The Sun.
London, England, 1869-06-30 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE I'UBLIC JOURNALS,

--s

The Times. considers that the consideration of the. Irish
Church Bill by the Peers in committee bas begun reason-
ably well. The course of Tuesday's debate brought out,
however, much more important results than the division
on the Archbishop of Canterhnry's amendment. It
became irresistibly clear that the Lords-would in due time
approve by a considerable majority the proposal of th•
Duke of Cleveland. Lord Grey and the Bishop of
Oxford, in language much too wide for -practical
use, declared broadly in favour of the principle
of concurrent endowment. The Times concurs neither
in their reasons nor in their conclusions, but those
who are ready to &Ade all the surplus revenues of the
Irish Establishment among the different communions of the
sister island may be safely reckoned as supporters of a pro-
posal to apply a limited portion of the surplus in affording
the shelter of a house and home to the ministers of its
Churches. It is, indeed, sufficiently known that a very
large section—very nearly one-half—of those who are com-
monly relied upon as trusty Ministerial supporters have
resolved to vote with the Duke of Cleveland ; and, before
the debate was over for the evening, the independent forces
of the Opposition were mustered on the same side. Lord
Salisbury pronounced in favour of tbe Duke's proposal, and
he did so on grounds which commended themselves heartily
to a vast number of the Peers on the Opposition benches.
It is impossible to admit any dereliction from equal jus-
tice in dealing with the Irish Church ; and we must there-
fore relinquish all hope of tenderness, or exhibit the same
moderate sympathy with all the forms of religious life in
Ireland. The suggestion of the Duke of Cleveland affords
the nation the means of reconciling its divergent wishes.
By placing at the disposal of Presbyterian and Roman
Catholic congregations the means of building houses of
residence for their ministers we shall be enabled to release
to the Protestant clergymen their parsonages and glebes,
and be at once just, merciful, and wise.

The Standard says that the Opposition scored their first
victory in the Lords on Tuesday on the amendment to the
second clause, moved by the Archbishop of Canterbury,
postponing the operation of the Irish Church Bill from
the year 1871 to 1872. The many good reasons to be'
assigned for that alteration are obvious, and it is
surprising that Lord Granville should not have made
so trifling a concession at once. He was wrong
as a politician in not giving up so small a point
when be bad so much to ask for, and equally
wrong as a tactician in developing so soon the
active hostility of the Peers to the principles of
his bill. It is not a prudent thing unnecessarily to defy
a large majority. Yet Lord Granville did this, and the
result is a defeat of the Government by a majority of
nearly two to one, the numbers being for the amendment
130, and against it 74. We think the friends of the Irish
Church may look hopefully on the opening of the cam-
paign in the 'Upper House. It has developed fully th
strength of the Opposition and the weakness of the
Governmerit—their " miserable minority," to borrow
Liberal phraseology. If Mr. Gladstone has, as is said,
declared thai he will have "the bill, the whole bill, and
nothing but the bill," the success of the amendment of
the Archbishop of Canterbury is very menacing.

The Herald admits that,on Tuesday Earl Grey took an
irregular course in opposing the postponement of the
preamble of the Irish Church Bill—the one precedent
he cited in his support really told against him—but there
are occasions when the departure from the ordinary and
admittedly convenient rule is not only excusable but useful,
and this was decidedly one of them. A division upon such
a point would have been absurd, and might have been mis-
chievous. Earl Grey judiciuusly abstained from taking,
one. A discussion of the question of what is called con-
current endowment—the phrase, as Lord Salisbury said,
is not a good one, but it is convenient—touched upon
incidentally, and rather as one of no practical importance
in the debate upon the second reading, but raised directly
by Earl Grey's proposition, was most desirable before the
committee arrived at the clauses determining the pecuniary
position of the disestablished Church, -and disposing of
such surplus of its property as might remain after this
provision had been made. Such a discussion, worthy of
the House of Lords and of the very important question
around which it turned, Earl Grey succeeded in raising.

The Star thinks that the country cannot too soon under-
stand that the discussion of the Irish Church Bill in the
House of Lords is to take the form of a deliberate endea-
vour to secure the endowment of the Roman Catholic reli-
gion in Ireland. Any zealous partisan who hied to the
gallery of the Upper House on Tuesday to witness the
salvation of those Protestant interests which Mr.
Gladstone is accused of betraying, must have drunk
the very dregs of the cup of disappoint
meat in hearing, not only Lord Grey, Lord
Salisbury, Lord Westbury, and the Bishop of
St. David's, but the Bishop of Oxford himself, advocai.
ing the assignment of the bulk of the property of the
Church to the Roman Catholics. There have been times
when such a united resolve to provide the Roman
Catholic communion with State means would have denoted
a great advance in liberality. At the present moment it
is a lamentable retrogression—a wilful waste of the good
fruits of well-grown political intelligence. The night's
proceedings were not on the whole encouraging
for those who look for the avoidance of gray,
differences between the two Houses of Parliament.
The vote postponing disestablishment till 1572 shew
that the Peers will snatch at the most shadowy scraps
of comfort, and the agreement as to concurrent endowment
was ominously general. 'But it is satisfactory that such
speakers as Lord Crey, Lord Salisbury, Bishop Wilber-
force, and Lord Westbury utterly failed to place levelling
up in a more favourable positiOn than it has occupied
since Mr. Gladstone passed his statesmanlike condemna-
tion upon it in the old House of Commons.

The Post remarks that an attempt on the part of the
Legislature to put down betting pure and simple would
be pure and simple folly, and indicative of impractical
statesmanship. To suppress betting in its various -phase
it would be necessary to follow the broker and the jobber
into the Stock Exchange, the free-born Briton into his
club or his " castle," and even the merchant or manu-
facturer into his counting-house. The same principle
really pervades all these—that is to say, the staking
or venturing of money on eventualities. All that can be
done • is to give no official encouragement to betting
or gambling, and to endeavour to check such forms of the
evil' as are found to be posjtively injurious to the public.
Betting, in itself could not possibly be construed into an
of against the Government of a country. It is the
mischievous effects following the abuse of it that alone
just;fies official interference. It. has been urged that if
••betting offices are suppressed, in all equity and logic 'rat.
tersall's must not be allowed to escape. There cannot,
it is said, be one law for the rich and one for the poor ;
•and if the law as it stands cannot reach the great
-centre of betting, there must be one made to
do so. This line of argument is perfectly shal-
low . and fallacious. Only a very small portion of
well-to-do persons, who wish to speculate on the Turf,
belong to Tattersall's, and those who do not must very
often resort to these offices, Which are erroneously supposed
to be made use of solely by people in humble circumstances.
AS to the suggestion that if the law cannot reach Tatter-
sall's it shculd be made to do so, if that were attempted it
would speedily be seen that the House of Commons is not
to be misled by the ignorant claptrap which has been put
forth on this part of the subject.
The Dail? News declares that trapeze accidents are now
among the regular claimants for notice in the newspapers.
A week rarely passes nithout some mishap of the kind,
and sometimes men and sometimes women are the victims

of the public appetite for this brutal form of entertain
ment. A peculiarly shocking case has just reached a
fatal termination at Windsor. On the 2nd of June, .7
man named Frederick Thurrell was performing at the
Wallington Music Hall, in the royal borough, together
with another man named Henry Julian, when
Thurrell missed one of the ropes, and both
men fell. Julian was unhurt, but the other was
so injured in the spine that first paralysis of the
limbs and then mortification resulted ; and, after linger-
ing for some weeks in the infirmary, the unfortunate per-
foither died on Saturday. To the verdict of " Accidental
death," the coroner's jury added that " no one connected
with the hall or the performance was to blame ; " and
technically this may have been so, but in a higher sense
all managers of places of public amusement are very much
to blame for allowing dangerous exhibitions to take place
in their theatres or rooms. That the chief fault lies witl-
the public themselves is very true ; but the existence of a
depraved taste does not justify its gratification. If
no appeal to the better feelings of audiences and
managers is of any use in putting a stop to these
amusements—and it is to be feared that such is
the case the Legislature must consider whetle-
it is not bound to make exhibitions of this nature illegal.
No doubt there are:difficulties in the way of such a course :
but nothing is more demoralising to a nation than a love
of spectacles involving hazard to the lives and limbs of the
operators. It was often remarked at the time when
lilondin and Leotard were executing their perilous feats,
that, if they met with no accidents themselves, they would
be the cause of numerous accidents to other people, their
clumsy imitators. Our English performers (who generally
strive to mask their nationality under romantic French
and Italian names) seem wanting in the fine address of flat
real continental " artists ;" and hence repeated falls
broken limbs, injured spines, and premature deaths.

THE MARQUIS OF HASTINGS'S EFFECTS.—The
remaining effects of the late Marquis of Hastings,removea
from the mansion, Donington Park, Leicestershire, have
been submitted to public competition byllrLailliPq
bi caNt.l2.l2M ICONLBUSIAnett.