Year: 1868

TIE STRUGGLE IN LhGbdND.


On the iith of the present month the mori-
bund British Parliament will be formally dis
solved and few days after the first general
election under the new Reform bill will take
place. As the period for the new election ap-
proaches, political excitement becomes every
day more intense in all parts of the United
Kingdom. The columns Of the British journals,
both metropolitan and provincial, are filled with
reports of speeches 10y candidates for the new
Parliament, and large portion OF the space
appropriated in those journals 10 editorial dis
sertation il absorbed in the discussion of the
great questions to be decided by the election.
Evidently q isl felt among intelligent and thought
full men that a great crisis III the nations his
tory is impending and tho two great parties
are putting forth their best strength to insure
victory. Our own civil conflict in this country
has engaged the thoughts and energies of the
American people to such an extent that they have
been unable to bes,ow upon the battle which
is going on across the waters that degree OF
attention which its great importance demands.
Still they have not been indifferent spectators
Of the fight and now that freedoms battle has
been splcndidly won on this continent, and that
the smoke has lifted from this part of the field.
we naturally turn our eyes toward the point
where the opposing forces that have just
measured their strength here are about to
engage in another tremendous struggle. For.
after all, although in circumstantials the respec
tive contests in the two countrics-that which
we have Just fought out, and that yet un-
decided in England-prcsent some marked
points of difference, yet the great principles
involved are in both cases identically the same.
I'm both the fight is for civil and political
equality against caste; for u common citizen
ship, insuring common rights ias an inalienable
inheritance and possession, against class,
privileges, aud arbitrary exclusions; for the
government of the people, by the people, and
for the people, against the assumptions of an
arrogant and selfish olgarchy.


The issues upon which the Liberals make
their appeal to the country in this election are
three in number One is financial the Glad
stone party contending that the present Tory
administration has been guilty of lavish and
reckless expenditure of public money, and that
the traditional policy of the Tories is one of
criminal extravaganza in the discussing OF the
peoples means. This is an important consid
Grafton, which cannot fail, we should think, to
have due weight with the electors. Another





toral Reform, the latest Reform act being clOggcd
with conditions which practically neutraize
in great measure the liberal provisions of
that measure. With its rate-payng clauses and
its erection of thrce-cOrnered' cOnsti
tuencies, Disraelfs Reform Bill, say the
Liberals, is little better than "a delusion
"and a snare,r and they accordingly pledge them
selves, il restored To power to give the pc0-
ple household suffrage in its integrity. This is
matter of vital moment to the complete sue
cess of the popular cause in England, and Glad
stone and his Parliamentary followers are GER
tain OF meeting with warm and general sup
port among the masses on this point. But the
most important issue OF all rs regards the ef
feet which the settlement of the question is
likely TO have upon the national fortunes, both
Immediately and in the near future, is that
which has been raised relating to the discsab-
lishment and disendowment of the Irish Church.
This question has twO-fold Importance first,
az TO Its bearings upon the difficult
task, in which generations of English
statesmen have failed, of pacifying and
conciliating Ireland; and, secondly. as
TO the probable effects of it's agitation upon
the cognate question of religious equality be-
fore the law, and consequently upon the fate
OF the Anglican establishment itself. From
tho desperation with which the Tories are
conducting tho canvass from the efforts which
have been unscrupulously put forth by
Disraeli and his State Church friends, both of
the clergy and tho laity, to inhame the re-
ligious prejudices of the people, and rckindle
tho fierce fires of bigotry in both kingdoms;
from the alarm which, according 10 their own
confession, has been created in the ranks of
theso men as to the probable fate Of tho En-
,.t;aI, Eet.hIiabm bmcnt in tho nyent of tba Iiisb