The Sun.
London, England, 1869-06-21 00:00:00

SPIRIT Cr TEE PUET IC JOURNALS,

The 7ime3 observes that there are many reasons why,
the controversy which absorbed the attention of the
ration during the last week must not be forgotten. It is
obvious that many amendments will be proposed in corn
znittee on the bill. Many of the peers who supported the
second reading did so with the avowed intention of intro
clueing or supporting- amendments at the proper stage,
and would have hesitated to vote for the bill—perhaps
would have voted against it—had they not believed they
bad a reasonable chance of amending it. It is very
desirable, if not essential to the safe conduct of the
measure, that there should be no misunderstanding
upon its principle, no attempt to introduce amend.
merits which are incompatible with its leading idea,
and, on the other band, no denunciation of amend-
ments as incompatible with it when, in truth, they
may simply constitute another method of arriving at the
same result. We may agree with Lord Salielarry that
the degree of disendom meat is open to discussion ; but,
whether it be severe and sweeping or whether it be lenient
and tender, it must be just. In a word, if disendowment
be qualified, the qualifications of its severity must be
balanced by equivalent advantages conferred on other
communions. If, in addition to the retention of the
churches by the disestablished communion, the resi-
dences of bishops and clergy were gratuitously
surrendered, with adequate gleLes thrown in for
nothing, with no compensating benefits elsewhere,
the conclusion of the Irish Church Bill would

be a sorry contrast to the professions of its promoters.
The Times does not say these advantages cannot be left
with the Protestant Church, but if they are they must be
balanced by a provision of residences and glebes for other
pastors and priests. It is possible that the Lords may
succeed in carrying both the concession of existing resi-
dences and the provision of new edifices for the clergy
now unprovided for ; but we are satisfied they must do
both or neither. An attempt to secure the first without
the second must be a failure. They have a week for
examination and deliberation before them, which they
may turn to good account if they will remember that if
they would be generous they must first be just.
The Standard thinks that whatever regret may be felt
in some quarters for the result of the division in the
Lords, it has one consequence at which all friends of the
Church and Constitution must rejoiCe—it settles the only
question upon which they were at issue, and leaves no
doubt of the course now to be pursued. The whole of the
great moral, social, and political power which during the
last week has been arrayed on opposite sides is now
reunited ; the intellectual force, the eloquence, statesman-
ship, and judgment so strikingly displayed by the
chiefs, ecclesiastical and lay, of the Conservative party
in the Lipper House, will now be brought to
bear in support of a common policy. It is of
the utmost consequence that some capitalised fund
should be provided as a nucleus around which
the contributions of the faithful may accumulate, which
may sustain the organisation of the Church in the shock
of passing through a period of transition and legal dissolu-
tion, which may provide for the needs of those scattered
congregations m Lich cannot provide for their own.
Without some such fund, it is the belief of well-informed
and unprejudiced persons that Protestantism would ere long
be eNtirputed in the South and West of Ireland, and
perhaps be ultimately confined to the province and the
vicinity of -Ulster. What is now to be fought
for is not ascendancy but equality, not pri-
vilege but freedom, not supremacy but sa'ety.
It is no longer a question whether Pro!eiitautisui
shall prevail in Ire!and, but whether it shall be tolerated;
nut s het her we shall allow equality to the Roman
Catholics, but whether we shall subj,ct the Protestants to
disadvantages which must end in establishing the
ascendancy of Rome. And if at this moment the Pro-
testants of Ireland, the Conservatives of Lancashire, the
friends of the Church generally, fail to appreciate the
value of what remains to them, and the significance of the
struggle for its retention, their children's children will
have reason to regret their indifference and shortsighted-
ness at this crisis of their Church's fortunes.

The Star says that a prophet is without honour in his
n country ; and certainly most weather .prophets de-
s-Awe to be. Even the late Admiral Fitzroy, who
attempted the most modest of forecasts, was often inaccu-
rate. He knew as much of the subject as any man, but
he could do no more than watch the barometrical changes
as they occurred, and telegraph to the various ports of the
kingdom his interpretation of the signs of the weather.
Mere pretenders, however, find it easy to despise the
limits which restrain purely scientific observers, and
occasionally a lucky guess gives them a world of credit
with the vulgar. One of these empirics publicly com-
mitted himself to a prediction which, but for the
incurable gullibility of some people, might open the
eyes of credulity itself. lie declared that "on
the "25th of May we should settle down into a summer
to that of last year." It is unnecessary to quote
the registered facts of the thermometer during the last
three weeks in order to measure this very definite pro-
phecy. We have had March winds, November mists,
cold rains, and cloudy skies. Of midsummer sunshine
there Las scarcely been a gleam; and instead of that
tropical luxuriance of vegetation which was to remind us
of brighter climes, the aspect of the earth partakes of the
sombre colour of the heavens. A week or two hence, for
aught we can tell, the heat may be insufferable; but the
climatic influences which will be at work even to-morrow
can only be guessed at—they cannot be pre-determined
with any degree of certainty. It is wholesome that vanity
and presumption should occasionally have a fall ; and in
this case it is a fitting retribution that for a brief hour a
sham meteorologist should be the laughing-stock of his
own dupes.
Thirty-two years have passed, says the Herald, since
the Princess Victoria, scarcely eighteen, was told that she
stood sovereign of the greatest dominion in the world.
In that space we view a series of events never exceeded
for interest or importance in the annals of a single reign.
There have been wars in the East and in the West ; great
political conflicts, in and out of Parliament; Europe
surging in revolution and in war around her ; yet not
once has a cloud come over her crown, nor a hint of
danger been whispered. The institutions of the country
have been expanded. Victoria Las given her assent to
a Reform Bill similar in many respects to that which
was assented to by her uncle ; she has seen the
triumph of a tremendous agitation against the Corn
Laws, and the establishment of Free Trade. But she
has also seen the railway system developed upon a scale
which places it above the most colossal monuments
of antiquity ; the first electric telegraph patent was sealed
just eight days before she assumed the regalia, and the
Atlantic i crossed by cables ; three years after her acces-
sion the penny postage was introduced ; the cheap press
in due season followed ; everywhere there have been mag-
nificent movements onward—increase of manufactures,
increase of commerce, increase of international com-
munication ; she herself bas made progresses on the
Continent, and been entertained in the palaces of
Germany and France ; many sovereigns have enjoyed
her hospitality here, including two of Oriental lineage ;
Great Exhibitions have sprung out of.these valuable faci-
lities of intercourse and improved the industries of the
nations ; at home the divisions of the three kingdoms have
been united by her visits to each in turn. Even now,
multifarious as are the incidents comprehended in this
glance, they are only as a handful out of a storehouse.
The great men who have stood around her, and so many
of whom she has lost ; the ten Administrations over which
she has presided ; the twenty-one Parliaments whose
legislation she has ratified ; the treaties signed iu her
name ; the political encounters she has witnessed ; the
reputations that have risen and fallen within her sight ;
the whirl and stream of social changes colouring the
aspects of the age—not much of this could she have fore-
seen when, as a girl sixteen, she burst into tears after
they had told her that she was destined to be Queen of
England. Yet the vivid and various panorama has actu-
ally passed before her eyes, and thirty-two years of sove-
reignty, and we are still enabled to quote concerning her,
the old Wurtemburg motto, " Happy is the Land where
Love is the subject, and love is the Lord."

A TESTIMONIAL TO MR. SHERIDAN.—It is pro-
posed to present Mr. H. B. Sheridan, M.P., with a testi-
monial in acknowledgment of his services in connection
with the repeal of the duty on Fire Insurance.
A VICAR KILLING A CURATE.—L'lndependant des
Pyrenees Orientale reperts a great scandal. During the
performance of mass it is stated that the Vicar of Candies
de St. Faul killed his curate in a manner and for motives
which are not yet reported.

THE LATE NOTTINGHAM ELECTION. Ward
meetings are icing held to raise funds to prosecute the
petition against the return of Mr. Charles Seely. Mr.
Digby Seymour, in his farewell address, says :—" Let the
banner of independence only rise the more glorious for the
momentary defeat. Rely on me as I rely on you. lf, as
we believe, the day has been won by money and not by
merit, a greater moral victory is yet before us. If substan-
tial evidence is forthcoming to establish a case of bribery
and undue influence, I trust the purity of election may yet
be vindicated in my person. I shall, to the utmost of my
power, co-operate with you for such a purpose. I was
rejoiced to read the account of the indignation meet-
ing, and was especially pleased to see that copper
was contributed as well as silver And gold. Once more,
my friends, I thank you ; I hope I have fought the battle
worthy of Sir Robert's memory ; and I trust the day is
nut far off when the insult to the ' widow's cap' shall be
splendidly avenged." The "widow's cap" is an allusion
to one which was hoisted, with a crinoline, on the day of
nomination, suggestive of tile influence exercised by Lady
Clifton is favour of Ur, Seyincurs