The Sun.
London, England, 1868-10-19 00:00:00

LOI DON, MONDAY, OCT. 19,;41868.

Mr. GLADSTONE is of opinion that there cannot
be too much of a good thing, and therefore he con-
tinues day by day to instil the precepts of his wis-
dom and to shed the light of his oratory upon the
favoured electors of South-West Lancashire. On
Saturday the right hon. gentleman addressed a
meeting at Newton, and put his views at some
length before them on the leading topics of the
day. He fell back upon his old resource of the
public expenditure, and declared that it was a
great advantage to have a question of this sort con-
sidered at a general election ; but why, he did not
very clearly make out, and it may appear to many
that the contrary is the case, because it is not
when men's minds are the most excited that they
can the best attend to matters of detail and come
to a just conclusion on subjects that imperatively
demand calm reflection. The chief part of his
discourse was occupied in criticising the Report of
the Commissioners on the Irish Church, and no
one who reads his remarks would judge from their
tenour that they proceed from one whose leader
had proposed the Commission. Earl RUSSELL was
the acknowledged head of the Liberals when the ,
proposition was made to the House of Lords, and
at that time the rank and power of the party were
greatly in favour of it, but now a change has come
over the spirit of their dream, and Yr. GLAD-
STONE sets the example of pulling to pieces the
Report, and explaining how worse than useless all
its suggestions are. For the matter of that it is not
likely that the judgment of the Commissioners is
infallible, or that some improvements might not be
made upon their plans, but as they stand they are
a great advance of anything which Mr. GLAD-
STONE or his friends contemplated a few years ago,
and those who are but too much led away by the
oratory of the right hon. gentleman to see clearly
must recognise this for themselves. At the con-
clusion of his speech, which was one of a more argu-
mentative character than those he has lately made,
the right lion. gentleman dwelt with some irritation
on the reproaches that had been made on him and his
supporters for the time they have taken, and de-
clared with great emphasis that the Irish Church
had been successful in nothing but in putting up
" agitation, bitterness, and controversy ;" but he
forgot how largely he by his own exertions had
contributed to the display of these sentiments.
Mr. GRENFELL also addressed the meeting, and
subsequently a vote of confidence in both gentlemen
was passed, and resolutions adopted to secure
their return for that division of the county.
Ou Saturday the Conservative candidates also
addressed a portion of the electorS of South West
Lancashire, and a numerous meeting attended at
Southport to hear from Mr. CHARLES TURNER and
Mr. CROSS an exposition of their policy. The Chair-
man, in referring to the great change which had
come over Mr. GLADSTONE since he was elected for
Lancashire, observed that he was now ahead of Mr.
BRIGHT himself, for that hon. member had rebuked
Mr. ERADLAUGII, while the leader of the Opposi-
tion but encouraged Mr. FINLAN in his determined
efforts to gain popularity. Mr. TURNER said that
he asked the electors for the third time for the
renewal of their suffrages, and in the course of an
interesting speech showed some of the fallacies of
the opposite party. As for the truth of what was
saAt3. of their pameing the Reform TIM, Me.' 1X.17 R
reminded his hearers of the meetings in Carlton
House-terrace, and one in particular, when Mr.
GLADSTONE besought his supporters to throw out
the bill on the second reading, which was, indeed,
a curious way of supporting it. After that Mr.
COLERIDGE, with the sanction of his lag ler, put a
notice on the paper of a character hostile to the
spirit of the bill, and it was only by the refusal of
the Radical party to support it that the measure
was brought into committee. There was some
truth in the retort of the hon. member to the effect
that Mr. GLADSTONE was on the horns of a
dilemma with respect to the Expenditure question,
because if he disapproved of the Government
scheme he should have said so in the proper place,
is the House of Commons, and not waited till the
elections crime on. In discussing the Irish Church
disendowment, Mr. TURNER referred to a re-
mark of Sir ROUNDELL PALMER'S, Mr. GLAD-
STONE'S Attorney-General, when he said that it was
a question of " confiscation," and nothing more
nor less, arguing ; also that there was no definit
secular purpose for which these funds were wanted
that he had ever heard of. Mr. CRoss spoke at
great length, and criticised some of Mr. GLAD-
STONE'S charges against the Conservative party and
the present Government in particular. The ad-
dress of the Opposition leader was calculated to
mislead people to begin with, and did not set the
question of the policy pursued towards Ire-
land fairly before the public. The Church
question was put to the front, and the
land question left in the back, and then the
right hon. gentleman turned round and blamed his
opponents for neglecting a point so essential to
the interests of the community, while all the time
it was he who put it in the background by his
hasty and inconsiderate policy. Mr. GLADSTONE
has made a great deal of the Habeas Corpus Act
being suspended, but, as Mr. CROSS very truly
said, it was not suspended as against the Irish
people; and if the disturbances which took place
in Clerkenwell and at Manchester had been re-
ported, no one would have objected to the
Habeas Corpus being suspended in England.
Mr. LAIRD'S opinion of Fenianisrn is more
correct than Mr. GLADSTONE'S, and it
comes with the more weight, as the right lion.
gentleman is himself in favour of the disendow-
ment of the Church. He declares that the Church
is not connected with the Fenians, and that the
notion that it is, is a ridiculous one to entertain.
As for the second question of expenditure, the
speaker turned the tables on Mr. GLADSTONE and
his friends by saying that they had been so long in
office that the chief blame in the matter rested with
them as regarded general details, while in regard
to particulars nothing was left to the Conservatives
but to make up for their deficiencies. They left
the defences of the country in a very
unfinished state, and an army badly provided for.
The contest in South-West Lancashire bids fair to
be a sharp one, and the various combatants have
set to work in right earnest. Much interest will
attach itself to this election on account of Mr.
GLADSTONE'S presence among the candidates. All
that can be expected is that the several claimants to
popular favour will make the best of their own
cause, and submit with a good grace to the verdict
of the constituency, but it will not do for either
side to prejudice the voters against their opponent,
and each should stand or fall by his own merits or
shortcomings.

The difficulty of dealing with the vagrant poor is
one which presents itself to the raro3hial authori-
ties of the several unions of London, and it ii one
with which it is confessedly very perplexing to deal.
Guardians and workhouse officers naturally look
with no great favour on this class, who add to their