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1869.]

THE IRISH-CHURCH BILL.

375

Palmer and others. The farther consideration of the lords' amendments was adjourned.

Meanwhile the agitation out of doors was industriously kept up. Deputations from the various places where meetings had been held waiting on Mr. Gladstone with promises of support and strong exhortations to resist the amendments of the lords, were assured by him that the government would stand by their engagements, and maintain the principles of the bill, but would at the same time give due consideration to all that could be urged in favour of the amendments that had been made in it. Meetings continued to be held in London and in most of the large towns of the empire for the double purpose of inducing the government to insist and the lords to yield.

On the 16th of July the discussion was resumed and concluded. There were two divisions. In the first the amendment relating to the Ulster glebes was rejected by a majority of 104. Then a long debate ensued on the question of the appropriation of the surplus; a part of the ministerial plan which gave rise to more objections than any other. Many of the supporters of the government pleaded for its being reserved for farther consideration, and suggested other appropriations of the money. On a division, the original plan was maintained by a majority of seventy-one; and as this majority, though large, was smaller than any which the government had hitherto obtained, the result was received with loud cheering not only from the opposition but from some of the ministerial benches. Another proposal having been agreed to, a committee composed of the principal members of the government was nominated to draw-up the reasons of the House for their dissent from the lords' amendments.

The bill came back into the upper House on the evening of the 20th of July. Lord Granville, whose duty it was to introduce the matter, endeavoured to propitiate their lordships by the studied moderation of his tone. The debate, however, was long and warm. Earl Grey attacked the government with more than his wonted vehemence. Earl Russell, though on the whole supporting them, spoke with some acerbity. Lord Shaftesbury, after announcing that he intended to vote with ministers, in order to prevent worse consequences, denounced the bill as the most violent

and revolutionary measure ever submitted to parliament since the Reformation. The Duke of Argyll began by promising to abstain from irritating remarks, but forgot his promise before he concluded his speech. The lord chancellor spoke with a warmth and asperity that strongly contrasted with his usually mild demeanour; and the violence of the discussion culminated in a speech from Earl Winchelsea, who talked rampant nonsense till he was pulled down by some of his friends. The House had not recovered from its excitement when the division took place, by which the amendments made in the preamble by the lords and disagreed with by the commons were maintained by a majority of seventy-eight. Lord Granville at once. moved the adjournment of the debate, to allow him an opportunity of consulting his colleagues in reference to the course they would pursue in consequence of this decision; but two days after, he announced that a conference had taken place between Lord Cairns and himself, at which a compromise had been effected. In virtue of this understanding it was agreed that the bill should come into operation, as originally intended, on the 1st of January 1871; and some other slight alterations were made, rather calculated to save the honour of the House of Lords than to alter the character of the measure or benefit the Irish church. The proposed compromise was willingly accepted by the opponents of the measure, who were weary of an opposition that was evidently hopeless, and glad to escape the responsibility which the rejection of such a bill would have involved. The Earl of Bandon and the Bishop of Tuam delivered a formal testimony against the bill in the name of the Protestants of Ireland; but it was now safe, and all that remained to be done was, for the commons to give their formal sanction to the compromise which the government had effected. This they did on the evening of the 23d of July. Mr. Gladstone explained the nature and effect of the changes that had been made in the measure, the chief of which was the commutation, the effect of which would be to throw an additional charge of a quarter of a million on the fund to be placed at the disposal of the commissioners. He congratulated the House on the satisfactory character of the settlement; praised the moderation and ability with which the debates had been conducted on

1869.]

A POLITICAL CALM.

877

both sides of the House; eulogised Lords Granville and Cairns for the manner in which they had negotiated the compromise; and concluded by expressing an earnest hope that the now disestablished church would develop qualities which it had not displayed in the days of its establishment, that a new career would open before her, and that God would speed her forward in the fulfilment of her high mission. Sir Roundell Palmer expressed his satisfaction that the question was at last settled. Mr. Disraeli silenced the murmurs of his supporters by declaring that the compromise was a wise, well-considered, and conciliatory arrangement. On the 26th of July the royal assent was given, and the bill became law.

The political storm was followed by a political calm. The energy of parliament, so long kept on the stretch, seemed at once to collapse. Mr. Gladstone's health gave way. He was obliged to absent himself for some time from the sittings of the House, and came back looking fearfully ill, and scarcely equal to the task of making a short explanation. Much necessary business that still remained to be done was pressed forward as rapidly as possible, and several measures of no small value were passed before the session was brought to a close. The assessed-rating act, which did away a grievance irritating to thousands, was not seriously opposed even by those members of the conservative party who the year before had regarded it as a most objectionable measure. The bankruptcy question, which had so often been brought forward, was at length settled in a manner calculated to promote the interests of the honest trader. The abolition of imprisonment for debt, coupled with a retention of imprisonment for fraud, after having been 1.any years called for in vain, was now effected. The endowed-schools bill, the vanguard of a larger measure of education, received from both houses a candid and careful consideration, with an evident desire on all sides to make it a really good act, so that the large resources of the institutions it was designed to reform might be more widely available for the purposes to which they had been consecrated. A cattle-disease bill, and the repeal of the fire-insurance duties, two highly useful measures, were also carried through in the course of the session. Thus the first parliament elected after that great extension of tho

franchise, which had been regarded with such alarm, and which the head of the ministry under whose auspices it was carried, described as a leap in the dark, had laboured soberly, diligently, wisely; and had certainly not shown. the slightest tendency to favour that partial legislation for the working classes which many persons had predicted would be the inevitable consequence of the extension of the franchise.

Soon after the prorogation of parliament, it was announced that, preparatory to the approaching disestablishment of the Irish church, a synod would be summoned, to be composed of clergy and laity in equal numbers, which was to determine what the future constitution of that communion should be. This announcement was hailed with general satisfaction; and England as well as Ireland watched with interest the manner in which this body attempted to deal with the very difficult and delicate question which would be referred to its consideration, which was, in fact, nothing less than the reconstitution of the Irish episcopal church.

Thus we see that the work of legislative progress, which had been suspended during the administration of Lord Palmerston and the party struggles that had ensued on his decease, was now resumed and vigorously carried forward. This was due partly to the changes which the reform bill of 1867 had effected, partly to the character of the primeminister and some of his colleagues; but in some degree also to causes which lay deeper. The course of political legislation may be compared to that of a river; now rushing rapidly forward, now almost stagnating in a lake; now resuming its impetuous progress, and now sluggishly meandering through the plain. Thus the reforming energy of Earl Grey was followed by the polite insouciance of Lord Melbourne; succeeded by the more laborious and painstaking administrations of Peel, Russell, and Aberdeen; followed in their turn by the 'rest-and-be-thankful' liberalism of Lord Palmerston, which paved the way for the energetic activity of the Gladstone cabinet.

It was well known to be the intention of ministers to follow up their Irish-church act by another measure dealing with the Irish land-question, and there was a general anxiety to learn the principles on which they would attempt

1869.]

SPEECH OF MR. BRIGHT.

379

to solve a problem that seemed to be even more difficult and delicate than that with which they had so firmly and successfully grappled in the preceding session. Of all the members of the government, Mr. Bright was the one who was supposed to have studied this question most deeply, and whose competence to deal with it was most widely acknowledged both in England and Ireland. When, therefore, it was announced that he was about to address his constituents early in this year, it was expected that his speech would contain a programme of the general principles on which the government measure would be based; and the desire to hear him, which his oratorical fame inspired, was increased by the expectation that the speech would not so much be an address to the men of Birmingham as a manifesto of the policy of the government with regard to the most important question of the coming session. And this expectation was not disappointed. After referring to the Irish-church act of the last session, he thus spoke on the Irish land-question :

There may be, and there seems to be, a general opinion that there is another grievance; an Irish grievance, but not a Catholic grievance, which affects the north the same as the south-a cry from the whole of Ireland that the government and the parliament should do something to place the social condition of the country in a more satisfactory state than it has hitherto been. Now this landquestion is a very awkward question. I have often travelled along a road and seen a hill a mile off that looked very steep, and I wished I was on the other side of it; but in coming to the foot of the hill the slope appeared much more gradual, and I got over it without the difficulty I had anticipated. The Irish land-question is not at all that sort of question. It has looked to me a difficult question for twenty years; for during all that time I have had it before me, and I have considered it; and I am, I will say if you like, modest enough to confess that when I get nearer the question, and endeavour to discover how it is to be dealt with, it appears to me steeper and more difficult than ever it did before.

'What are the circumstances of Ireland, as they may be stated in a sentence or two? The land of that great island is, as you know, in the hands of very few proprietors. I

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