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

ST. GEORGE'S THEATRE, REGENT STREET

Trim EVENINO, at 8, THE ROYAL ORIGINAL CHRISTY'S
MINSTRELS' Ethiopian Entertainment. Immense Success of
BARBE BLUE. The Only Leon !

CHRISTY MINSTRELS. St. James's Hall, Every Night, at 8
Wednesdays and .‘::aturdays, at 3 and S all the year round.

ROYAL AL HAMBR A PALACE. THREE BALLET -
Promenade Concert. Band of 60. Begin at 8. Is. Box-0Mo(
Oren from 11 to 4.

ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS, Regent sq,als, OPEN daily (ex-
cept Sundays). Admission, 1.5.; on Mondays, 6d. Children
under twelve, 6d

~,..41 3c . *
....,,,y,..-,--r.,...,. 4+
'-: 11344
3,..'
....,, :
n.,...... -...... „..,,- -

LONDOX, MONDAY, MAY 31, 1869.

After the discussion of the House of Commons

his evening, the interest of the session will be trans-

ferred to the House of Lords in regard to the Go-
vernment Bill for the Disestablishinent and Disen-
dowment of the Protestant Church in Ireland. With

the third reading of that bill by the Commons this
evening will tezminate tho 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 decon urn evade the
ignominy of once more revealing to the sight of all
men their titter,vo•A erle sncss—that is to say, by not
challenging another division upon the final wage of
the measure's progress through tha Lower House of
Parliarnent•-7we may rest assured that the third read-
ing would be allowed to pass in silence. A division,
however, is a painful necessity, forced upon

tl:ein I y unavoidable c'rcumstanc.:s. The re.,ult of
it all, we know perfccey well beforehand. Ilento-
at every successive stip in regard to this Cie le
gislative act (as it is designed to be) of the ses-
sion—the Liberals have kept together as they have
not kept together for years past. They h«e
voted all along—upon every occasion--in respect
to this great measure 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 Lst 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 not follow. No leaders could have spoken

,olsore 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-
matkable for its overwhelming magnitude, but it is
still more remarkable, if that be possible, by reason
of is persistent unanimity. Its significance is this—
its authority may be thus defined—that it is the deli-
berate out-come of the last General Election. Its
opinion is the opinion of the whole country. It is the
sense of this that renders the °plass tion so powerless.
Nothing is to be gained by that Opposition through
withstanding the measure proposed by Mr. GLAD-
STONE, supported by the Liberal Party, and sustained
by the coincident opinions of the great mass of the
constituencies. It was upon this very question of the
Irish Church that the two great contending parties
went to the country immediately upon the dissolution
of the late Parliament. The :suspensory Bill of last
session was the distinct foreshadowing of the Irish
Church Bill of the present session—the bill introduced
in fulfilment of the promises deliberately made by the
Liberal leaders, promises addressed by them to the
House of Commons, and subsequently to the elec-
tors of the United Kingdom, promises manfully
carried out in every particular, directly the present
Ministry found themselves face to face with the newly
returned representatives of the nation. As a
matter of course it would be perfectly pos-
sible for the Conservative 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
_do so if they so pleased, for the simple reason that
the Conservative Opposition is as unmistakable in a
majority in the House of Peers as the Liberal Govern-
ment is in a majority in the House of Commons.
Only--that the present is precisely one of those
great crises in the legislative proceedings of the coun-
try, when, by their resolute exercise of their right of
veto as the hereditary legislators of the empire, the
Veers of the United Kingdom would be brow_4lit into
lirect antagonism with the House of Commons, and,
more than that, into direc:, antagonism wi:h the
great mass of Public Opinou t hrougboui the country.
Political crises of this kind have occurred before now,
and upon each ocelsion the House of Lords has
deemed it wise to succumb to the clearly expressed
decision of the people—a decision expressed, first of
all, at the hustings, and afterwards in the House of
Commons itself through the speeches and the votes of
the popular terrcsentatives. It vas thus in regard to
the great question involved in the first comprehensive
faeasure of Parliaaientary Reform, the measure in-
troduced and carried by Earl GREY ;Ind his col-
leagues. It was thus in regard
.to the great ques-
tion of Catholic Eraaccipati9u. It was thus also in