New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-06-11

mueh The Church holds on to certain sites
"A free gift, and may buy glebe houses
and lands TO advantage Thus the party
Of the pensioned Church is bribed to give up
what never rightly belonged to it, and most
every Commoner whose seat is not bought to
represent q Lord thinks the Church has re-
ceived generous concession. Besides this, the
bill as it stands awards the dispOssessed reve-
nues to education and to the poor, and again
makes generous use of necessity The Rock
and Barnacle party. in its Unsuitable greed, di-
rected against this statesmanlike charity, only
runs the risk of being brought to famine III
the end. The incensed refOrmcrs have only to
argue that the concessions given are already
oyermuch, and that the Church is still un-
worthily and unrighteously the recipient of
State aims. They may go a step further, and
say with The London Star that the House OF
Lords is no more admirable. or excusable, or
defensible, than the Irish Church.
1t would be a fair modification Of the old
proverb to say that whom the gods would
destroy they first make Obtuse. The British
aristocracy is not more incOrrgible than other
aristocracies-in fact, of all the noblemen i'll the
world the British body of Lords are per-
hans the most learned and sagaclous; the
shrewdest and most practical in the legis-
lation of expedients the bravest in debate or
battle But the peers of Britain are born into
n phalapx hostile to Liberty. When people
ore IN he fred mon by retroactive legislation,
they are the most formidable kind OF SWISS
When n throne has to be supported by the
force of obstinacy and inveteracy, they are as
hardy as n Scotch body guard. We conceive
it not possible for the British people to become
freer than they are and still be patient to sup
port an irresponsible body who toll not nor
spin. but only react 1t is the people of En-
gland at last who have to maintain the Lords,
keep up the immense fabric of circumlocution
and of how-nOt to-doit, pay for every expense
of enforced respect, every wrong OF primo
geniture, every bought constituency, every con-
sentative drawback. The Lords are not elected,
and herein lies the defect of the men them
selves, and the responsibility of the system.
Logically, their temporal establishment Is no
more reasonable or valuable than the spiritual
one which is now bound to be torn down, and
TO have all its misused tmbers put to honest
service They exist by precisely the same suf-
ferance that the Church in Ireland existed.
BY the same kind of nrivilese they maintain
their opposition to the State, their standing re-
bellion against progress. They are titled, en-
dowed, favored out of rights which belong to
others. In short, they are supported by peo-
pie to whom their presence in legislation be-
comes more and more supeIfluous and imperti-
nent.
The Lords are not entirely blind to the pc
culiarity Of their position. They have a sturdy
bearing, and are not easily convinced or over
come. But the majority of the House of Com
mons, led by liberal ministry, and with
people back of them like a sea, is an incontro-
vertible fact. Canute could not tame the ocean :;
and the Lords will be overwhelmed if they re-
sst the inevitable popular will. We look, then,
upon the recent show of opposition made in
the House Of Lords rs a last stand made by
rear guard. The Archbishop of Canterbury has
been wise enough to recommend his fellow
peers TO abandon the battle, and secure the
great quantity of baggage and goods which
still belong to the Church. The Lords will re-
tire once more within those Notifications OF
prerogative with which British law guards
useless establishment, and in the near future
we presume, will look well TO their guns
Their opposition TO the Church Reform bill is
but temporary. The twenty-five peers who
! have seeded from their majority have aban-
| doned a dangerous position. But the Opposi-
ton has been appreciablc first as showing that
the Commons were never so strong and the
Lords never so weak, aud second, that the best
conservatism is sometimes 10 surrender