The Portland daily press., 1869-06-22
TIL e PRESS.
Tuesday Morning, June %, 1885,
Enzland and ireland.

England and Ireland.
The passage of the bill relieving Ireland
from the burden of a church establishment
supported by less than fourth Of its people, IL
to be considered in its effects upon the govern
ment reluctantly according this tardy justice,
and upon the nation thus attempted to be con-
ciliated. By its very aristocratic constitution,
by all the conservative traditions to which 1t
adheres. the House of Lords, constituted in
part by the hierarch of the Episcopal church,
must have been opposed to the severance of
the connection of Church and State in any
part of the realm They oppose it as polti-
cal innovation, breaking into the symmetry OF
an ideally perfect constitution. To take away
from the government the function OF providing
supporting and maintaining religion is to de-
ny one Of the prerogatves OF the sovereign as
Head of the Church, tc leave no foundation
for the legislative power OF the bishops and to
take away the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical
courts. Though the operation of the change
be confined to Ireland, it becomes not only an
incongruous system, which will prevent the
peaceable condition of the two provinces into
harmonious nationality, but constant point
of attack, and mischevious example to threaten
the church establishment of England itself
The Conservative Englshmen of rank hate
to change, hate TO acknowledge that course
they have adopted and passionatcly persisted
in, may be after all neither wise nor just
What, according to the traditional Protestant
English feeling, prevents these Isish,-this
Irishry as Froude contemptuously calls them,
from becoming intelligent, prosperous, peace
able and contented? Their barbarism is the
self complacent answer. What keeps them
barbarians in the very focus OF modern civil
cation? The miserable superstitions taught
them by their priests is the ready solution of
the question. If Professionalism is civilization
and Catholicism is barbarism, then why
should we maintain, or even tolerate Catholi-
cisms Give them the teachings Of protestant
christianity through the ministry Of the recu-
lar clergy, and if we cannot compel the Irish
people to believe in and receive it, we cannot
compel them to pay for it, and provide for the
mummeries and idolatries of their supersti-
tions as they may. fss Aastt3
Now, no one believes that the Bishop of
Canterbury the Duke of Newcastle have
the least modified these opinions, as to the po-
ltical or religious bearing of the question
Aud yet the House of Lords, controlled by
such minds concurs with the Commons in
enacting the disestablishment. They have
done this against their dearest convictions,
against the Oldest traditions ;of their faith, to
save their order, to pacify the democratic eIe-
ment grown so strong in the government since
the late wide extension of the suffrage. The
counsel given them by the London Times. by
the most sagacous Of their own order. was
simply this: Get out Of the ecay If you at
tempt to resist the demand of the popular rem
resentation it will result in your own destruc- |
tion. The temper Of the people is such, that |
instead OF being rebuked or hindered by vour
opposition, they will Immediately set them /
selves TO consider how an aristecratic, body, l
having no real right to legislation but feudal
assumption, can be made to go by the board
along with the Irish church establishments it
foolishly undertook to save. Now it is said |
the Lords have earned the gratitude of the |
people, and obtained new lease of constitu- |
tional life. This we are not quite able to see. |
Habit and usage are very strong among the |
English. Useless and cumbrous institutions
are sacredly cherished long after they have be- |
come imbecile and even noxious. The En- |
glish conservative temper may hold on to the \
pageant of a House Of Peers, long after it has /
ceased to exercise any legislative functions
Two alternatives were before the Peers, one \
to resist the popular will and be swept away |
by revolution, the other to yield to tho popu- l
lar will and confess themselves mere puppets.
1t was choice between death by violence and |
death by starvation. If it would ever occur to |
the illogical Englishman, House of Parlia- |
ment that has no independence, that cannot
in any crisis stand for the interests it is in 1
tended to represent, is a mere expensive for
mality and might as we'll be sent about some /
honest business. Very soon after it comes to
be a maxim of sound politics that the United |
States Senate have only to adopt aud confirm
the bills sent up to them from the Represen-
tives, it will occur to the practical American
mind,-What is the use of having Senate at 4
all? es s
SO the English peerage simply get out of the /
way. Instead of resisting, they virtually alb
dicate, and declare the utter uselessness and l
anomalous character of their own body. They /
trust themselves to the good-nature of the |
English people to maintain their merely nom-
inal participation in the government during
their good behaviour.
As to the influence of the measure itself mp
ON Ireland, doubtless there have been exagger-
ated expectations. 1t is q step in the right di-
rection, but only step. 1t will not liberalize 1
the Catholic system, or elevate the standard of /
the Irish national character. 1t puts the sects
upon the ground of fair competition, a COM l
petition in which Catholicism has and holds
the advantage 1t only takes away national
grievance, bitter cause of accusation against
the tyranny and misgoyernment OF Ireland
But it is long process to conciliate really |
foreign people, never half-conquered, with
whose religion, habits and national character
the Englishman has nothing in common. The
English civilization has accepted and coaleseed
with some very discordant elements IL has
melted into one nationality, the British, Dam
ish, Saxon and French elements of its compos-
ite race constitution. But in three centuries it
has made no real fusion with the Irish The
Irish hate the English at home, and even here
in America, with an antipathy born in their
blood What they pine for is, not even justice,
if it comes by the concession of foreign gov
ernment, but independence to work out their |
own political destiny in their own way, and
achieve like other people their own liberties.
With demands SO large it is likely that the /
dlsestablishment of the Irish Church may on
ly inspire the Irish people to continue this agi-
tation, until every vestige of English influence
and domination is efaced from the Green
Isle. w tHn9ia 9sa