The Sun.
London, England, 1869-03-25 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The Times thinks that the most sanguine Irish Pro.
testant must now confess that the Irish Establishment
has received its death-blow. The vote of the House of
Commons on Mr. Gladstone's Resolution last yeas
declared that the establishment ought to be abolished.
The votes of the constituencies at the hustings declared
that it must be abolished. The vote on Wednesday morn•
ing declared that it shall be abolished. It was thought,
or rather hoped, that the difficulties of the task might
prove too much even for the present Ministry. There
must, it was- said, be dissensions in the Cabinet over a
scheme necessarily so complex. It was inevitable that
some blots would be discovered in the Government
measure sufficient to detach a few from one or the
other extreme wing of their supporters. Nothing
of the kind has happened. The bill is not perfect,
but even if its imperfections were incapable of amend-
n.ent, the Liberal party have proclaimed as one man that
it would be infinitely-letter to aperove the bill as it stands
than to do anything to place its ultimate success in danger.
Fortunately, indeed, there is every disposition on the part
of the Government to remove what is faulty, and to
supply what is deficient, so that the steadfastness of the
party will be exposed to no difficult test. On Wednesday
morning the Liberals responded to the call upon them
with unprecedented •unanimity. Not a single man of
mark, except Sir Itoundell Palmer, went over to the
Opposition, and there was but one member of the party
absent from the division whose absence requires explana-
tion. It seems probable there were fewer absentees than
were ever before known in the annals of the House of
Commons, and the hearty unanimity of the Liberal party,
and their unflinching steadiness at the division, may be
said to supersede further argument on the Irish Church
Bill.
The Standard declares that a majority of 118 is a great
fact, although it appears all the less formidable the more
it is sifted and analysed. It is very little less than double
the majority by which Mr. Gladstone's first resolution was
carried last session, and yet we may look it in the We
without being in any way appalled. Custom has
familiarised us with imposing Liberal majorities, which
prove to be singularly unsubstantial the moment they
are boldly confronted and handled. The Conservatives
entered upon the session of 1832 with a majority
of exactly one. After the appeal to, the con'
stituencies under the new Reform Act the Liberals
numbered 364. How their majority was frittered swill
until, iu IS4I, it disappeared, as Mr. Gathorne
Hardy said on Tuesday, like a mist before the
sun, is a matter of history. Mr. Hardy did well in recal-
ling the fact at a time when Constitutionalists are too apt
to be frightened by the threatening aspect of the fortui-
tous concourse of discordant atoms which is called air.
Gladstone's majority. The right hon. gentleman is in
an excellent position to reassure us as to the vanity of
political aspirations built upon the shifting foundations of
numerical superiority. He opened the session of 1866 with
an overwhelming force at his back recruited to the Liberal
standard by the prestige of Lord Palmerston. Within
three months he had converted his majority of eighty into
aim absolute minority. We have no right to doubt the
capacity of such a party with such a leader to repeat the
experience of former years, for there'never was a thne
when the Liberals were more deficient in cohesive force or
when they were led by a chief less qualified for enforcing
discipline or inspiring them with unity of purpose. The
majority of Wednesday was created for the occasion. it
was born into the world for the express object of affirming
the principle of disestablishment and disendowment. It
has discharged that duty to the letter, but it has 11'4
travelled an inch beyond its commission.
The Telegraph observes that the great controversy is
practically closed. The Irish Church has met with its
Sadowa. An old ecclesiastical empire has fallen in "
brief campaign—indeed, we may say, in one pitched battle.
This, we believe, is unprecedented in our political historP
It must be remembered that the bill of last year was
merely preliminary, and that Mr. Gladstone's present
measure is the first that has ever been introduced into the
British Parliament, by any statesman of eminence, for the
abolition of the Irish State Church. Yet such a bill has,
on the first division as to its principle, been affirmed 11
the enormous majority of 118. No "gigantic issue," to
use Mr. Disraeli's words, has ever before heel;
decided so speedily. Yet the Irish Church seemed
entrenched in prejudices stronger even than those
that surrounded Protestant ascendancy, the nomination
boroughs, or the Corn Laws. Strong religious sentiment
seemed to invest it with a halo. " No-Popery " fauati•
cism regarded it as a bulwark. In the minds of mall
cautious statesmen it was inexplicably associated with the
maintenance of imperial institutions. Yet, when the hour
of its decisive trial came, it was what we may almost call
summarily condemned. Four nights' debate exhausted
the arguments on both sides, and three hundred years
prescription availed nothing against the demand for jos'
tice. We confess that the completeness of our victory
is in some senses as surprising as it is satisfactory. We
of the progressive school who, not satisfied with past
tice, are always " asking for more," have unhappily been
forced to learn patience in our years of agitation ; t°
labour and to wait has been the lot of Liberals for years'
When we sat down before this old ecclesiastical fortress_
we almost anticipated a long siege. We thought that its
might take years to make the nation feel the justice of o.llr
attack. We thought that a strong parliamentary minoriel
might vigorously attempt to raise the siege. We fed r 0
that the preaching from " twenty thousand pulpit-se
threatened by an illustrious statesman of the hurl
would be organised against us, and with effect. Bute?ivu
victory has come quickly, decisively, and with astounded
force.
The Post says it is satisfactory to learn, from the st,s.„,te:
ment of Mr. Chichester Fortescue in the House of (-,°'"t
mons on Tuesday, that the questions pieTerly arising °et
of the demonstration which the released 1 enians thougPf
b
it not indecent to make at Cork, under the presidenq °,
the chief magistrate of that city, have been referre4te'a
the law officers of the Crown. The sensation otel
by the conduct of Colonel Warren and his friends %)
be surprise mixed with contempt. Even those ;toy
best comprehend Celtic turbulence could fln ,a
have expected that the first act of men sell°, ill°
just been liberated by the remission of one of eea
mildest sentences which it was possible to inflict elle'ci
such offenders as the leaders in the Fenian consPiraf
would be to call a public meeting for the purpose Pf d.ectai
ing the Crown and inciting the Irish nation to rush 'Aso
open rebellion and armed revolt ; while even those vt',
are most indulgent of Irish eccentric violence must fee'
o,
little astonished that the meeting should have been %id
sided over by the mayor of the most considerahlse ;icy
flourishing city in the country, he being an alltl up.
whose special function it is to maintain peace .an, the
hold the authority of the Crown. We shall lit"' dig'
less or the more determinedly proceed with the rch
establishment and disendowment of the Irish .Chu
because Colonel Warren and Mr. O'Sullivan strive
con;to,b
the ashes of Fenianism into a flame. Their political oe
duct will not, and ought not, to have influence on e ,Ile,ve
the other on the policy which the English peoPle nut
pronounced upon that subject. The Executive erl"'wfdle
down sedition and rebellion with the strong hand' dto
the Legislature during the operation will prooee hoe
bring to a -conclusion the measure which they sent
initiated from a sense of justice, as if Colonel warren not
the Mayor of Cork had never spoken. They are
parties to the issue.
rage.
The Herald takes Mr. Fronde to task for his div.o„la
ment of a scholastic education. Of what, it aek' se fits
he persuade us when he says, " An Oxford educatio
Too
a man exceedingly well for the trade of a gentierne3 the
Does it do no more? Does it contribute nothingitecde
professions? Is it true that, without personal an" IWO'
pendent resources, " he cannot earn a si dto
self?" And is the highest culture actually design° assert
the students of it for trade?" It is monstrous to fight
that scholarship only fits a man, if he have to so
the battle of life for himself, to break stones. !flair.
Australian highway. We wonder for what Plc; ripe,
Froude himself would consent to part with his °l'y neerit
rare, and expansive scholarship. It is the crowiung.,cuag
*xpence for 0%
of a high-class education that, when it has ceased'
a, for
man,. instead of being fit, as Mr. Froude aeiti?rliisetion
nothing, is fit, on the contrary, for anything. ult.-bile'
will invariably produce a set of men interested
rr, sad
sophically and intellectually interested—in the t
histtel out,
literature of the ancients. They will never be blo There
no matter what assaults are made upon them- Fronde
Athenian and Alexandrian thoughts which ridging ell
despises will continue to descend, kin Sie 'coral
illumination as they go so long. as Wife, one
exists. But is it really the opinion of cu'e
who is not always embracing paradoxes, that
tsnots
people should learn to make floors and haninier hot' sor
mainly because, as it seems Spinoza ground gi!snseviee'
microscopes ? After we belie filled our merchant e lave
our factories, our laboratories, our foundries, o_l;lareer
courts, our houses of commerce, and our workshoP!, rival
we have fringed with population the sea-boards . 001.
of our colonies, and covered the ocean with
even after we have confessed to all the sordid fah;
se;ci
ing, weighing, and measuring, to all the shod°s:Zuses
,11,1•7,
the empty dialectics of which Mr. Fronde
generatipn, we venture still to believe that tun not to.;
and continues to arise a class of men, who may'
ncene "-
qualified to hammer a horse-shoe or make a I,ery
will not only be safe from the danger of drn.`26
Australian roads, but do work measureless
.I,"ect
d woula
which mankind could not well spare, and trite
lingly forget. is
°C
The Daily News in considering the future IVereeretainlifa
the Ministerial measure, says that the bill 'e
% in time
from the House of Coannons vrettY 'fluceloor
ll
form in which Mr. Gladstone presehted t they 111;ii,
Lords will take it remains to be seen. I after
venture to reject a bill which t f anilinPr to
eeneral election upon it, with the sanction,.
:if a hundred and eighteen, it is swill i1e471"
wlieve. Their function ceases when the Pit"
rate ii`e-sla-
goes up to ne
heen fully and finally expressed, or is et iegri
_f
to that of moderating and tempering the re Ts"i"ce o
tion when the legislation bears traces ot lest ere`,,
haste. They performed their function 1,c17..,,,
they exercised their power to call forltileei`eles..te,lle.
demand a new trial by the new consti
eienTcco.elTs
believe that they will now consent to tr__ tier lc'es
But neither in committee in the Comrslos7
subsequent passage through the Lords,
tc
of this country consent to the leatse
of l"
wednaisa
of the principle of the measure. The vo
cision 111° °lief
morning can never be recalled, nor its e e neve P ecg
It was the final and triumphant assertion of Its hre,its
of ecclesiastical equality and religious peee-Oes,ana,
_othe
the Pe ;11:4,
influence has already gone forth over Itified 111 ct of
"geition
pros
wisdom and 'justice have already, been .Ts'a great °f the
reason and the conscience of mankind.
homage to the right, and of national re_ 00,
,sur v
claims of justice, it remains as a landmark
1
which CAU AM; 1)9 Altend or 1:9M9Y00,