New-York tribune., 1868-05-18
THE IRISH CHURCH QUESTION AND THE
ENGLISH ESTABLISHMENT

Whatever may be said Of the motives by
which Mr.. Gladstone may have been influenced
in bringing forward his resolutions pledging
| the House of Commons to the lnlta ton OF
measures for the disendOwment of the Anglican
Church in Ireland and its separation from the
State, there can be but one opinion among
discerning people as to what will be the
ultimate effects of the adoption of the course
proposed in those resolutions upon the destiny
| of the English branch of the National Church,
as well as upon the future socially and pOlit-
ically. of the British people. To look only at
| the immediate consequences OF the move which
has just been made in the matter by the leader
of the Liberal party, would be to take very
narrow and inadequate view of its Importance.
| What effect that move will have upon the
Fenian agitation, and in helping to allay the
| discomfort with British rule which prevails
among the vast majority of the Irish people,
is yet to be seen. That 1t should alarm the fears
and infame the bigotry of the Orange
men of Ireland was only to have been ex-
pected, and it is nothing surprising to find the
representatives of that party giving utterance
to such sentiments as those recently expressed
| by clergyman, at public meeting in Ire
land. to the effect that the Queen is bound by
her oath to preserve intact the Protestant su-
premacy, that she ought to remember that one
of her ancestors, having forgotten his oath,
lost his crown at the Boyne, and that as the
rights of Irish Protestants had been gained by
blood, so blood would have to be poured out
| TO deprive them of those rights A measure
for the disestablishment of the Church of Ire
land may possibly be accepted as an olive
| branch by the Catholics of Ireland; but being
regarded by the Orangemen rs virtually be-
trayal of Protestant interests III that country,
! il could hardly fail of adding intensity and
| bitterness to the religious anmOsities with
which Ireland has been cursed for centuries
That evil result, however time could be
trusted to correct. Religious equality would
in Ireland, as in the United States vindicate
in the long run, its power and sufiiclency as
the best friend and promoter of social har-
moDy.
| But the consequences flowing from the action
Of Mr. Gladstone and his party the Irish
! Church question, are destined-the success OF
! the movement being presumed-to take very
much wider range than what is implied in its
probable effects upon the state of parties in
| Ireland. The day that sees the disestablish-
ia the day on which the fate Of the English
Establishment will be sealed. The act of Par
| lament that shall disendow that Church will
| DO a prophetic roll AS well as an historical
record; it will predict, las plainly rs did the
handwriting on the wall the doom of Bel
shazzar, the downfall of the English National
Church as an establishment, and the complete
triumph, at no very distant period, of the prin-
ciples of religious equality in England. 1t is
remarkable that the defenders of the Anglican
Church in Ireland insist less upon the useful
ness of that establishment from a religious
point of view than upon the necessity of
resisting Il precedent which is certain, they
say, TO be invoked, sooner or later, against the
English Establishment itself. They contend,
it is true that the of the latter is different
from that of the Irish State Church, inasmuch
as the Church of England is the Church Of a
majority of the English people; but even pre-
suming they are satisfied of the correctness of
their numerical calculations, they cannot but
be painfully conscious of the fact that with the
masses of the English people a process of
gradual arrangement from the establishment
has been going on for several years past, and
that the working classes, especially in tho great
eenters of population. are ripe for any move
ment which promises to result in placing the
| Church of the higher classes, the territorial
aristocracy, Oh the same political level with
| the other religious bodies of tho land. Nearly
all the earnest practical religious faith exist
| ing among the humber orders of English So
tiety is found outside the pale of the Estab-
| lishmeDt, in the non-confOrmist churches. 1t is
not simply that the working classes absent
| themselves systematically from the services of
the Established Church, but that their rever-
ence for the Church and her ministers has
| been sapped and hence, instead of being an
element of strength to the Establishment, they
are fast becoming frowning menace to it.
| As to the great middle class, the vast majority
are with the Dissenting Churches either in
actual communion or in warm sympathy.
| The danger to the English Establishment,
| then, threatened in the action of the Liberal
party on the Irish Church question,!is palpable;
| and although Mr. Spencer Walpole was wrong
when in his speech in the House of Commons
during the late debate on the question, he said
| that all the arguments brought to bear in
favor of such action were equally valid
| against the existence of the Established
Church in England, he was right, as parti-
san of the State Church, when he warned the
House against the consequences which would
certainly follow the destruction Of the Irish
Establishment. That action will give new life,
will impart fresh vigor, to the association
known as the Liberation Society, which, under
the leadership of Edward Mall, the editor Of
The Noncontormist, and others of the same
| stamp has been bravely doing battle during
the last twenty-five years for the principle of
| religious equality before the law. In the new
| democratic power which the Reform bill of
| Lat wear ia shortly TO bring into nlaY this