The Sun.
London, England, 1869-07-16 00:00:00

SrIRIT OF THE ; ÜBLIC JOURNALS.

'The Times observes that the Conservative Peers, exer-
rising their constitutional privilege, have recorded their
genteat against the third reading of the Irish Church Bill.
In the meantime, the course which the leaders should take
it rendered even more obvious by the exercise of this right
of protest. The Conservative Lords will not be disposed
to deny that, rightly or wrongly, disestablishment and dis.
endowment are in accord with the verdict of the country.
The question has been before the public in the shape of a
practical measure for more than a year; a general election
has turned upon it, an immense majority has
been chosen of one way of thinking, rill. neither
that majority nor the constituencies who created it
have shewn the slightest sign of faltering. More
over, the majority of
.the Lords themselves for the hill
was larger than most people, and particularly the Opposi-
tion Lords themselves, expected. Now, it is recognised
by every theorist concerning the functions of the Lords
that when the will of the nation has been once declared it
is the duty of the Upper House to submit. The bill will
now go back to the Upper House restored almost to the
shape in which it left the House of Commons originally.
The Commons have decided that the amendments made
by the Lords are not consistent with the principle of the
Lill, and there is no reason to suppose they can
be induced to surrender this opinion. The bill
must be passed in the form on which the Government
has decided, or not at all. If, then, the Lords decide
to maintain their amendments, they vtually declare
that they will not pass the bill. The importance of such
a decision need not be dwelt upon. A collision would
ensue between the two Houses, the only result of which
would be popular agitation, and the renewal of the mea-
sure in Parliament in a more bitter spirit and with a
fiercer determination to carry it through. The Lords
would have abandoned their own principle—that it was
right and just to pass the bill—and they would have
abandoned it to no purpose. We sincerely trust, there-
fore, that the Conservative Peers, satisfied with the pro-
test which usage allows them, will no longer persevere in
their opposition, nor make the maintenance by the Com-
mons of its own opinions a pretext for setting aside the

The Standard says that Mr. Gladstone acted with hb
usual skill and judgment in " forbearing to trespass on the
attention of the House " with a long introductory speech
on the Lords' amendments. Had he done so, not only
must he have put himself palpably and flagrantly in the
wrong before the country, and exhibited himself
and his party, and the collective House, in e
most odious light, but it is doubtful whether
he would not have strained too far even the
astonishing fidelity and obedience of his retainers.
On each particular question it was easy to make
out a decent pretence for adhering to his original purpose,
and not difficult for a great orator to persuade a partial
audience that in each instance he was in the right. But
had he discussed the whole subject at once he could
hardly have failed to impress upon all reasonable and
honourable Liberals a strong sense of the hateful and
unworthy character of the course he was urging the House
of Commons to pursue. The principle of the bill Is
endorsed by the country, and to the country both Houses
must bow. But the clauses of the bill are not even the
work of the Commons ; they are the production of Mr.
Gladstone and Mr. Bright, and of no one else ; and
.they carry with them no other weight than the authority
of those two gentlemen can give. The Lords cannot
pretend to resist the country, but they ov-e no deference
to the House of Commons on matters on which its mem-
bers speak as individuals, and represent only their own
,opinions. But when the issue lies not between the collec-
tive intelligence of the two Houses, Lut between the
individual opinion of Mr. Gladstone and the col-
lective wisdom of an assembly containing half a score of
men individually his equals in knowledge, intellect,
and statesmanship, and even in eloquence, it is clear
which party is likely to he right, and which ought to
yield. The imperious and peremptory style in which the
Minister has struck his pen through all the amendments
of the Lords, and the tone in which he spoke of an
assembly superior in rank and in nothing inferior to that
which he addressed, is calculated to give offence to thou-
sands who care comparatively little about the original
ground of the dispute. Intolerant vanity and imperious
arrogance have ruined stronger Ministers than Mr. Glad-
stone, and his conduct on Thursday night savoured greatly
of the pride that augurs destruction, and the " haughty
spirit " that precedes a fall.
The Herald declares that the fate of the Irish Church
Bill was decided in the curt announcement made on
Thursday afternoon by Mr. Gladstone of the course the
Government intended to take with regard to the more
material of the Lords' amendments. Not one of them is
to be accepted. A question is therefore deliberately raised
far more momentous than that involved in any one of the
amendments of the Lords. In the most defiant and insult-
ing manner, with a deliberate purpose of forcing the
Lords to confess their impotence, and to subscribe
themselves the humble servants of Mr. Gladstone,
the Government rejects all idea of compromise ; refuses to
yield anything in deference to the opinion of a branch of
Legislature of co-ordinate authority with the House of
Commons ; and, relying upon the servility of its majority,
sacrifices to a paltry personal feeling, as well as the
measure, the immediate adoption of which it declares to
Le necessary to the peace of the Empire, and those good
relations between the two Houses of Parliament which
it might so easily have maintained. The Peers cannot
possibly eat the leek which the Premier so insolently
holds out to them. They cannot yield all their amend-
ments, and anxious as many of them may be to end the
strife, ready as some of them, perhaps, are to purchase
a brief peace by a fatal surrender, they must reply
to the message of the House of Commons, declaring that
it has disagreed to all their amendments beyond verbal
and technical ones, by another message announcing their
insistence upon them. Ancient Pistol, the swaggerer,
will have to eat the leek himself. Mr. Gladstone renders
it impossible for the Peers to give way if they had ever so
much heart for it. They must fight, and the result will
be a very awkward if not a decisive defeat for the Govern-
ment.

A correspondent of a fashionable contemporary, says
the Daily News, in which the performances of pigeon-
shooters are industriously registered, wrote to complain of
what was stated to be a practice in the sport—the taking
out the eye of the bird, in order to ensure its flight in a
certain direction. The charge is answered in a highly
facetious manner by " Winchilsea and Nottingham," the
distinguished critic of Milton, who inveighs " against the
loathsome mass of sensibility so much on the increase in
the present day." Despite all that " Winchilsca and
Nottingham " can say in his elegant style for pigeon-
slaughter we hold it to be a cruel and wanton amuse-
ment, with which sportsmen of the best school have
constantly expressed themselves disgusted. It requires
but little skill, and that little of the quality which
may be found in the billiard-leg or the skittle-sharp. It
is not even a good preparation for the cowardly tattue, as
it is well known that famous hands at scoring pigeons
shoot wildly enough when brought into the preserves. No
doubt the noble pigeon-shooter is an authority on the
usages of the aristocratic pastime; but that is no reason
why he should burst into a rage against everyone who
says a word in favour of humane ideas. His letter, if
taken to prove anything, includes an apology for badger-
bating, cock-fighting, and the habits of intemperate
cattle-drovers, who are, no doubt, sufferers with "Win-
chilsea and Nottingham" from the "loathsome mass of
sensibility" which obtrudes itself upon the notice of the
gambling gunners of Red House, whose recreations are
of so civilising a character.

The Telegraph observes that after many days of excite-
ment, not quite without anxiety, on the part of the pro-
jectors and the contractors, the French Atlantic Cable
has been laid, and it now adds a third electric nerve to
those which previously bound together the Old and the
New \Vorlds. There has been a brief period of silence,
while the mists were lifting and the engineers were
snaking the splice at St. Pierre ; but the great ship
has spoken again, and felicitations have been flashed
to the French Emperor upon the virtual completion
of the work. The interest of the public in thr
enterprise, though considerable, has not been so
intense as that exhibited when the second' cable was
deposited and the first one picked up ; for the simple
reason that the extraordinary skill and perfect mechanical
and nautical resources demonstrated on those occasions
had proved that submarine telegraphy had ceased to
belong to the realm of wild speculation. With the huge
Great Eastern to help them, our electricians and line-
layers have become masters of their business ; and the
Est triumphant success will inspire fresh confidence
in their powers. The developments which many sciences
may receive under the impulse of this instantaneous
communication of fact and thought, can only be
guesqel at present ; but remarkable progress has been
made already, and future advances are sure to be still
snore signal. Imperfect as the network of our magnetic
system is at the present time, in political and commercial
matters the electric wire has worked a silent revolution.
The latest excellent achievement in cable-laying will give
a fresh impulse to magnetic enterprise everywhere, fur
the feats accomplished even during so comparatively
uneventful a, voyage conclusively show that we are masters
of the conditions of success, and the only question now is
where we want lines laid, not whether we can lay them.

THE ATHENA:UM. —The Committee of the Athe-
rifc:tun Club, in virtue of their special rule which gives
extraordinary facilities to the election of a Cabinet Min-
ister, have elected Mr. John Bright,M.P., to be a member
of the club. The election was unanimous, the committee
having been specially summoned. Lord Stanhope was le
the chair.