The Sun.
London, England, 1868-11-02 00:00:00

LONDON, SATURDAY, NOV. 2, 1868.

IT is now authoritatively announced that on the
11th instant Parliament will be dissolved by Royal
Proclamation. The General Election will then im-
mediately afterwards begin, and, being a nine day's
wonder, will be rapidly completed. Early in De-
cember the new Parliament will have been assembled
down at -Westminster, there to be formally and
solemnly inaugurated by the Specch;from the Throne.
As a matter of course, the Right Hon. EVELYN DENI-
SON will be reinducted, without opposition, into the
Speaker's chair, which he has already, during so many
years, filled with honour to himself and to the com-
plete satisfaction of both sides of the House of
Commons. Out of the Address of that House to
the Crown, in answer to the gracious Speech from
the Throne, there will, as a matter of necessity this
time, come forth an Amendment. And that Amend-
ment equally, as a matter of course, will turn upon
the Question of the Irish Church, its Disestablish-
rnent and its Disendowment. That an amendment
of this character will follow close upon the heels of
the red-coated proposer and seconder of the Address,
may be regarded as equally a matter of certainty
whether reference be made or not, to the Irish
Church Question in the Speech from the Throne.
Supposing, for the sake of argument —what is, of
course, in the last degree improbable that
nothing at all, one way or the other, should be
said in regard to the Irish Church in the QUEEN'S
Speech on the opening of Parliament, the amend-
ment which would then be moved upon the Address
in answer to that Speech would, in all human
likelihood, resolve itself into a simple proposition
for a vote of Want of Confidence in her MAJESTY'S
present advisers. Supposing, on the other hand,
what might at once far rather be taken for
granted as a matter of inevitable necessity—namely,
that the Speech from the Throne will, in ono para-
graph of it, have distinct reference to that Vexed
Question of the Irish Church, its disestablishment
and its disendowment—no matter how that
paragraph may be worded, we know for a
dead certainty beforehand that it cannot be
satisfactory to Mr. GLADSTONE and the great mass
of his more or less enthusiastic followers, the Liberal
Opposition. All this we know perfectly well before-
hand. So distinctly indeed do we know it, that sap-
posing only there were an ordinary tactician now at
the head of her MAJESTY'S Ministers, as Leader of the
Government in the House of Commons, in the highest
official capacity of all, namely, as First Lord of
the Treasury—the result of all this would be known
ovally well beforehand as a thing no less inevitable.
Namely—that, during this very briLf winter session
now immediately before us, Ministers would for cer-
tain be put in a minority on that prospective amend-
ment, and equally for certain that they would,
being so put in a minority upon the amendment, hand
over to the victor ions lea ler of th..) Opposition the
responsibility of at once forming a new Administra-
tion. It is in no way discreditable to Mr. DISRAELI
as a Party Chieftain that we have here
immediately to add, what is already sufficiently
notorious throughout the country, that in him we
have now at our head as Prime Minister no ordi-
nary tactician. So perfect a master is he of fence,
so consummate is his skill in all the arts of strategy,
that it is simply impossible to predicate even now
as a result in any way assured or inevitable, that
with all Mr. GLADSTONE's fair prospects of meeting Par-
liament with a swinging majority at his back, the Leader
of the Oppositon is at once to leap per saltum, before
Christmas, into the post of First Lord of the Treasury.
On the contrary, one is almost tempted to say that the
immediate probabilities are, first, that the Opposition
supporters will enormously outnumber the Govern -
mentsupporters, and that, nevertheless, notwithstand-
ing, the Government will not go out before Christ-
mas as the inevitable consequence. In any case
the opportunity for the country's decision, one way
or the other, is now formally guaranteed to us by the
authoritative announcement, this day put forth to
the effect that on the 11th instant Parliament
will be dissolved by Royal Proclamation.
In so arranging matters for the dissolution of the
present House of Commons and the electing and as-
sembling of the new House immediately afterwards so
that all should be known and accomplished before
the arrival of Christmas, Ministers have most
honourably fulfilled their engagements with the out-
going House of Commons, and at the same time kept
faith most strictly with the whole population of
the United Kingdom. As distirguished public
men, as statesmen of eminence, they could not have
done otherwise. And yet—while saying this, it is
perfectly well known that the more virulent of the
opponents of the present Ministry are in the habit of
speaking of Mr. DISRAELI and his colleagues as
though they were the reverse of men of honour, as
though they were so many political adven-
turers, as though they were conducting the
affairs of this country by a sort of organised
scheme of Parliamentary thimble-rigging. As Li-
berals, we must protest against the very despicable
character of the imputations thus insinuated against
Leaders of party as honourable, we are perfectly
certain of that, as any who have ever undertaken
the administration of the affairs of this country. In
speaking of Mr. DISRAELI as a tactitian, or as a
master of strategy, we imply thereby nothing what-
ever in any way discreditable to him in his capacity
as a Statesman or as an Administrator.

Judging from the remarks of very many of his cen-
sors, both within and without the walls of Parliament
—not among journalists only but among the recog-
nised chiefs of party, now among those upon the front
bench of tin Opposition, now amongAlr.DrsnAEL's own
leant colleagues and supp,rters ; j,ulging fro:u the
acrimony with which he is always spoken of by his

principal antagonist, Mr. GLADSTONE ; pul.,ing from
the bitterness with which he is perpetually allud..d to
by the chief among his late colleagues in Lord DERBI's
Government, the Marquis of SALISBURY; judging
from the tone in which his carccr a: .d character are
being continually discussed in the columns of the
majority of our Liberal contemporaries, one might
really a'inost be led to suppose at moments that Mr.
DISRAELI had contrived to attain power and after-
wards to retain office by means of some dark and
nefarious conspiracy. And yet, all the while, it is