The Sun.
London, England, 1868-05-01 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

The Times points out that what the Ministry have to
consider is, whether they will at once resign or persevere
In holding office till they can appeal to the reformed con-
stituencies, and, until better informed, it must condemn
the suggestion of an immediate dissolution as an inven-
tion put forward to work on the terrors of members, and
which has signally failed of its effect. It is worth while
to consider what it involves. The necessary business of
supply is so much in arrear that it would be impossible
with the greatest expedition that Parliament could be
dissolved before the end of a month, or, in other
words, before June. An appeal to the country would
then be an appeal to the old discredited constitu-
encies and to the old limited class of voters. The
result of it would be the return of such a Liberal
majority that at the beginning of July Mr. Disraeli
would be peremptorily ousted on a vote of want of con-
fidence, and a Liberal Government would be admitted to
office itan,ediately before a prorogation. An autumnal or
early eeseCon would follow for the pia:, of passing
Scotch e .11 :reform Bills, imme:?iae erter which
another ilissolution must ensue, in order that the newly-
enfranchised voters in the three kingdoms might re-
turn a Reformed Parliament. What excuse could
be offered for this absurd and vexatious course of
proceeding ? It was suggested by those who affected
to believe in its possibility that the triumphs at
Bristol, at Coekermouth, and in East Kent had intoxi-
cated the First Minister, and that he was bent upon
hazarding everything on a throw of the dice. The excuse
admits of examination as little as the proposal itself. The
triumphs at Bristol and in Kent are capable of the most
easy explanation, and it would be farcic;,l to crow over
Cockermouth. There has always been a large Conserva-
tive party at Bristol and, indeed, at the last election but •
one the late Sir Frederick Slade was defeatedby a majority
of eighty. At the last election a Liberal of Liberals,
a Dissenter of Dissenters, was accepted with enthusiasm
as a member. Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Disraeli
went out of their way last year—it is not clearly
apparent why—to testify their admiration of Sir
Morton Peto, but the revelations of the Bank-
ruptcy Court cannot have gratified the Liberals of
Bristol. Some of them had not improbably, in reliance
on their trusted member, taken shares in the London,
Chatham, and Dover, or in his American railways.
There is, of course, no connection between Sir Morton
veto's creed and his financial speculations, but can it be
surprising that when another Dissenter of Dissenters,
another Liberal of Liberals, another enemy of licensed
'victuallers, a person, in a word, of the exact type
of what Sir Morton Peto has been taken to be,
,resented himself in opposition to a banker of the
city, • known to the constituents all his life, and
whose family had been local divinities before the birth
of the oldest elector, he should have been defeated
by the enormous majority of 196 ? Bristol was not
lost because the constituency has turned Tory, but because
Sir Morton Peto has for a time " discredited his- order."
In East Kent a Conservative seat has been retained by
in increased majority, and the supporters of the Govern-
ment are justified in exulting over the defeat of a candi-
late almost unknown to the electors, and little fitted to
yin that intensely English constituency. But Mr. Dis-
raeli must indeed be ignorant of the temper of the nation
,f he ever dreamt of appealing to the country because of
these exceptional victories. He must see that he must
either resign at once or hasten his appeal to the Reformed
Parliament. There is no third course open to him.
The Post declares that the distinction between this vote
and that which closed the first dej)ate is very important.
On the former occasion the House simply evinced its
readiness to entertain the proposals of which Mr. Glad-
: tone gave notice ; but it has now, after mature delibera-
I declared that those proposals ari, Found and practi-
- de, and tho 4,11,.. rent complexion o! the v••t,t must lead
',o anticipate a different course of action ei. the part of
t' Government. The Ministry cannot regard the vote
‘av given with the same indifference as that by which the
flonse of Commons decided on considering the resolutions
k committee. A distinct course of action is now resolved
con, and as the Ministry cannot edvise her Majesty to
fiction that course, nothing is left them but to resign.

Are there any insuperable difficulties to the disestablish-
camt of a Church which, ex conceals, no Parliament would
place on its present footing ? The majority of the House
of Commons are of opinion that no such difficulties exist.
This is the meaning of this morning's vote. The House,
by an undeniable majority, has now for a second time pro-
nounced the doom of the Irish Church. Its disestablish.
meat is affirmed to be not only expedient, but practicable.
The second and third resolutions are but corollaries of the
first, and it may therefore be said that now the most
important party contest of recent times has been lost and
won.

The Daily .2Ve cs obseivas t'iat by a larger majority than
that which affirmed the propriety of taking into conside-
ration the condition of the Established Church in Ireland,
the House of Commons has pronounced in favour of the
disestablishment. The majority before Easter was sixty ;
on this occasion it is sixty-five. Ministers have lost five
votes. Those who now went into the lobby with Mr.
Gladstone were numerically identical with his supporters
ou the Ord of April. The consequences of the divisi6n are
matter of conjecture. Mr. Disraeli has taken time to
consider his course by moving the adjournment of the
House of Commons until Monday next. It is consti-
tntlonally impossible that he should dissolve ; it is
cot necessary that he should resign. His position
.1n relation to the present House of Commons is not, as he
pretended, altered. It would have been altered if he had
been victorious. It is to-day what it was before the
Easter vacation. His duty is to accept the decision of
the majority, to facilitate the progress of Mr. Gladstone's
second and third resolutions, and of the bill based on
them, and to reserve his appeal to the constituencies until
1869. It is satisfactory to find that he has disclaimed the
intention of advising the sovereign, as Lord Derby sug-
gested, to act in contradiction to the declared will of the
House of Commons, and refuse her consent to the
introduction of a bill, should Mr. Gladstone's second and
third resolutions pass. It is to be hoped that in other
respects he will manifest equal prudence.
The Herald lays clown that the result of the division will
Surprise nobody. Mr. Gladstone was secure of a majority.
The House of Commons has affirmed by a vote, the im-
portance of which we have no idea of contesting, the de-
sirability cf disestablishing and disendowing the Irish
Church. Toot (ices the House of Commons speak the
feeling or t--,e coin t.ry? We deny it, and the ncent elec-
tions endorse our denial. The Government has naturally
asked for time to consider the course which it should take
nneler the circumstances. What that course will be the recent
manifestations of public opinion seem to show clearly
enough. Whatever may be the announcement made by the
Premier on Monday—and it is proper, of course, however
confidently we may look to a particular declaration of
policy, to assume the possibility of the adoption of another
3ourse— we have no hesitation in saying that the branch of
the United Church of England and Ireland established in
Ireland is not shaken at all by the declaration that it
ought not to exist any longer. It has survived a good
many abstract resolutions, which had an honest although
mistaken conviction for their cause, and it will not suc-
mumb to an abstract resolution, which, by the admission of
its proposers, is only designed to further the meanest and
paltriest personal ends.

The Standard regards the most significant utterance o;
the earlier part of the evening as that which came from
Sir C. O'Loghlen, who began his rambling and incoherent
address by the startling observation that the question
whether a minority should remain in office was to be
shortly brought directly to an issue. That means, we
suppose, that if their defeat on the Church question do
not drive Ministers to resign, they will be met with a
:Erect vote of want of confidence. It is hardly necessary
to waste many words in comment on this threat. Every
one knows that Ministers have the right to appeal from
the House to the country; everyone knows that this
Ippeal cannot be made, save at great cost and public
inconvenience, till January next, and that it will in any
case be made then or very soon after. With what purpose
then, can the Radicals propose a vote of censure on the
Government ? Clearly, either with a view to force their
to an immediate dissolution, or to compel them to resign
without dissolving ; that is, either from pure wantor
-lesire to do harm and hinder public business, or from the
desire to seize an illegitimate advantage, and force theil
way into office by a dishonourable use of accidental cir
curnstances. We leave it to them to explain, when th
time comes, which of these is their actual motive.
In any case, the attempt is wholly and obviously un
justifiable. The assault on the Church, considering
its time, its conditions, and its motives, is disgrace
ful ; but the contemplated stratagem would be
a more audacious experiment on the credulity and
the • patience of the country—the most barefaced and
disreputable party manoeuvre on record since'the coalitior
and North. It seems skilfully planned, so far as
mentary tactics go ; but it is hardly likely tc
admirable tactician against whom it is aimed
and it is still less likely to impose upon the nation at large
Tt will end, as so many of Mr. Gladstone's stratagem
have ended, in signal discomfiture and disgrace to himself
and Lis party ; and if it should entail a delay in carrying
out the promi3cd completion of the Reform scheme, or the
inconvenience of two elections within eighteer
,ds, the country will understand cn whom lies the sole
s 1 on :ihility ; whose impatient greed of office forced ar
ireenlar issue and a premature appeal.

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A ~z-neral election `at the !present time, the Telegrail
Nil.. )ii:ratli l lainly, oln.;lit io to be contemplated
and not Le endorsed by the opinion of the people
No ,1,;v11,t; he has a constitutional right to the two esta
Wished alternatives, of dissolution or resignation. Tin
Parliament which has distinctly repudiated his " tin])
Liberal policy," and calmly adopted in principle that
which he has called a "vast and violent " change.
was not elected under a Conservative Cabinet,

and was not• the expression of any distinct appeal tc
the con,tituenpies up•ni the subject of the Irisl
Church. The Premier may quite fairly plead that the topic
was hardly mentioned at the hustings ; he might, there
'fore, under ordinary circumstances, claim to submit hit
" conduct and character" to the deliberate verdict of the
country. Technically, so far as Ministerial precedents
and the admitted practice of Premiers in difficulties go
no one can deny the right. But circumstances Rite,
everything ; there is a political equity as well as a politics,
common law. and that equity forbids Mr. Disraeli th
luxury of Inet•tiog the lluuse of COllllllOll3 in this manner