The Sun.
London, England, 1868-07-15 00:00:00

The enter
party-of th
Tuesday, ai
Bright was presented with an address..)
Mr. BRIGHT, in responding to the aOreilS, spoke #,,fhe'
changes which took place in Ireland sine's his visit k)the`
country, now twenty years ago, and 4:eferre4 t,C6O
famine and pestilence that took place e g the Deliodiri
and the emigration, which he describe&tia onexainpled:
He referred to the state of the people a instanced
by the investigations of the Devon Commission,
and held that because the population was reduced by
emigration it was not to be said there were not other
causes of discontent that required to be abrogated. In
England they were so familiar with the suspension of the
Habeas Corpus Act in Ireland that it excited no surprise
or discussion, at least on the Treasury bench. He touched
upon the arrests and imprisonment of parties under the
Act referred to, and the large military and police force
existing in the country. The latter he characterised as
an armed force that ought not to exist in the country.
Ile spoke of the discontent existing, and of the looking
to the West for that sympathy they did not expect from
England. Speaking of the opinions of those in the room who
either eld that nothing would redeem Ireland but Repeal of
the Union or total independence, he asked the meeting tc
listen to him, adding that an Act which the Parliament
of the United Kingdom could pass it could also repeal,
Ireland, like every other country in Europe, had a right
t,.) desire national independence, but the time had not yet
cline for the discussion of that subject, but he offered to
Ireland the reciprocity of sentiment of his countrymen.
The members of a great and noble empire should share in
its glory and prosperity. He suggested to the Imperial
Parliament to undo the legislation of the last 200 years,
without doing any great injury to the ecclesiastical
arrangements of the country, so as not to affect individual
interests. He referred to the land question, and said his
plan was to restore to the farming classes a proprietary
right without any spoliation of the interests of the present
owners of the soil. Speaking of the Established Church,
he said it was to the earnest, thoughtful, and honestly‘
minded Protestants in the country that argument was to
be addressed, and were he addressing a similar number of
those men as the meeting was composed of, he would
ask them if they approved of the ecclesiastical settle.
ment of the country made 300 years ago, or whether
the present state of the country was satisfactory ?
He believed that their answer would be in the negat:
tive. He referred to the Church population of the.
country, which he believed to be about 50,000. He esti.,
mated the revenues of the Church Establishment ab
£600,000 yearly. Now, the episcopal population of Ire-
land was not greater than the population of Liverpool or,
Glasgow, and imagine if the Government were to provide
£600,000 a year for the religious services of the population
of either Liverpool or Glasgow, would it not be considered
as emanating from the brain of a man bordering on.
lunacy ? (Laughter.) lie next applied himself to
the question as to whether the Protestants of Ireland
formed the national majority, and whether the
Church tended to maintain the Union. He said he
looked on it as a standing army, and that it tended
more to foster rebellion and revolution than peace and
concord in the country. (Cheers.) He looked on the'
Church as stimulating a hostility against itself and
against the English that maintained it, and by whom.it was
established and promoted, and that he repeated without
fear of dispute, or that anyone could prove to the contrary,
that the Established Church in Ireland was anti-Protestant'
by reason of its unnatural position, and it was as much
anti-English as it was anti-Irish, be".ause it made it.
impossible that the Irish people shouli; be in perfecb
harmony with English rule in their country. (Cheers).
Speaking to the argument that the Established Church
would suffer by disestablishnient and disendowmcnt, he
referred to the agitation at the time of the repeal o: the
corn laws, when it was feared the landed interest would
suffer, but now that question was laid by for ever byr
those formerly in fear and doubt. He also referred to
the repeal of the taxes on knowledge to maintain his
argument that, instead of suffering, the Established
Church, on the contrary, would be the gainer by being
dissevered from State control and from its present
bondage. (Hear, hear.) The bon. gentleman pro-
ceeded to say that what was proposed to be done with
the Church here was that existing in the colonies
and Great Britain and Ireland under the voluntary

system. With an experience of what he saw surrounding
them, the members of the Established Church might take
consolation ; and he believed that what took place under
the voluntary system in other Churches could take place
with their own, so that, instead of being fettered by the
State, there would grow up here, though small, a strong

. _
and compact religious community, and they would be
fostered in their position by the sympathy held towards
them by community of interests existing on the strength

they possessed _ and derived from the feeling that they

I hell their position as a Church believing in the faith they
possessed. (Applause.)' It was a poor faith that clung
to the State for aid, and they were not the courageous
. . . _ _

ministers believing that Christ was the head of their
Church, and yet were afraid to march out under His

banner, but would not look for its freedom now that they
had seen its state in its present bondage. Passing to the
resolution adopted in the present session of Parliament,
he said that that was a sentence which would be
confirmed by greater numbers in the ensuing Parlia-
ment. He then asked them, would Ireland make a great
and stupendous effort to carry out the resolution of the
present Parl:a,ment in the new House of Ccmmons?
(Cries of " Yes, yes.") Let him exhort them, and
every other elector, whether in cuunty or borough, not to
let the question drop, but to unite, and when the question'
came to be deci,led, once for all see that each placed the
constitutional power of his vote in the hands of men wha
would not give an occasional vote to sustain that party in
power that was wholly hostile to him. (Applause.) This
was not a time for choosing. The question before them
was really the question of the moment ; and how could the
people of England and Scotland, many of them as they'
knew with great prejudices of the question of their owl
Church—bow could they ask them to make the sacrifice, on'
call on them if they were not themselves standing firmly
upon it ? (Cheers.) The hon. gentleman concluded as
follows :—We are met in the city of the violated treaty--,,
(cheers)—violated as I admit incessantly during almost
centuries of time. Let us make a new treaty; not on:
parchment, not bound with an oath. Its commission

should be this—justice on the part of Great Britain ; for:

giveness on the part of Ireland. (Cheers.) It should be

written in the hearts of three nations, and they should

Pray to the common Father of all, in whose hands were
the dest:n'es of nations and of States, that He would make
it last for ever and ever. (Tremendous cheering, amid
which Mr. Bright resumed his seat.)

BURGLARY AT` CU➢IBERLAND LODGE, WINDSOR
PARK.--On Sunday morning a serious and daring burglary
was committed at Cumberland Lodge, Windsor Great'
Park, the residence of Viscount Bridport, Equerry to her.
Majesty. An entry into the drawing-room was made'
through a window which had been pushed up, and the
shutters cut by the burglars. The thieves took ai
large amount of valuable property, including a silver trowel'
presented to Lady Mary Hood upon the occasion of he
ladyship laying the foundation-stone of old Windsor
Church, a silver-gilt spoon and fork presented to one
Viscount Bridport's children by her Majesty, several gold
tops of smelling-bottles, gold pencil-cases, about thirty
new sixpences, &c. After unscrewing the back of a chro-
nometer once belonging to Lord Nelson, the burglars left
it behind them, together with a " jemmy," stamped with.
the letters " J. B."

THE NEW REFORM Act —A correspondent-
who has taken the trouble to submit a case to
counsel has received the following reply : 1. In my
opinion the overseers have to make out only the list
of county voters enfranchised by the Act of 1867
in respect of the occupation of premises, and the old occu.:
patios franchises have to be attended to as hitherto, and
claimed on or before the 20th of July (see Sec. 37 of 2 Wm.
IV., c. 45.) 2. Persons entitled to property for a life'
or lives, under such a lease as is referred to, of the
clear yearly value of not less than above all rents
or charges payable in respect of the same, are
entitled to the franchise ; but the provisions of Sec. 26 of,
2nd Wm. IV., c. 45, must be complied with, and they
must deliver or transmit *heir claims to the overseers on
or before the 20th July (Sec. 37 of the same Act). Of
course a person entitled to such life leasehold property
for a period less than life, or than the residue of a
term not less originally than sixty years, would not b?._
entitled to a vote."

SUPER:iTITION IN CORNWALL—The son of a
farmer at St. 'Scots, near Liskeard, having lately been
unwell for some time, was supposed to have been
"iii-wished" by the wife of a labouring man residing on,
the estate. A whita witch was consulted, who recom-
mended that the /nail should be discharged, which was
accordingly done. One night the village blacksmith was
engaged to sit up with the sick man. On his way to the ,
house he saw so/nothing resembling a goat, which his fears
mt.gnified into something unnatural. On arriving at the
sick man's house and looking out of the window he again
saw the spectre, which assumed the form of his Satanic
pen night,
brokent , and a
up gun
in t kept
o
bite,
majesty. The next day the witch was again consulted,
who ordered the course of action which was followed.
cliVmartgeehd
I wasvith fu
kept
o thenn next
four penny pieces
As soon as the son of Vulcan saw the enemy, the sick
man fired his precious charge, with what effecthas not e
been,
ascertained, nor is it known whether h has succeeded la.
ridding the world of its greatest enemy, The affair has,
eaased" great so:intim" in '
the ney4L-hb0ur49,217 terry

411. 1 E
rig*,
tic'-111".1A, •
MR. JOHN BPIGHT :V-- 1;
r
The entertainment to Mr. Bright Oren
irtyof the city and county of Linterlck,
uesday, at two o'clock, at the Atheriseum;4lllAnAv s
right was presented with an address. '