The Sun.
London, England, 1868-10-24 00:00:00

LONDON, SATURDAY, OCT. 24, 1868.

Undeterred by hints and allusions, Mr. GLAD-
STONE pursues his course, and yesterday addressed
another crowded meeting of electors at Wigan.
Aware of the risk of repeating himself he an-
nounced his intention of avoiding it, if possible, in
his discourse at that time. He made one change
at all events in his speech by taking the Irish
Church first of all instead of leaving it to the last
of all as on former occasions. He announced, to
the amazement of his auditory no doubt, that there
wore two points which existed in the Irish Church
question on which he had not yet said a word, and
forthwith proceeded to describe them. One is that
the supporters of the present Establishment consi-
dered that its maintenance prevented religious ani-
mosity. Mr. GLADSTONE meets this with a direct
denial, and declares that it has a contrary effect.
One thing is quite certain, that the right hon.
gentleman's hasty endeavour to settle the mat-
ter, and arbitrary mode of proceeding there-
with, has occasioned au immense deal of bit-
terness in dealing with the question ; and what-
ever may be the way it may be decided upon by the
Legislature, it cannot fail to continue in full force
for some time to come. It is, therefore, rather
beside the mark for him to lecture others on the
display of irritation they may exhibit in the heat of
argument or the vexation of charges preferred
against them. So far as we can make out, Mr.
GLADSTONE thinks that a great inconsistency had
been exhibited, and while we were making a show
in this country of considering the feelings of Catho-
lics by putting a stop to the celebration of services,
such as the Gunpowder Plot, S., we were
undoing the work of conciliation on the other side
of thellrish channel. The Orange party he looks
upon as most pernicious. Another thing is VIM
the people say the Irish Church will never be satis-
fied, and in taking this matter up for criticism, the
Opposition leader followed up the dangerous game
he is at present playing of influencing the passions
of those he leads or attempts to influence. If a
man was a solvent debtor he would not bo con-
tent with three shillings in the pound, but would
clamour for more, and so he argues that Ireland has
a right to demand from England the twenty shil-
linga in the pound. But if we are to tak3 this
theory in its entirety, what will Mr. GLADSTONE
say to the demands of those who desire repeal of
the Union, and other changes of an extravagant
nature? It is a dangerous doctrine to lay down
that because clamour has been raised concession
must follow as a matter of course ; and it is
certain that those will be the first to regret
the consequences who now advocate the advisa-
bility of the expedient being tried. Mistakes have
been made in our dealings with Ireland, but it is
not fair or just of Mr. GLADSTONE to stand forth
and say "It is want of will" in reference to the
policy adopted towards the sister country. This is
a serious charge to make, and one that no one
should venture upon without the certainty of being
able to substantiate it.

Nothing offends the right honourable gentlem.n
more than to hear it said that the proposition he
made to the House is a new subject "invented for
the purpose of the present hour ;" and he declares,
in the majesty of his just indignation, " this is no
novel demand at all, and no new policy." But
without accepting his ingenious definition that Mr.
PITT meant something of the kind, which cannot
now be proved or disproved, we may say that it is
not a period of remote antiquity to look back to the
days when Mr. GLADSTONE was the chief man in
the Cabinet, and the inremwit nrat9r v# hii3 party