The Sun.
London, England, 1868-03-13 00:00:00

SPAIN AND CHILI.

Mr. WEGUELIN asked the Secretary of State for
Foreign Affairs v bother a convention had been entered
into between the British Government and the Ministers of
Spain and of Chili?

Lord STANLEY said no such convention had boon
entered into.

THE STATE OF IRLELAND-ADJOURNED

DEBATE.

The adjourned (lobate on the motion of Mr. MAGUIRE
was resumed by
----

Mr. HORSMAN, who said it was a matter of great in--
terest doubtless to the house to know the policy of the Go-
vernment on the subject of the condition of Ireland,
but from what had been communicated to them by
the Chief Secretary for Ireland on the three groat
subjects, namely, the Church, the Land, and Education,
what was the policy of the Government ? On the Church
it was a policy of inactivity ; on the Laud, it
was a policy of procrastination ; and on Education,
it was a policy of retrogression. (Loud cheers, and hear,
hear.) What seemed to bo the great panacea for the
wants of Ireland? Why the Government proposed
Royal Commissioners —(laughter)—they proposed to
deal with the religious, political, and social condition of
Ireland by royal commissions. (Laughter.) That might
be what they (the Government) called a policy, but he
must say ho could not see the semblance of a
principle in it. (" Hear, hear," and cheere.) The
hon. gentleman then proceeded to refer to the system
of education now in progress in Ireland, which he said was
popular with persons of all denominations, because it was
a mixed system, and it was of the utmost importance that
the house should stand by and not allow the thin end of
the wedge to be got in by the Government introducing a
measure for granting a charter to the proposed Catholic
University. If such a course was assented to the present
successful system would eventually fall, and in its place
would be supplied another not near so well calculated to
meet the wants of the people generally. He had to sym-
pathise with the noble lord, who had a cruel task im-
posed upon him last night. The greatest anxiety was
shown to know the policy of the Government on Ireland.
But he must say he never, in all his parliamentary ex-
perience, met with a greater disappointment than that he
experienced last night. (Hear, hear.) It was though
no fault of the noble lord ; he rose up
to explain the policy of the Government, but
when he was about to do so he could
not find it. (Laughter.) He looked for it in his box
on the table near him but it was'nt there. (Loud laughter.)
He tumbled over his papers but it was'nt there—(laugh-
ter)—and then he turned to the Prime Minister and looked
in his face, but it was'nt there. (Shouts of laughter.) As
to the Church of Ireland, so long as it was:maintained as a
favoured Church, there would be no peace in Ireland, and
it ought therefore to be swept away. It had passed be-
yond the stage of inquiry. It could not be shelved for
another year as the Government proposed, but Parliament
ought at once to lay down the principle on which the
ecclesiastical arrangements of Ireland should be continued
for the future. Passing to the land question, he traced
the evils of the present system to the time when Ireland
was governed by corruption, and when the enormous
multiplication of small holdings, each giving a vote,
gave a higher market value to an estate than the
highest cultivation. Looking to the different circum-
stances of England and Ireland, the doctrine that the
same principles of legislation were applicable to both
countries was utterly fallacious, and for the future
our legislation ought to bo in accordance with the
wishes and wants of the Irish people without asking
whether it would be applicable to England. Never could
we rule Ireland without coercion until we had given full
effect to the principle of religious equality, until we had
removed in seine way or other the feeling of insecurity
which was driving the tenant farmers from the country,
and until we had united all classes in one great system of
unsectarian education.

After some remarks from Mr. CORRANCE, who did not
oppose an inquiry, nor the application of moderate re-
medial measures, but denounced revolutionary panaceas,
Mr. LOWE maintained that in discussing the Irish
question Fenianism should be left out of sight. It was
an incidental circumstance of the present condition of Ire-
land arising altogether out of the close of the American
war, and fed entirely from extraneous sources, and it was
ridiculous to assert that it had any connexion with the
land or the Church questions. The aim of the Fenians
was plunder and confiscation ; they came, not to attack
the British Government, but to desolate Ireland, and the
existence of this conspiracy ought not to force us into any
extraordinary or revolutionary measures. Feeling
impatient, he said, as an Englishman, of perpetual
misrepresentations on this question, ho proceeded to
show the fallacies on which most of them rested.
Though there was much that was unsatisfactory in
the state of Ireland, she, nevertheless, as Lord Mayo had
shown authoritatively, was progressing, and in some re-
spects rapidly. Ireland was no wore governed by England
than England by Ireland. She, adequately represented