The Sun.
London, England, 1869-04-23 00:00:00

The D«; 1 y News foresees that the permanent curate of
ud will suecee.l the compound householder of England
as the great parliamentary bore. He is the text and
subiect of lay sermons in St. Stephen's as fearful in them-
selves and in their probable coesegnences as any thi.t the
imaginaVon of Sidney Smith could conceive as proceeding
from the wildest of his order. The House of Commons
is not yet preached dead ; but the long continuance of the
two nights' discussion, of which the permanent curate has
been the principal theme, would be execution by process
of slow torture. The dropping of water upon the exposed
head of the victim is described as, in its cumulative
effect, the most terrible infliction which inquisitorial
cruelty devised. The dropping of words is almost as bad.
The dreary theme is not sensibly relieved by the laboured
jocularity of Mr. Vernon Harcourt, nor the apt grace of
classical allusion which enables Mr. Beresferd Hope to
find in Mr. Synan, the member for Linerick, the counter.
part of the Shinn, whose treacherous wiles brought the
fatal horse within the walls of sacred Troy. The per-
manent curate is an entity whom it seems as difficult to
apprehend as the abstract idea of a Lord Mayor. He
evades definition and arrest with Protean versatility. He
is carcely to be caught by gold ; and the promise of some-
thing to his advantage hardly succeeds in making him
enter an appearance. But though lie will not cnne
in his proper time and place, he is always intruding
where he has no buainess to be. If Mr. Gladstone's
calculations be correct, Mr. Vernon Harcourt's complaints
that the curates are scurvily treated seem without ground.
Ills protestation that they were as well entitled to the
consideration of Government as Irish lunatics and idiots
gives up the whole principle of the bill, and asserts the
claims of a sectarian minority to a portion, at least, of the
funds intended for the whole Irish nation, without distinc-
tion of sect. He dill not succeed in modifying the clause,
which passed without opposition, Lis did the sections
defining the compensation due to diocesan schoolmasters,.
rectors, vergers, organists, and others.
The Standard says the Home Secretary has explained
the grounds upon which he reprieved Wiltshire, and has
vindicated generally the recommendations by which he
has guided the exercise of the royal Kerogative of pardon.
We cannot say that Mr. Bruce's statement, for eliciting
which the country is indebted to Sir George Jenkinson,
is at all satisfactory. If we regard it as justifying Mr.
Bruce's own proceedings, we can only do so by allowing
that a failure of justice may be expected to occur in one
at least of every two trials for murder. Talk about legal
reforms, indeed. Here is one to which Parliament should
give its immediate attention. Human life is, it seems,
according to the Home Secretary, the sport of our present
tribunals ; and for every murderer convicted and sen-
tenced an innocent man is put in danger of his life.
But the real question as to Mr. Bruce's exercise of the
power which his office gives him was not raised.
Grant that it was right to reprieve the brute Wiltshire,
and the injustice of executing Sheward becomes all the
more apparent. The execution of the latter was not
needed to impress upon the people a respect for the sanc-
tity of human life. The verdict which found him guilty
of the crime for which he was sentenced, rested entirely
upon his own confession, and not even Mr. Bruce could -
have felt any confidence in the justice of that verdict
unless it had, subsequent to the trial, been supplemeued
by another confession. Certainly, if there was any justi-
fication for the exercise o 4 the prerogative of mercy in the
cases in which Mr. Bruce has exercised it, there was a far
stronger justification in the case of Sheward, and although
there can be no doubt, and we allow it most unbeeta-
tingly, that Mr. Bruce has anxiously weighed everene
of those cases, and decided according to his sense ofirrulic
duty, the public will, we fear, be inclined to suspect that
Sheward was really hung in order to make the account
between executions and reprieves look a littla.ter.
The Herald considers that the Liberal ' has been
reduced to absolute subjeetiors,' alurtl` none of its
members dare express an independent opinion on the
clauses of the Irish Church Bill. No one could have
believed that the bonds of. putty discipline would be so
tiAtly strained, and the obligations of hustings pledges so
lightly regarded, that every Liberal should be held bound
to vote for every detail of a measure which violated one
entire moiety, and that not the least important, of the
Promises given during the session and the canvass of 1868.
But it has proved that the system of terrorism instituted
by Mr. Gladstone, the rejection of so many of the more
independent members of th9sarty,and the signal examples
1 of such men as Mr. Laing, Mr. Roebuck, and Mr.
Ilorsman, have done their work only too well. The
Liberals are as thoroughly cowed as the subjects
of Robespierre—as mere machines as a Russian
soldiery. They must come down when they are
bid ; hold their tongues at the word of command, and vote
' for every word in the bill, and against every proposal
that emanates from an independent or Conservative
member. They dare not fancy for a moment that their
seats, their votes, or their souls are their own. They
must give the lie to their clearest convictions and their
most definite promises. The only liberty left to them is
that of shouting ; and deprived of all freedom of action in
every other direction, they vesit their feelings in hooting
and laughing to an extent EA unusual as the pressure to
which they are subjected. _Under such circumstances it
Is simply useless to persevere in any amendment that is
not at once accepted by the Government, and impossible
to carry the slightest alteration that would do more than
correct their many oversights; while it requires all the
authority of the chair to secure a patient hearing for any
Opposition speaker who ventures to occupy more than
live minutes in the discussion of the most important
matters, whether of principle or of practice.

The Star remarks that the vexed question of primary
education in Ireland must, sooner or later. come to be
rec,onaidered by Parliament. The general result however
of Mr. Foster's inguntes must be regarded as eminently
satisfactory. It is agreed, in the first place, that there
is no lack of machinery for public instruotion in
Ireland, although in some parts of the country a redistri-
leition of schools is desiderated, is acknowledged
that the at' end:trice of children is not practically checke,l
by any of those canse4 the commanding influence of which
we have unhappily to deplore in this country. The
.opinion of the masters, however, appears to incline in
favour of an educational poll-tax, with compnleory instruc-
tion as a c.mdition of it. lint the real List of the educe,
thin difficulty in Ireialed is the ejueation of religion. Is
the national system of nonsectarian teaching approved by
the people or not? Among the ecclesiastics on both
sides there are some expellent men, but the
sacerdotal temper is the swae all over the world.
and the tiposition of clerical fanaticism to every
measure tending to break down tlie partition wails
between sects was a consequence which must always bo
taken into account by statesmen. For all that, the
national system of education, displaying such hpi.A3F two,,
gress as is evident from the testunumel put fovyard by
Mr. Foster,ought not to be mill bainkned in ueference
to eleri^al ilatricur. 'TA establish denominational instruo-
leeetini would be a work of much difficulty, incon-
sistent in many respects with what has been achieved by
the disestablishment of the MTh Church ; it would arouse
much discontent and create some hardship ; it would only
satisfy the clergy at the expense of inconvenience to
the people ; and its results would be doubtful at the
• ,fit. -•