The Sun.
London, England, 1868-10-22 00:00:00

Mr. Gladstone is still hard at work. - On Wednesday he
addressed two meetings—one at Ormskirk, the other at
Southport. The Irish Church formed the subject of the
bulk of his first speech. He prefaced it, however, with
reference to county financial arrangements. He thought
the time was come for a change in the law. " Ourlaw with
respect to local rates and expenditure is, like many other
of our laws, far from being symmetrical or scientific in its
construction. . . The persons who administer the rates
are the magistrates of the county, in the choice of whom the
ratepayer has no share or part whatever. Now, gentlemen,
I own that I am of opinion that representation in all these
matters of expenditure is a good and sound principle. It
is the old principle of our Constitution generally, both
imperial and local. lam friendly, not because there is no
clamour on the subject, but I am friendly because it
would give a control to the ratepayers in the choice of
their representatives over the expenditure of the rates by
those who pay them. It implies no disparagement of
those who have exercised their discretion, but I believe
the operation would be good, and would tend to enlighten
the public mind on some difficult and threatening ques-
tions that arc coming forward as to the relation between
the local and the imperial expenditures and the expe-
diency of throwing the localrates upon the public treasury."
Mr. Gladstone's remarks on the Irish Church occupy
nearly three columns. He repeated the old, old argu-
ments, and added little that was new. One passage is
worth noting: "The very object of every champion of the
Church of Ireland is this, and the first words that proceed
from his lips are these : 'Forget the past.' He cannot, he
dare not, open.her previous history. She has been heart and
part in all the worst and most shameful Matters of English
policy towards Ireland. When the penal laws were passed
the Irish bishops were in the House of Lords passing those
penal laws. Then remember the tithe war, when the
people were shot down for the collection of dues, which
were indeed to be legally exacted, but which were to go
to the ministers of an alien religion. Is it possible you can
venture to call up these recollections? No. You are
compelled to exclude the whole of the past from the
case of the Church of Ireland in order to be able to argue
for it at all."

At the second meeting, in the evening, at Southport,
the topics which the right hon. gentleman touched upon
were the expenditure, and again the Irish Church. On
the former subject he repeated the arguments over again
which he used at Leigh. "We have had much controversy
during the election," said he, " upon the subject of finance,
a controversy which I did my best to light up by a charge of
a specific and definite nature. I was so far successful in the
object I have in view that a correspondence beganbetween
Mr. Cross, the Conservative candidate for the county, and
her Majesty's Chancellor of the Exchequer, of which we
were permitted to see the results in the public prints.
Thereupon I endeavoured to supply Mr. Cross, at a meet-
ing at Warrington last week, with fresh matter for a further
correspondence, and my belief is, although I cannot tell
you as a matter of fact, that further correspondence
has been actively prosecuted, but that it has been thought
Letter not to put the results in the newspapers." On the
question of the Irish Church, too, little, if anything, new
was adduced. Mr. Gladstone managed to keep his hearers
interested for an hour and ten minutes.