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

SPIRIT OF TUB PUBLIC JOURNALS,

The Times asks, "What will the Lords do ?" It may be
admitted, in the first place, that a majority of the Peers
heartily dislike the bill, and that if they acted on the
impulse of their feelings, unswayed by any sense of
further responsibility, they would reject it when presented
to them. We cannot quarrel with, though we may lament,
this temper and judgment of the Lords. But everyone
is conscious that a statement of the inclinations of the
majority of the Upper House does not exhaust the case.
The Peers exercise an effective control ores' the legislation
of Parliament in checking the impetuosity of the popular
House, but they also acknowledge an unwritten law
prescribing the limits of this action. When the opinions
of the Peers are in direct conflict with the clearly-expressed
will of the nation upon any question fairly put before the
people it becomes the duty of the Upper House to acquiesce
in the national judgment. They do not, as, indeed, they
cannot, abandon their opinions because of such a conflict,
but they abstain from enforcing their opinions
on the nation. The com-titutional course of the
Lords is clear. They may, and perhaps must, protest
agaii;st tl;e bill ; but the responsibility of passing it
rests not on them, but on the nation, and, throwing
it on the nation, they must allow the bill to
pass. Their • dignity and their honour require a frank
recognition of the situation. The Times is persuaded tl:at
the leaders of the Opposition in the House of Lords will
choose the best course for themselves, their party, and the
country if, after doing what they can so well do, deliver-
ing themselves in eloquent language upon the great issue
before them, they retire from further contest, and suffer the
Ministerial measure to become law almost exactly in the
shape in which it reaches them.

The Telegraph believes that the real statesmen of the
Conservative party in the Peers will be very slow to com-
mit the Lords to a policy which places that body in direct
antagonism to the Lower House. Moreover, the Com-
mons have in this matter the support of the country,
expressed with unusual emphasis and directness at the last
general election. The conflict would therefore be, not so
much between the two branches of the Legislature, as
between the noble order—or, rather, a section of the noble
order—and the unennobled. That there should be a divi-
sion on the second reading would be in no degree surprising,
but the Telegraph has no doubt that the House must contain
a sufficient number of statesmen who would correctly
estimate the unfortunate effect of a summary objection on
the second reading. The stake involved would, out of all
measure, exceed that of the Irish Church. Never within

the period of this generation have the Peers had a more
splendid opportunity of proving the advantages of a second
Legislative Chamber. They may anger the country by
rejecting the Irish Church Bill ; they may insult the
country by making destructive amendments ; or, lastly,
they may win the admiration and gratitude of every class
in the land by perfecting and finishing the great work now
solemnly committed to their charge.

The Standard says that the Protestants of Ireland,
fiuding the house of Commons deaf to all remonstrances,
and stolidly bent upon ignoring every consideration of
justice and fairness, have carried their appeal to the
House of Lords. It would be difficult to find a parallel
for the gathering assembled to meet a body of the Peers
at the Duke of Abercom's last Saturday. It is impossible
to deny that the feeling against the bill out of doors has
found no adequate expression in the House of Commons.
Argument has been drowned by clamour, and the
blind subservience of Mr. Gladstone's majority
has resisted all appeals to its sense of honesty
and justice. Whatever may be the decision of
the House of Lords, it is desirable that it should be
arrived at with a full perception of the wide-spread and
earnest character of the opposition which it has aroused
out of doors. It has found no echo in the House of Com-
mons, but the Standard trusts that no opportunity will be
lost of forcing it upon the consideration of the Peers. They
may deem it necessary, in the exercise of their discretion,
to disappoint it to some extent, but the more frequently
and imposingly its reality and intensityare asserted before
them by demonstrations such as that of Saturday, the
more reason is there to hope that it will stimulate and
encourage them in the discharge of their duty.

The Daily News declares that, whatever Irish deputa-
tions may say, the Lords have but one course open to
them, and that is to accept Mr. Gladstone's bill. The
more quietly and promptly they do so, the better will they
consult their own dignity and the peace of the country.
The Marquis of Lothian, in a sensible and patriotic letter,
which wk.'s to the regret naturally felt at the physical
incapacity which keeps him in the prime of life and
maturity of his judgment from his place in Parliament,
has correctly described the position and duties of the
Upper House in such a juncture as the present. "It is
not now," he remarks, " a question between Commons
and Lcirds ; it is a question between Parliament and
the nation ;" and, the nation having no constitutional
power of bringing its will to bear upon the House of
Lords, "it is all the more necessary that the House of
Lords should bring that will to bear upon itself."
Lord Lothian looks with some distrust on the
Irish Church Bill, though he candidly admits that twenty
years hence he may make the discovery that his apprehen-
sions were ill-founded. That term is about the distance
at which the Lords lag behind the general intelligence of
the country. What they are saying new about the dis-
establishment of the Irish Church they said in 1829 about
Catholic Emancipation, in 1832 about the Reform Bill, in
1846 about the Repeal of the Corn Laws, and in the spring
of 1867 about Household Suffrage. On all these occasions
they made wry faces, swallowed the medicine, and found
themselves much the better for it. The idea that Mr.
Gladstone would dissolve Parliament, or resign on account
of a hostile vote in the Lords, springs from a strange
misreading of the theory of the Constitution; and a want
of acquaintance with its practice. The confidence of the
Lords is not essential to the existence of a Government ;
and it would be folly in a Minister to punish a House of
Commons for having confidence in him, and to appeal to
the country agair..st Lis own majority. The Lords have to
choose between passing the Irish Church Bill in July or
in November.

The Star, in discussing the language used by the Pro.
testant deputation on Saturday, observes that one speaker
threatened the Conservative peers that if they considered
the interests of party before those of the Church, the Irish
Protestants would throw them overboard. Whether this
be the language of cajolery or of menace, it will be equally
intolerable to all high-spirited and right-minded men.
Another speaker was loud in his denunciation of " the
tyrant majority" of. the House of Commons. In all free
countries majorities rule ; and he might as well have
launched his harmless thunder against " the tyrant
majority" of the United Kingdom. Sir Edward
Grogan, it is true, expressed his conviction that a great
change had taken place in public opinion. 'This is a
statement easy to make, but impossible to prove.
All the facts go absolutely to refute it. There
is no evidence whatever in either of the three
kingdoms of any change of public opinion. Another
general election might turn a few seats one way or the
other ; but the Liberal majority would be substantially
unaffected by the issue of such an appeal. Yet the depu-
tation have so little faith in the statility of the publio
judgment that they want the Lords to throw out the bill,
in the insane hope that Mr. Gladstone would again take
the sense of the country, and that the Tory party would
be returned to power pledged to maintain the Irish
Church. The Dean of Limerick talked about the House
of Lords rejecting the bill "finally "—whatever that may
mean. The worthy Dean Must be dreaming of the times
of the '['odors. If the House of Lords were so unwise as
to reject the bill, it would be returned to them again ; and
while delay would inflame party animosity and stir up
passions which it were better to tranquillise, it is not the
cause of religious freedom that would suffer from the evil
deed.

The Herald remarks that Mr. Goschen's statistics as to
the past and present expenditure under the poor law
would be disheartening if taken per se; but they
admit of many explanations materially tending to
diminish the unfavourable impression which, on first
siOlt, they are but too well calculated to make. The
Fran exrended on pauperism in London, which in
thirty years, commencing with 1834, amounted to
£1,500,000, Las reached within the last three years the
startling figure of -21,400,000 ; but, happily, within those
atter years there has been a general decrease of expendi-
ture in all other localities, the what may be designated as
essentially rural districts exhibiting a large diminution in
the rates when compared with the counties constituting
and adjoining- the metropolis. The Herald is happy to
find that Mr. Goscben, in his proposed legislation, strikes
boldly at the source of all the evils which embarrass the
action of the department over which be presides. All
local acts under which recalcitrant guardians can shelter
their misconduct or justify their opposition must be
repealed ; and the board, entrusted with the care of the
poor and the interests of those compelled to contribute to
their relief, most be armed with such means of enforcing
their views as I leave them justly responsible to Par-
liament fer pr,-,nc=r discharge of the important duties

to discha

A late bishop being desirous of enlarging his
palace, caused an architect to prepare plans of the proposed
alterations ; but hen he came to know the estimated
he declined to proceed. "What cheque
your fees, sir ?" said the bishop to the
architect, w: o tolt him that, as the plans were aban-
doned, his el.are would he a hundred guineas. "A
hundred guineas! Why, -ir. many of my curates do not
get so much in the course of a year." " Possibly," said the
other; "but your lordship must renatnibt,r that I am a
DiatioP among

cost of tlic.!
shall I &Loy ft