The Sun.
London, England, 1868-06-06 00:00:00

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LONDON, SATURDAY, JUNE 6, 1868.

Mr. GLADSTONE has already tired out the patience
of the House, and if he will monopolise two-thirds

of the time allotted to the discussion of public
affairs, it follows as a matter of course that hon.
members do not feel bound to dance attendance on
him. There was no let or hindrance to his pro-
ceeding with his committee, but the spirit was
found wanting to promote the discussion. Mr.
LAMONT postponed his motion on the desirability
of the expenses of Mr. EYRE being defrayed by the
Government until next Tuesday as being more con-
venient, but it is worthy of notice that he presented
a petition of a very significant character in favour
of his proposal. Besides the names of many in-
fluential persons, thirty thousand signatures were
affixed to it, and the petitioners expressed it as their
opinion that the " speedy suppression of the re-
bellion in Jamaica was due to the skill, prompti-
tude, and vigour manifested by Mr. EYRE during
its early stages,"and after referring to his deprivation
of employment, and to the unceasing persecutions
to which he bad been subjected by an irrespon-
sible body of persons styling themselves the Jamaica
Committee, for offences for which, had he com-
mitted them at all, he would have been prosecuted
by her MAJESTY'S Attorney-General, they con-
cluded by praying "the House to recommend to her
MAJESTY the early re-employment of Mr. EYRE,
and the repayment of the expenses to which he had
been put by the prosecutions instituted against
him." The reading of this was received with much
cheering, and it is to be hoped that the attempt
will be successful, for a more unjustly-persecuted
man does not exist than the ex-Governor of Ja-
maica, and it is high time that something was done
for him, not only for his own sake, but for the
credit of the country.
Mr. GLADSTONE encountered an attack directly
the House got into committee on the Suspensory
Bill, for Mr. SINCLAIR AYTOUN moved
an Instruction which seemed to perplex
every one. It provided that the tenure of
all offices in the College of Maynooth should be
put on the same footing as the bill purposes to place
the benefices in the Irish Church, and consequently
that no money shall be paid after this bill becomes
law to the trustees of Maynooth for the support of
the students. In explanation of this untoward
scheme, Mr. AYTOUN contended that religious
equality was desirable, and if the House decided
upon the propriety of disendowing the Protestants,
it should likewise refuse the aid of the State to the
Roman Catholics. Colonel GREVILLE-NUGENT
moved an amendment, and intimated that this
Instruction would put a stop to the College of May-
nooth
altogether, while Mr. GLADSTONE'S measure
merely suspended the appointments of the Irish
Church temporarily. The amendment proposed
that any official who was appointed to Maynooth
after the passing of this bill should hold
office subject to the discretion of Parliament.
Mr. GLADSTONE evidently found
_himself in a regu-
lar " fix," and so great was his embarrassment that
he actually appealed to the Government for assist-
ance. First of all, he pursued the attack by saying
that the Instruction was too large and too small at
the same time, and that it went now further than
his proposal did regarding the Protestant Church.
In the one case, while awaiting the ultimate ar-
rangements of Parliament, the functions should not
fail to be discharged ; in the other, the entrance of
the students into Maynooth would be stopped.
flaying got this far the tight hon. gentleman de-
nounced the Instruction as imperfect, because it did
not include the recipients of the Regium llonum. In
the confusion worse confounded of the whole affair
Mr. GLADSTONE next propounded the theory that
it would be desirable to stop the execution of
vested interest in the Itegium Donum and
the Maynooth Grant if the bill was passed
and it was upon this point that he in-,