The Sun.
London, England, 1868-04-28 00:00:00

LONDON, TUESDAY, APRIL 28, 1868.

Mr. GLADSTONE is certainly to be pitied, for his
grand intention of turning out the Government fell
very short last night, and hon. members seemed to
have exhausted all their eloquence and excitement
in dwelling on the glorious termination of the war
in Abyssinia, and in felicitating themselves that the
attack of the Fenian, in Australia, had not proved
fatal. Be this as it may, it is certain that the
debate was most tame and spiritless, so much so
that Mr. GLADSTONE himself lost patience at last,
and said that if there was not more animation in-
fused into it that night he would not be unwilling
that it should come to a close. Notwithstanding the
dulness of the affair, the debate occupied a
long time, and various propositions were considered.
Sir F. lIETGATE moved an amendment, to the effect
that so long as the Union existed the establishment
of the Irish Church should be maintained. The
voluntary principle, he declared, was inapplicable
to Ireland, and to follow Mr. GLADSTONE'S advice
would increase discord instead of lessening it. Mr.
DrKE, in seconding the amendment, made some
sharp thrusts at Mr. GLADSTONE ; first of all by
quoting passages from former speeches of the right
hon. gentleman in support of the Church being
maintained in Ireland, and finally by putting this
dilemma before him regarding the course he had
taken and persisted in contrary to advice and gene-
ral opinion. " Were the resolutions to have a pros-
pective effect ? if not it appeared that the House
were wasting time by a proceeding of a vague,
factious, and party-serving character. If the re-
solutions were prospective, would not the House in
passing them be doing a great injustice to the
members of the next Parliament by denying to them
the right of bearing any part in Legislation which
struck at the root of the religion which the people
of this country upheld ?" There was some force in
this argument quite apart from the technical diffi-
culty of the Irish Church question itself, and it
cannot be denied that Mr. GLADSTONE'S policy is
one thing, and his mode of urging it forward quite
another. Mr. WATKIN withdrew the amendment
of which he had given notice in consequence of Sir
F. HEYGATE'S answering the purpose, but in some
respects Mr. WATKIN'S was the best and most
likely to be carried of the two, for it proposes that
the question be left to the settlement of the new
Parliament, to be convened as soon as possible.
Mr. GORST also asked why the Liberals had not
done anything during their quarter of a century's
tenure of office regarding this subject when they
appeared so anxious about it, and to have detected
' its errors with such clearness and precision.
The debate, though tame on the whole, con-
tinued to contain some very bitter and unnecessary
taunts, and afforded another instance of the evil
which has been brought about by the extraordi-
nary course pursed by Mr. GLADSTONE. Mr.
LIORSSIAN'S long speech was very caustic, and
turned chiefly on the Government instead of keep-
ing to the point at issue. General PEEL said that
so long as a single Fenian existed he would say,
" Depend upon it, had it not been for FeniaLism
these resolutions would not have been carried ;"
and certainly this may perhaps be true so far that
the present is a most unpropitious time for insist-
ing on tl_e change being made. Mr. BRIGHT did
considerable damage to the cause he advocates so
strongly by stating in his speeches that Fenianism
was not to be wondered at considering the man-
ner in which Ireland was treated. Lord JOHN
MANNERS spoke very decidedly as to the line the
Ministry had adopted, and vindicated its character
from the aspersions which had been cast upon it.
Rather a sharp discussion took place, when the ad-
journment of the debate was moved, and Mr.
GLADSTONE expressed a hope that the division
would be taken that night. Mr. DISRAELI de-
murred to this, and said that the Government
attached more importance to the first resolution
than they did to the others. Mr. AYRTON was
very eager upon the point, and urged the Premier
to do so at once. Mr. H. WHITBREAD Was also
indignant, and mujuded the Government