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

a each case both the urgency of the demand and the
acility of meeting it with general satisfaction. It would,
xowever, ill consist with the principle of the measure for
which we are now contending if the State, having dia.
established the Church, were to apply its funds to the
teaching of religion in any other form.
" To sum up this great subject—
" Rest as we are, by common consent, we cannot.
Endowment of all, after the events of the last session, is
Dut of the question. Retrenchment or mutilation of
the existing Church, by reduction of its spiritual offices,
has been proposed by a royal commission ; but I do a
learn, from the latest and most authentic declarations of the
Ministry, that they adopt that, or indeed any other
method of proceeding. We of the Opposition, gentlemen,
have done our part. The matter now rests with you. One
path, at least, lies before you, broad, open, and well
iefined. One policy has advocates who do not shrink
from its avowal. It is the policy of bringing absolutely to
an end the civil establishment of the Church of Ireland.
It has received the solemn sanction of the representatives
whom the nation chose in 1865. For this line of action,
the only one just, and the only one available, I confidently
ask your approval.—l have the honour to be, gentlemen,
your grateful and faithful servant,

" Hawarden, October 9, 1868."

" W. E. GLADSTONE.

Only two Liberal papers comment on
.Mr. Gladstone's
address. The Conservative journals and the Times are
silent. The Daily News and the Star also are unable to do
more than insert the address.

The Post, which devotes an article to summarising the
salient definitions of policy, observes that, as compared
with Mr. Disraeli, Mr. Gladstone is under some dis-
advantage in issuing the address which is to stand as the
manifesto of the party of which he is the leader, for upon
all the questions which are now agitating the public mind
he has a definite and known policy ; upon none of them
can he be expected to have any sensational surprises in
store, and he can scarcely say upon any of them any-
thing that he has not said before. This much, at least,
may be said as to the courses advocated respectively by
Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Disraeli, that as to the former
there can be no mistake, while of the latter there can be
formed no opinion. Mr. Gladstone proposes something,
Mr. Disraeli nothing ; and the addresses of the two
statesmen sliew in every line at once the enormous advan-
tage of having a clear policy to state, and of being able to
state it without trick, equivocation, or subterfuge, and the

grave disadvantage of being unable to do so.
The Telegraph, on the other hand, gives Mr. Disraeli the
credit of directly opposing his antagonist. The two writers
are themselves as powerfully contrasted as their composi-
tions ; and Mr. Disraeli foresaw, when he put forth his
own elaborate, audacious, yet cautious essay, the compari-
son which it would provoke. So soon as it appeared we
accorded to it the one merit which challenged acknow-
ledgment—that it raised a distinct issue for the judg-
ment of the people ; but, by a strange perversity of fate,
the author knew that his own words would not be
really intelligible without a direct reference to the
intention of his great antagonist He proclaimed an
emphatic "No" to the measure which the member
for South-West Lancashire contemplated, and thus
he spared the country any mistake as to his own
merely negative purpose. Mr. Gladstone as distinctly
announces that he will persevere with that noble reform
which has too long awaited the growth of public opinion
to let it pass from the state of theory into that of law. The
Prime Minister has clearly made us understand that he
intends to meet with an unqualified negative what the
head of the Opposition proposes ; Mr. Gladstone is far
more explicit in developing what it is that he is preparing
to execute. He set forth his own views before his
countrymen when he spoke some months since at St.
Helens; his address to-day submits the same idea more
formally for the acceptance of the country.