1;1 on caeh oec .eien the llotees of Lor.'s has
keened it se to succumb to ti.e ehealy expresFed
ecision of the people—a decision expressed, first of

11, at the hustings, at.d afterwards in the House of
Commons itself through the speeches and the votes of
the popular representatives. It was thus in regard to
the great question involved in the first comi.rehensive
lleasure of Parliamentary Reform, the measure in-
troduced and carried by Earl GREY and his col-
!eagues. It was thus in regard to the great pea-
:iOn of Catholic Emanciption. It was thus also in